Tag Archives: media

What we’ve learned over the last 18 years

Time travel never seems to work out in the movies, but I wish I could pop back in time for five minutes and have a word with my younger self. Not to urge caution, or plead for different life choices to be made – I have surprisingly few regrets as the spare tyre and crease lines of middle age manifest. Rather, I wish I’d been more knowledgeable about business when I decided to found my own limited company, exactly 18 years ago today (this article was published on Friday the 7th of November).

I’ve learned a great deal in my time as a freelance writer, and it’s easy to overlook how significant some of those lessons have been. I’ve never been overly keen on reflection, since it’s always more productive to look forwards than backwards, but I’ve been on a typically dramatic entrepreneurial journey since November 2007. These are the key messages I’d pass onto my younger self, if I was able to momentarily jump back in time to the days of waiting for my Certificate of Incorporation to arrive from Companies House…

Patience is a virtue

If I had a pound for every time I’d lay awake worrying about an unpaid invoice which would subsequently be paid…I’d be better off than I am. And I’d have slept more. Even if you’re a paragon of efficiency like me, other people aren’t. They can be forgetful, lazy and even downright incompetent. Being patient is a valuable personality trait, because you’ll spend plenty of time waiting for other people to sign off on work/respond to enquiries/pay invoices.

Other people are winging it too

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve left a meeting with a prospective or current client shaking my head at their unprofessionalism. You’re not the only one juggling a family with work, or battling ill health. You’re certainly not the only one with impostor syndrome, or a sense of inadequacy. However, you are the only one who truly knows what’s going on below the surface and behind the scenes. To everyone else, you’re just another professional, so act accordingly and they won’t know any differently.

Stick to what you love doing – if you can

In my career as a journalist and freelance writer, I have written or edited around 11,000 pieces of work. I’ve enjoyed the vast majority of these, yet the ones I didn’t enjoy stick in my mind. They fall into two categories – unusual assignments from existing clients, or work I accepted because I needed the money. It’s easier, quicker and more enjoyable to focus on the topics, industries and work you’re naturally interested in, where possible. Don’t apply for jobs you don’t really want to get.

It’s who you know, not what you know

Just before writing this article, I had an interview for a freelance writer role. The client approached me (always a welcome development) because a staff member I worked with years ago when she was at another company saw a LinkedIn post I’d published and remembered me. It helps that we got on well back in the day, and I was as professional then as I’ve always been. Job opportunities become more frequent as you make more contacts, expand your network and increase your portfolio.

Trying to second guess the future is pointless

As well as worrying about invoices, I also spent a lot of time anticipating a future that didn’t pan out as expected. I founded G75 Media to act as a freelance writer for local clients in Lanarkshire (hence the postcode-based name), but a third of our clients are now in America. I now live in England, and G75 Media does much more than just providing freelance writer services. Had I known all this in advance, I might have approached everything from marketing campaigns to my choice of accountant rather differently…

While the business has evolved in directions I never anticipated, I still recognise my 2007-era self in those early emails, invoices and articles. Some ventures, like my attempt to crack the UAE market, ended in disappointment, and nobody (least of all me) foresaw the global financial crisis which hindered G75 Media’s early years. You won’t win all your battles, either. You won’t ace every interview. You certainly won’t get every invoice paid. Yet the above advice remains valid for anyone starting out as an entrepreneur, manufacturer, freelance writer or any other branch of self-employment.

Ten years of copywriting excellence

Ten years ago today, G75 Media Ltd was officially incorporated under the Companies Act 1985, becoming Scotland’s newest media company. And without wishing to lapse into cliché, the intervening decade has been quite a journey…

 

G75 Media was founded by Neil Cumins with a three-figure budget. It was based in the spare room of a house in East Kilbride, where an antiquated PC perched on a second-hand dressing table. There was no website, no income and no budget for advertising, and work had to be fitted around Neil’s day job as a property journalist.

 

Little did anyone know on that chilly November day that the global economy was about to enter the most protracted recession for a century. Setting up a new media company in the midst of the Northern Rock bailout (and an unexpected decline in British house prices) was clearly not a ideal for a property-based copywriting agency. Throughout our first five years, clients regularly went out of business and new custom was often frustratingly hard to acquire.

 

Nevertheless, G75 Media has survived – and even thrived. We’ve worked with clients on four continents. We’ve become experts in industries as diverse as optometry, tourism, computer networks and mental health blogging. And Neil’s contacts throughout the housing and automotive industries have ensured a steady flow of motoring journalism and property writing, for local and national media clients.

 

While it’s tempting to make predictions about the future, the last ten years has demonstrated how events can change a media company’s direction. G75 Media was named after a postcode in our home town of East Kilbride, and intended to serve local businesses, yet most of our copywriting clients are based in England. While our plans to offer services to ex-pats in the United Arab Emirates didn’t bear fruit, we regularly work with high-profile companies in America and Australia. And we certainly didn’t expect our white label copywriting services to be as sought after as they have been, with constant demand for technology blogs and brochure/website content.

 

Here’s to ten years of copywriting excellence. And if you’d like to join us for the next leg of our journey, why not get in touch to see how we can help with journalism or content production?