Which VA Or Freelancer Signature Service Is Right For You?

With so many options for freelancing and online businesses today, it can be difficult to know what signature service is best for your business. In today’s episode, we highlight some of the most popular signature services that you can do for your work-from-home, freelancer, or virtual assistant business.

Having a signature service gives you a path to becoming a specialist as a freelancer. It can help you increase your income, niche your services, and improve your marketing. If you’ve thought about adding a signature service to your business, but you aren’t sure what your options are, this episode gives you a great list to start with and discusses some of the pros and cons of these signature services.

In today’s episode you’ll learn:

• Why you need a signature service as a freelancer
• The pros and cons of some of the most popular work-at-home services
• How to become a specialist as a freelancer and increase your income
• How building an online business with these services can give you more flexibility in your schedule

Resources From Today's Show:

Join my Facebook Community for more marketing, messaging, and copywriting strategies to grow your business, or up-level as a Freelancer, VA, OBM, or DOO with weekly training on adding these skills to your services https://www.facebook.com/groups/theschoolofcopyandmessagingcommunity
 
Chris Panek Bookkeeping Course: https://www.financialadventure.com/elevate-waitlist

Full Audio Transcription of this Podcast Episode:

(00:00):

Hey, Hey freelancers. Thanks for joining me today on the show. Happy Friday, if you're listening to this in real time with so many options today for freelancing and online business, it can be really difficult to know what signature service is best for your business. We'll in today's episode, we highlight some of the most popular signature services that you can do as a work from home freelancer or virtual assistant business. Having a signature service gives you a path to becoming a specialist as a freelancer. It can help you increase your income, niche, your services, and improve your own marketing. If you've thought about adding a signature service to your business, but you aren't sure what your options are. Well, grab a bin because this episode gives you a great list to start with. And we discuss some of the pros and cons of each of these signature services.

(00:49):

In today's episode, we're going to cover why you need a signature service as a freelancer, the pros and cons of some of the most popular work at home and signature services for freelancers, how to become a specialist as a freelancer, and use that to increase your income and how building an online business with these services can give you more flexibility in your schedule. I don't know about you, but I'm excited about all of that. That sounds like a great episode. And I'm excited to have this conversation with you today. So freelancer grab that laptop or pen it's time,

(01:24):

Either freelancer, did you start your freelancing business, wanting more time and money? Freedom only to find yourself feeling stuck, doing everybody else's busy work, and now you feel like you need something to Uplevel and differentiate your online business, or you're in the right place. This is the school copy and messaging podcast. And today is freelancer Friday where we help you as a freelancer add copywriting and content marketing skills to your book of business, to Uplevel your freelancer services, to earn more money and gain more freedom in your schedule. My name is Amber and I've been freelancing for almost 20 years as a marketing media relations and PR professional. Let's dive in,

(02:12):

Welcome back freelancers. Let's get into this episode about a signature service. I am really, really excited to have this conversation with you today because I know there are people out there who are like, okay, I started out doing this virtual assistant business and now I really need something that makes me a specialist. Well, that's the conversation we're going to have today. First, let's talk about why you need a signature service as a freelancer. Well, like I just said, if you're interested in really becoming a specialist in a certain industry, having a signature service is one of the things that's going to help you do that. It really helps you to improve your own marketing when you know exactly what signature service you do. Now, this isn't to say that you can't have multiple services still, but this does mean that when pick a signature service, it really gives you a focus in your own business and in your own marketing.

(03:04):

So when you're marketing yourself, you can say I'm a specialist. So for me, obviously you guys know mine is copywriting and content writing. So when I'm speaking to somebody and I am talking about the services that I provide, sure, I provide other services. But the main thing that I do, I'm a copywriter. I'm a content writer. That's my specialty. It's what I do. So because I'm a specialist, this helps me niche down my own marketing. It helps me understand what audience I'm going after. It helps me search in Facebook groups specifically for people who might be looking for a copywriter or looking for somebody to do content writing for them. So it really helps me with my search when I'm looking for clients, I know exactly who I'm looking for. I want the person who is out there talking about just having a hard time, struggling with putting what they do into words, having a hard time with the time it takes them to write their own content.

(04:04):

Those are the people I'm looking for. Well, having a signature service and being a specialist in this that helps me really narrow down who my audience is and who I'm going after. That's the first nice thing about having a signature service. The other thing about having a signature service and really calling yourself an expert in this is you can increase your prices. Let me say that again. You can increase your prices. Is anybody out there shaking their head with me? So if you're finding that you've hit a plateau in your business, you're looking to become more of a specialist. Having a signature service is one of the things that can help you increase your prices. It can also naturally help you build packages that are appropriate for your clients. It can help you with building VIP days. Let me tell you what we're going to talk about some different signature services today.

(04:54):

But a lot of times when it comes to copywriting and content writing, when I speak to a client who has been struggling for months with writing their website, copy, they just are frustrated. They've been trying to do it on their own. It's taking too much time. It doesn't sound right. They can't quite get the words right when I've got somebody. Who's like, you know what? I've been working on this for months. And now I'm coming down to a deadline where I need it done like yesterday. Well, that's a perfect person for one of my VIP days. If they want to hire me for one day and they have my attention for an entire day, maybe it's that they need their website copy written lickety split, or maybe it's that they really need a lead magnet right away. Or maybe it's, they're about to do a launch and they need a sales page like yesterday.

(05:40):

Those are perfect things for a VIP day. Now having a signature service helps you build the packages and the pricing and the menu of services in your own business. But it also helps you with having something like a VIP day where you can really say, here's what I know best. I have all of these other services, but here's what I know best. And I can do it quickly because I know it so well when you get to that point, having a signature service of that level gives you an excellent opportunity to have a VIP day and use that to increase your prices. And it gives you a really, really good ability to niche down in your own marketing and kind of put your stake in the ground and say, this is my thing. This is what I'm really good at. This is my thing. And I charge a premium because I'm good at it.

