How can you differentiate yourself as a freelancer?

One way of finding your niche is leaning into your area of expertise. Many formal jobs require you to become a Jack/Jill of many trades and don't always let you lean into your strengths and real areas of expertise. As a freelancer, you can specialize in the areas that you know best and do the work that you love. Your passion will be apparent and this will help you to grow your clientele and do wonders with your work products.

I Loved this! But how can freelancers identify their ideal niche? Exploring their passions, existing skills, and market research are great starting points. Finding your niche is key, but don't be afraid to evolve! As your skills and experience grow, so can your niche, expanding your reach and opportunities.

When you have a passion for what you are interested in, the rest wil lspeak for itself. Show what you know and demonstrate your abilities. Be available to the company and share ideas but never give your secrets away.

Identifying and building your niche is an art. My best advice is to focus on a topic or area that you are passionate about and go from there. The best in any field all say the same thing, if you find something that you are passionate about it will never feel like work but enjoyment. This mindset will allow you to reach peak performance in whatever area that you have selected.

To truly stand out as a freelancer, one key consideration beyond the conventional advice is to highlight your adaptability. The ability to evolve and cater to changing demands or skill requirements can be a game-changer. As freelancers, our strengths lie in specialized expertise, but an openness to growing and diversifying can broaden opportunities and enrich our services. While finding your niche is vital, being flexible enough to expand and refine your scope along your career journey is equally crucial. This dynamic approach allows for greater versatility, ensuring your relevance and appeal across different phases of your professional development.

Building a strong portfolio is a key differentiator for freelancers. Showcase your best work, highlighting projects that demonstrate your skills and expertise. A well-curated portfolio helps clients visualize the value you can provide and instills confidence in your abilities. Tailor your portfolio to reflect the needs and preferences of your target clients, emphasizing the results you have achieved for previous clients.

Will, Rogers stated “If you’ve done it it ain’t bragging”. Stay with confidence and clarity. Your portfolio of accomplishments and results should speak for itself. (Don’t forget to ask for testimonials and referrals, who will validate what you are claiming. Too many people don’t do this.)

A well-designed portfolio serves as a dynamic resume, providing tangible proof of your expertise and helping you stand out in a competitive market. - A portfolio visually showcases your abilities and the quality of your work. - It gives potential clients a clear idea of your experience and past successes. - Satisfied clients can refer others to your portfolio, enhancing credibility. - Visiully attractive and well-designed portfolio platform attacts more clients. - Keeping your portfolio updated and easy to navigate ensures that potential clients find what they’re looking for quickly.

As a freelancer at Purple Sheep Consulting, I created a portfolio to showcase my best work and results. This portfolio was a powerful tool, demonstrating my skills, experience, and achievements to potential clients. It also helped me attract more referrals and testimonials from satisfied customers. I developed my portfolio on my own website and utilized platforms like Behance, Dribbble, and Medium to display my work. Ensuring that my portfolio was relevant, updated, and easily accessible was crucial. This approach effectively highlighted my expertise in research administration, DEI, and mentoring, setting me apart in the freelance market.

Everyone has something to offer the world. Have you taken the time to learn your strengths and what you can bring to the table? It is wise to spend some time doing some self-discovery work. Once you know who you are and what you can offer, your portfolio can quickly come together. Remember, the brain likes 3- so keep it simple and in buckets of 3.

I agree with all of this but I’ll add one thing. Authenticity. You can’t be hot and cold. For instance my brand is heavily associated with smiling, yellow, joy, and relationships building. My opportunities to speak and train have come from people suggesting me because I’m very authentic. I am always pushing people to be more relational. Look at the cup half full. Be more self aware. That’s usually not in a DEI conversation but it is in mine. Hence the push for you to be more authentic. You won’t get every contract but you’ll always get the right one.

I think people are drawn to authenticity in todays world more than ever before. What I have found is that being myself, both off and on stage, and choosing to always stay kind and accommodating I have grown a reputation , a personal brand, that aligns with those qualities.

Your personal brand is how you present yourself to clients and differentiate yourself from other freelancers. Define your unique value proposition, showcasing how your services can contribute to the success of your clients. Aim for customer success by clearly communicating the benefits and outcomes clients can expect by working with you. Consistently deliver on your promises and exceed client expectations to build a strong reputation.

A strong personal brand can be a freelancer’s most valuable asset, helping to attract the right clients and opportunities. Emotional connection is great strategy. A well-crafted brand can forge a deeper, more personal connection with your audience. Consistency is key. Using consistent branding elements (like logos, color schemes) across various platforms enhances recognition. Engagement through content is important. Sharing insights and stories via blogs, social media, or podcasts can establish thought leadership and build trust.

Extremely important! This creates your individual identity among the thousands who share the space on the web. How do you stand out to be the best option? This is the metaphorical golden key to the success.

In today's digital age, staying current with new skills is crucial for staying competitive. Embrace the opportunities offered by digital transformation and consider expanding your skill set to include emerging technologies or techniques relevant to your field. Additionally, gaining knowledge in areas like neuro marketing can provide unique insights and approaches to help clients achieve their goals.

Always be growing, baby! Skills and new trends -- hop on them. Figure out how to be data-informed. That's a big deal for a lot of companies these days (or at least they claim it is, even if they don't always work that way).

Would you like some advice on how to get ahead in your career? Here’s a tip: never stop learning. In this ever-changing landscape, one must create a new habit of learning. Start small, start with one goal, and watch it blossom over time. The motivation to learn will build, and you will be prepared to solve problems that don’t even exist yet and become an exciting resource and leader for anyone.

