Go beyond the basics – How to diversify your freelance services for greater success?

If you’ve been offering similar services for years, the good news is that you’ve probably gotten really good at what you do. The bad news is that as time passes, industries evolve and market needs shift. For your freelance business to survive and thrive, you need to diversify your services. 

As an independent professional, an important part of your work is keeping an eye on how the tides are shifting in your industry. What new markets are cropping up, how are businesses reshuffling their priorities, what are the new challenges of today, and those on the horizon? The rise of AI is a great example of a major innovation that has no doubt shifted the way we do business. By adjusting your own focus areas in alignment with the evolving business landscape, you not only derisk your business, but also enjoy greater professional fulfilment through taking on opportunities for growth. Not to mention new opportunities to increase your revenue. 

Where do you start? In this article we walk you through the thought process you need to consider when future-proofing your freelance business.

Section 1: Assessing current service offerings

A great way to start is to diversify your freelance services by forming a holistic view of the current market landscape and understanding where your business fits in. One tool to help you gain this perspective is the SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

• Strengths: What services are you excelling at?
• Weaknesses: What areas in your business need improvement?
• Opportunities: What market gaps can you fill?
• Threats: What external factors could impact your services? Examples include competition, emerging technologies, and changing market needs

Here are some guideposts to help you with this exercise:

When evaluating your strengths, pull from past data. Review any successful projects you’ve led or collaborated on and note which areas you’ve received positive client feedback on. These are great indicators of possible areas of expansion. Passion and curiosity are key ingredients for growth and success. Disregard anything you’re good at but don’t actually enjoy doing. Instead, try to pinpoint areas in your “zone of genius,” places where your natural talents coincide with your passion. This will ultimately lead to effortless yet top-notch work. Ask yourself: What part of my work comes easily to me, but not to others? 

Identify market trends and opportunities. Align your business in the direction of market demand. As you learn to better identify emerging trends, you can benefit from first mover advantage and start immediately delivering in-demand solutions. To do this, you need to be plugged into your professional communities. Ensure that you’re attending industry conferences to learn and network. Engage in professional communities to brainstorm and exchange ideas, and subscribe to relevant publications that discuss the latest data and insights in your industry. Maybe you’ll find that you need to pivot to new markets or gain new skills to continue serving your current customer base. 

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Keep an eye on the competition. Stay in constant contact with other independent professionals and learn about their offerings and the specific needs of their customers. How is their customer base evolving? Is it growing, decreasing, or stagnant? How have they reacted in response to these changes? It’s a great idea to learn from someone who is a little ahead of the game in your field.

Connect with clients. By far the best way to look for insights and possible unmet needs is by talking to your past and current clients. Reach out to them to better understand their problems, concerns and areas they wish they had more help with. You can then develop a plan to adapt your services for their future needs. Be sure to identify any current gaps in the type of expertise they’ll require to help solve upcoming challenges. It could be the perfect gap for your work to fill. 

Section 2: Expanding service offerings

Now that you’re armed with the data and your own self-assessment, it’s time to build a plan for your new services. Visually, it’s helpful to write down the current services you offer and “branch off” tangential services that are complementary and relevant. For example, if you’re a financial consultant offering risk management services, you might write down “compliance advisory services.” Feel free to branch off as many times as you like, listing both wider areas of expertise and specific skills you can add to your toolbelt. 

Once you have all your ideas on the page, narrow them down. Base your selection on both your interests and future market needs. Look for the low-hanging fruit: have you listed any services that clients are asking for, but that require minimal additional expertise? For example, if you’re an executive coach who works 1:1 with the C-Suite, designing a strategic coaching session for the whole leadership team would be a different service. However, it wouldn’t require you to learn a new skill set from scratch. It’s always easier to sell a new offer to a happy client than to try to pitch a new one. 

Once you’ve decided on your new offerings, it’s time to experiment. Start with a pilot program so you can easily pivot and make adjustments as necessary. You can play around with pricing, clients, and timeline depending on how you’d like to test the waters. For example, you can offer your new services to only a small group of clients at a lower rate than your usual work in return for comprehensive feedback and testimonials.

If the idea of branching out to new services feels overwhelming, remember that you don’t need to go it alone. It can be advantageous to seek out partnerships and opportunities to collaborate. Brainstorm win-win situations where you can form alliances with other independent professionals or firms to offer bundled services. 

Section 3: Evaluating success and making adjustments

Before you put your new service into practice, determine what “success” in this endeavour will look like. Decide what you’ll be measuring, and make sure you have the right feedback mechanisms in place to get those insights. It could be how much time and energy these new projects take to complete, financial metrics, and/or the client’s assessment of your overall performance. These early stages are all about trial and error, so be action-oriented and learn quickly from your mistakes. 

Start expanding and adapting to market needs today

The trick to a long-term, thriving freelance career is constant upskilling and adjustments. As you continue to grow, you might encounter a learning plateau. Read more about overcoming this challenge as an independent professional.

When you diversify your freelance services, you create new opportunities to enhance your earnings, expand your market presence, and achieve greater client satisfaction. Plus, a diversification mindset helps you stay on top of market needs and prioritise your focus on in-demand solutions. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of work. Book a business strategy day with yourself and take some time to evaluate your skills and services in comparison to market needs. You might surprise yourself by unveiling new and exciting opportunities you didn’t see before.