I’ve talked to quite a few freelancers over the years and have come to a scary realization…
Most of us are out here guessing at our skills.
We’re choosing things that sound popular or that we’re confident in and hoping that we’ll find a bunch of great clients that will pay us well for that.
Let me tell you, freelancing doesn’t work that way. The needs businesses pay freelancers to meet aren’t really any different than what they pay employees for.
That’s why this Skills Development Month, we’re going to be talking about how to align your learning with what your market will actually respond to.
Stick close for this one, because whether you’re investing 1% of your income or 10%, (people say it should be closer to 10%) you want to make sure the money AND time and effort you’re investing gets the biggest payoff possible. So let’s do this!
What Are They Asking For?
This is probably the clearest clue toward what your skill development should look like.
You see other businesses do it all the time…everybody’s asking for red velvet? We get red velvet Oreos. People want a less painful dental experience? Dental sedation becomes a standard.
Freelancers should honestly be responding the same way.
If you see a ton of ads for content marketing in your niche, that might be a sign that you should be buying a book on content marketing (instead of that popular e-book on better blogging.) Your niche might still use blogs, but when it comes to professional services, they’ve probably moved on.
Right now in my world, my clients are asking for account-based marketing. That’s why I decided to put my course on marketing analytics on the back burner and grab a couple of e-books on ABM instead.
So as you’re deciding what you’re going to get better at this year, make sure to listen to your niche…maybe even more than yourself.
Megan