May 28th, 2008
Interview with Dean Rieck
Dean Rieck, president of Direct Creative, was kind enough to answer a few of my questions about how he broke into copywriting and running his own business. One of Dean’s strengths is direct mail, and he has an email newsletter for anyone interested in tips on improving the response rate of their direct marketing campaign.
How did you end up in copywriting?
I was working as a writer / producer at an NBC affiliate. I created TV commercials and promotions for shows like the Dukes of Hazzard and The Muppet Show, which were popular at the time. The work was fun, but the money was lousy. So I left and tried various things before landing in Columbus, Ohio working for a “book packager” writing and editing school textbooks. The money was better, but the hours were killer. I’d work around the clock some days just to meet a deadline. I had heard of “copywriting” as a career and started looking for local clients. After I got a few, I cast my net farther to begin working regionally then nationally. Really, I had no plan. I did it because I was desperate and job prospects were bad at the time. Since I wasn’t making good money, any freelance work seemed to pay well. And the hours were pleasant and not at all stressful. I had nowhere to go but up, so freelancing worked for me. If I had a good job with high pay, I probably would never have taken the plunge.
How is freelance copywriting different than “corporate” copywriting? Or is freelance the only kind?
I assume you want to know the difference between being an employed copywriter working for a large corporation and doing copywriting on the outside as a freelancer. Actually, it can be the same in many respects. Many of the jobs, such as writing direct mail or brochures, are identical. The difference is that one is on a salary and the other takes a per project fee. From the corporate point of view, an employee is a known cost and can do more work for less money. But an outside freelancer, while usually charging more, can often offer higher quality and broader experience. Not every corporation hires freelancers. Some use only freelancers. And others use a mix. Ad agencies, for example, generally have writers on staff, but use freelancers to quickly scale up on a project when there is no time to hire a full time employee or when special expertise is needed for one project.
What’s the biggest challenge of running your own operation?
Scheduling is my biggest challenge. It may seem like you could just do projects in the order you get them, but that’s not the case. You have to look at specific deadlines for each project. You have to consider your level of expertise and how much time it will take to prepare for a job. You must also consider how a client works — do they like to make lots of changes or do they have a rigid review process? Size of projects factors in too. A project you can complete in an afternoon can be moved around to fill almost any time slot. But a big project needs a set block of time. In the end, you want to handle as many projects as you can while maintaining quality and sanity. And you don’t want to turn away too many clients or prospects. Often if you tell someone you’re too busy, they’ll never call you again. Clients sometimes don’t understand the scheduling challenges and expect you to drop everything and work for them exclusively whenever they call.
What would you have done differently if you were starting out today?
I wouldn’t have waited so long to start freelancing. It’s a wonderful way of life that fits my personality perfectly. I also would have specialized in a particular industry or area so that marketing my services would be easier. With my background I can handle a wide variety of projects, but I can’t market myself as a generalist. So I tend to focus on direct mail, which is what I’m now known for. But everyone from the local pizza shop to Microsoft uses direct mail, and that’s a lot of territory to cover.
Where do you see your freelance business 10 years from now?
Sheesh. That’s a job interview question! You’re giving me flashbacks to a time when I worked for a living. 
I like what I’m doing, so I don’t see any radical changes. This is the sort of work I can do forever and have no plans to retire. I suppose I’ll just keep doing what I do and when I’m ancient I’ll just scale back a little. That’s the beauty of this sort of work. I can be totally lazy and still pull down a healthy six figures. Or I can get energetic and bring in more work if that’s what I feel like doing. One of the big benefits of freelancing is the control over your time and work environment. It’s not for everyone, since I think most people work better in a standard job setting. But if you have the right mindset, you can work for yourself and make up your own rules. It’s not something anyone can teach you.
