The Full Transition Into Copywriting - Becoming a Copywriter

This is a chapter extract from the book - The Accidental Copywriter

It’s now around the year 2000. 

I have orangebeetle.com and I have this idea about taking this consultancy thing forward. I tell my first wife. She freaks out. Everyone in my life thinks I am going crazy to sell my salons. I probably am. They’d built me a massive house and given me a very good life despite the endless hours and staffing problems. Still, I’ve had enough and want out of the salon business. 

Although I am self-employed not only are my wages a fraction of what OrangeBeetle.com had started to pay me. I was also sick of the long hours of my 7-day weeks and the managing of a large team. It really was time for a life change. By the way, my life does seem to hit change every 15 years and it had passed that point.

Truthfully, I didn't feel that confident about writing and promising results for others despite the track record for my own business and the few other clients I had attracted. 

I would say I was feeling a little scared of dealing with clients for this reason. I was scared of the fact that I wasn’t sure if they would get the results. Yes, I’d had them in a small amount for my clients and huge amounts in my salons, but it still made me feel a little uneasy.

Also in the hairdressing game clients were handing over £50-100. In my consultancy business, clients were handing over tens of thousands of pounds.

I knew nothing about this as a business. All I knew was what I had been doing in my salons. I knew hairdressing inside out. I was a respected stylist whose clients would even fly in for a haircut. My style was noticeable and remember.

Yet the new industry I knew zero about.

One day a client called me. I clearly remember I was walking my dog around a lake at the time. He first told me how much he loved the letters and the system I had explained to him. After the praise he then said;

“Just one thing you will be doing the grammar and punctuation right? There are commas and apostrophes and other bits missing or wrong.”

I quickly responded, “Yes, of course, that will be perfect when delivered.” I had no idea what he was talking about.

This had started to happen on more than one occasion. The reality was grammar is something I had no idea about. At this point, I still didn’t know what an apostrophe was or how one should be used. Let's be honest you don’t need to know that stuff when you’re cutting hair. I mean no one ever said to me I want my hair like this and please add an apostrophe!

I knew nothing about this as a business. All I knew was what I had been doing in my salons. I knew hairdressing inside out. I was a respected stylist whose clients would even fly in for a haircut. My style was noticeable and remembered by clients.

Yet this new industry of writing copy I knew zero about. It was an alien environment for me.

I had never dealt with this type of customer. I had never done a consultation for a B2B client.

I just had no idea. And then there were the other technicalities of this industry.

I mentioned my abhorrence to spelling and grammar earlier. It’s just something I really never felt the need to learn, yet I understand I need to know and at least make an effort to understand the basics.

And to be truthful this was a whole new uncomfortable experience for me. I was totally out of my comfort zone at every level but I felt determined to learn on the go and keep pushing forward. 

So, I made a decision before I went full-time in direct marketing.

This is what I did.

Read the full book here

Order today FREE here or buy on Amazon, B&N, and all other good online book retailers.