This blog post is the second in a series adapted from a talk given at TOS-Con 2021. Learn more about TOS-Con here.
Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter teaches that there are only three basic strategies in business: cost leadership (maximizing financial efficiency), differentiation (offering a unique spin on a common product or service), and specialization (offering an uncommon product or service that’s highly desirable to a niche market). Some business strategies are more nuanced than others, but ultimately, they all fall under one of these three basic approaches.
For the most part, the strategies I recommend in this section fall under differentiation or specialization. Cost leadership is something you may want to experiment with later in your career when you have some experience with optimizing the logistics of your business.
Most industries in which freelancers are common are downright saturated with them, and most freelancers are somewhere between unqualified and average. In my experience, the best way for freelancers to become successful is to stand way, way out from the pack.
But how do you do that? I’ve identified the thirteen strategies that I’ve found to be the most helpful.
1. Commit to Being a Businessman
When you strike out on your own as a freelancer, you are legally considered a business entity in some fashion. (This may be different in some countries outside the United States.) I can’t offer specific advice on what legal business structure you should choose, but the vast majority of freelancers who work alone are sole proprietors, the simplest business classification.
Regardless of the legal structure you choose, you do need to adopt the mindset that you are now a businessman. Far too many freelancers present themselves in the marketplace as “just some girl who draws” or “just another guy who knows how to make websites.” I understand why they do this; in many cases, it’s an attempt to seem relatable and approachable—to put clients at ease.
The problem with this approach is twofold. At worst, it makes it seem like you don’t take your business seriously, which is the last thing clients want. At best, it’s not a good way to stand out from the pack (because it’s what everyone else is doing). Most freelancers in most industries have a Twitter or Instagram with a few hundred (or maybe a few thousand) followers where they infrequently post content. Or their websites and portfolios haven’t been updated in a few years. Any of these practices can create the impression that you aren’t taking your work seriously.
Adopting the mindset that you are now running a business—even “just” a business of one person—helps you start to feel more confident and more like a qualified player in the marketplace. Clients will notice the difference. As for what exactly it means to think and act like a businessman, we’ll start to cover some of the most important ways to do that in the next twelve steps.
2. Choose One or a Few Niches
Choosing one or more specializations is key to achieving three things:
- immediate appeal to clients who need help with specific subjects or problems;
- real profitability;
- resistance to burnout.
Years ago, when I first discovered the Japanese concept of ikigai, it massively changed my work life for the better. In a nutshell, it’s a tool for choosing a career path ideally suited to your skills, interests, and personality. For freelancers, it’s an amazingly good way to start choosing your niches.
Ikigai advocates choosing a career that fulfills four requirements:
- you’re good at it;
- you enjoy doing it;
- you can get paid for it;
- it’s something the world needs.
On the content writing side of my business, I write predominantly about seven things: military topics, firearms, emergency medicine, outdoor survival, personal finance, small business ownership, and video games. These are the niches in which I am better and more knowledgeable than the average person; they’re things I have personal experience with and enjoy writing about.
Specializing in specific niches helps me stand out to clients who work in those areas. Most clients know that a good writer who has good general research skills can write competently about almost anything—but clients want excellence, not competence. The more quickly you can deliver top-tier content, the more attractive you are to clients.
I have one client for whom I write about military topics, and over the last two years, they’ve come to rely on me as their primary writer on that subject. I got there by consistently delivering factually accurate, engaging articles that require minimal editing—in other words, by making the client’s life as easy as possible.
This is also the key to maximizing profitability. This particular client pays me a flat rate: $300 per finished article. Because I have first-hand knowledge of many military subtopics, I can write most such articles in two or three hours. I don’t need to do much research. Of course, I always do some research, even on topics about which I’m highly knowledgeable. At minimum, I check several different sources to ensure that the claims I make are still valid, but I know exactly where to look to verify that kind of information, so I don’t have to hunt all over the Internet. Because I can deliver a highly polished article in two or three hours and get paid $300 for it, I make $100 to $150 per hour on those assignments.
And finally, because I only write about things I know and enjoy, I get burned out less often, and it’s less severe when it happens. Most people need to take breaks at some point, even from the things they’re most passionate about. It’s okay to take a brief hiatus from things you love, but if your work involves industries or subject matter you don’t really care about, you’ll struggle with burnout a lot more.
To recap, I write about these topics because, for me, they check all four of the ikigai boxes: I’m good at these things, they interest me, they’re valuable to the world (my clients and their readers), and I can get paid well for writing about them.
In the next installment of this series, I’ll cover mastering your craft and tangential skills.
