I was a freelance writer for 30 years.
Even when I had staff jobs on newspapers and magazines, I was freelancing on the side and saw that as my main identity. I knew that the staff jobs would all end, eventually. But that I would always write.
Then I just got tired of hustling. Tired of saying yes to jobs I really didn’t want to do, because I was afraid I’d never get asked again. Tired of working harder and harder for freelance rates that went down, year after year. I wanted another income stream, another way of connecting with the creatives I loved interviewing and collaborating with.
So I trained to be a life coach.
When I did this initial training, many of the skills were familiar to me. Asking good questions. Being curious. Noticing the stories people tell themselves.
What surprised me was how often the course leaders referred to coaching as a business.
I bristled at this, at first. I was going into coaching to help people, to share my years of experience, not to become a greedy, money-grubbing entrepreneur. (Perhaps you can spot some of my own stories about money there?)
But slowly, I realised that the terms are all pretty interchangeable: freelance, self-employed, sole trader, business owner, creative entrepreneur. You could use all of them to describe creative work.
What’s different is the mindset.
Learning to see myself as a business owner, a creative entrepreneur, changed everything for me.
I used this mindset shift to revive my writing career, more than doubling my income but also leading to far more interesting work. Then, when I was ready, it enabled me to transition fairly seamlessly to coaching full-time. And it gave me far more freedom and control.
Every autumn, I run a 10-week group course on growing your creative business. Each time I announce it, photographers, writers, designers and illustrators ask if it is also open to them, as freelancers. Artists, musicians and performers wonder if it will be relevant, when they don’t really make commercial products or run a business.
My answer is always yes: I made this for you! And every time I do it, the brilliant creatives who join me make it even better, adding their knowledge and ideas into the mix.
So what changes, when you stop freelancing?
When you stop freelancing, and see yourself as a business owner or creative entrepreneur instead, here are some of the shifts that tend to happen.
You are more strategic.
You don’t just work in your business. You work on your business. You take time out – weekly, monthly – to step back and see the bigger picture. To review what’s working well, and what’s not. To check in and see if you’re happy, enjoying the work, and moving in the direction you want.
You decide where you want to go, and then you make plans to get there. You chase new business, explore new markets, put systems in place so you get more done, with less effort.
You take control.
Thinking like a freelancer means you leave your fate in someone else’s hands. The gate-keepers. You’re a gun for hire, forever hustling and looking for gigs. You find it hard to say no, even if the job isn’t the best fit for you.
Thinking like an entrepreneur means you actively chase opportunities, create partnerships, find a niche that fits your work and your interests and then become the go-to person in that area. Work comes to you, rather than you constantly chasing it.
You get noticed.
As freelancers, we often feel our responsibility ends when we hand over the work. We don’t feel we need to tell anyone what we’ve done, or how we did it.
But a business owner sees marketing as part of the job. An entrepreneur is constantly building their brand, finding new ways to reach their target audience or ideal clients, showing people what they offer and the results it gets – or just why it’s great.
They don’t see this as bragging, pestering, being pushy or fake. They see it as sharing their work with people who will love it, offering their services to people they can genuinely help, finding their tribe and saying, “I made this for you. Do you want to know more?”
You track your results.
Knowledge is power. So know your numbers, and track what’s working. A business owner is in control of their cashflow, of the money coming in and out.
They have reliable income streams that enable them to spend time and money on exploring new areas, or working on personal projects that might not pay off immediately but give them satisfaction and develop their creative practice.
They track what works for them in terms of marketing, and know what they need to do to create more work, if they want it. Or more sales of their work.
You use your assets.
As a freelancer, you probably don’t even see your past work this way. But everything you create is an asset, there to be reused, repackaged, remixed. Or at least to be out there as marketing, showing the world what you can do.
Your skills are also assets: can you teach, run workshops, skill swap with others who have things you need?
You invest.
A healthy business invests in training, research & development. For creatives, this means time and space to think, dream, research, play, explore.
It means exploring personal projects and taking on work sometimes that might not pay well but that stretches you, moves you in a direction you’d like to go.
And it means investing in yourself: in new skills, in new kit, in time off to rest and replenish.
This needn’t be overwhelming.
It might sound a lot. But it’s about making small changes over time, starting with the way you view yourself and your work.
Growing a creative business can be juicy, fun, creative. You can learn to play to your strengths.
Bringing in more money means you also get more freedom, choice, time, help. And you can say no to work that isn’t right for you.
So stop freelancing.
And start seeing yourself, at least part of the time, as a business owner, a creative entrepreneur.
Your art should support you. We all deserve to make a good living from our creative work. And often it’s just about making small tweaks, gradually establishing new habits and routines rather than completely changing what you do and how you do it
Are you ready to grow your creative business?
Registration for my next course will open in August 2025.
Each week, we discuss a different aspect of the creative life, from finding your focus to marketing without feeling icky; from building new income streams to building systems to support you. I have content to share, but we also learn from each other. There’s lots of time for discussion and coaching, and the support in these groups is always amazing.
What do you think?