If you and I are both oral surgeons, and John needs his wisdom teeth pulled, only one of us can get his business. The other one is out of luck.
In other words oral surgery is a competitive business.
Freelancing is different. It’s kind of magical.
In freelancing you and I can both win. In fact when one of us wins it becomes more likely the other one will end up winning… And that we’ll bring many more of our “competitors” along for the ride, too.
One of the reasons for this is that when a client hires a freelancer — any freelancer — and that freelancer does a good job, the result is that the client now needs more freelancers.
Think of a client hiring someone to create a website for their business. Now they need someone to write for it, someone to help them advertise it, someone to help them get found on Google, and more.
If all of them do a good job, soon the client may need help with customer service, sales, product development, legal, accounting, virtual assistance, video production, and much much more. (I’ve hired freelancers in all of these categories, and more, as I’ve built Freelance To Win over the past four years.)
Another reason why freelancing competition is largely an illusion has to do with the trajectory of your most successful and talented competitors — you know, the ones you’re most worried about…
It turns out there’s nothing to worry about because those people are almost always too busy to actually compete with you. If you were a client on Upwork, like I am, you’d see that the top freelancers seldom apply to your jobs because they already have as many clients as they can handle.
Here’s another thing you might never have considered: Successful freelancers often build their freelancing business into an agency — meaning they have so much work on their plate that they now hire freelancers to help them with all of it. That means that you can get hired, and paid, by your own “competition.”
Even if they don’t start an agency, good freelancers will end up giving clients away to other freelancers. They might do it because they’re too busy with their existing clients, or they may do it because a client just isn’t a perfect fit for them (keep in mind, successful freelancers can be extremely selective because getting new clients is as easy as drawing in a breath of air). I’ve personally referred tens of thousands of dollars worth of freelancing business to my “competitors” — probably much more than that, honestly.
Next time you think you need to worry about how competitive freelancing is, maybe you’ll think again, and remember that it’s just a trick your mind plays on you.
Here’s the reframe: When a freelancer does a good job, they’re not taking a piece of the pie off the table in a way that prevents someone like you from having a slice…
They’re making the overall pie larger, giving you a better chance at getting some, and a better chance at getting more than you otherwise might have.
(Flickr Creative Commons image via get directly down)
I had never ever thought of it that way before! I even got to the point of thinking that maybe freelancing isn’t the thing for me for this reason. I quickly shook that silly thought out of my head, because I’ve never been scared off by competition before! But this post makes all those worries seem silly and I’m glad I don’t need to worry about it!
Danny’s Blue Ocean Strategy! Great work!
Hi Danny,
I love your blogs, and have used them to get more and more work on Upwork. Thanks for the great information.
If you are in need of great content writing, I am doing more and more of it now on Upwork as well as my translations. Best, N
Great, thank you. You can always feel free to pitch me a specific idea if you have one. Cheers.
I was just thinking about this the other day. I am a software engineer and some of my colleagues are thinking of getting into freelancing and they emailed me some questions. My first thought was – why would I want to help my competition? I decided to not answer their questions. Wow, I certainly had that wrong. It never struck me that by answering their questions, I could make the overall ‘freelancing pie’ larger rather then missing out on a slice. Today, I am going to answer their emailed questions. 🙂
That’s exactly how I would approach it too. It reminds me of a few years ago when I taught my brother how to “compete” with me as a freelancer — my business grew as a result. Don’t underestimate how much you will learn by helping them too which will make your business even stronger. You can even set up a situation where you throw them referrals in exchange for a fee, I’ve done that too and it works nicely for everyone. Have fun.
Hi ! how, I’m new to the game and confused..
Another value-added and engaging blog from you Danny. It really wipes out some conventional misgivings that freelancing for new entrants is a hard nut to crack for getting and establishing oneself as a freelancer right away.
Thanks it’s really great to hear from you and I love that the message resonates with you.
Fantastic tips for some of who are just starting to climb the upwork ladder. I seriously need more guidance to make through in upwork. Thanks Danny for the great piece. 🙂
You’re welcome John. Once you get a few rungs into the ladder things get much easier. Meanwhile they can be easy too if you’re seeing it the right way and having fun with it. Enjoy the journey.
HI Danny, Here you have given example of freelance community in different fields; like one freelancer is creating website, other is writing content of it, other for advertisement, I agree with this point.
But what about the freelancers in same community like I am creating a website, there are many other competitors of mine as well, what are my chances of getting the project?
What are my chances of growing?
My point is that there is a never-ending supply of great clients and work for all of us who want it. It gets bigger every minute of every day. When one of your competitors makes a website for a client, if they do a good job many of those clients will eventually need more websites (e.g. I am right now building multiple websites as a result of my success with this website). Which means more demand for web developers/designers overall which increases the pie which increases your chances of getting as much as you want. See how this works?
Thank you for the awesome tips you always share …..I hope I will get to your level someday.
I hope you will get to whatever level YOU want to be at.
How can I join an agency?
Beautifully said! It took me a while to get out of that mindset, but finally, I did. I hope others reading this will too. 🙂
Thanks, I’d love to hear more about how you got out of it, feel free to drop me a line and tell me more.
Thank-you for sharing this Danny!
You’re welcome — thanks for letting me know you found it helpful.
This is a great perspective to maintain. I have often discouraged myself from pursuing opportunities because I believed the competition would be too high. It’s a mindset I am working to shift.
It may also be helpful to remember that there are more entrepreneurs than ever before, and they all need people to help with websites, content, marketing, etc. As long as the start-up industry exists, there will be work for freelancers… which may turn into regular employment down the road.
Great point, another excellent example of the never-ending growth of the pie — there’s so much for all of us and there will always be more and more… More work than we can all get to in a lifetime. Which means we can choose the work that’s the most fun, rewarding, and profitable. Thanks for your thoughtful comment Becky.