One of the most common questions beginning freelancers ask is, “Should I be really good at one thing or good enough at many things?” The answer is, you guessed it, it depends. There are advantages and disadvantages to both specializing in one area and having a more general knowledge in several areas. Here are the main arguments for and against.

Advantages of specialization

1. Best pay – Assuming there is sufficient demand for a specific area of ​​knowledge or skills, companies will gladly pay a premium for expert help. If you have a great deal of knowledge and skill in a field, you are an extremely valuable resource for those companies seeking your expertise.
2. Less competition – Generally, the more focused your knowledge and skills are (that is, the smaller your niche is), the fewer competitors you will have. Due to the large number of niches, each will have fewer freelancers than the more general supergroup that contains it.
3. Better for working with larger companies – Unlike small companies, large companies are more likely to be able to afford many specialists in various areas; For example, a corporation may hire all of the following freelancers: a business consultant, accountant, web writer, print copywriter, graphic designer, frontend web developer, backend web developer, public relations teacher, SEO specialist, expert in social media, legal advisor, and a marketing guru. If you prefer to work with larger corporations, being more specialized will likely increase your value as a freelancer for large companies.

Disadvantages of specialization

1. Limited ability to adapt to economic changes – Change in demand and supply of specialized autonomous services. If demand decreases due to advances in technology or a change in trends, or if supply increases due to others entering your specialty field, you may lose business and revenue. For example, if you are Facebook’s top marketer but people migrate to Google+, you may lose a significant amount of business and need to reinvent yourself as a Google+ marketing guru (you would lose money and time during this learning process).
2. Smaller target market (fewer leads) – The more specialized you are, the smaller the market will be for your particular specialty. For example, if you specialize in producing short documentaries for nonprofits, you will have fewer leads than if you were a more adaptable freelance video producer who can produce a wide variety of films.
3. Boredom – You may get bored of doing the same, or something similar, over and over again. Hopefully you like your specialty (that’s why you chose it, right?), But that may not be the case 5 years from now.

Advantages of generalization

1. Superior ability to adapt to economic changes – By not delving too deeply into a particular area, you can quickly adapt to trends in technology, business, and design so that you don’t lose business or revenue due to movements in supply and demand for particular freelance services (at least, not to the same degree as a specialist would). And since you’re not trying to learn everything in a particular field, you save learning time. After all, you probably don’t need to know everything (see # 3 below).
2. Best “big picture” idea – By having a diverse knowledge base, you will be able to more easily understand the broader and more abstract goals and concepts of a particular company and thus be better suited to the needs of that company. Understanding the context of the work you are doing is crucial to going beyond a client’s expectations.
3. Helps most people most of the time – Most people are not looking for something extremely specific. Customers generally have a “fuzzy” idea of ​​what they are looking for (whether they admit it or not), and are probably looking for you for guidance. This is often the case because if a customer knows exactly what they want, they are more likely to do it themselves than to pay someone else to do it for them (assuming they have the necessary skills).
4. Best for working with small businesses – Most small businesses cannot afford to hire numerous specialized freelancers, like all those listed in article n. 3 in Specialization Advantages. I have worked a lot with small businesses and usually what they are looking for is someone who is not too specialized, but rather someone who has a broad knowledge base, has many resources (i.e. can find answers / solutions quickly) and is a creative problem solver.

Disadvantages of generalization

1. Lack of concentration – If you are not particularly useful in one area, companies may not hire you because your services do not provide enough value to achieve their goals. If you only know a little more than your client does, your client is likely looking for someone more specialized or perhaps learning how to do the job himself.
2. More competition – There are a seemingly infinite number of freelance writers, graphic designers, web developers, etc. “generalized”. The more “noise” there is in the market, the more difficult it will be for you to stand out as a leader. Most beginning and intermediate freelancers will take almost any job they can get, so they end up becoming mainstream freelancers, increasing their competence.

My personal experience is being generalized

Personally, I have acquired a more general knowledge base and skill set. This strategy has worked very well for me (so far). I enjoy doing a variety of jobs; I rarely get bored with a particular task, so it’s a huge plus for me. I enjoy working with other small businesses; I am often a very valuable asset to them in terms of developing technology solutions for business operations and in terms of their company’s web presence and internet marketing strategy.

If I find myself in a situation where I don’t know something (that is, an area that I’m not specialized enough in), I do my research and find the answer or learn how to do something (just googling often works). If there is a lot involved or there is a large learning curve, I will hire someone else to perform a particular task (i.e., I outsource / outsource the work) to save myself time and frustration.

Do what makes sense to you

Deciding whether to be specialized or generalized is often a personal preference. You should do what makes sense to you based on the pros and cons that matter most to you.

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