6 Brilliant jobs for freelancing mums
If you’re searching for a freelancing role with flexible hours that can slot around your parenting, read on. Here are six freelance jobs that you don’t require you to be in an office nine to five.
Freelance Transcription
What is transcription?
Transcription may seem like a posh way to say that you’re fabulous at typing but there’s more to it than simply banging out letters on a keyboard in the correct order.
As a transcriptionist, you’re sent recordings (or occasionally a live feed) of anything from an interview, focus group or lecture through to a webinar or film. Your job is to interpret the various voices you hear, research and confirm any words that you don’t recognise and transform it all into a well-presented written record that’s both fully accurate and makes sense to the person reading it – which can both immensely satisfying and trickier than it sounds!
What’s brilliant about transcription?
Transcription work is super-flexible. As long as you get a good quality transcript back on time, companies don’t care whether you did the work at 3am or 3pm. In fact, being able to turn around a transcript overnight is a definite plus for many businesses. However, while the flexibility is important, for me, the completely amazing part of being a transcriptionist is that you get to listen in on fascinating conversations about interesting topics often involving people or companies who are experts in their fields. If this appeals to you, make sure you specialise in an area you enjoy, to get the most out of the role.
How much can I earn as a transcriptionist?
You’re not going to earn mega-bucks as a transcriptionist but you can make enough to get by as long as you avoid the unscrupulous agencies that pay super-low rates. Many transcriptionists charge by the audio minute (ie how long the piece is that you’re transcribing) rather than by the length of time it takes you to transcribe it – so the better you get, the more you can earn per hour. As a very rough guide, if you work direct with clients, you could earn between £15 to £20 per hour for general transcription work. Fees are higher for specialist areas, such as live transcription.
Freelance transcription is great if you…
Have a high standard of written English, a minimum typing speed of 50wpm (ideally 80wpm or more to earn reasonable money) and are ready to fact check anything you don’t know.
Freelance transcription is not for you if you…
Can’t type fast and accurately, you’re not good at handling sensitive / confidential information, you have difficulty deciphering different accents or you need a highly paid role.
How to get started as a freelance transcriptionist
If you’re not already a speedy audio typist, your first step is to get trained. Established companies such as Pitman Training offer a range of courses from complete beginner to polishing up your skills.
If you’re serious about transcription, you really need to invest in a decent set of headphones, a foot pedal and transcription software such as Express Scribe. It’s just about possible to work without any of these if you want to try out transcription first but they will make a huge difference to how efficiently you can work. This doesn’t mean spending huge amounts of money – you can get everything you need for around £100.
Transcription agencies and freelance jobs boards can be useful ways to find your first clients. However, you’ll generally earn a better rate if you work with clients direct, so spread the word amongst all your contacts and update your LinkedIn profile.
Online TEFL Teacher
What is an online TEFL teacher?
An online TEFL teacher delivers English language lessons online to non-native English students from all over the world - which could be anyone from pre-school kids, to high school students to adults who want to brush up on their English skills for work or travel.
Don’t overlook this one, simply because you’re not a teacher now. You can complete an internationally recognised TEFL course in as little as a few weeks, with fully online options on offer if you can’t make classroom dates. This will teach you everything from how to structure and deliver fun and engaging lessons through to effective classroom management. In fact, the only real essentials are that you’re fluent in English and ready to be enthusiastic!
What’s brilliant about online TEFL?
Online TEFL is full of social interaction with people from all over the globe, making it a super interesting way to spend your time. And, as you’re teaching students in different time zones, being available for work at unconventional hours can actually make you more employable. Even better, as a parent, you have supported your own child to talk and read English, which is great experience for teaching language skills. In fact, if you’ve had to home-school your kids during the Covid pandemic, you’ve got some ready-made teaching experience to add to your CV.
How much can I earn as an online TEFL teacher?
How much you earn as an online TEFL teacher depends on a number of factors, including whether you find your students direct or via a TEFL platform / marketplace, your qualifications and experience, and your online teaching profile. Some TEFL platforms also offer bonus payments for teachers who deliver a certain number of lessons each month, meaning your hourly rate can go up if you teach more.
As a rough guide, a new teacher with a Level 5 TEFL qualification and native-level English skills might earn between £13 to £20 per hour. You can charge more if you’ve got previous teaching experience and/or if you specialise in an area such as business English or IELTS - with top, experienced tutors charging as much as £50 per hour. Once you start teaching, you can also top up your earnings with supplementary activities such as creating teaching materials or recruiting other teachers for TEFL platforms.
Online TEFL is great if you…
Have brilliant English language skills, love interacting with people and get a buzz from helping people learn.
