Secure Your Income by Creating an Amazing Writer’s Business Model

If writing has been a side hustle for you, but you want to start and make a full-time income from this. you need to create a business model. When you’re a business owner, you create a business model because it gives you direction, as it helps you understand where your money is going to come from. If you find that your products and services won’t bring in the money you desire, you can rethink your ideas, tweak your goal, or consider other streams of income that are more passive and won’t impact too much of your time. It also helps you create the business goals you need, which form the basis of your business plan.

When I started out in business, I didn’t really have a plan. Rather than saying I was a writer, I claimed to be a freelancer, which I was, but the majority of my jobs were writing-related. I felt that saying I was a writer narrowed down my opportunities, however, this wasn’t the case. It made me much more confident and effective in what I do. It actually made me perform better.

When people talk about having big money months – starting maybe with 5K, that soon becomes 10 or even 20k plus, they’re not just winging it. They have executed a plan! Creating a business model can help you determine if working as a full-time writer is something you can do, and also, it can make you realize that hitting a big money month is possible – if you tweak your plan.

We are going to go through 7 simple steps to help you create an amazing business model for your writing business. Your business plan is simply your strategy, so you know how to get where you want to be.

1. Think of a money goal – how much do you want to earn from your business in its first year? If writing is currently a side hustle or something you’re winging as a freelancer right now, think of how much you need to earn to be comfortable in your writing business for the first year. The first year of business can be tough, BUT that doesn’t mean you can’t reach your goal. Let’s say for the purpose of this exercise you want to earn 5K per month for the first 6 months, and then 10K for the other 6 months. That’s a total of 90K in a year…
2. Make a list of all the things you know – sounds crazy, right? Yes, I’m guessing you know quite a lot. Before I was a writer, I was a teacher and work-based assessor (of several topics including business, English, creative writing, employability, lean, publishing, editing and proofreading, team leading etc…). Before I was a teacher, I was an office worker, who’d also worked as a cleaner, a carer, a waitress, and in retail. I’m also a mother, so I know about pregnancy, relationships, buying a house, having money issues and being overcome with debt, raising kids into adults, eating healthy and cooking on a budget, struggling with your weight, having mental health issues, and suffering from agoraphobia, stress, self-harm, depression, anxiety, having an ill partner, having a child with ADHD that didn’t get diagnosed until school had finished, home-schooling a child who was bullied and had very little confidence, how to deal with narcissists, and how to grow in confidence and self-esteem. I also have some amazing hobbies in crystals, Reiki, candles, meditation, and tarot reading. I’m sure you know a lot too – just get it written down on paper. If you’re a TikTok expert – write it down!
3. Brain dump or write a list of all the ways you can make money from your writing – there is so much you could do. You could create resources, lead magnets, books, articles, workbooks, low-content books, courses, video scripts, copy including email sequences, social media posts, sales, and landing pages, etc…, and you could even write lessons or training, or you could offer writing training, consulting or coaching, and also, have you considered writing newsletters, or maybe guidebooks, blog posts, assignments, CV/Resume, presentations, speeches, greeting card rhymes, or plays/theatre productions. I’m sure I could go on because personally, I’ve been paid to write so many things over my years as a writer – and don’t even get me started on proofreading and editing! Anyway, the world is your oyster…
4. Now, when you have completed your brain dump or list, you’ll find that these categories are broad. Choose 3-5 broad categories that you think work best for you, and start to work on your subcategories of products/services for your business – I tend to write books as a ghostwriter, courses, write other content that requires some design aspects (workbooks, guidebooks, lead magnets, and resources), and I offer training/coaching – group or one-to-one sessions. But I don’t just write ANYTHING – I write the things I know about, have experience in, and feel the most comfortable with… Now you have broad categories, it’s time to break them down. So, l write non-fiction books, usually self-help, business, or educational books (in topics that I’m familiar with). I write courses, again in topics I know about (self-taught, researched, qualifications, experience). I coach and train others based on my experience too. Now, even though I’ve mentioned the qualifications – they aren’t always essential. You don’t have to be qualified in everything you write – you just have to know more than the audience you’re writing to (which makes you an expert – I know, it’s a scary word).
