If you’re dead-set on being your own boss you should be thinking of yourself as an entrepreneur, which means your field of expertise is innovation itself. In order for you to be able to develop new business opportunities or garner great new clients, you need to make sure you have the tools needed to go at it alone. Web statistics from Omniture support the reality that businesses are flocking online and are surrounding themselves with powerful, tech-savvy entrepreneurs. Here are five ways for you to become indispensable in this web-woven world:
Climb into the mysterious cavern that is data mining. Data mining, or the effort to search social networks and CRM databases for profiles of consumer trends, is a way to stay ahead of the curve with regard to actionable information about customers, products, employees, and suppliers. If you are able to comb through databases without violating privacy laws or breaching customer identity, you will be invaluable to marketing firms. Many experts are certain that data mining is the next major phase of online marketing, with social networks providing a near endless reservoir of analytics.
Know the in’s and out’s of location-based marketing. Another major trend in marketing revolves around mobile applications that allow users to embed messages about local businesses and check-in to locations. Place-based messaging is a new form of social networking that pulls the consumer through the windows of their laptops and drops right on the street where they can share their experiences with a mobile network of consumers and venues. Foursquare and Gowalla are the most successful examples at present.
Learn to speak the multiple coding languages. The demands of software are costly both in terms of money and time. Whether you’re trying to develop bid management software or mobile apps, if you are proficient with PHP, C++, Python, Ajax, Perl, Java, or any of the other coding languages you will be in a prime position to demand hefty fees from clients or launch your own brilliant start-up.
SEOs will be the new CEOs. Search engine optimization is the wild west, an unregulated frontier of Internet marketing that can make or break a new business. Almost mystical in nature, SEO is the lifeblood of monetizing online campaigns and though it is constantly changing, one thing that is constant is its importance.
Understand the role of graphic design in online marketing. Graphic design, especially combined with a knowledge of coding, can allow you to flourish in a freelance market. Your list of clients can range from Fortune 500 companies to wide-eyed start-ups who may just be sitting on the next great idea. With how important a strong Internet presence is, high quality professional graphic design will be a highly sought commodified service for years to come.
It may take years to be able to put these five strategies into practice. In fact, learning all of them could be next to impossible. But even embracing one of them could work miracles for your freelance career.