How Many Services Should a Freelancer Offer?

As a freelancer, you probably have many talents and skills you could offer to prospective clients. In fact if you’re like me, one reason you might have gone into business in the first place is because you have a whole bag of skills that weren’t being utilized at your day job.

With so many things to choose from, how do you decide which services you should offer as a freelancer?  And, how many services should you offer?

Here are some ideas to help you decide how many services to offer in your freelance business.

Consider the Needs of Your Client

You may be really good at writing copy for online media and publications. You might really be good at photography, but do your clients need these things? If your current client base doesn’t don’t require the services you are considering adding to your business, maybe you don’t need to mess with adding them just because you can.

Offering fewer services will make you seem more specialized and raise your level of expertise within your field. Just be careful not to be too specialized, or you may find a shortage of work in your future.

But, You Can Grow Your Business With Added Services

On the other hand, maybe you should consider adding some new services to your freelance business. Adding new services could help you find new clients, or give you more work with current clients too.

On more than one occasion, my current clients have asked me to take on more work after I told them about new services I started to offer. If you plan to expand your services, try branching out into similar products and services.

For example, freelance writers can find more work if they are willing to add video to their finished product. The same probably goes for photographers as well. Videography would take learning a few new skills and some new equipment, but it’s an added service that makes sense.

Consider the Time and Money Involved

The biggest factor to deciding how many services you should offer comes down to your time and money.

Do you really have enough time to learn and offer new services to your clients? Do you have time to add new clients to make up for the cost involved with learning a new skill?

If you stick to fewer services, you know you’ll be able to complete high quality and timely work. But if those things would be questionable when you add new services, don’t risk it. It’s not worth your business’ reputation to bring in new work if you can’t handle it. But, if you have the time and money to learn new skills, you should provide all the services you can that make sense for your industry and clientele.

When deciding how many services to offer as a freelancer, go with what you know you can do. In the end it comes down to quality versus quantity. That way you’ll be able to keep your clients happy and your business growing.