After dropping a couple dozen pounds after the event that led to my most popular post ever (see I just got dumped), I’ve been stuck at the same weight: one-blankie-three. I’ve gone back up to as high as one-blankie-seven since then, but I can’t break through one-blankie-three, which I hit the first week of December. I have a sneaking suspicion that each time I come close to breaking through to one-blankie-two, I subconsciously retain water, or I give in to the urge to eat an extra peanut butter-banana tortilla.

This plateau makes me think more about my freelance copywriting business… I’m almost at that balance where I’m making enough money to consider this a “real” job. I’m more or less maxing out my work week with actual work. I would guess that by the time my company reaches its one-year anniversary, I will be at my workload maximum, and I will have reached a plateau of income-producing ability with my current one-woman-shop business model.

So how do I break through and increase the amount of business I can do? Do I start charging more, selling higher-value products (like evaluations, marketing analyses, etc?), write books/white papers I can sell through my website to my potential clients or other budding copywriters? Should I start teaching webinars for money? Should I hire a couple of freelance writers myself to keep up with the projects?

I haven’t convinced myself that people are dying to pay for my advice yet, although I’ve gotten nothing but positive feedback from fellow writers and those clients who have engaged me for larger projects. When I evaluate the work/output of well-known copywriters/writing advisers who sell their advice and materials, I don’t see what they have that I don’t. So I think that the only thing standing in the way of making real strides with this business is my own limited and sometimes self-defeating vision.

Based on career history vs. my ability to control my weight, I think I have much more control over what I do with my career than what size jeans I’ll fit into this spring.