Meet Emily, 23 from the Peak District, and find out more about her life as a freelance writer in Bristol. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.
Emily:
I'm Emily. I'm 23 years old and I'm a freelance writer. Writing is the career for me because I love words, I love stories, and I feel like stories and words are a great way to connect and unite people. It's a really brilliant and timeless form of communication.
At school, I went for a balance, really, between essay-based subjects and scientific ones.
And then when I went on to do A-levels, I decided to choose English Literature, History and German for my love of writing and having a bit of an imagination. When I first left university, I wasn't quite confident enough yet in my writing to pursue it as a freelancer, so I decided to get experience in the professional, working world first. I applied for a marketing assistant role in an architecture and design company. I did really enjoy it, it taught me a lot, but the marketing environment didn't quite satisfy my creative needs.
I found going freelance very scary to begin with. Suddenly, it was my job to constantly be finding jobs. Luckily, I've networked enough to have enough clients and people that knew my skills and since then I've been able to build my network even further. I write online content for independent and creative brands. So that includes blog posts, online features and articles, and I really enjoy bringing the brand voice to life.
Emily's client:
One of the main things Emily was brought in to do was to create a tone of voice for Chroma. We didn't really have one before she started. She works completely independently and does an amazing job.
Emily:
I think the best part of my job is getting feedback on my work and the feedback being instant. With it being online content, I'm constantly getting comments and likes and shares.
As a freelance writer, my career path isn't set. I'm excited by the possibilities and I can't wait to see how my writing develops in the future.
Writing is the career for me because I love words and I love stories.
- Emily loved reading and writing at school and studied English at university
- She decided to take a job in marketing so she could use her writing skills, but realised she wanted to become a full-time freelance writer 鈥 this means she is self-employed and gets to choose what work she does
- Emily has to think hard about each audience she is writing for to make sure she sends clients accurate and engaging content.
Emily is self-employed and works as a freelance writer. This means she works with different companies who need her writing skills. Freelance commitments can vary from a few hours a week, to working with a team on a long-term project. Working for yourself looks different for each person and each business.
What to expect if you want to be a business owner
The salary and working hours when you own a business can vary enormously but what's most important is that you work hard and love what you do.
Working for yourself looks different for each person and each business, but in general it means you:
- run your own business and are responsible for its success
- can decide how, when and where you do your work
- charge an agreed, fixed price for your work
- sell goods or services to make a profit
- can hire people at your own expense to help you or to do the work for you.
You can be both employed and self-employed at the same time. You can work for your employer during the day, for example, and run your own business in the evenings and at weekends. It鈥檚 important to for advice if you鈥檙e not sure if you鈥檙e self-employed.
You can , through the government鈥檚 business support services, for example, for advice about tax or about how to find funding to start your business.
This information is a guide (source: ).
For careers advice in all parts of the UK visit: , , and .
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