The worst thing I did in November was to walk into a beauty salon and tell the stylist, “Just fix it!” I wrote about the horrible haircut I received and the bigger lesson I learned… I need to figure out what I want before I ask someone to help.

Part of my job as a freelance copywriter has developed into helping clients figure out what they want written and for whom. I’ve been hired several times in the last few weeks by people who have an emergency brochure or a quick newsletter, but frequently I hear “Well, I need to get this done today, but what I really need is to sit down and figure out what else I need to do.”

Freelance copywriters can choose to help with this process. The clients may have an idea of what they want. They just don’t have the time to think clearly about how to go about getting it.  If you can help your clients understand what it is they want, you’ll create actual deliverables that you can produce. Otherwise, you’re waiting around for their emergencies, and both of you will be stressed.

I help my clients gather all their information in one place, then we go through a series of questions to determine what’s necessary, what can be used in different ways, what needs to be updated, what needs to be discarded… By the time we’re finished with the consultation, the client should have a list of deliverables that the company needs to create. And now the real copywriting work can begin.