business founding

Got my first copywriting gig today (had arranged it earlier, but actually got the assignment today). RedZone Global is an SEO company that lacks a writer. I'm a writer that lacks jobs. The two have met, and I have my first assignment. It looks pretty straightforward, and pretty simple, and so I'm going to do it tonight while Dave trims his toenails and downloads porn.

Mike from RZG said he was probably going to have a lot more copy writing in the future, as his company was switching from using mirror sites and crosslinking to using on-page factors like copy. So, a lot of existing copy will need to be revised.
Fortunately, I'm *very* good at that, as I discovered over in the Website Hospital of Cre8asiteForums. :D So, I'll have a lot of that to do in future.
I told him I'd be devoting more time to the copywriting stuff in near future, and so I'd be looking for more to do. I also said I'd be wanting to relocate, and if I manage to do so, I could keep my prices low because I'll be living in an inexpensive area.
I have to work out my pricing scheme. I'm looking a lot at cost-of-living stuff. I'm going to have to look into independent health insurance as well, because if I work for myself, I can't have company insurance.
So, I've got to work that out. (The easiest way to get insurance is to marry someone who has it. Hmm... Think Dave would mind if I married some foreigner to get him his visa and me his health insurance? :lol: The alternative is probably going to be painfully expensive. Sigh. I'm going to have to research that as well.)

I have a lot of writing to do-- I want to extensively blog the process of starting my business, both because I want feedback as I do it, and because I think I could work it out into an article on the website that would be a pretty engaging read, I think.
I started today on writing a copywriting e-book-- "So You Can't Afford A Copywriter"-- basically, it'll be a concise explanation of how I do what I do, that makes it possible for some cheap bastard to do the work himself while also making it abundantly clear that copywriting is hard, and he'd be better off hiring me.
Which is true, and isn't just a plea for more business.

I did have an interesting thought-- if I managed to get enough business that I was having trouble managing it all, I could subcontract. I know quite a wide array of underpaid, hungry students who are competent writers. Of course I'd have to review it, so of course I'd take a cut of the pay, but that could be a very efficient and mutually-satisfying arrangement.

I have a couple more questions to research, and I really have a lot to find out before I can make a timeline (how many clients do I need to have by Christmas if I want to quit my job by March? How much income do I have to have before I can be reasonably confident I can afford to live without my paychecks?). I also need to find out several other things. Do I need to incorporate? Do I need a company name? I probably need a website. What domain name should I get? Should I get a special email address just for the business? Should I get a special phone number just for it? Do I need business cards, since I'm doing this all over the Internet?
Etc.

But, having my first job, I'm feeling pretty good. There's a lot of work ahead of me but it's enjoyable work that I'm looking forward to doing.

Now I just need to get my personal website going, to start this off.....