6. Drumming up Business over the Phone

In his book The Well-Fed Writer, US copywriter Peter Bowerman advocates kick-starting your copywriting business with a sustained telemarketing campaign. The idea is that if you introduce yourself to as many potential clients as possible, some are eventually likely to give you work. Bowerman’s technique involves setting yourself a target number of calls (say up to 50 a day, perhaps culled from the business phone book), write a short introductory script and keep plugging away to build up a list of contacts, following up with mail shots and personal visits once a lead gets warm. I cannot vouch for the approach personally since I have not used it. But what I can say is that if you are hoping to get started in copywriting the work will not come to you of its own accord. You have to go out there and get it. So if you are at loose end, putting in calls to people who might be interested in your services can only be a good thing.