“If we don’t have an infomercial for this product within a year, everyone in this room should be fired.”

I still remember that meeting.

It was a dumb idea.

Not the dumbest.  But among the dumber.

We were a company that produced high-end training for computer professionals.  This was our one mass-market product.  And while there was plenty of margin in it (a MUST for infomercials) we didn’t have an entire product line to back it up.

We weren’t going to convince people who bought remedial computer training to suddenly go for advanced IT certifications.

Even if we made the infomercial work.

Even if we got a bunch of customers.

Yeah, maybe we could sell them some Microsoft Office training.

But it was a plan doomed from the get-go.

Sure, Video Professor was killing it in infomercials.  But their entire business was built around selling you video-based training in installments.  Where you’d request a free disc — and end up paying more for a few discs than you paid for the computer itself.  And the way they made that actually happen was with opaque billing schemes that drew thousands of thousands of complaints.

Meanwhile, we were on the Inc. Magazine list of America’s fastest-growing businesses.  By serving our core audience of IT professionals.  And making fat stacks of profits.  With a ton of untapped upside potential we could focus on.

And yet, here we were…

The Owner, the President, and me — talking about this dumb idea…

The owner had it in his head that we absolutely, positively must have an infomercial.

And he was so certain of it that he dropped that line above.

“If we don’t have an infomercial for this product within a year, everyone in this room should be fired.”

Including himself.  Including the President of the company.  Including me — at that point, the head of marketing.

We sometimes played poker at the office on Friday nights.  I guess this was just another time when he was thinking about throwing in all his chips.

And you have to wonder…

As I understood it, he’d already sunk $100,000 or more into this pet project, and it really wasn’t selling (because, remember, it was made for a market we didn’t serve with any other product).

And so he was considering extreme and irrational behavior…

That reminded me why I was determined to work for myself…

It used to be that you’d get a job at a company, and you could reasonably expect that you could make a career there, for life.  Retire with a pension, and die happy.

A job was security.

And perhaps in some places, in some occupations, that’s still true.

But really not so much anymore.  That was a good job.  A comfortable job.  A job where I could easily prove my worth, at a company that was gushing cash.

And still…

I was one bad whim of the boss away from getting fired…

It was scary.

I remember going home to my wife that day, and telling her about it.  I know the President of the company — still a good friend and Breakthrough Marketing Secrets reader — also went home and told his wife about the conversation.

And that was after he and I talked through it on our own, at work that day.

Even a good job like that — a job that was too comfortable for me to easily quit — was fundamentally INSECURE.

It was one source of income.  One source of support.  One source of livelihood for me and my family.

And it didn’t matter how good I was doing in all the other areas of my job, I had just had it all threatened.

I didn’t know if he was serious, but I had to believe he was…

Long story short, we never made that infomercial.

Like many other ideas, that one eventually blew over.

We focused on serving our core market, and our growing customer base.

We made more revenue, and more profits.

The owner stayed happy, at least for a while.

I managed to keep that job until I was ready to go.  And I launched my freelance copywriting business on my schedule and my terms.

I never had to hear those nasty words, “You’re fired!”

I can’t say that for everyone else on the team.  Apparently not long after I left, there were some pretty nasty shakeups and people who thought their jobs were secure were suddenly out.

One bad whim.

Independence is the only security…

I’m not saying you can’t get a job.  In fact, in many cases that’s the best training ground to become great at marketing.  From the inside, neck-deep every day.

But you have to remain independent.  And the business skills of freelancing are critical.

Know your worth.

Know how to negotiate based on what you’re worth.

And be ready to sell yourself in a minute, if you need more work.

I used to be scared of the uncertainty of going out on my own…

Of not knowing where my next gig would come from.

Of not knowing how I’d earn my next month’s pay.

Of having my back to the wall and a gun to my head, needing to make it work.

I took some steps to make it easier.  I learned with cash in the bank to pay the bills, the uncertainty is not the worst thing in the world.  Working for a terrible boss is.

I learned that you can actually build demand for yourself, and have more work than you can handle.

I learned that with work and effort and understanding how a successful freelance business works, you can get by.

Then you can keep building.  Multiple clients.  Multiple projects.  Multiple streams of income.  Scalable income, recurring income, leveraged income based on royalties.

I worked to build that out.  And the longer I’ve done it, the more secure I’ve felt.

Even if one client or income stream disappeared tomorrow, I could replace it quick.

One bad whim is not so scary, because I’ve got a dozen more opportunities behind it.

Now the idea of working for one boss is the truly scary proposition…

This is why, in part, I wrote The Copywriter’s Guide To Getting Paid, and started putting together all kinds of training on running a successful copywriting business.

And this is why this week I’ve packaged up this training into The Freelance Copywriter’s Independence Package, and cut the price to just $74 through July 4th.

(That’s $23 off the package price and $117 in total savings.)

Because any copywriter who wants it — and is willing to work for it — deserves the INDEPENDENCE, and, yes, SECURITY that comes from running a successful freelance business.

I know that many copywriters still struggle.

I know that many copywriters still feel insecure.

I know that many copywriters still feel tied up and tied down by bad clients, bad projects, and bad opportunities — when they don’t have to.

And I know so much of what leads to actual success and freedom running your own business — and the security of never worrying about those words “I’m fired!” — comes down to the business skills.

Here are the copywriting business skills you need.

Yours for bigger breakthroughs,

Roy Furr