What I’m listening to: Love My Way by Psychedelic Furs
Show of hands: how many of you have a specialty? (just tell me in the comments — I really can’t see your hand)
For every one of you who has a hand up, there’s more than likely that many ways in which you got there. We all come to our specialty areas (if we have them) in different ways. For me, it was purely chance and happy accident. For you, it could have been an extension of your career or a meeting with a friend or a job that led to four jobs just like it…
If you don’t specialize, you have your own story of how you get your clients.
That’s our similarity — we all have a story of how we came to find our clients. For some of us, that resulted in our specialties. For others, not so much.
For other writers still, it’s been one tough struggle. In fact, it’s downright confusing at times.
Perhaps the reason is these writers are casting too wide a net. It’s what we do in those early years, isn’t it? We don’t know who our client is, so we think everyone is our client. So we send proposals and queries to everyone from editors at pet magazines to global marketing firms.
And good luck hauling anything in with that kind of net.
[bctt tweet=” Freelance fact: if you fish for everything, you typically end up catching little of anything.” username=”LoriWidmer”]
So let’s create a smaller net. Start with these questions:
Who/What is your target?
For specialists, it’s the “who” part — generalists, ask yourself what your target is. Are you looking for blog posts, copyediting, brochure, newsletter, marketing work? Sometimes narrowing it down to what you like doing helps.
Who fits your image?
For me, this is the bread-and-butter question, the one that will bring it all home for you. How does that company or editor you’re about to send a proposal to fit with the image you’re trying to create or portray? For instance, if I wanted to take on just copyediting work, I’m going to aim for the people who are in a position to pay my fee. That means I might not want to seek copyediting work from a company that installs wallpaper if I’m trying to get more Fortune 500 financial companies to take me seriously.
Some marketing wonks suggest narrowing your client list down by ranking them by how profitable they are. While that’s one way of doing it, there are so many other clients you’d miss if you were to eliminate them based on their revenue. Some of my best clients were one-person entities. They were able to pay my fee, and did so without question.
For me, narrowing it down by how their business aligns with my own business identity helps. Maybe I want to work with the home improvement industry. In that case, the wallpaper hangers of the world are exactly my kind of client. Even the guy who’s got a startup business could be my client if his projected image is to offer top-of-the-line wallpaper products and guaranteed results.
How do you intend to reach potential clients?
If you’re all about the cute sales letter and colorful illustrations, that could help you narrow your potential client list. For example, child care centers, child-focused entities, publishers of children’s books…. that mutual fund company isn’t going to respond (and you might be water cooler fodder, and not in a good way).
Example — I was once sitting across from a logo designer, and at the time, I needed a logo. Before I asked her a thing, she talked about some of her latest projects. Flowers? Dogs and kittens? While that fit with her clients, it wasn’t anywhere serious enough for what I wanted. Maybe she could have done a good job for me, but we were starting at opposite ends of the design wheel. I needed serious, which wasn’t her forte. She wasn’t my designer, and I wasn’t her client.
Think on this question: Am I okay with Client X being my focus at the possible exclusion of Client Y? There’s no wrong answer here — if it’s yes, then you’ve narrowed your focus. If it’s no, then you have some additional thinking to do.
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Proud generalists, this one is for you.
Accept that sometimes a niche will just happen.
It’s okay to say “For now, I want to work with these kinds of clients.” That’s a niche, and it won’t kill you to have one as you remain a generalist. Let’s pretend you’ve decided that you really love writing brochures. Your first three clients were wallpaper hangers. They keep referring you to more wallpaper hangers, who are eager to pay your rate. Are you going to turn that down because you’re determined to remain a generalist?
Of course not. But you don’t want to get stuck doing just wallpaper brochures. That’s fine, too. So pretend this temporary niche is a specialty, just for a minute. Where can you expand from that specific group? Carpenters? Furniture builders? Real estate agents? Yes to all of the above. Take that niche and generalize it by branching out in different, yet related directions. It’s your way to stay generalist but still get the boost a niche can give you.
Writers, do you specialize? (Seriously, I really want to know)
How did you decide who your client is? How has that image evolved over time?
13 responses to “Casting a Narrower Freelance Net”
I specialize in environmental and agricultural science, both writing and editing. That happened because I had a master’s degree in the area and fell into a part-time writing job at a university. I didn’t feel very well qualified to do anything on the ground with my degrees.