As an entrepreneurial Freelancer one is a leader in that they lead themselves and they lead their efforts. Leaders are readers. One of the most important ways to learn new skills, especially ‘soft’ skills, is to read! The most effective leaders read a variety of genres, often at the same time. Reading opens limitless possibilities!

1994: When I was faced with learning how Information Technology (IT) worked or be left back in my profession while in only my mid 30's. I decided to learn in secret, I went to the nearest public library and went to the kids' books and found several kids' books that explained in simplest fashion. I became more adaptive to IT change and upgrades within my profession. My new confidents working with IT lead to my graduate degree having a concentration in Information Technology (Aug. 1999). It's just zeros and ones folks. You are never too old to learn. Peace, Jim

What constitutes excellent service? Most projects/services have deadlines, so it’s important to establish a timeline up front. Ensure that it meets both yours and the client’s needs. Include touch points for proof-of-concept and sharing drafts, with time allowed for revisions. After each meeting, send a follow-up communication, thanking the client for his/her time and recapping what was agreed upon. As with project management, watch out for mission creep. If a need for major change arises after you’ve spent significant time, revisit that timeline and - perhaps - the price point. Ideas that evolve and refine are one thing - losing several months of work are another.

And when you offer excellent service, don't be afraid to ask the client to write you a recommendation on LinkedIn and other platforms. Most are happy to do so and you can offer to write a recommendation about what it was like to work with them as your client.

Certainly, acquiring new skills adds value, both personally and professionally. Each new skill not only boosts confidence in our work but also contributes to our overall growth. However, it's crucial to emphasize that while learning new skills is essential, practical experience is equally vital. It's the fusion of knowledge and hands-on experience that makes our contributions more impactful for team members and valuable for customers.

The best reward for any professional is admiration of his/her work and being quoted as reference. No compromise in quality and quantity of our work makes us horse of a long haul. Excellence has no substitute but it replicates our work with a stamp of "Signature Style" and thats how our work starts getting noticed and finally we invite more business. To provide excellent service/s it is pertinent to keep sharpening our axes, researching the market/ products/ clients and far above than all these is, no compromise with your work integrity, ethics and sanctity. After all we need to strive hard to be brand ambassadors of our work.

Following up and meeting the deadlines is the name of the game. Also creating a personal connect with the client goes a long way. I believe in conversations to happen before the work starts so that you are clear on the ask and equally important is the competitive edge that can only come once you understand the need of the ask. Humour is integral to any approach as it keeps the work light and conversations happy.

There is wisdom in building a broad and diverse network of people from different backgrounds with different skillsets. Be a connector. If you can’t solve their issue or problem, connect them to someone in your network who can. You’ll be amazed how much mileage you will get from that.

The phrase “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” has more truth and carry’s more weight than some would give. You never know what opportunities can arise simply from your name being brought up in conversation. That can only happen by getting your name out there…

As someone who is constantly speaking to teens about personal branding and finding resources, networking is where you put those skills to use. I know often times we want to appear as “self-made,” but there’s a disconnect in being self made and finding the opportunity to advance what you have to offer. So being able to put yourself in rooms and spaces that may have the next step towards the evolution of whatever your goal may be is invaluable. You belong in those rooms and the people you connect with may have what you’ve been missing. You never know where a hello and a handshake may take you.

Building a networking is crucial, as this web of contacts becomes a valuable source of both learning and business opportunities. The exchange of knowledge not only enriches my practice but also keeps me updated on educational trends. Moreover, the established connections can translate into professional collaborations and projects that not only expand my reach but also contribute to the sustainable growth of my career as a learning professional.

Ser autónomo implica asumir el rol de "broker de redes", desempeñando una función crucial en la interconexión y facilitación de relaciones entre individuos o grupos dentro de una red. Los brokers de redes tienen la capacidad de superar barreras y facilitar la comunicación entre comunidades o subgrupos, lo que puede dar lugar a nuevas ideas, oportunidades de colaboración y enriquecimiento general de la red. No subestimes ningún contacto; todos estamos a un clic de distancia. No pierdas la oportunidad de conectarte y unir dos redes. La capacidad de ser un broker de redes puede abrir puertas inesperadas y generar sinergias beneficiosas para el desarrollo de tu carrera profesional como autónomo.

Word of mouth is the best compliment. Nurturing your current clients will assist in producing more clients. So on and so forth. By setting yourself apart and creating an experience from the start of your services to the continuance you will set yourself apart.

Invest in people who specialize in helping you to build resilience. This removes internal resistance often experienced in the freelance journey. Plus it strengths your central nervous system which reduces stress and creates clarity. Over the years I have found this has helped me to become more nimble, feel more comfortable taking risks and has expanded my income range in ways that have often surprised me. For me, visualizations and walking meditations are one of my most trusted business development tools that should be incorporated into every freelancers business.

Having successfully freelanced for over 20 years, the best way to differentiate yourself is to have your clients as your advocate. Focus on performance, where you deliver on your promise and more, every time. And people, where you make the client look good to their bosses through your good work, every time. Do these 2 things well and you'll always be invited back, even when the client moves to other companies. Regardless of your domain, you are in the people business. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Of course, make sure your brand is the one and only, not one of many in your domain. That means helping your client solve their number one pain, which often is untold until they trust you enough.

Think like an entrepreneur not a technician Most of freelancers focus mainly on details to perfect the product or service they provide, this will cut the chance for seeing the big picture in the business, which puts a freelancer usually stuck in the same place, same income level and easily get to the burnout stage. As a freelancer you need to work on your entrepreneurial skills not only on perfecting your delivery.. an idea to consider!

Contribute quality pro-bono work in your area of expertise which demonstrates the type of activities you wish to promote. LinkedIn is the perfect space to sell yourself as a freelancer.