The Real Problem

This week I attended an event for freelancers. Reason being, I want to start my business and I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn the practicalities, meet interesting people and, honestly, make friends.

We were given stickers with our name and job title – essentially to break the ice and make networking easier.

I quickly felt the shame. I was not ready for it.

One piece of advice I heard a trillion times regarding freelancing: pick a niche and specialize your skills.

You are supposed to offer one thing to one client.

Nothing wrong with it, but it’s lacking the most important part that should come before anything else. The thing I was brutally failing at and became embarrassingly obvious during the event:

Identifying the real problem and offering a unique solution.

I know, business 101. There is no revenue if there is no solving.

What I realized is that problem and solution are two separate spheres, and the best matchmaking happens when they are treated as such.

Let me explain this with a classic household battle: the perennial struggle of finding matching socks.

The problem here is the constant frustration of sifting through a pile of socks.

Potential solutions are using color-coded bins, assigned sock clips, or if you are up for some adventure, wearing intentionally mismatched socks.

Take this example as a possible business idea: you could specialize in creating color-coded bins for socks and target sock wearers.

It is a common itch and there is a giant client pool, so there should be a reasonable demand. The catch is that many people can follow your lead and create their own color-coded bins.

Now competition can become tight and it’s a matter of who offers something distinctive, either the lowest cost, some extra perk, or paid millions to have the hottest celebrity advertising them.

Alternatively, you could recognize you are good at organizing – broadly.

You could strengthen this skill and position yourself as a really good organizer. Typically, when you are really good at something, you can perform this thing above average in different fields.

You might have a unique way of organizing that works for socks, but also for books and groceries. Doesn’t mean it will be a one-size-fits-all, but it can be fairly versatile.

Now the secret sauce.

Forget about the niche – find the right approach

I can vividly remember my mom telling me “money doesn’t grow on trees” when I’d ask for a little bit more cash to hop on another ride at the local festival.

I didn’t get her point since money is literally made from paper. But to be fair, at that age, I thought you just needed to go to an ATM, do some beep-beep-boop with the buttons, and extend your hand to grab the bills at no cost.

My notion hasn’t changed that much because I still believe earning money comes down to mindset, which comes down to approach, which translates into value proposition.

In the world of freelancing, like in any business, your service is usually not so different than any other competitor. Unless you can come up with some crackhead idea humanity has never seen before, there is only so much you can offer.

Since I intend to do copywriting and content strategy for my clients, a niche could be tech, sustainability, or finance. If you want to narrow down more, you can target SaaS, renewable energy, or investment writing. Only work with startups or help NGOs.

Niching is defining your expertise – mostly to get paid more. Choosing to only do one thing (assuming you are good at it) allows you to position yourself as someone who knows a lot about that and, therefore, is the logical decision for a company to hire you.

Back to the event:

I was unprepared for my pitch. I didn’t have a goal client or a specialty topic.

You don’t want to offer something nobody is interested in. You want to find the sweet spot between demand and expertise.

The thing is a lot of people can talk about tech, sustainability, or finance. I could probably also do it with the right training and practice. I could become competent in any of those fields.

But then I went back to my reason for choosing freelancing: I love writing and I love doing it in various formats and scenarios.

And I want to become proficient at it, so I can be a versatile writer. That’s my competitive advantage.

What sets any business apart is not what they do, but how they do it. Perfecting the skill is more important than mastering the matter.

People don’t pay for a service itself, they pay for the way you help them achieve an outcome.

A while back, I wrote about finding your unique approach and the benefits that come with it.

Ideas are rarely new.

Trends come and go.

Competition will always exist.

The only protection for survival is your vision and modus operandi.

This is not business advice, it’s a tip for anything in life:

Observe how you do things.

Identify what’s different.

Strengthen it.

Define your own framework.

I guarantee you will become memorable.

Thank you for supporting this newsletter.

Until soon,

Do you think this content might be interesting to someone you know? Send it directly to them through this link.

---

If you have 30 seconds, I’d love to hear what you thought of this week's edition. I respond to every message 💬