One of the best things about being a freelance content creator in Cornwall has got to be the level of flexibility you can create for yourself. To be able to plan out how my week will look is a bit of a luxury and one that’s not lost on me. I can decide my working hours, where I work from and who I work for. Being a freelancer obviously comes with a degree of financial uncertainty: some months business is booming and others things are a little quieter.
Freelance content creator: the joy of location independence
In addition to being a freelance content creator, I also co-own a specialist product copywriting agency with my sister. We work for high-end fashion clients all over the world, writing product descriptions for apparel and accessories. Our clients send us weekly batches of products and we work through each batch systematically. Although the workload is heavy, we have built our business so that we can fit it around our childcare commitments and balance work time with family time.
As a freelance content creator, I can work from home or I can take myself off in my campervan and work from somewhere else for a day. During the pandemic, I have been working from home but, as the world starts to open up a bit, I’m looking forward to working from other locations to change things up a bit. All I need is a decent internet connection and a nice cup of coffee and I can pretty much work from anywhere.
Love what you do. Do what you love.
I have worked as a freelance content creator since my son was born back in 2015. I really enjoy the variety of projects I get to work on and I especially enjoy writing blog posts. Researching a particular topic is really enjoyable: it’s fun to write about something you previously knew nothing about and then, through proper research, become an expert on that particular subject matter.
The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.”
I also really like the regularity of work when it comes to writing blog posts. Many of my clients don’t want to commission a one-off blog post; they want a series of regular posts because they know that Google likes consistent, high-quality content. Because of this, I am able to plan ahead quite a lot and I know how much work I’ll have coming in from one week to the next. If you’re a freelance writer, you’ll know that the concept of regular and consistent work is gold dust to the self-employed.
A typical day in the life
My working hours as a freelance writer can vary but, typically speaking, my hours are Monday to Friday between 9am and 3pm. I have been able to create a business that fits around the school run so I can be present for my son when I need to be and I have enough time in the week while he’s at school to get everything ticked off. My work/life balance is something I have worked very hard for and I am now in a position where I don’t feel stressed or pulled in two different directions. Life has certainly not always been like this but I’ve worked hard to get to this stage and I would find it really difficult to give that up.
My flexible working week also means that I am able to carve out some time in the week for myself, whether it’s catching up with a friend over a coffee or going for a dip with the Bluetits Cold-Water Swimmers. It’s so important for me to have that time for myself and it makes me more productive once I start work because I feel ready to tackle a day’s work once I’ve had a chance to blow off some steam.
Being a digital nomad has many perks and being able to do this with Cornwall as your backdrop really is the icing on the cake. When you live somewhere this beautiful, why wouldn’t you want to soak up as much of it as you possibly can?
