By Robyn-Lee Samuels

 Making money as a freelance writer is simple – you write things and people pay you. The more you write, the more you earn. On average, freelance writers in the U.S. earn $63,213 a year according to PayScale. In South Africa, where I live, freelance writers earn between $5,000 and $16,000 a year. At the start of 2021, none of these numbers seemed remotely attainable. I knew that it could be done. I’d read the blog posts and watched the YouTube videos. I just didn’t know if I could do it.

Uncovering the Problem

I started 2021 earning less than minimum wage and trying frantically to change that. I was doing all the things, but something just wasn’t clicking.

Remember that formula? The more you work, the more you earn. I discovered that I had been working less than I thought. I wasn’t being efficient. I wasn’t really maximizing my resources. I was majoring in the minors, and worst of all, I was self-sabotaging.

When you’re struggling to make ends meet, it sucks the life out of you. You find yourself in what feels like a never-ending cycle, and it’s easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to think that nothing you try will work, and that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I believed I had tried everything, but I was wrong. There was one strategy left that I had yet to try. It’s really simple. It’s called focus. I knew that if I wanted to make real progress, I needed to stop trying to do everything and zero in on one thing – making money. I’d have to focus my time, priorities, and energy on what would make the most difference in my life and business.

Lesson 1: Get Focused on the Day You’re in

Like many people, I don’t have a problem managing my time. I have a problem prioritizing—deciding what to do first and what to do next. For much of my freelance journey, I prioritized the wrong things. In business, there’s a concept called income producing activities, or IPAs.

There are three types IPA:

• Lead generation and marketing,
• Nurturing leads and sales,
• Delivering the final product and getting paid.

Now, when you’re starting out, and you have no clients, lead generation and nurturing sales need to take up 80% of your time. After all, you have to get clients, so they can pay you for your services. However, as you progress in your freelance journey, delivery becomes your biggest IPA and should take up 80% of your time. Dedicate the other 20% to marketing and nurturing leads.

One of my biggest mistakes was prioritizing lead generation when I really didn’t have to. I was chasing new opportunities when I already had two clients who gave me regular work and paid well. I had work, I just needed to do more of it.

Lesson 2: Prioritize

In his book best-selling book, Eat That Frog, Brian Tracy writes, “Your ability to choose between the important and the unimportant is the key determinant of your success in life and work. Effective, productive people discipline themselves to start on the most important task before them.”

The book outlines a simple process for getting more done in a day. Start by writing down what you need to get done that day. Next, label each task from A to E based on their importance.

• An “A” task is something very important that you must do. There are usually major consequences for not doing an A task on time. For instance, you could lose a client if you fail to deliver on time.
• A “B” task is important but not urgent. It’s something you should do, but the consequences are mild. It might inconvenience someone or add a bit of extra work. For instance, you might need to respond to an email or go to the gym. Missing one workout session is not the end of the world.
• A “C” task is neither important nor urgent. It has the least impact on your business, and you can put it off if something more critical comes up. An example could be putting together a pitch for a new client or doing laundry.
• A “D” task is anything you can delegate. It might be essential, however, someone else can take care of it.
• An “E” task is anything you can eliminate. It’s not necessary, but it could be helpful to keep on hand. You can also eliminate unnecessary tasks like watching television.

Grouping my to-do list with the ABCDE method helped me focus my time and energy on what was most essential. I started with an A task right away, and then worked down the list. This included those marketing and lead generation activities and domestic responsibilities. I stopped taking on low priority tasks.

This one shift in my priorities led to huge results. In May 2021, I made $343 from freelancing writing and subsequently nearly tripled that to $915.50 in a month.

For the first time in my freelance journey, it felt like maybe those elusive 4- and 5-figure months were possible. I had finally prioritized what was important, and it worked.

Lesson 3: Protect Your Time, Say No

The biggest mistake I made in my first year as a freelance writer was taking on too much work from clients and allowing family members to distract. Whenever my mom wanted a companion to go to an event or my friend asked me to hang out, I dropped everything. For some reason, I was afraid to turn them down. I felt like a failure if I couldn’t get to certain chores on time or if I had to work late to produce content for a client.

However, I realized that if I wanted to make more money, I needed to establish boundaries. I told myself that I would say yes when someone really needed me, and I’d do the D and E tasks, like dishes, after work.

My family wasn’t very happy about it. See, I’d taught them to expect certain things from me, and they didn’t like that I’d changed the rules. Still, when they asked why something wasn’t done, I’d politely say, “That’s not high on my list of priorities right now. If it bothers you, do it. Otherwise, I’ll get to it when I can.” Don’t get me wrong, it was uncomfortable at first. Soon, though, they realized that I was serious about reaching my goals.

This shift in my approach to time didn’t just allow me to focus more on work. It also helped me be kinder with myself. I started by doing all the things I said I’d do, but only when I had time. This meant that if work ran late, or I wasn’t feeling well, I could say no. I gave myself the flexibility to handle things on my own time and didn’t feel bad about it.

This change in perspective was ultimately what allowed me to 4x my income. I decided not to let other people dictate my time and instead protect it. By November, I’d had my first 4-figure month, earning just over $1,200. To give you some perspective, that’s how much I had earned working 9-to-5 at my corporate job.

The Formula Isn’t Complicated

As I write this in 2022, my workload for February is almost at capacity, and I will have exceeded $1,200 by next week. I write this to tell an overwhelmed, hopeless writer that it is possible to break out of a rut and increase your income. It’s not easy, but it doesn’t have to be complicated either.

You just need to make the right choices, one at a time, to get started. That’s what I did when I simplified my time management with the ABCDE method and later on when I said no to distractions. I discovered that if I focused on just a few tasks, they went much more efficiently.

Some people can go from zero to 50,000 words a month in no time. For others, like me, the climb is a tad steeper. I wouldn’t trade it for the world, though. The person I’m becoming on the journey toward a $40,000 year is worth it. You can do it too.

About me: I’m Robyn-Lee Samuels, a Freelance Content Writer living in South Africa. I write about my freelancing adventures, starting a small business, and content marketing. Hit me up online @robynleesamuels. I’d love to hear from you.
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