Consider this your informal guide to regional freelancing in Australia from someone who is doing it, Ellenor Day.
As part of the Reinvent your Working Life Festival, freelancer Ellenor Day from Words Workers to discuss her life as a freelancer living regionally in historic town, Quorn in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Quorn, South Australia is about 330 kilometres from Adelaide and has a population of approximately 1300 people. It is by no means a big town. Ellenor’s experience with regional freelance opportunities is an interesting exploration of running your business against conventional wisdom and advice. And a shining example of how you can freelance outside the city, too.
Regional freelance opportunities with Ellenor Day
I’m a copywriter and grants tender writer. I work in marketing and comms, and I do some random community projects and events, too. I know that the general advice is to niche, but I never really did. And I do bits of everything, mostly because I really like variety in my work.
I started freelancing in 2015. So it’s about six years ago, it was a side hustle for years working alongside normal jobs. But last year (2020), I had a baby and I decided that I didn’t really want to return to traditional workplaces. I made the decision to freelance full time basically, from then.
What are the disadvantages of freelancing in a country town?
Six years on from starting my business, I feel like there aren’t as many disadvantages. In our old house before NBN was connected, the internet was woefully slow. If you were streaming a movie, you’d go make a cup of tea and come back, and it’s still buffering. That kind of slow. Now we get NBN, which is might have made a huge, big difference. But we still don’t get the speeds that city people get. It’s about three times better than what it used to be. So my expectations are fairly low. But it’s enough to run a business for sure.
We also have more power outages, and it takes them longer to fix because of where we’re located. So that can be a bit inconvenient at times. So much so that we bought a Tesla battery in the last couple of weeks, so that we’ve got that backup. The last power outage was the last straw. It was out from about eight until three during the day, and then again from 7pm. And luckily, I didn’t have any important meetings or things do but it could get pretty inconvenient.
Also, coworking spaces. There isn’t anything like that out here. And I’ve spent time in coworking spaces in Adelaide and I love them. They’re really great. And I would love for something like that to be here.
What are the regional freelance advantages?
I don’t really like living in the city, but I like living here. I’m not going to find a full-time job in Quorn necessarily. But I can freelance and that opens up the possibilities of having clients all over the place. I don’t actually need to be physically located where my clients are, because writing is one of those industries that you can just work from anywhere. Clients typically don’t care where you are just as long as you’re getting the work done.
Where I live is also enjoys a low cost of living. We were able to buy a block of land, we were able to build a house. And that would have taken us 20 years longer probably in the city. Not having a big mortgage and a low cost of living is a real positive for me and my family.
And we’re surrounded by beautiful places. There are national parks nearby. There’s just so many more positives for me than the negatives of being a regional freelancer.
What do you need to consider when you’re going to freelance outside of a big city? What are the three things that you look at that are distinct from the experience of other freelancers?
You really need to check out the place that you’re looking at, and what you need.
There are beautiful places in country Australia, but they don’t have all of the infrastructure around that you’re used to. Do your research. You want to check to make sure that you can get NBN or reasonably fast internet and phone reception. There’s no point living out in the middle of nowhere if you have to climb up a hill every day to check your messages.
As a regional freelancer, you get really good at contingency planning. If there was a power outage and I had to get something done urgently, I would drive 40 kilometres to my nearest town, and go to the library and work. I’ve got an iMac. If that dies, my nearest Apple Store is in Adelaide in Rundle Mall. Which isn’t that handy because it’s nearly four hours’ drive away. So, having a backup computer to be able to access your files, and even to do some work that you need to do is part of the process.
Before COVID showed clients that working from home and not having to meet in person was a real possibility, how did you manage it?
I I never really had any pushback from clients about meetings and working remotely. The one client that I did was in Port Augusta (40 kilometres away). Over all those years, no one really cared where I was and they still they still don’t. They’re happy to meet with me via Zoom or Microsoft teams or their tool of choice is and I’ve never really had any issues with that.
Is it possible to freelance with people in your local area?
90% of my work comes from outside of my whole region. Most of my customers are in Melbourne, Sydney, overseas, Adelaide and Brisbane. I have done some work for the local council and a local business group before. But it’s not the biggest share.
I think if I lived in a bigger town, that probably could sustain a business just by networking locally and doing things for the community. But my town is quite tiny. I travel to Port Augusta once a week or so I’ve had some clients there and done some work, but it’s not the bulk of my business.
Don’t count on being able to sew up the local area and be able to make big bucks there.
It’s often a matter of budgets. Small local businesses get plenty of work through word of mouth and they’re not looking for a copywriter to write their website.
How do you market yourself to the businesses outside of the town that you live in?
