Frequently designers and other entrepreneurs fall into a trap. They work so hard to chase business opportunities that they miss the big picture. They lose sight of the kind of opportunities they really want. Their focus dulls on who they are and the kinds of businesses they need to work with to reach their growth goals.

They fail to define their sweet spot and focus their business development and marketing efforts on it.

Sure, there are good reasons for this. Sustaining the business. The mortgage. The need to eat. We’ve all be there. But this lack of focus on the kind of work you want can be damaging over the long term.

From time to time, we all need to get off the proverbial treadmill and think about how we’ll grow our business. Think about Steven Covey’s “sharpen the saw” analogy where the person using the saw is too busy chopping the wood to stop and sharpen the tool to make it more effective.

Be the Best

To help you define your sweet spot and stay committed to it, let’s start a very high level. What are you good at?

Too easy? Ok, let’s really press that issue. Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great will help you determine where your true strengths lie. He says the focus should NOT be “a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best.”

Rather, says Collins, “It is an understanding of what you can be the best at.”

http://www.jimcollins.com/media_topics/hedgehog-concept.html#audio=79

The best. Does that shift your focus at all? It did mine. Let’s apply that to your freelance business. You need to find and cultivate what stokes your passion.

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Where’s Your Passion?

Functionally, what kinds of design projects are you most passionate about? The question isn’t: what types of design can you do? That’s probably a long list.

Better questions are: What excites you the most? What times of projects really inspire you?

Sadly, this needs to be qualified. This is where reality will coldly slap you in the face. My agent has been trying for over a year to get my book published. I’m passionate about the topic. Cut me open and the subject matter oozes out of my veins. Pure passion.

But so far, it’s not been published and it hasn’t made me a penny. As a creative professional, I’m sure you can relate.

Enter the Competition

But maybe there’s a way to turn your greatest design passion into a way to make money. Start by contrasting your greatest strengths against your competitors.

Maybe you have television experience that supersedes others in your region or your tier. Or maybe your work has appeared in major print campaigns.

Maybe you get really excited about concepting and executing jaw-dropping ad campaigns that have made your clients millions in revenue.

Even if your work hasn’t been prolifically featured in top media markets, think about your niche. Where do you excel compared to the competition?

Subject Matter Expertise

Clients will very often buy from designers who’ve done work in their industry. This is where they’re comfortable and where they perceive a lower risk. To take advantage of this, you need to clearly communicate your sweet spot by determining the top industries you’ve supported.

You can think creatively here. Let’s say you’re done work for a credit union. Does that mean you’re only qualified to design for credit unions?

Of course not. Your work will apply broadly to credit unions, banks and other financial services institutions. Since the brand you’ve supported probably portrays trust, reliability and professionalism, you can apply your skill set to other such consumer-facing industries. Examples include healthcare, legal, insurance and more, for example.

If your work focused on web design for online transactions, think about all of the other web design projects where there’s a transaction element. If security was a hot button issue, how can you apply your work to other organizations that care about security?

This is how you can effectively stretch your subject matter into related industries.

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About the Author
Becky Sheetz-Runkle is a marketing strategist and copywriter, and an advocate for measurable marketing. She’s based in the Washington, D.C. metro area and can be reached at bsheetz@q2marketing.com.