Online TEFL is not for you if you…
Are not fluent in English, don’t have or want to train for a TEFL qualification or aren’t good at timekeeping – lessons must start and end on time as your students will soon complain if they’re hovering around in a virtual waiting room.
How to get started as an online TEFL tutor
You can either advertise for students direct or apply to be taken on by an online TEFL platform, who will recruit the students for you. Either way, you’ll normally need a regulated TEFL qualification, strong internet connection, a device to teach on, such as a laptop or tablet and a quiet space to teach. You’ll find more opportunities open to you if you’ve got previous teaching experiences but it’s not essential.
i-to-i is a specialist TEFL course provider that offers tons of super-useful information about teaching English online. This includes a regular programme of free webinars, a handy list of online TEFL employers and tips on setting up your own freelance business as well as it’s own internationally recognised TEFL training courses.
Freelance Content / Copywriter
What is a freelance content writer / copywriter?
Although I’ve squished these two roles together (and both do contain a lot of writing) a content writer and a copywriter are actually different jobs. A content writer focusses on developing content for marketing, which could include anything from blog posts to white papers, while a copywriter crafts short pieces of text which are usually more directly linked to sales activities.
In reality, there’s a lot of blurred lines and, if you’re taken on by a company to deliver freelance writing of any sort, chances are you’ll end up doing a bit of both.
What’s brilliant about content writing / copywriting?
This is another super flexible job, where most clients don’t care if you do the work at 2pm or 2am as long as you meet their deadlines. What’s particular brilliant about freelance writing however is that it gives you a fantastic excuse to research a whole host of diverse topics that you may never get time to look into and then turn them into engaging and readable copy for a wider audience.
How much can I earn as a content writer / copywriter?
How much you can earn as a freelance writer varies enormously, depending on the client, your portfolio and the type of work you’re producing. An experienced, in-demand freelance writer for a commercial brand could charge as much as £850 per day. However, before you start dreaming of a life of luxury, most writers don’t earn anything like this amount. More realistically, anything from around 10p per word is considered reasonable for blog articles (although aim for a rate per piece rather than per word, if possible) so, for example, you might earn £50 to £100 to research and write an article of around 500 to 750 words. Bear in mind that commercial companies who need copy to help their sales will generally pay more than a media outlet commissioning an opinion piece.
Content writing / copywriting is great if you…
Love writing, have good research skills and are brilliant at turning around projects quickly. You’ll generally be working to tight deadlines and need to be good at being creative under pressure.
Content writing / copywriting is not for you if…
Your English isn’t too hot, your writing doesn’t sparkle or you need weeks to pull together that perfect combination of words.
How to get started as a freelance content writer / copy writer
There’s a whole host of routes into freelance writing. You can pitch direct to publications and companies, advertise via social media, respond to adverts or head to jobs boards.
Whichever path you choose however, the key factor is that you need to prove that you can write. This doesn’t have to be from paid work, so if you’re short on samples when you’re starting out, why not set up your own blog, create a free portfolio on Contently and/or post articles on sites such as Medium. They’re all great ways to show off your skills – and you may even pick up little bits of income from these sites along the way.
Freelance Proofreader
What is a proofreader?
Do you spend your time tutting at the misplaced use of a semi-colon or find your eye instantly drawn to the one mistake in a 150-page novel? If so, proofreading could be your perfect fit.
Proofreading is not simply a matter of picking up typos though. You need to check for consistency across both content and presentation, make sure text, images and layout are accurate, confirm the table of contents is correct and make sure weblinks actually link to where they should.
What’s brilliant about proofreading?
You’ve guessed it: proofreading is another job where you can work at the time of day or night that best suits you, making it a fabulous option for freelancing mums. It’s not brilliantly paid but you can earn enough to get by if you take on a decent amount of work. What’s particularly good about proofreading though is that you get to glimpse new copy before anyone else and there’s a definite thrill to spotting that crucial mistake that would have let down the whole text if it had slipped through (or is that just me?!)
How much can I earn as a proofreader?
The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) suggests minimum rates of £26.90 hour for professional proofreaders. In reality, you’ll normally charge per project rather than at an hourly rate, so how much you earn will depend on how efficiently you can work through a text. Remember that this is job that requires attention to detail rather than speeding through as fast as you can, so it may well take you longer when you’re first starting up.
Proofreading is great if you…
Have a fantastic eye for detail, a brilliant grasp of English grammar and can focus on text for a concentrated period of time.
Proofreading is not for you if…
Your knowledge of the nuts and bolts of the English language is a tad shaky, your concentration tends to waver when you read or you feel the need to rewrite the copy rather than proofing it.
How to get started as a proofreader
The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) and the Publishing Training Centre both offer a range of well-respected training courses. The CIEP also offers various levels of membership that are brilliant for networking and ongoing career development, as well as potential job opportunities. It’s also worth advertising your services to anyone who might be looking for a proofreader, from local universities to individual company websites.
