Note: The tips here are meant to provide an overview of best practices regarding business setup for freelance medical communicators. For advice specific to your situation, seek counsel from authorized financial experts.
Starting a freelance medical writing business is an exciting step, whether you're pivoting from full-time employment, transitioning from a clinical background, or starting out in the field after education and training.
But freelancing isn’t just about writing and editing content—it’s also about running a business.
Freelance medical writers provide valuable expertise and experience and therefore need to be compensated appropriately. One of the perennial questions for freelancers is how much to charge clients for services.
Luckily, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Many resources and experts are available to help freelancers determine value-based pricing for their services.
Most successful freelance medical communicators seek a steady stream of work by cultivating a roster of trusted repeat clients.
It is a mutually beneficial arrangement. When clients find a reliable freelancer who knows their business and produces high-quality work, they'll stick with them.
Why should you track your time as a freelancer?
Freelance medical writers and editors are often juggling multiple projects for multiple clients. Whether you are getting paid per project or per hour, tracking the time you spend on each client’s work is essential for making sure you and the client are meeting expectations. If you don’t track your time, you can’t bill for it.
This blog is based, in part, on an AMWA webinar presented by Monica Nicosia, PhD, CMPP.
At this point in history, when so much of our life and work happens online, it is almost hard to remember a time before digital tools were essential for the work of freelance medical communicators.
Even before the COVID‑19 pandemic, which sent so many workers to their home offices, freelance medical writers and editors often worked from home. Remote workers need secure, efficient technology that helps them to balance work lives while maximizing the efficiency of the hours that are billable to clients.
What are the most common digital resources that are essential for freelancers? What types of software are experts recommending to advance and thrive in this line of work?
So much of our lives is connected online these days, and freelance medical communicators are using tools that allow collaboration with colleagues around the world.
This level of connectivity requires attention to cybersecurity to make sure data and key information are accessed only by people who are authorized to see them. As a medical communicator, what can you do to protect yourself, your personal data, and your clients’ critical information from cyberattacks?
Freelance medical writers typically work on projects for varying amounts of time, depending on the project parameters. However, on occasion, clients may want a freelancer to commit to being available to them for a set period of time rather than for a specific project. What is a long-term contract, and what should you do when a client offers you one? Let’s start at the beginning.
As independent businesspeople, freelance medical writers are responsible for acquiring their own insurance policies. Some types of policies are critical for operating a business, while others depend on the structure of one’s freelance business.
Conventional wisdom says you could be the best freelance medical writer in the world, but unless you have a website, potential clients might not know you exist.
By Laura J. Ninger, ELS, Ninger Medical Communications, LLC
You must understand what your medical communication business has achieved during the past year in order to plan for the future. This blog helps you review your earnings, clients, project mix, and marketing efforts with good record-keeping and some simple tables and graphs.
Your time as a medical writer is worth money.
However, clients can change their minds, project leads can move on, and some projects are discontinued, due to circumstances we don’t control.
Have you been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement as part of a medical writing or editing contract?
Nondisclosure statements or confidentiality agreements are not unusual in the medical communication field. They are common documents clients use to protect the information or knowledge writers and editors encounter as they work on a project.
The hunt for freelance medical writers and editors begins when you have a need for a communication professional who can help you complete or improve your writing project. Sometimes you have an urgent need, and you don’t know where to turn.
Your first call will be to trusted freelancers, people you have worked with before. As any client working on a tight timeline knows, chasing down new freelancers in a pinch is exhausting, time consuming, and stressful. The key is to cultivate successful partnerships so you have a pool of freelancers who are eager to work with you when you need them. Why are they eager to work with you?
How familiar are you with the language of freelance contracts? Do you know how to spot a problematic contract clause?
As a freelance medical communicator, you are running your own business. Even if you’d rather be writing than wading through legalese, learning the basics of contracts is part of the job.
Freelance success is possible. As today’s work landscape rapidly changes, more talented professionals are leaving traditional employment settings, or are interested in supplementing their income, and are finding value in the flexibility and economic opportunities presented by freelance work.
