How do I decide what services to offer?
Choosing the right services to offer can feel like a daunting task, especially when stepping away from a structured corporate life into the more fluid world of freelancing. Here’s how you can approach it:
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Capture Your Skills and Interests: Start by taking an inventory of your skills and interests. Reflect on what you enjoyed most in your corporate role and where you naturally excelled. Consider things that you did outside of your job that brought you satisfaction and could potentially be expanded into a service. When I was transitioning out of my engineering role, I was deeply interested in blending my technical skills with creative projects, which led me to explore web design and content creation as initial services.
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Develop Your Unique Value Proposition: Identify the overlap between what you’re good at, what you enjoy, and what the market needs. This intersection is where you can deliver the most value. Look at market trends and demands within the industries you are interested in. What specific problems can you solve? For example, I noticed a rising demand for seamless digital experiences, which aligned well with my skills and experience.
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Expose Your Services to Feedback: Once you've identified potential services, test them with your target audience. This doesn’t mean launching a full service right away, but possibly offering something on a smaller scale or even free to a few clients to gather feedback and refine your offering. This phase is crucial because it will help you tweak your services to better meet client needs and expectations.
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Iterate and Pivot as Needed: Be prepared to iterate on your services. You might start with one idea and then pivot based on feedback or changes in the market. Don’t be afraid to let go of a service that’s not resonating with clients or doesn’t align with your vision for the future. My journey involved a lot of reevaluating and pivoting until I honed in on what felt right both personally and professionally.
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Align with Your Long-Term Goals: Think about your long-term vision. The services you offer should align with your overarching goals—whether that’s flexibility, a specific income level, or a stepping stone to a larger purpose.
Remember that this process is not linear. It’s okay to have moments of doubt and reconsideration. Just keep moving forward, refining your services as you gain more insights. Success is a dynamic journey of continuous learning and adaptation.