Freelance Confidential - Amanda Hackwith [19]
While large, established companies and clients are not as likely to disappear in the night, individual projects can be cut or drastically altered. One way I help secure my business is to make sure that the projects I'm doing for any one client are varied. While I edit FreelanceSwitch, I also manage a site on the marketplace side of the business. I also readily snap up new and emerging projects when time and energy allows, especially if it allows me to contribute in a new way. Instead of one role, I'm doing several. By being distributed across multiple projects and kinds of work, my income isn't shut off completely should one project get put on the backburner.
Another way to diversify projects is to invest time in passive income projects. Have some leftover designs from that last client or photos from a hobby trip? Turn leftovers into possible income by selling them as stock. Write an ebook, offer a workshop. For more tips on generating passive income, see the Chapter 7, Expand with Passive Income.
No matter how many clients you have, it's valuable to work on different kinds of projects and to offer different kinds of services so you're able to adjust to changes in the industry and in client demand. Which brings us to the easiest diversity to gain: diverse skills.
Your Skills
So say you're a widget maker. You're the best widget maker around. Your widget is legendary, masterful, loved by all. People come from miles around to have you design and build their widgets.
But then a book comes out. An author appears on Oprah and all the talk show circuits saying how widgets are bad for business. A kid in a basement releases Gidget 2.0, popularity soars, and suddenly your widgets are extinct! You don't know anything about these Gidget things; you only make Widgets. What's a widget maker to do?
Our widget maker has fallen into the single-skill trap. Smart widget makers have already been talking to each other, reading the latest widget news sources, and have not only started developing with Gidget 2.0, but figured out new ways that widget tech can solve problems for their clients. Our left-behind widget maker will have some catching up to do.
Clients are also increasingly looking to hire a single freelancer to handle multi-discplined projects. James Chartrand, writer and founder of Men With Pens, has observed this change in client demand:
They're also asking for more one-stop shop service and from service providers they trust. There are too many people out there who've been burned, so I've noticed clients are now coming to us because we have a strong, solid reputation, we have a proven track record and we offer high-quality services.
Working with a freelancer who has enough skills to professionally design and develop a site, or handle all stages of video production, certainly makes it easier for the client to manage their project and bring it to completion. It also means more billable work for you, if you can develop the skills to deliver.
As a freelancer, one of the most important habits to have is never to stop learning. Our jobs depend on adaptability—adapting to project needs day to day, client needs month to month, and certainly adapting to changes in industry year to year. James also describes how adapting via new skills is vital to success:
I think a successful business is one that grows, changes, adapts and improves continually. Stagnation comes from lack of action, and lack of action is the number one cause of lack of success. Freelancers need to continually work on increasing their skills and educating themselves to stay at the forefront of their business at all time.
No matter how you look it at, the truth is the same: never, ever, ever stop learning. The greater variety of skills and services you can offer, the more diverse projects and diverse clients you'll be able to take on.
Next Steps for Diversity