As a writer, are you a fast-food chain or a four-star bistro?

If freelancing writing were the food business, what kind of restaurant are you running?

Is it a four-star bistro with starched linen tablecloths serving expensive cuts of steak and French wine that charges a lot but can seat only a limited number of people a night?

Is it a fast-food chain with a limited menu that makes money on volume rather than price?

Or is it the funky neighborhood breakfast place that people didn’t mind standing in line Saturday mornings because the smoked salmon hash, nitrate-free bacon and blueberry citrus muffins were just that good?

There’s no right answer.

I use the food analogy to make a point. There are as many different kinds of freelance writers out there as there are restaurants. There’s room in the world for all of them — you wouldn’t want to eat at McDonald’s every night and you probably couldn’t afford to eat at Morton’s every time you go out to dinner either.

But the business model that works for one doesn’t necessarily work for the other.

Why You Need to Know Your Business

That’s important to keep in mind as the industry changes, old opportunities go away and new ones open up.

Some of those new opportunities might sound good at first, and they will be good for certain writers depending on their skills, experience and how they want to work. The key is to analyze the opportunities that come along and whether or not they’re a good fit for you.

Say you’re a former newspaper reporter. You’re used to reporting and writing on deadline and have a knack for finding just the right sources. You might make a good stringer for a wire service or reporter for an online news agency that needs quick turn stories. The work might not pay as much as other types of writing, but what it lacks in cents per word it makes up for in volume and stability.

There’s an ongoing discussion among freelance writers over the pros and cons of taking assignments to write web content or blog posts that pay $50, $25 or even $12 a pop. Those jobs aren’t going to be right for a lot of people. Some writers argue that they’re not right for anyone, as they take up time that a writer could otherwise use to find more well-paid work. But they do work for some writers.

In the end, you need to have a good grasp of  the type of writing business you run. That should help guide the type of work you look for. And when opportunities come your way, you’ll be better able to determine whether it fits on your menu.

If your writing business was a restaurant, what kind would it be?