Freelancing is picking up at an alarming rate and the number of freelancers is tripling if not quadrupling by the day. With an increase in the number of freelancers, competition sets in.
Competition for jobs is getting stiffer and freelancers are having to either improve on their skills, change careers or end freelancing careers altogether.
Freelancing does not come cheap and every day someone comes out on top of you and wins a job that you were hoping to land and this is why freelancers need to research their freelance competition.
1. Know what other Freelancers are doing that you are not
Researching your competition is the most important thing that you need to do.
It helps you learn what they are doing better than you, what projects they have worked on in the past, their strengths and weakness and above all get an overview of the general overview of your competition.
A few years ago, I started freelancing on oDesk now Upwork. I had a hard time getting hired and there was one freelance that beat me to all jobs that I applied to. I looked up the freelancer, what they were doing, how much he was charging and within no time I was getting hired on contracts that he was applying to.
2. It helps freelancers venture into new territory
It takes a lot to venture into new territory but researching your freelance competition can help you dive into new fields that are unexplored especially when it comes to situations where there is extensive competition in the field that you are freelancing on.
I started out as a freelance web designer but I realized there was a lot of competition in that field and within no time I got training on video and audio editing from courses on Lynda.
I now work as a freelance Video and Audio Editor.
3. Research your fellow freelancers to better what they are doing.
It is always important to better what your fellow freelancers are doing and this can only be accomplished by researching what they are doing, look for loopholes and then better what they do.
This not only helps you to land the jobs more easily but it also helps freelancers to be more professional than their competition by bettering what they do.
4. To know what else your freelance competition is doing.
Learning what your competition is doing is important but what other skills does your freelance competition have.
If you are a web designer and you look at your competition you might find that they also possess graphic design skills that go hand in hand with web design.
By just researching what your competition is doing it is easy to get a bigger picture of where they have an added advantage over you and where you need to improve or better to keep up with the competition.
When it comes to researching you competition it entails alot more than looking at what they are doing, you need to think like they do or better their thinking and this will help you better your skills, know what they are doing and in the end make you a better freelancer than they are.
Have any extra-reasons to add to why freelancers need to research their fellow freelancers? Do so in the comments.