My little copywriting venture, agoodwriteup, was born in 2012, and has been a massive part of my life since then.  I guess you could say it was my first baby; something I created, nurtured, and then championed out into the world.

As things had been going well in my business for my first few years, I decided at the end of 2016 that I was going to quit my full-time job and go the whole hog at this full-time freelancer lark.  I’m not going to say I’ve never looked back, because there were a few stumbling blocks along the way, as anyone would expect.

I was hit by quite an unusual stumbling block early on, however, and it was in the shape of what resembled a small, alien-monkeynut hybrid when I happened to cast my eyes upon it, via a scan, for the first time.  That’s right, I was with child!

“You don’t get maternity pay or leave when you’re self-employed you know, Joanne!” came the congratulations from my mother.  Whilst I’d desired something a little more uplifting in response to my announcement, I knew she was right, and I instantly started panicking about several months down the line when I would ultimately need to stop work (or at least slow it right down) to prepare for my baby being born and the early stages of parenthood.

Things were then brought right forward though, as I started needing to stop work (or, again, at least slow it right down) to make up for the fact that I had the most appalling ‘morning’ sickness I could have anticipated.  It was so bad, that I was having to call clients very last minute on the mornings I was due to meet them, to beg forgiveness for the fact that I literally couldn’t get out of bed.  These cancellations had to be done though, as I’d attended so many meetings already during this time where my head just wasn’t fully ‘in it’ because I would spend half of the session with my eyes locked on the nearest exit should I need to make a dash for it, and the other half worrying less about content marketing and more about the keeping the contents of my stomach.  I made all this so much harder for myself, however, because I was so scared of something going wrong with the pregnancy that I wasn’t wanting to tell anybody our news until we were a good few more months into things.  I ended up telling my web designer though, by way of apology and explanation for nearly throwing up in his pond on the way to his lovely garden office.  Luckily, he happens to be one of my closest friends, as well as a client and colleague (apologies again, Chris).

Another reason I didn’t want to share my news with my clients was because I feared they would make judgement calls…

Would I be reliable, what with appointments and preparations taking over? 

Would my focus be fully on my work, due to my exciting news?? 

Would they ultimately have to find someone else to do their copywriting once the baby was born, and therefore think it was better to just cut ties with me right now???

For the first time in a long while, however, it felt like I’d been born under a lucky star.  Every single one of my clients at the time, and those that I’ve taken on since, have been nothing but delighted and supportive about the impending arrival of my first-born.  One of my clients actively put me in touch with a new link that he knew would benefit me not only professionally with my writing, but also on a personal level, owing to a motherhood/childcare connection we shared.  Another client gifted me with literally £££ of baby essential items by way of an extra thanks for a project I’d worked on for them.  In other cases, I’ve somehow had clients organising their own deadlines, targets, project start-ups and even book launches around my due date, so as not to interfere with the ‘main event’, and to ensure that they make me take a sensible approach to my working schedule in the run-up to that blessed day.  It’s a good thing they’re doing this, because if you look at the picture supporting this blog, you’ll see I’m really not ready for any of it and could do with any advice and support going…

Heeding my mother’s words, I know it’s true; as a freelancer I will have to keep working to some extent following the birth of my baby – at least for as long as I’d like to eat food and live in this house – but this is a good thing, because I love my little venture, I love my clients (obviously), and I want my child to grow up seeing that his/her mum is a hard worker who loves what she does in order to make a nice life for our little family.

So, I hope that if you’re one of my existing clients, you’re reading this and know just how much I know I’m lucky to have you.  And, if you’re a potential client, I do hope you’ll still drop me a message or pick up the phone to get me on board as your copywriter or ghostwriter in the near future.

I definitely can’t do September 17th, though…