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Rahoul Baruah
Rahoul Baruah

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How to specialise as a freelancer ...

You've seen all the "experts" tell you that "the riches are in the niches" (if you pronounce it that way).

But the idea of positioning yourself like that is terrifying.

Turning away clients? Saying no?

It's hard enough getting clients as it is.

However, without even realising it, you're already doing it.

Every time you write a custom proposal, you're doing the same task.

You're positioning yourself as the expert.

In a niche of one.

Your proposal is a sales document, telling your prospective client that you know what they want, you understand why they want it and you have a plan to deliver it for them.

Because the proposal is a one-off, it doesn't feel like you're excluding others.

But because the proposal is a one-off, it also takes you a load of time to write.

All niching does is save you time by generalising your proposal writing.

Instead of a new sales document, custom-written for every client, you're saying "I've already got one for this group of clients".

Write once, use many.

If you want to attract several groups of clients, you just research them, find out what they're looking for and write a proposal for each group in turn.

You don't have to exclude anyone you don't want to.

You're just saving yourself time.

Perfectly positioned.

(If you want more like this, check out my "All Work, No Pay" - a free podcast and daily email)

Top comments (1)

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Luke Miller

Hi Rahoul. Great post!

I especially like your point in saving time. I think that it is especially important to find efficient ways to save time, especially from a freelancing perspective. When it comes to administrative work, that can become a barrier from spending more time finding customers.

I prefer to use AskFora when freelancing because it does a great job with handling the administrative aspect of freelancing that helps avoid overhead that is unnecessary so that I may spend more time with more of my clients to be focused and innovative.