For somebody who works in marketing and comms, I don’t actually do a very good job.
I do have a website, which is fairly basic, but mostly just to check and verify that I’m professional. It’s not amazing. And it needs, it needs a fair bit of work. It’s almost like the chefs that doesn’t like cooking at home, or the, you know, the painter who hasn’t painted the kitchen for 10 years. So don’t judge my website or my copywriting on my website.
I’m very active on social media. And I’ve ended up with actually a lot of work through social media networks including LinkedIn. I’ve had random companies contact me on LinkedIn and asked me to pitch for jobs and things like that, which has been really good for freelance projects. I’ve had lots of referrals from other freelancers, through groups like the Freelance Jungle. And, you know, it’s a really great industry to be in because everyone’s really sharing with the work like there’s enough work to go around, especially in copywriting grants. If I’m busy, then I’ll refer work on to other people too, and, and often comes back to me. I’ve been very lucky with referrals and word of mouth kind of recommendations and things.
What impact has that networking and word of mouth had on your regional freelance business?
It’s been everything. When I first started my business, I told everyone I know, and I always encourage everyone to do that as well. Get in touch with your ex-employers, ex-colleagues, tell your friends and family. I ended up with a fair bit of work through that technique. Then people I’ve worked for would then recommend me to other people, and then it just kind of carries on.
It’s really all about relationships and building up that trust that people are going to give you along with their hard-earned cash to do a quality job.
A lot of people survive with relationships as freelancers. It keeps our heads together and protects us against feeling isolation, which is why the Freelance Jungle was formed in the first place. How do you survive that Ellenor, when it’s just you as the only freelancer in the village?
My husband freelances, too. We probably are the only two freelancers in the village, like literally. And I’m not going to lie, it’s fairly isolating. There’s still a long way to go with people understanding about work from home and freelance work. I’m 95% positive, my neighbours think we’re unemployed because we’re always home. And lots of people just don’t get it.
One of the most important things that we do is we’re very social outside of our work, which I think you have to be because it can be quite isolating, working at home all day by ourselves. And for me, sometimes it’s my husband, but we have a daughter. So usually, I’m working by myself. And then he’ll take our daughter, and then he’ll be working, and I’ll take her.
It’s your sports, arts, other activities and volunteering that replaces the work connection in regional freelancing?
That’s right, yeah. Keeping in touch with friends and just simple things like catching up for coffee or giving her a call. And just making sure that you don’t get isolated because it is easy to stay at home for five days without leaving the house, especially with all this COVID stuff happening as well. So people are isolated. And I think connections are still really important, if not more important now than ever before.
What sort of specific things do you need to consider when you’re about to do that sea change or tree change other than your NBN? I think that we’ve covered but what other things would you look at if starting out with a view of trying regional freelancing?
Look at what council areas might have some incentives. My local council area, the Flinders Ranges Council, has some. (You can also look at offerings via Regional Development Australia). FRC have got a new policy for business incentives, that when you move to the area, I think there may be certain incentives and supports. If you flexible about where you want to go, you might find somewhere that that has all kinds of different incentives to get you to live, work and play there.
Also, think about where you want to live and go spend some time there. Because going on a holiday somewhere is very different to actually living in a place. And, you know, moving is costly. So you’re only you really want to get it right the first time, don’t you?
I have a lot of people who have moved from the big cities as a result of COVID and they might be working remotely and/or seeing freelancing as a viable option in the future. What do you think that people could do right now to cover their bases and get ready for that leaving of the job that’s no longer remote?
Start small and take those small steps. If you haven’t created your business yet, do that. It’s cheap and it’s easy to do. Remember, you don’t need to have bells and whistles and have a massive successful business in the first week. You can register your ABN and your business name.
Next, you can do some brainstorming. Identify who your target market is going to be. Not all businesses are suitable for regional areas. If you’re going to have to be traveling and doing lots of in person stuff with your clients, then you probably don’t want to live where I live. But if you can do a lot of work remotely, and you don’t have that pressure to actually meet people in person, a remote area might work for you.
Even beginning as a side hustle to start with to take that pressure off is beneficial.
I’m a firm believer in regional places looking to freelance as a way of reinvigorating the places and making them stronger. What sorts of things would you like to see on a local or other government level to help make these sorts of things happen? What can we do to strengthen places so that they do feel freelance friendly and do feel attractive to people that want to try?
Governments on all level levels need to look at more support for people who are working from home or remote businesses. Regional freelancing and work from home businesses are a little bit different to other small businesses, and we need specific policies to match.
The introduction of co-working hubs in smaller towns or regional centres would encourage more freelancers to move to the area. You’re still working independently, but with that social interaction, it wouldn’t be as isolating. And I think that would be quite good.