Freelance Copyediting
What is freelance copyediting?
Copyeditors edit, shape and refine a text to ensure it’s as readable as possible. This involves checking a piece of writing follows a logical order, that the information is complete, the language is pitched at a suitable level and that the overall structure and content works.
Traditionally, copyeditors were employed by publishing houses. These days you can just as easily find work with businesses, meaning you could copyedit anything from a website to a novel to a factual booklet.
What’s brilliant about copyediting?
You’ve probably guessed it by now but one of the top reasons why copyediting is brilliant for freelancing parents is the flexibility. You need to deliver good work on time but when you do it is pretty much up to you.
However, as with all of these roles, there’s far more to copyediting than just flexibility. If you love working with words, it can be incredibly rewarding. Just imagine that inner glow you’ll feel as you draw out those stunning writing nuggets to transform a so-so piece of writing on a website into glittering copy that entices in new customers or see a novel you’ve copyedited heading for the best seller list. It’s pretty compelling stuff.
How much can I earn as a copyeditor?
The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) suggests minimum rates of £31.30 per hour for professional copyeditors. Similar to proofreading however, you’ll normally charge per project rather than at an hourly rate, so how much you earn will depend on how efficiently you can work through a text – and this is likely to take longer initially as you build up your skills.
Copyediting is great if you…
Love shaping and polishing writing, have a fabulous grasp of English, are great at communicating your thoughts diplomatically and are good at turning round projects within tight deadlines.
Copyediting is not for you if…
Your English isn’t brilliant, you’re not really a details person or you’re likely to spend your time resenting that you’re not the author.
How to get started as a copyeditor
The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) and the Publishing Training Centre both offer courses that are respected across the industry and can help you get your foot in the door. Don’t limit yourself to applying for publishing posts. Companies of all shapes and sizes will often benefit from a copyeditor to polish up anything from an annual report to a white paper. Think about who will benefit from your services and don’t be afraid to pitch direct.
Freelance Digital Marketing
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is marketing that is delivered online and ranges from emails and newsletters, through to content creation, SEO (search engine optimisation), backlink generation, social media marketing and PPC (pay per click) – plus many more such terms, that will soon be tripping off your tongue! And with a huge bulk of the world’s business now conducted online, digital marketers are in hot demand.
What’s brilliant about freelance digital marketing?
As the world lives ever more online, digital marketing is a fascinating area with tons of room for you to develop your career. Digital marketers tend to earn decent money too, particularly if you move into more strategic roles. And while you’re likely to have some meetings during ‘normal’ working hours, the virtual world never sleeps – which can turn midnight working from a ‘needs-must’ hassle into a strong selling point.
How much can I earn as a freelance digital marketer?
Freelance digital marketers are often paid a day rate or a fixed price for a particular piece of work. £275 to £375 per day is reasonable if you’ve got some experience under your belt – and you can earn more once you’ve been working in the industry for a year or two and/or specialise in a particular area.
In this type of role you may well be taken on for regular work, so it’s worth negotiating a sustainable rate from the outset and gradually increasing your price as you build up your portfolio.
Digital marketing is great if you…
Love keeping up with the fast-moving trends in the digital world, have knowledge of communicating across different online platforms and are keen to find new ways of promoting companies and ideas.
Digital marketing is not for you if you…
Hate the virtual world, don’t like working flexibly or find the thought of turning around projects swiftly super stressful.
How to get started as a digital marketer
If you’ve already got marketing and/or digital marketing skills you can pitch straight to companies. It’s also worth looking for roles on LinkedIn and keeping an eye out for opportunities posted on newsletters such as Freelance Writing Jobs.
If you’ve not worked in this field before, it’s definitely worth investing in training, as there’s a lot more to digital marketing than many people think. There’s a fair number of free or low cost courses out there or, for a more customised approach, check out Digital Mums courses which have been specifically shaped to help mums break into this area.
More Freelance Jobs…
If none of these roles quite hits the mark, there are heaps of other freelancing options out there from virtual assistants to graphic designers to software developers. Basically, if a company uses a service, there’s an opportunity for a freelancer to deliver the work. Or why not take a different tack and look at not-quite-freelancing jobs too. What about dog-walking? Gardening? Selling online?
One last thought: don’t be put off if you don’t find your dream job on day one. Part of the joy of freelancing is that you can move around different roles until you find where you fit best – my winding route into writing, transcription and business support via consultancy, training and research is proof of that! If something sounds appealing for now, give it a go. You never know where it might lead.
Good luck – and let me know if you’ve discovered other freelancing roles that are a great fit for mums.
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