Most of the successful freelancers I know have made a decision at some point to specialize. In fact, without realizing it, you’ve probably started thinking about it, too. It starts out as a narrowing process where you slowly weed out some of the things you don’t want to do. Then you get to a point where you start to only take on projects that are related other projects you’re already doing.

For example, earlier in your freelancing career you might start out by declining projects that are unethical or that don’t pay enough. (Good. You don’t need those projects anyway). Later, you add to your list of projects you won’t take on various assignments for which you are not very proficient.

Still later, you find that you really like writing something and you don’t really like writing other things. For example, I hate writing print books. By about page 100 I want to be done. So I don’t take on print books. You go through this process slowly, over the years, as you learn about your likes and dislikes and skills. You might even start more narrowly defining who your customers are. It’s not that you won’t take on customers outside of that target but you just prefer customers within that target (and after a while, your specialty in this market will become an asset to you because customers will refer their peers to you).

But how narrow is too narrow? I found out the hard way just a few years ago. I generally specialize in 3 areas but was finding that just 1 of those areas was sending me over 50% of my business. So I decided to specialize in it. It went okay – and it was certainly very profitable – but there was a problem I hadn’t counted on: I really missed the other 2 markets I used to write for. I had discovered my limit. I was able to specialize only to a certain point – to those 3 markets – and no narrower that way. (I’ve also specialized in other ways, too, like in what kind of content I provide to those 3 markets).

As you think about intentionally narrowing your business down (perhaps by deliverable or perhaps by target market, or there might be some other ways that you want to narrow your business) consider how narrow is too narrow. Think about:

• Can your new, narrower market sustain your revenue expectations? In my case, I was fortunate because it did. But I do know of other freelancers who defined their targets so narrowly that they couldn’t find enough customers.
• What happens if someone else contacts you to work for them but is outside of your new, narrower market?
• Are your new, narrower deliverable in enough demand that you can only offer them and still make a living?
• What happens when a customer asks you for some other kind of deliverable that you now no longer offer?

Narrowing your focus is a great way to increase your income and position yourself as an expert… as long as you narrow your business just enough and not any more than that!