One of the most important goals of Freelance Parent is to encourage others who are seriously pursuing their own freelancing careers by shining a spotlight on what it’s really like to start from the ground up. It’s a little unnerving to reveal certain things about ourselves and our company, but we agreed early on to try and be as transparent as possible. For that reason, I’d like to invite you all to share the recent thought processes and awakenings that have taken place as we continue to learn about and define our business.
Sure, It’s About the Money; Except When It’s Not
As a freelancer, I’m always considering how to utilize my skills to make money. Of course, I also want to enjoy what I’m doing. If I didn’t care about that, well then, I could have a regular office/service/manufacturing job where I showed up for eight hours a day just to get a paycheck. (Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these occupations. They’re just not for me.)
Are They Really Talking About Finding Your Niche Again?
My particular field, for those of you playing along at home, is freelance writing. When you look at the big, wide world of writing, you discover that there are a ton of options for writers. This is true for freelance designers, artists, consultants, etc., too. On the other hand, we keep harping on how a freelancer needs to choose a niche. It’s easy to get starry-eyed and say, “Ooh. I’d love to write for a women’s magazine . . . and design a travel company’s brochure . . . and put together some SEO-enhanced articles about dogs . . . and do anything else I can get paid to do.” Sometimes you really do just have to buckle down and make some choices.
Tamara and I realized early on that we weren’t sure where we wanted to focus. So, when we created our business plan and set some preliminary goals, we incorporated that uncertainty. At the end of the three months, we would review the work we’d done so far and choose what was working the best for us. That deadline has come and gone, and our results were not necessarily what we would have expected.
What Do You Really Want to Do?
After spending a few months actually doing the work, we learned that what we thought we wanted to do wasn’t necessarily always what we really wanted to do. How fortunate are we to have incorporated some flexibility into our plan? It would have been a real bummer to have printed up 5,000 brochures extolling our ability to write financial reports only to discover a few months later that we detest writing financial reports.
Once again, here comes another testimonial about why it’s good to have a business partner. One of the coolest things that we discovered was that while Tamara and I have overlapping interests, we also have some that are pretty divergent. For example, she really, really enjoys writing ad copy. I, on the other hand, just don’t have the nerve for it. I am extremely interested in writing about environmental issues, while Tamara is sort of lukewarm on the topic. She likes blogging; I love blogging. We both have tons of interest in cultural issues, and we are both fanatical about supporting nonprofit organizations.
Putting It All Together
So, have we found our niche? Maybe. Offering our freelance services to nonprofits might just be the perfect way to concentrate our efforts. It incorporates our previous interest in supporting small businesses, and both of us have significant experience and/or education in the field. Tamara could be the resident ad writer, and I could certainly help organizations get a start in blogging. Tamara would be a rock star at editing their marketing materials, while I have a great grant-writing track record. There are a lot of possibilities that would allow us an interesting variety of projects while still having a well-defined specialization.
I know I’ve asked this question before, but I’ll throw it back out there again: Have you defined your niche yet? If not, do you just prefer to be a Jack-of-all-trades, or are you still narrowing down the field? If so, what did you choose, and what were your motivations for doing so? We are insanely interested in this topic, and I know that many of our readers are, too, so feel free to share, chat, or lecture away!
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