Happy birthday to me! Well, to Black & Write. Friday 10th October 2025 marks my 17th anniversary of launching my freelance copywriting business – and how the world has changed since! It’s certainly been a rollercoaster of a ride, and one that shows no signs of slowing down any time soon… Let’s start at the best place to begin: the beginning.
Dial back to summer 2008. I was working for the English division of an American toy company, importing, distributing and marketing plastic horses (yes, really) throughout the UK and Europe. With the US recession already hitting hard, Head Office in New Jersey decided to move operations to a different distributor who worked with multiple toy brands, to save some cash.
Breyer Horses 1247 Red Rum, commissioned by the UK office (i.e. by me).
As the new distributor already had people working across operations and marketing, my role was made redundant after four years. This was my fourth redundancy in less than 10 years after graduation and believe me, it hit hard. I remember sitting by the pool at a friend’s beautiful finca in Spain, thinking ‘What the Hell do I do now?!’ My then husband, who’d become self-employed two years before, suggested I set up my own business – and the idea took hold. After deliberating between operations or marketing, I chose marketing, and specifically, copywriting.
Eric’s IT and web development business was called Black Dot, so I decided to call my company Black & Write and use the same branding style, as you can see from the actual black dot in the below logo. For the first few years, we worked together on numerous website projects, which was great fun. I also built up my own client base through lots of networking, which opened the door to some fantastic friendships, too. I’m still in touch with, and occasionally work with, people I met right back in 2008 and 2009.
Over the last 17 years, I’ve worked with companies of all types and sizes, across all industry sectors – agency-side and client-side – and every copy and content writing format you can think of. I also now offer marketing consultancy and planning services and, in 2019, branched out into coaching and training apprentices and private clients. (You can read about that journey here.)
As with all freelancers, I’ve had my ups and downs over the years, with wild variations in workload and earnings. I’ve had to rebuild the business from the ground up more than once, and have learned the hard way not to put all your eggs in one basket! Right now, things are tougher than I’ve ever known them on both the writing and training fronts, but I’m putting myself out there and feel (fairly) confident it’ll pick up again soon.
Asides from market conditions, the last few years have seen a lot of changes. I’m now divorced, and rebranded a couple of years ago to move my business identity away from Black Dot (which is now called Black IT anyway). I had a new website built at the start of 2024 and plan to expand it with copywriting and training packages that people can buy ‘off the peg’ as it were.
I’m working on an online Crisis Communications course, which I’m planning to launch in the near future. And I’m also applying for lots of freelance and part time gigs, along with what feels like half the rest of the UK’s creative population…!
So, what’s the biggest thing I’ve learned since going freelance back in 2008? Probably two things: firstly, when work is going well, save most of what you earn, as you’ll probably need to live off it for periods of time in the future. Secondly, when work is quiet, don’t lose heart. The market always picks up in the end, and there are always opportunities to pivot and use your transferable skills – like I did when I started training in 2019.
The world of copywriting and marketing communications has changed almost beyond recognition since 2008. From having to patiently explain what a copywriter actually is (and isn’t; many people thought it was to do with trademarks and patents), to people ringing up to enquire about photocopying services (thanks Thomson Directory), to it being a well-known and respected profession around the world, life is very different these days.
Finally, to anyone thinking of becoming a freelancer, my best pieces of advice are not to give up the day job until you have some guaranteed clients in tow. Make sure you have enough cash in the bank to survive for at least six months if there’s not much coming in. And, of course, good luck!