As you may know by now, I have decided to focus my efforts solely on one of the two home- based businesses that I have owned and operated for the past three years. Even though I am operating one business now instead of two, I feel as though it is important to make sure that I do not put all of my eggs into one basket. Now, more than ever, I am focusing on providing a variety of freelance writing services to a fairly diverse set of clients. I firmly believe that having multiple talents, or talents which can translate into a variety of products and services, is an important survival skill for any home based professional.
One major advantage of providing multiple products and/or services is an economic one. Demand for each of your products and services on their own is not likely to be steady. If some of your products or services are selling well now, that’s great. You are bringing in money even if other products or services that you offer are not selling as well. Also, it can be hard to predict (and who has time to try) what will happen tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year. Consumers want different things at different times, so today’s hot seller may be tomorrow’s slow mover, and vice versa. Offering an array of products and/or services helps to ensure that you are always making some money.
Another less obvious but still important benefit to having multiple business activities is that you use more of your talents. You are a unique individual with a lot to offer the world. There is no reason not to do many of the things that you can do instead of using just a small subset of your talents while others languish. That said, some potential clients may shy away from hiring someone who appears to have multiple products or services instead of a highly focused specialty. In order to avoid being unfairly labeled as a “jack of all trades, master of none”, be sure to target your marketing to your potential clients. It is more important that they each know about the specific product or service that you offer that can help them than that they know you offer a diverse array of products and services.
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