To begin my freelance career, I initially hung signs around campus offering my editing services for a pittance to supplement the part-time work. For my first freelance client I did ESL editing in electrical engineering. I’m glad I didn’t let that experience sour me on editing, but it surely wasn’t my favorite.
I picked up more freelance clients working on topics of greater interest to me, worked the part-time job into a full-time job, and kept freelancing as well. We moved and I became full-time freelance.
Over the years (~23) the level of pay I’m willing to work for has steadily increased as I’ve made more contacts and learned what kinds of organizations can offer work I enjoy at a price that’s appealing.
What a good beginning though, Joy! That you were able to market locally is a nice plus. I love how you describe your rise in pay and your expansion into other organizations. Smart move on your part!
I consider myself highly specialized: 6-12 math, science, ELA assessment writing. Aside from a bit of a slow period last year, I’ve had as much work as I can handle for several years now. I still love it. The type of work remains the same, but the topics, approaches, etc. are always changing! I “kind of” stumbled into it as I started out doing everything, but this is the area that best fit my education background and paid the best.
Aren’t those happy accidents the best, Krista? And a full work schedule never hurts! Sounds like you’ve found a niche where few freelancers exist, too. Even better!
I definitely don’t call myself a “generalist.” I find it has a negative connotation. It’s vague, like you can’t do anything well. My “brand” so to speak, is that I do MANY things well, and I take on clients whose work/passion/mission interest me. I jokingly call myself a “Renaissance Writer” (I even wrote an article for WOW-Women on Writing about that); as far as I’m concerned, if people think that means I only write about the Renaissance, we’re not the right fit anyway. I also call myself the “Anti-Niche.”
I do have what I call “Areas of Specialized Knowledge” that are always expanding, and tend to be the type of clients to which I’m drawn and who are drawn to me: anything in the arts, music, alternative medicine, health/wellness/yoga/meditation, cooking, gardening, history, textiles, clothing, sports, environmental issues, global issues, social justice issues.
Client base and focus changes depending on where I want and need to put my energy, and which interesting businesses I come across in my research. I have LOIs and pitch packages that are easy to put together, and portfolio packets skewed to different areas that I can pull up and send off pretty quickly.
The newly designed websites have helped a lot, too. Plus, people I’m meeting through political activism are growing my client base; we are from many different areas of knowledge, but we are working toward a common good. In my case, being politically vocal on social media has helped my business writing, rather than hurt it.
So you have separate websites for each area of knowledge? If so, is there some overlap?
She has a number of websites, Paula. It’s impressive how Devon can keep it all straight let alone profitable!
I have a business writing website, http://fearlessink.com (which now even has a business writing blog, called “Ink-Dipped Advice”). I have the main Devon Ellington site, and the different series I write each have their own site, but the templates and the look of the sites are similar and tie them together. I have another website for the tarot, meditation, etc. I have too many email addresses. 😉 But moving hosts, redesigning everything on the WordPress platforms have been a huge help.
Oh, I’d never call you a generalist either, Devon. You have plenty of specialized areas, and you do them all remarkably well.
Thank you. That means a lot, coming from you.
I guess I fall somewhere between Joy & Krista and Devon. My main area of interest is writing about the television industry (as opposed to TV reviews or “showbiz news”), but that came about due to a huge overlap with the business, marketing and promotion coverage I initially did. I also have smaller niches involving knitting/crafts, pets, and cooking. I’m always looking for topics where two or more of my favorite things merge—and it’s amazing how often that happens!
I’ve also written about college and career planning, but that client has moved most of the work in-house. I’m not actively seeking to replace that client, which tells me I wasn’t really excited by the subject matter anymore.
I like all your niches, Paula. They’re so different, yet they all speak to who you are. I think it’s great that you nurture them all. I think we all should nurture multiple sides of our personality.
I have a business writing website, http://fearlessink.com (which now even has a business writing blog, called “Ink-Dipped Advice”). I have the main Devon Ellington site, and the different series I write each have their own site, but the templates and the look of the sites are similar and tie them together. I have another website for the tarot, meditation, etc. I have too many email addresses. 😉 But moving hosts, redesigning everything on the WordPress platforms have been a huge help.