And so how do you think promoting regional freelancing opportunities can help ailing country towns?
I think they can really boost they can boost the population but also boost the economic development. 90% of my work comes from out of my town or out of my region, actually. That’s 90% of the money that I’m earning spent in my local area. It’s an injection into the local economy. If you think about, if you had a dozen freelancers in a really small town like that can be significant in terms of extra spending at the shops, the cafes and the supermarkets and the local businesses. I think it can be really valuable, but I think a lot of regional places haven’t really caught up on that yet.
I would love to create connection.
How can regional freelancers like yourself encourage more visibility for this growing trend? So what can we do for the for the ones that are living outside of Sydney, Melbourne Brisbane, how can we make it so that we’ve kind of putting ourselves on the map and making it so that people do want to do it you reckon?
As a regional freelance, I think you just need to tell people what you’re doing. And the value of what you’re doing and become involved in the community. Become involved in the freelance community more widely as well. Being part of groups like Freelance Jungle is so valuable. Participating in surveys when they run surveys about freelancers is really important. That can supply data that can then be used to lobby for further services and infrastructure to help freelancers all over Australia.
An audience member has put up a tip saying that there’s regionaltechhub.org.au which helps with regional telecoms and stuff like that. Another audience member is asking, I’m keen to find out how to freelance while traveling and staying in amazing foreign locations or even just getting out of the house to another venue and staying with friends in or in an Airbnb. I guess the question there is, how do you manage it when you’re not at home?
Yeah, we’ve done a bit of travelling. Have a basic plan of where you’re going to be when you’ve got your deadlines. My work is very deadline driven. So I would make sure that if it were a traveling day, that I didn’t have anything due on that day. So my due days were my days when we were somewhere that I could sit down, finish some work, make sure things would happen, and not be in a rush or accidentally forget anything. A bit of forward planning helps.
Airbnb has an option within their search to choose business friendly accommodation that has Wi-Fi, a space with a desk and everything. I found that really useful to kind of narrow searches of places to stay.
Another audience member is saying she’s new to Northern Regional Tasmania. Are there any tips for getting started out in a new area that you swear by?
Look up the local council. Usually, they’ll have a directory of businesses or something similar. Check out all the businesses and introduce yourself to the businesses, depending what sort of work you are doing.
Look for a Chamber of Commerce or a local business association and become part of that. I think that would be useful. And look at the main community groups online and off as well. And see if there’s something that interests you that you could maybe get involved in a community group, small towns are very community oriented. And there’s a lot of volunteering where we live, a lot of sport and arts to try. Getting involved in the community can really broaden your network when you’re in a new in a new place. But definitely the local council and Chamber of Commerce or business association should have those important business links that you need.
Check out Regional Development Australia. There’s usually one in each region, they could be a useful source of information to do with business and what’s going on in the community. And also, they often have research, access to research about the industries and economic development of the area to find opportunities and pitch ideas.
One of the things that I want to know is living and freelancing regionally, how do you keep your skills up? How do you keep your educational base up, when you might not be able to go to the courses or classes or evenings that other people would have?
Online. It’s the only way. I have loads of subscriptions, which I’m in the process reviewing at the moment. I learn through professional memberships and opportunities with what webinars, short courses and different communities that I’m part of. So I’m part of Kate Toon’s Clever Copywriting Community. It offers different webinars and discussions which keeps my finger on the pulse of the copywriting side of things.
Do you feel like you’re missing anything by not being in the city anymore? Are there moments where you’re going on a bit melancholy for entertainment or creative opportunities?
Yeah, definitely. But not enough to move. I grew up in the country, and then I moved to the city for a while, and then eventually ended up back in the country. I do miss things.
Recently, there was a really great exhibition in Adelaide, and I thought, “Oh, that’d be great.”
But you know, when we go down to Adelaide, usually, there’s loads of different appointments and things that we have to do fill your diary really quickly, and we generally don’t do that fun stuff. I do miss that. Just not enough to move back there.
It’s also a good trigger to try and become more involved in your local community to make things happen. I like organizing the events and things like that in my local area, because it’s bringing a bit of the city to the country. Because there’s a lot of people in the same boat. It’s really hard sometimes to make a big weekend of it, to go see something. So if we can organize the show here and make it convenient for everybody, then it’s great for everyone to have a night out.
How do we stay in touch with you Ellenor if we want to hang out with you and follow your regional freelancing journey?
You can look at my website www.wordsworkers.com I’m on LinkedIn. I’m in the Freelance Jungle. Feel free to get in touch if you’ve got any questions.
Want to find out how regional freelancing can open up a whole new world for you? Join the Freelance Jungle today.