You’re wasting your time if your main focus is on mastering one only skill. And neglecting the growth potential of others.
The field you are currently working in can, and likely will dry up. It might not be today, and maybe not even within the next couple of years. Hence avoid mastering only one skill.
But business models are changing. If you’re not adapting to these changes, you’re running the risk of killing your freelance business and getting stuck back at a 9-5.
And nobody wants that.
You’re a master in your freelance field, and you feel great. You can show off how awesome you are, and the work you create speaks for itself on most occasions.
Yet, your mastering only one skill can, and will, alienate a lot of potential business, shortening your cash flow streams since you won’t be able to up-sell on other services or take on work that doesn’t cater specifically to your one master skill.
Adapting to various situations easily can expand the pond you fish in, creating more opportunities for growth and success in the long run.
For instance, writing copy for only sports-related companies pigeonholes you and stops your growth potential into other areas you have an interest in. like DIY crafts or cooking.
Building from one foundation is great and highly advised, but there’s always room for an up-sell and cross-promotion for other skills you possess.
For instance, one example is that I am a WordPress developer who builds custom WordPress themes for clients. As I started expanding out into creating plugins, and pro add-ons, these items complimented my base skill, giving me room to build my business outward from my main skill, and the growth potential in my business as a whole was greatly increased.
Why are you not expanding your freelance skill-set? Why are you mastering only one skill?
If you’re anything like me, you spend a lot of time reading blogs, studying tutorials and always trying to stay up on the latest trends and direction of your specific industry. That means you’re already one step ahead of those who are stuck in a rut, creating the same work day in and day out.
That mundane feeling is what causes a lot of us to want to leave the typical 9-5 lifestyle. So why bring that with you as a freelancer? You’re able to learn at a rapid rate, daily, and grow your knowledge base. If you’re not, you’re seriously slacking and you should consider this a reminder to get your ass in gear, today.
Expanding your skill-set is actually easy when you pull back the curtain and realize that everything and everyone can teach you something. This blog, for instance, is a wealth of knowledge that I’ve accumulated over the years freelancing other career-related content.
My ideas about freelancing might not be your cup of tea. It might not be the path you necessarily want to follow. But at the very least, reading what I write helps you solidify your own thoughts on freelancing.
And I’m o.k. with that.
How can you expand your current freelance skill-set? And mastering only one skill.
You already should be using Feedly or another feed aggregator and follow some of the websites in your field, be it design blogs like Smashing Magazine that covers the entire design and development landscape, or a website like Copyblogger that is all about copywriting.
Reading, even skimming these blogs will help you grow as a freelancer.
Want to learn more about coding, but don’t know where to start? Codecademy has you covered and will teach you, for free, how to code in the language of your choice.
Want to keep up with what type of code is being used in the design and development industry? CodeVisually has you covered and aggregates some of the coolest new code frameworks that you can integrate into your work.
Want to learn more design related skills? Udemy has you way more than covered with more tutorials, articles, and ebooks than you could possibly get through in a years time.
Want to learn more about copywriting and you already follow CopyBlogger? Well, you can spend some time at the Copy Hackers website. And learn new ideas on how you can take your copywriting skills to the next level, and grow your freelance business by doing things differently than others in your industry.
The takeaway
Knowledge is free, and if you’re not taking advantage of it while growing your freelance business in the process, you’re destined to fail.
It’s that simple; evolve or die.
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