A fellow freelancer (let’s call him Frank) emailed me a few weeks ago with a dilemma. Frank had recently decided to pursue a freelance career. Yet as he planned his next steps, he was unsure about where to specialize.
“I’ve been thinking and thinking, but I can’t come up with the right category,” he wrote. “You’ve said in the past that one should pick a category where one has experience or some familiarity. But what if I have neither?”
I can understand Frank’s dilemma. With all the talk about the importance of specialization, not having a clear picture of a viable specialty or niche can be a bit nerve-racking.
If you find yourself in a similar situation — whether you’re new to freelancing or not — here’s my advice: Relax!
Sure, if maximizing your income and having the freedom to pick your clients and the projects you work with seems attractive to you, then yes, specialization is something to seriously consider.
But you DON’T have to start out as a specialist. It’s something you can grow into as your business grows and evolves.
I find that too many new or aspiring freelancers struggle so much with this issue that it delays their progress. Delay soon leads to procrastination. And procrastination leads to giving up altogether.
So here’s how I would approach this dilemma…
#1: Do a personal inventory. Make a list of the following as it pertains to you:
Background
Experience
Education
Skills
Specialized knowledge
Certifications
Achievements, accomplishments, awards
Aptitudes
Likes and dislikes
Hobbies
Make a thorough list of what attributes you may possess under each category. And don’t rush through this exercise. Take your time. You won’t think of everything the first time.
#2: Connect the dots. After a few days of adding to the list, take another look and start thinking of ways you can parlay these attributes into a specialty.
And you know what? It doesn’t NEED to be a specialty! Equally effective could be a couple of statements that explain why you’re different — and specifically why you’re different in a way that has little to do with a niche market.
For instance, a demonstrated experience and passion for working with disabled children probably shows that you have a highly empathetic personality. That could make you an ideal freelancer for companies that need to communicate a very empathetic tone in order to strike a chord with their target audience.
I just came up with that example off the top of my head, but hopefully you get my drift. There are many ways to position yourself as a different and better choice to prospective clients without having to carve out an industry niche.
#3: Don’t rule out starting as a generalist. Finally, there’s nothing wrong with starting out as a generalist. Better to start today as a generalist than to stall and never make the leap to freelancing at all. As your business develops, you can always choose to position yourself differently and pursue specific markets or projects that you enjoy more.
As Jim Rohn, one of my favorite motivational speakers, once said (and I’m paraphrasing here), “If you’re not sure where to start, do this. Go outside, throw a rock way up in the air, and wherever it lands, start right there!”
So…where’s your rock?
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Ed Gandia is the co-editor of The Wealthy Freelancer and author of the popular report “7 Steps to Landing More Lucrative Freelance Projects.” You can get a free copy (a $29 value) by subscribing to his biweekly newsletter, The Profitable Freelancer at www.TheProfitableFreelancer.com.
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I always tell my students to pick a subject that they enjoy researching and writing about. I am a translator. I prefer researching cardiology terms much more than financial jargon. As a common adage states: Do something that you love and you will never work a day in your life.
This is great advice, Ed. I’ve been toying with the idea of specializing in real estate writing and even considering taking the class/test to become an agent just to gain more knowledge (I really do enjoy real estate writing!). But it’s nice to know that even with all the write-ups out there pressuring writers to specialize or die that I won’t necessarily die if I generalize first and then decide as the workload grows. Very comforting. Thanks.
Jill – I’m with you! I will no longer take on a client if the products/services they market are dull, boring or of no interest to me. I have to be excited about what they sell if I’m to have a chance getting their prospects to respond to their marketing campaigns. However, even when what they sell sounds boring, I can usually find a way to explain it in terms that are more exciting to their prospects.
Alysia – Good to hear! Sometimes the specialization is so obvious, you can’t help but go for it. But when there’s doubt, there’s nothing wrong with taking the generalist path…as long as you have a long-term strategy behind it (meaning you’ll revisit the specialization idea in 6, 12 or 18 months, for example).
Doing a personal inventory as suggested should lead you to a specialty. If you don’t know something about a topic and aren’t enthusiastic about it, you probably aren’t going to be able to effectively write about it. So choose a specialty (or several specialties), and don’t be afraid to turn down work that’s outside your areas of interest and skill. But try to never just turn down a project — always refer the client to someone who can do what they want. It builds great karma!
Do an annual review of your freelancing business and decide if you need to update your specialties.
Jacquelyn – Good point on referring the prospect to someone who could better serve them. That’s an excellent business practice. And I love your idea of doing an annual review of your freelance business. Taking an afternoon off in late Dec or early Jan is how I do it. I find that it takes me a good day (1/2 day min) to look back at the year — what went right, what went wrong, lessons learned, etc.
I’m another translator, and the subject of specialization comes up often in discussions among my colleagues. This is less of an issue at a superficial level for persons like myself who had previous careers (chemical research, medical device materials development and software development in my case). Those with law degrees can obviously “specialize” in law, etc., though if they are avid skiers, they might do some damned good tourist brochures for Park City, Utah. Translators who go straight from their language studies begun as very young people to a life of freelance translation usually can be nothing but generalists, though second majors, minors or extracurricular interests can provide the foundation for specialties.
However, I think a generally relaxed approach – as you suggest – is called for. Some of my favorite “topic specialties” developed in the course of accepting a wide variety of assignments. I loved the subjects, read more about them, learned a lot and eventually began actively to seek and obtain jobs in those areas. It’s not really worth losing sleep over; I would say to try many things and see which leave the best taste in your mouth, then develop a plan for specializiung in those areas from that point.
Kevin – I completely agree that what you suggest is the right approach. When the area of specialty is not obvious, start where you are and just take time to evaluate your biz once or twice a year. Everything else being equal, if your goal is to maximize your earnings, you’ll need to position yourself as the go-to guy/gal in something. And keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be an industry. It could also be a type of project you’re really good at and truly enjoy!
I think it would also be helpful to define “specialization” for a discussion like this. I think specialization can mean different things to different people and can be very specific or rather broad. For example, in both my consulting and copywriting roles I specialize on a general level in the B2B space. However I also have more finite specializations within that area in about 20 specific industries that I feel pretty well versed and confident in based on education and experience. I further specialize or like writing direct response and lead generation type copy.
I feel I can work in just about any B2B space with some research, but feel relatively uncomfortable in writing projects for B2C. I have one client now that has asked me to do copy for a web project and they sell garden art to consumers. This has been a tremendous challenge to me as I am writing in a way I have never had to before and probably not the type of project I would seek out again.
The point being I think there are different levels of what we call specialization and different areas where we can be effective and provide great value to the client.