5. Compare your list of things you ‘know’ and the broad categories of products/services you could produce or provide in order to make money in your writing business and start to form products or services based on these. So, I mentioned writing non-fiction books, which I do as a ghostwriter, but how many books would I have to write to have a big money month? Too many, I’ll tell you! So, we need to be realistic and think outside the box. Rather than writing books for other people, I could write my own book and put it on Amazon, I could write a course teaching people how to write their own book, I could coach people on writing their own book on a one-to-one basis, or I could develop a programme that would teach/coach people in a group, still offering a ‘live’ option and support as they work through it (serving more than one person). Writing my own book and having a self-study course takes less time, as they are forms of passive (or semi-passive) income as once the products are produced, they take up very little of your time. The one-to-one coaching is a good idea, but the group programme would earn me more money, and it would require less of my time as I’d be serving more people at once. Really narrow down your list so you’re offering a few things that fit in with your needs. For example, if I wanted more money, I would produce a group programme, but if I wanted more time, I may produce my own book, and write a self-study course. These are your income streams. Subscription services and memberships are a possibility too, as they can certainly bring in a good level of income if you look for a gap in the market and target your ideal client.
6. How many hours? – Consider your final list of the products or services you can offer, and consider how many hours you’d have to commit to each product or service. So when it comes to a book and a course, I’d only have to commit the writing/editing/administrative hours as once it’s sorted, it would take very little time. If you have one-to-one coaching or teaching, you need to factor in your preparation time, as well as the teaching/coaching time, so think about how many clients you would take on and how many hours you would have to commit each month. For your group programme (or even a membership if you prefer), think about how long you would spend teaching, offering support, and creating relevant content. Remember, your time is money. If you’re willing to work 30-40 hours per week, you may be able to add some other income streams.
7. Think money – Look at your monthly money goal and the products or services you’re wanting to produce. How much would you charge for each? Generally, a book may bring in the lowest income, but if you have it as an audiobook too, it could generate more options, but it depends on how you decide to sell it (self-published, or through a publisher). If you would like to sell a self-study course, how many of those would you need to sell each month? How much one-to-one coaching or teaching would you need to do (how much will you charge per hour and how many clients would you need)? If you had a group programme how many places would you need to sell? Obviously, it depends on how long your programme lasts too – if it’s 3 months, you may be able to launch it 2-3 times per year, which means you could bring your income in three times over. Let’s say you have a group programme that costs $697, and you sell 40 places, the first time you launch, and 55 the next time you launch, it’s an income of $66,215. If you make $10 from your book and you plan on selling 15 books per month, you’d earn $1,800 from your book sales per year. If your self-study course is $200, and you plan on selling it to 25 people every month, that’s an extra $5000 per year. Obviously, if you want to earn 90K in this case, you’re probably going to need to launch your group programme again or revise the price/number of people who you draw in to buy it. The good thing about this exercise is you can add an extra income stream or tweak your prices/number of people you sell to because you’re planning in advance.

Your final draft, in which all the figures match, is your business model as you have a list of products and services you could potentially offer and you know what you’re an expert in. You also know what products and services you need to offer in order for your business to be viable and to ensure you meet your business goals. Many people choose three income goals – good, better and best. The good is the minimum they need to survive and get by, the better is an improvement, but the best is the goal they really want to earn – the sum they desire. Of course, you should always aim for your ‘best’ goal, but if you get your good or better goal, you’d be happy, even though you’d be looking to improve in future years.

Now you have a model and you know what to do, you can start working on your business plan. You need to know who your audience/ideal client is, how you can find them, attract them, and nurture them, and how you can create and sell the products and services that your business will be providing to your ideal client/audience. As well as having a business model and plan, you need a strong marketing strategy too.

While a business model makes you realize that YOUR business is viable – so it should motivate you to carry on and make your business a reality!

Writing is a good way to earn money and earning a full-time income and more, is possible. You can do this – but creating a model and plan can really help you put things into perspective and work out your next steps.

You got this!

Much love,

Janet XOXO