WHAT SHOULD MY FREELANCE JOB LOOK LIKE?

How many days a week are you working? What are you doing? How much are you earning? Are you alone, or surrounded by people – a team, perhaps? Where are you working from: your kitchen, a shared workspace, a snazzy office? How much holiday will you take? Wh

Ask yourself the questions below and then write a list, draw a picture, cut photos out of magazines and create a collage or write a story – whatever feels most natural to you. Committing your intentions to paper makes them much more likely to come to fruition. It’s about having a clear focus and knowing what you’re working towards. content, working with a graphic designer and a tech guy on the website and setting up various social media channels, I launched The Early Hour. As planned, I published an article a day, first thing in the morning. In the first month, I had more than 10,000 views. I started to build an online community of parents who were keen to read these articles that focused on the grittier side of family life; the challenges, the bits we’re usually guarded about. In time, I was able to monetise the platform through sponsored content and brand collaborations. It also led to writing freelance articles for national newspapers and women’s magazines.

For The Early Hour to succeed, I had to learn lots of new skills. I could already write and edit, but there was the branding side of it, and the challenge of getting people to my website. I learned about SEO (search engine optimisation, put simply: getting your website higher up in Google searches), how to use social media to generate traffic and how to do my own PR.

A mentor explained that I needed to find my PR “story” so I did, and then secured coverage in all the major nationals and on a load of blogs. At the time, I didn’t have childcare, so I’d work when my daughter napped, or in the evenings. I also popped her in front

MOTHER OF INNOVATION Annie Ridout with her children, four-year-old Joni, and Bodhi, who is almost two. Ridout at work, right