Becoming a Freelance Copywriter

You may also find our page on Rates of pay for freelance copywriters helpful.

Some people train as copywriters right from the start, but many drift into the business from other areas such as journalism, marketing or PR. In fact, many people would actually struggle to define exactly what a copywriter is – as opposed to any of these other, similar trades.

Traditionally, copywriters were seen as people who worked for advertising agencies and who came up with clever slogans for ad campaigns, but in reality there is far more to it than that. Any piece of communication which needs to appear professional and well crafted, as well as being easily understood, has to be written by a copywriter. Whether it’s a brochure, website, advert, article, email shot or piece of direct marketing copy – someone somewhere had to write it!

If you can write well, with correct grammar, punctuation and sentence construction, you can be a freelance copywriter. It also helps if you are able to take other people’s less well constructed thoughts and jottings, and turn these into something which an audience can understand.

Many copywriters start off doing a little freelance work in their spare time whilst still holding onto a full time job. If you’re doing this, or thinking of doing this, it’s probably a good idea to have a chat with an accountant as there may be tax implications you should be considering, and maybe also allowances you aren't taking advantage of.

There are numerous benefits to freelancing, for example the freedom and flexibility to work for as many different types of client as you like, as well as the obvious benefit of increasing your take home pay. In fact our freelancer take home pay calculator shows you how much you can expect to take home as a freelancer.

Having made the decision to give it a go, whether full or part time, and whether to set up as a sole trader or limited company, you’re going to need a wide range of tax and accountancy advice and support in the early days when setting up as a freelancer.

The most daunting thing about going freelancing for most people is the thought of having to engage with an accountant. At first glance it’s easy, you go down to your local high street accountant who quotes you anything from £250 to £600 plus VAT to do your end of year accounts for you. This sounds great, however what happens if you want to speak to your accountant for advice throughout the year on things like:

• Expenses
• Tax allowances
• Take home pay
• How much you should put aside for your tax bill
• Whether you should register for the Flat Rate VAT scheme
• If going limited would be beneficial
• What’s the most tax efficient way to run your business.

Each time you pick up the phone it is likely you will get charged. In fact, every time your accountant sends you a letter you may charged - and you may even get charged if you call to query your invoice! So by the end of the year you could easily be looking at a bill of over £1,000. 

For more information please visit our page on Benefits of an Accountant.

Easy Accountancy charges a fixed fee of only £30 VAT a month

We don’t want our clients to be scared to contact us and potentially lose out on valuable tax saving advice, that's why we only charge a fixed fee of £30 VAT a month. It’s important when you first start out freelancing that you run your business in the best way possible. As a start up you’ll probably have loads of questions, and will really appreciate the fact you can call your accountant as many times as you, like without the fear of racking up large bills.