Freelancers: Expand Your Business Services to Grow
Many freelancers wonder how they can best grow their businesses. There are two obvious answers: get more clients and raise your rates.
Often, these answers are not easy in real life. Getting more clients that suit your business takes time and skill in marketing yourself. Raising your rates has a limit, although I’d bet most freelancers could raise their rates by 10% without much pushback from clients. (Try it!)
A Third Way to Grow Your Business
Let’s say you’re a freelance writer. You write long-form blog posts for a niche, for example, health and wellness. You have clients who like your work and come back to you every month for more posts.
Likely you’ve checked their website or other platforms where your posts live. But have you checked the rest of their social media?
If you did, you might find they’ve re-purposed some of your blog content and are using it on social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
So, why aren’t you offering that service? You’ve done the hard work of researching and writing an authoritative post that becomes the source for all other executions.
You could also offer a packaged service that includes adapting your content to other platforms.
BTW, this idea works exceptionally well if you’re currently producing videos. You not only have the long-form video but footage to create numerous shorter videos, the script that could become the basis of a blog post, and stills you can use on other platforms.
You’re Giving Away Growth Opportunities
As a freelance writer, I worked for many clients who had relationships with designers or had an in-house design studio. So, I would hand over my copy and wait to see what they did with it.
But then I got clients who asked me, “Do you have a designer you can work with on this job?”
I did, so I would introduce that designer to the client and the project. Now that we were a team, we delivered copy, design, illustrations, and other graphics.
This was far easier for clients to manage, and they felt comfortable giving us larger projects.
Without this team, I doubt I would have qualified for these projects.
Since that day, the media world has exploded. That growth means more opportunities on more platforms if you’re ready to take them on.
Take a Lesson From GaryVee
You’ve likely heard of Gary Vaynerchuk of VaynerMedia (on Twitter, @garyvee). If you’ve watched more than one of his videos, you will have heard him talking about using one core piece of content that becomes the basis for a library of content that they roll out across the entire media spectrum.
You can easily understand why this appeals to clients. Rather than start from scratch for each media, the client now has a plan to run campaigns in their choice of media from one core piece.
You don’t need Gary’s big agency to do a version of this for your clients.
Start Small and Role Play First
An experienced writer/designer team can accomplish a lot on their own. You can create messages and graphics for many of the popular social platforms.
How do you start? Do a self-analysis of the services you currently provide. What is the next logical extension of those services that your clients might buy? What platforms are they currently using where you could provide the content? Do a search. Ask them.
The writer/designer team is the classic marketing and advertising foundation to build on.
What Does It Take to Expand Your Services?
If you’re comfortable working with a partner, you can build from there.
The obvious places to grow: offer strategy services (you’re probably doing that already without charging), programming, and animation.
With a small tight team, you can take on campaigns for most media platforms.
At some point, you’ll want to figure out analytics and reporting to close out each project.
So now, rather than just offering writing services and watching others take projects based on your words, you can offer package deals.
Turn the offer into a product that takes the work out of the client’s hands. Make it easy for them to say yes. Develop processes so you can run these jobs efficiently.
Where Do You Find These People For Your Group?
Obviously, start with your existing network. If you’ve worked together on teams before, this simply becomes an extension of that.
Otherwise, use social media to let others know what you’re looking for. Be specific.
When I wanted a partner to start my first agency, I advertised. Got 30 responses, talked to five of them and chose one. I would never have met him otherwise. He’d recently come to Canada from the U.K., where he already had a company.
Some of the questions you should be clear about:
Do you want to work together face-to-face or remotely?
What kind of experience are you looking for?
Are there particular niches you want to pursue?
Take time for lots of talks to ensure you’re compatible and have the same goals for the project.
I wrote about this in a post called “Freelancing? Create a Virtual Agency, Don’t Go It Alone” Have a look.
Your Unique Offering is a Competitive Advantage
Clients are busier than ever. Communications departments are stretched thin. In some cases, they’re working with reduced budgets.
Any time you can take work off their hands while providing a more efficient solution, you’ll have an advantage.
Imagine seeing a client and saying for $X, we can deliver the blog post and campaigns on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and graphics you can use in any offline communications.
This also works well if your business is producing YouTube videos. Use the video as a basis for creating the blog post and all other media content.
This Is Not For Everyone—And That’s Good for You
I know many freelancers are content to carry on as they have been. They’re not interested in working in other ways. Too much work, too much admin, etc.
They would rather write, design, and program on their own and let the client figure out how to manage the rest.
That’s fine. If you’re one of the few who decides to up their game, you’ll have an offer that independent freelancers can’t match. You’ll have a reason for contacting clients in the niches that interest you. It will be a compelling offer that will get their attention.
If your growth is stagnant, this is one way to go to the next level. It’s not for everyone, but maybe it’s for you.
Thinking about growing? There’s much more in my book, How to Start a Successful Creative Agency. It’s the essential business guide for graphic designers, copywriters, filmmakers, photographers, and programmers.
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