The 2-Part Cycle Of Freelancing That Made My Business Profitable

Eva Gutierrez

When I started this 2-part cycle, I wasn’t aware of it.

I didn’t realize that everything I was doing was going to help me become a better content writer and business owner. I only knew one thing:

Something had to change.

I’d been a freelancer for two years at this point—and to be honest—I was doing a terrible job at it.

I had decided to start my freelancing business at the exact time that I became a digital nomad, which meant I was trying to meet deadlines at the same time that I was catching Flixbuses to the next country on my European tour.

I quickly learned that I couldn’t rely on there being Wifi when I got to my next destination and using my iPhone’s hot spot was a poor excuse for trying to access Google Docs.

I knew that something had to change, but I wasn’t sure what. It was obvious that I had to stop traveling, so I moved to Los Angeles, opened my laptop and didn’t stop working.

What I was doing, that I didn’t realize, was capitalizing off of everything I had spent the last 2 years learning.

I was in the 2-Part Freelancer Cycle without even knowing it.

I had been in the Learning Phase of the 2-Part Freelancer Cycle. This is made up of:

1. Learning
2. Planning
3. Scheduling

While I didn’t know exactly what needed to change, I was listening to successful entrepreneurs and marketers talk about how they grew their skillset and improved their businesses. I read book after book, listened to hours of podcasts, and went to every marketing and business event I could find.

That’s when I realized that I had to offer a strict contract for working with me. This meant that clients couldn’t just buy one article from me, they had to buy a minimum of 4. This is when I entered the Planning Stage of the Learning Phase. I started to figure out how much I should charge for my 4-article contract and how I was going to find people that would want to buy it.

Then, I scheduled out my plan in an excel spreadsheet and entered the Scheduling Stage.

That’s when I made the transition into the second part of the Freelancer Cycle, The Implementation Phase. This phase has two stages:

1. Implementing
2. Testing

The number of podcasts that I listened to drastically decreased and I stopped watching Youtube videos on how to grow your freelance business.

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Instead, I implemented what I had learned in the books, podcasts, and events that I had attended.

I launched my 4-article contracts and was able to get a few clients onboard. What surprised me the most was how easily clients said yes to 4 articles—just as easily as they had said yes to one.

I worked with a few clients with this model before realizing that I needed to be more efficient.

I started to think about ways to optimize my contracts and make it so that I wasn’t so overloaded with work, and still not making a decent profit.

At this point, I was juggling 5+ clients, was barely making $3,000 a month, and felt like I was drowning in articles.

I made an attempt at bringing a junior writer onboard to help me out, but realized that the time I had saved by not writing the articles was now allocated between edits and communication with clients.

I needed a better plan.

I sat myself down and asked, ‘What would make me the happiest right now?’

My answer was obvious, I needed to work with less clients. My goal shifted to working with two clients instead of 5+, which meant that my contracts with these clients was going to have to change. I’d need the 2 clients to at least make me $3,000/month to make this transition look good on paper.

Again, I entered the 2-Part Freelance Cycle.

I started reading, learning, and figuring out what my role would be if I worked with just 2 clients, how much I would need to charge them, and how I was going to land the gig.

Then, I implemented.

With one client onboard for more work, I told myself that I’d reach out to 20 prospects to try to land my other big client. I planned to send 10 Upwork proposals, 5 cold emails, and get 5 leads from in-person events.

In some crazy luck of fate, the first Upwork proposal I sent was interested. I was able to turn that client, after a month of doing a few hours of work for them per week, into a 30/hour a week client. I was back into the Implementation Phase and ready to start optimizing.

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That’s when I realized that again, I wasn’t totally happy. The new client wasn’t what I had hoped for, and was seeming to bring just as much stress as my 5+ other clients combined. I knew that when my 3-month contract was up, I’d either have to renegotiate our terms about the work I would do for them or walk away.

And cue…I was back to the Learning Phase.

I’ve realized that I still want to work with 2 clients primarily, using my time with these clients to write about topics I love (digital marketing and personal development). I have one client—who has remained constant throughout all of these cycles—and now, I’m on the hunt for the second. This time, I’m being more picky.

I learned from my last go around of this cycle that just any client isn’t going to make me happy. What I need is a client who has the same value on content as I do, they want to help their customers just as much (or even more) than they want to sell to them.

Current Phase: Implementation

I’ve applied for a part-time position as an Email Newsletter Specialist for an established company who just moved their HQ to Santa Monica. I’m hoping that I can land the job and help them create a legion of fans around their weekly newsletter, creating brand advocates for their company and products.

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Aside from my other client, and this one *fingers crossed*, I started a monthly newsletter for content writers and am creating a Writer’s Guideline as the answer to my endless Instagram DM’s that ask me how to be a content writer.

I’ll spend a month+ in this phase, either working for the company that I applied to above, or finding another value aligned company that I can work with.

This 2-Part Cycle is the reason my business has been able to grow the way that it has.

In 2019, I make $4,000-$7,000 per month as a content writer, and it’s because I’m always learning and implementing—endlessly.

I’m now hyperaware of what part of the cycle I’m in, leaning into each phase as much as I can so that I can create as much growth as possible, whether that’s a learning curve or a monetary curve.

This is the cycle that makes or break freelancers. If you can’t learn from your mistakes, then you stay stuck in an unprofitable business. If you can’t optimize based off of where you are, then you plateau or find yourself spending time doing things that you really don’t want to.

The choice is yours.