According to the Freelancers Union in America, approximately 35% of the American working population is freelancing. Currently, there are about 47% of the millennials in the freelance world. The changes in the workforce are continuing to change the traditional approach to working.
It is estimated that by the year 2027, there will be more freelancers in America than there will be people working in traditional jobs. Therefore, as more people continue to join the bandwagon, what are some of the factors that can help the freelancers to become more marketable and develop a profitable career or business?
Most of the gurus in the freelance world agree that getting a niche and narrowing down to a specific area where you can be most productive is the best way to brand yourself. Just like in the corporate world, if you are working as a general practicing lawyer, you will not be as marketable as the personal injury lawyer who has narrowed down on a specific niche.
Here’s the five biggest reasons why you should narrow down your niche
- It is easier to brand yourself
Let’s take for example you are a life coach, and you’d wish to launch a freelance career coaching people online. Choosing a niche, for example, coaching businesswomen on how to increase their productivity means that you adopt that as your brand.
‘I’m a Life Coach who Specializes in Supporting Highly Driven Business Women Increase their Productivity in their Lives.’
With such a brand, you can optimize your online presence to sell your brand. Here are a few steps to optimize your online presence:
- Craft a LinkedIn profile that clearly stipulates that you are a life coach who works explicitly with businesswomen who are keen on increasing their productivity.
- Optimize your Facebook profile to show the same too clearly.
- Get a Facebook page and also craft it to sell the same message.
- Create a website and hire a content writer who can write a home page that also states who you are, who you work with and what you help them to attain.
If you are starting and you don’t have the money to pay a website developer, a copywriter or probably an assistant to help you run your social media pages, you can try to do them on your own. However, it’s advisable to get a professional to help you have these infrastructures in place so that you can have a professional looking online presence. You can consider borrowing the capital from friends or to save your dignity, opt for peer to peer lending platforms
Read more about it here: What Is Peer to Peer Lending? (Plus the Top 7 Peer to Peer Lenders)
- Helps you attract qualified leads
When you have a brand that is supported by a robust online presence, you start to attract leads- people who are interested in your services. Note, the leads you will get asking for your services have already seen what services you provide and who you work with, therefore, you will not get jokers asking where you can coach them on how to date.
Probably you can deliver the services, but offering such a service only dilutes your brand. You want to offer your services to qualified leads whom you know that you have all the expertise, experience and tools to help them achieve the results they want.
The more satisfied clients you have, the more likely they are to refer you to their friends and colleagues. If you can serve some satisfied clients who become your marketing agents, you might never need to market your services again actively.
- You can afford to charge your worth
As you build your brand, get past clients marketing for you and have a bit of social proof, you can afford to charge higher than most people. Note, already as a specialist, and you can afford to cost more than a general life coach and clients understand and respect this.
The perception is, you are specialized and highly your niche, as clients are willing to pay higher rates to you as compared to the general practitioner down the road.
Therefore, as many more people ditch the traditional 9-5 working schedule and join the freelancing world, remember that niching down is the key to success. However, most freelancers fear that if you narrow down your niche, you risk losing out on other potential clients. This might be true, however, being a generalist leaves you in a field of plenty other generalists who are willing to accept pennies for their services. However, if you narrow down, you set yourself aside. You start to build a brand and to charge your worth.