What’s in a name?

When I went freelance back in 2023, it wasn’t entirely my own idea. The business I’d been working for was shut down by their delightful parent company. Around 60 or so people were made redundant over the coming months. I was one of the first redundancies.

I’m hardly the first person to take redundancy as a sign to board the good ship self-employment. But there was another factor.

About two months prior to the announcement the business would be closing, I’d booked a three-month trip to Japan. I hadn’t mentioned it to my boss at the time and was slowly working up the nerve to discuss it. The week I felt confident enough, the fateful ‘Whole Company Meeting’ dropped into our calendars out of nowhere.

I never did tell them I was going to Japan…

So, with that three-month stint abroad on the horizon, it didn’t seem sensible to look for another full-time gig. My conscience wouldn’t allow me to lie in an interview and say, “yes, of course I’ll be around in six months and not pull a fast one!”. That’s just poor form all around.

Hence - freelance. But every good freelancer needs a great freelance business name.

In my sudden haste to become freelance, I panicked a bit…and RAD Copywriting was born.

My initials and my profession. Simple and effective…but it never felt quite right. At first I tried to make the whole ‘rad’ buzzword thing part of the charm, but it grated on me every time. And, if it grated on me, I felt certain that it must grate on others just as much. Such is the nature of my brain.

The last year has seen me grapple with that name, bending it into something that felt like me. Which is somewhat ironic given they my initials.

But the name never felt right.

Having thought about it for a while, going through all sorts of names and ideas, I finally settled on this one.

Rob Writes Words.

Still simple and effective - but even clearer in some ways. No one calls me RAD, I’m Rob. And while copywriting is my profession, it more or less amounts to writing words (more on that another time).

It all just feels a bit more me really. That might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s okay too.

Sometimes we make decisions out of necessity. Those decisions can absolutely be the right ones, like the choice to go freelance. But others might, on reflection, not have been the best.

Realistically, my business isn’t changing.

It’s still just me here, typing away on the keys to write silly little sentences. I’m not dropping any type of work or honing in on a single niche.

The biggest difference? I’m feeling a bit more ambitious these days…