Creating a Sustainable Business Structure

The Writers’ Co-op

In this episode, we address a topic that freelancers don’t talk about enough: getting to a place of neutrality and sustainability in your business. Many of you who follow the podcast may remember Wudan talking (a lot!) about burnout earlier this year. Suddenly, she felt like there wasn’t much more space for her to grow as a freelancer. She was already writing for the publishers who could get her stories to a broader audience. She was already earning six figures. Publishers believed in the big stories she wanted to pursue. She panicked: there wasn’t an obvious next, so where should she even go?

Wudan's therapist challenged her to stay in this space. And honestly, she's been here since summer - and her business has felt much more sane since. She's still working on projects she cares about, and with good people. She's still more or less hitting her financial goals. She's here, feeling the space, and getting in tune and enjoying what she's created for herself.

Freelancers rarely talk about sustainability, maybe because it can feel like the antithesis of growth. At the same time, we can grow into a place of sustainability which means we get both sides of the coin. That’s what this episode is about. How do you think about sustainability in your freelance business? What boundaries have you set to make it sustainable? Email or tweet at us, we’d love to hear from you.

Check out our business planning course here: https://the-writers-co-op-academy.teachable.com/p/business-basics-for-freelance-writers

Today’s episode is sponsored by OutVoice, which has a mission we can get behind. Too often, freelancers have to spend months tracking down overdue, unpaid invoices. OutVoice fixes that. It’s the only freelance management system built for publishing, by freelancers. If you’re interested in joining them on their mission to fix these industry-wide payment problems for good, follow them on Twitter at @OutVoicePay.