Real questions from real freelancers

"Should I gain more skills, or should I focus on mastering one skill?"

A bit of both….

When I started DH whenever a client asked me if I offered a service, I would say yes then quickly go learn how to do it and offer it to other clients:

Mastering a skill takes time, but I find if you focus properly, you can usually learn the broad strokes of most skills pretty quickly.
You only need to learn enough that your better at it than the customer.

But now that I run my own business I don’t have time to do that anymore.
Nowadays I find someone better than me and pay them to do it.

 

Things I can do well.
Web design,
coding,
IT,
networking,
brand strategy,
brand design,
copywriting,
email marketing,
social ads,
google Ads,
sales calls,
team building,
lead funnels,
automation,
offers,
finances,
public speaking
Things I talk about
Marketing.
The benefits of a lifestyle business.
Solopreneur mindset
6 figure Business Systems
Things I sell
Design services for solopreneurs.
Business coaching for solopreneurs
See how it narrows down?
Freelancers and solopreneurs wear a lot of different hats.
Successful solopreneurs are usually good at a hell of a lot of things.
It’s tempting to learn everything.
But when it comes to your personal brand, and your content, try to maintain focus.

My goal for you is to become the owner of your own business,
the only way to do that is to eventually get “off the tools” and onto higher-value work (sales, managing clients, setting up systems, lead generation)

I try to reduce my core services to offer 3 basic services which complement each other. Brand => website = SEO.

When it comes to tools…

I stick to ONE platform or ONE tool and get really familiar and quick with it.

Example, for web design, some people use Shopify, some Webflow etc.

Personally I use WordPress and Elementor and I’ve mastered those.

So if someone wants a E-commerce website or a booking website I know exactly how I’ll achieve that, what plugins to use, how they work etc.

HOWEVER skills are different.

Marketing nowadays is complex.

It’s absolutely essential that you pick up the basics of other fields that complement your niche.

You don’t need to master them but being good at copywriting is going to aid your website design.

Knowing a bit about SEO and keywords is going to help your websites rank.

Knowing a bit about email marketing will help you create a good E-commerce website and so on.

The best strategy is to try to be a T-Shaped marketer ;

Be a master at a few skills, and a novice at multiple skills that amplify the benefits of your core skill set.

Asked by

Picture of unkown

unkown

Freelancer

Answered by

Picture of Nicholas Robb

Nicholas Robb

Founder, Design Hero
Author of Life by Design

More questions and answers for solopreneurs

Want to ask a question about solopreneuring?

Somtimes I get asked stuff about how I run my life and business. If the answer has value to other people, I post it here.

If you have a question, submit it below and I’ll notify you if it’s published.

If I don’t know the answer I’ll ask someone who does.
I hope this is valuable to my audience.

Things people ask about 👉

  • Lifestyle business model
  • Running a solo business
  • Freelancing
  • Design
  • Branding
  • Sales
  • Lead generation
  • Conversion
  • Automation
  • Systems
  • Business policy
  • Mindset
  • Skills

Your contact details will be private. The answer to your Question will be public so other solopreneurs learn from it.