This Week In Writing, we celebrate National Entrepreneurs Day and explore how all writers are small businesses.
Photo by Elisa Ventur on Unsplash
My college degree is in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management. The program was a small specialty within the College of Business. There were about 30 students in the program. None of us could spell entrepreneurship correctly. Ok, there were probably people could spell the word without aid, but I was not one of them.
Despite my inability to spell, entrepreneurship prepared me for life as a freelance writer in numerous ways. Accounting, spreadsheets, and organization come as second nature to me. Writing strategic plans for nonprofits is very similar to the business plans I wrote in college. All of these skills translated well.
Though, whether you own your own business or not, chances are you should consider yourself an entrepreneur. If you’re writing and sharing content with others — be it articles, books, poems, or anything else people read — then you need to think about marketing, branding, and business basics. Just earning revenue on Medium is reason enough to begin considering income and expenses.
Despite my degree, I’m still not an expert when it comes to marketing myself. I will market someone else’s brand or business all day long without any issue, but marketing myself and The Writing Cooperative often prove much more difficult. I couldn’t tell you why, but I’ve noticed it’s a common thread among other freelancers — we’re great and working for clients, but we’re terrible at working for ourselves.
Since today is National Entrepreneurs Day, it’s worth taking a moment to think about your personal branding as a writer. Are you marketing and sharing your work as a business would? If you’re a confident marketer of your writing, hit reply and share some tips. If you’re like me and run into questions, hit reply and ask away. Let’s see how we can help each other be better entrepreneurs.
Announcements1️⃣ Curious about the results from our Fall Community Survey? Check back for next week’s newsletter where we’ll share some insights, respond to questions, and highlight featured comments.2️⃣ We’re launching a second newsletter, Write Togehter Monthly, at the end of November! To kick things off, that first newsletter features an exclusive interview with Zulie Rane, Benjamin Sledge, and Coach Tony about writing on Medium. Subscribe to Write Together Monthly so you don’t miss out!
👀 Read more from The Writing Cooperative on entrepreneurship:
Write Bios That Attract Hundreds of New Readers Work Like This by David Ferrers99% of Writers’ Images Belong in the Toilet — Here’s How to Fix That by Philip S. NaudusHow I Made $8,917 from Writing in One Month by Carly Barrett
Is There a Word You Can Never Spell Correctly? was originally published in The Writing Cooperative on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Read more: writingcooperative.com