This article is based on content presented by Lori De Milto, MJ, Kelly Schrank, MA, ELS, and JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM, at the AMWA Medical Writing & Communication Conference.
Freelancing allows medical writers to take command of their careers by establishing and managing their own businesses. Owning a freelance medical writing or editing business empowers you to set your rates and schedule. As a freelancer, you’ll experience an equal mix of freedom and responsibility.
As a freelance medical writer, you must master a variety of business skills in addition to writing high‑quality documents. You’ll need to set your rates, market your business, and even determine when and how to subcontract work, if that’s your business model.
If there’s one key to success as a freelance medical writer, it’s this: never stop marketing.
The medical communication field is expanding at a record pace. At the same time, remote work is becoming mainstream. By demand, many experienced medical writers have begun offering freelance writing or editing services.
This article is based on content presented by Katherine Molnar‑Kimber, PhD, Kimnar Group LLC, and Deborah Anderson, PhD, DGA Medical Communications, at the AMWA Medical Writing & Communication Conference.
For freelance writers and independent contractors, establishing long‑term client relationships has clear advantages. Working with long‑term clients reduces time spent on administrative tasks, such as marketing, acquiring resources, and learning new formats, which increases the time available for producing the deliverable. The stability provided by long‑term clients also improves peace of mind and is usually financially beneficial.
This article is based on content presented by Brian Bass, MWC, and Emma Hitt Nichols, PhD, ELS, at the AMWA Medical Writing & Communication Conference.
Brian Bass and Emma Nichols have over 24 years of combined experience in hiring and working with freelance medical writers. Their education session focused on outlining the major considerations for freelance medical writers who are thinking about bringing on subcontractors—providing advice and guidance on making this decision and supporting their transition.
This article is based on content presented by Laura J. Ninger, ELS, at the AMWA Medical Writing & Communication Conference.
Note: The tips here are meant to provide an overview of best practices regarding accounting needs for freelancers. For advice specific to your situation, seek counsel from authorized financial experts.
For freelance medical writers and editors, day‑to‑day responsibilities include managing a business in addition to producing quality content. But collecting receipts, preparing for quarterly taxes, and staying on top of business accounting can be a major source of stress.
If you are a freelance medical writer overwhelmed by accounting, these tips are for you.
True or false:
Well-trained medical communicators bring value to the teams with whom they work.
I hope you answered true because that’s the right answer.
The key adjective of course is well-trained.
This article is based on content presented by Eleanor Mayfield, ELS, at the AMWA Medical Writing & Communication Conference.
How to calculate freelance medical writing rates is a hotly debated topic among freelancers. Some are adamant about always charging a project fee; others swear by an hourly rate. Eleanor Mayfield led a discussion of the pros and cons of these common methods as well as strategies for implementing them that will benefit both freelancers and their clients. She stressed that no pricing method is perfect; the key is to determine which strategy is the best fit for each project.
You’ve just been named employee of the month. Hooray for you! Actually, when you’re a freelance medical writer or editor and you work for yourself, you are your own employee of the month EVERY month because there's no competition for the crown. The question is have you done all it takes to deserve that honor?
For freelance medical writers and editors, social media can help build authority, engage with colleagues, connect with potential clients, and grow their freelance businesses. But posting and sharing inconsistently, or using the wrong platforms, can waste time and energy. These social media marketing tips can help.
Freelance medical writing can be a lucrative, rewarding, and flexible career. Yet even if you have been writing professionally for years, you may have questions when it comes to how to create a solid client base and find steady work. The following tips can help you start your own freelance medical writing business.
This article was written by freelance medical writers Lori De Milto, Elizabeth L. Smith, and Cathryn D. Evans. It was originally published in the AMWA Journal.
There are good reasons to specialize in certain types of projects and/or therapeutic areas—and good reasons not to specialize. In general, if you’re a new freelance, you should focus more broadly to attract more clients. As you gain experience, you can narrow your focus, which is what I did.