(06:29):

So let's talk about what are some options for signature services and some pros and cons of those. So we've established why we need a signature service. I hope y'all are saying out there, yes, I need a signature service. So now let's talk about some of the options. Now this is not an extensive list by any means. This is just a list I made because I think this is probably the most popular of the kind of freelancer signature services work from home businesses. These are kind of the most popular. I think that you're all going to be somewhat familiar with. And we're going to break those down a little bit today and go into some pros and cons of each one. Now full disclosure here. I am not an expert in these clearly. I don't do many of these. So this is just my opinion. It's just me giving you guys some things to think about some things to go research that might be a good signature service in your business.

(07:23):

The one that I know best is copywriting, because that's what I do, but there are so many options out there. And I don't think copywriting is the one and done way to go. Like copywriting is my thing. And I hope it's your thing if you're here listening, but you may find it's not your thing. And that's totally okay. The only way that you're going to know if you've been listening to the show for any length of time, is that you got to go try it, right? But if you are kind of feeling like, you know, I'm not sure this copywriting thing is right for me. Well, today's episode is going to give you some other options of things that you might be able to do and still maintain a really great flexible freelancer business. So let's talk about some of these, I'm going to first go through this list and then we're going to break down some of the pros and cons and details about all of these.

(08:12):

So I'm just going to read this list. Social media manager, operations and organizational director administrative work that involves customer service, managing calendars, managing online comments for social media, doing supply orders and travel logistics. I put kind of put all of that under the administrative umbrella bookkeeping. And along with bookkeeping accounts, payable, accounts receivable, email and communication or correspondence specialist paid advertising and digital marketing specialist. Of course, we're going to talk about copywriting and content marketing grant writing, public and media relations e-commerce and online stores, event planning, software tech specialist, course creator tech specialist, general marketing strategist, graphic picked designer and affiliate marketing director. We're going to talk about all of these, but I just, I made this list because I think some of those are really popular and they're a lot of these are kind of low barrier to entry. And so you can, you can have some specialized skills to get into them and learn to really become an expert in many cases.

(09:29):

And some of them are, are a little bit more specialized, but a lot of them really have kind of a lower point of entry where if you're looking for a signature service and you feel like I'm willing to go learn some skills, I just need to know what are my options. Some of these might be something that you can really start to learn and become a specialist in. So let's break some of these down. I'm not going to go through pros and cons of every single one of these, but let's, let's talk generally about some positives and negatives about some of these. So let's first address, social media manager. Now, clearly, if you want to be a social media manager, you're going to have to like social media. So let's put a pro under social media manager for the people who love being on social media.

(10:11):

Now of course a con for you, if you don't like being on social media, being a social media manager is probably not the best signature service for you. Y'all I am not a social media manager. And there's a reason for that. You guys have heard my love hate relationship on the show here with social media, social media is not my favorite thing. Um, managing it is my least favorite thing in the world. So this for me is not a good signature service, but if you are somebody who understands social media and you love it, you enjoy coordinating social media accounts for people. This could be a perfect, perfect service for you. So let's talk about some of the pros and cons, some pros of social media manager. It's very easy to specialize in it. It's easy to learn because there's a lot of resources out there that you can learn quickly, how to become a social media manager.

(10:59):

There is a ton of need right now for social media managers, because there's so many online businesses growing. This is a really, really great industry to get in. If you're looking for something that's worked from home, um, now it can be very flexible depending on how you're managing the social media for your customers. This can give you an option to have a really flexible schedule. It can help really become a specialist in this area. It's a great specialty to have. Let's talk about some of the cons. Some of the cons are you really have to stay up on all of the changes that happen in social media. If you're a social media manager, you've got to know what the latest algorithm changes are and how it's going to affect your clients. Your clients are gonna look to you as an expert in all things, social media.

(11:45):

Another con I see with social media management as a signature service is you are dependent on social media and the, that run it for how successful your clients can be. A lot of that is out of your hands. If you're managing their accounts. Well, you can have some influence in that. But one of the things, my personal pet peeve that I hate about social media is you don't own it. You don't own the platform. You really don't own your followers. And if that platform changes tomorrow, depending on what the changes are, you can totally have your account messed up. You guys have heard my story about how I used to do Facebook ad management for a digital marketing service. I no longer do that because I got put into Facebook jail for, I don't even remember now, like two months, um, I had to outsource all of my clients to other people.

(12:36):

And then Facebook came back to me and said, oops, we're sorry. Really? You didn't do anything wrong. And we're not sure why this happened. And that was the instant that I decided I was no longer running a business where I had to depend on mark Zuckerberg, his platforms. Okay, love you mark. Sorry, but I don't want my business to be dependent on you and your algorithms and your, I don't even know what you call it anyways. Let's just not even go down that rabbit hole. You guys clearly know how I feel about that. Um, so that's a con to social being a social media manager is the work that you do is very much dependent on a platform that you don't have a lot of control over. So just be aware of that. Another con is that you right. Get burnt out on social media.

(13:20):

I don't know y'all, this is just a personal opinion, but I feel like if I was spending hours managing social media accounts, I personally would get burned out. You may not good on ya if you don't. Um, I'm just telling you, it could potentially be a con that you should consider if this is going to become your signature service. Okay. Those are the two really big cons that I see is you could potentially get burnt out very quickly and you don't own those platforms. And the changes to those platforms could affect your business drastically in situations where you don't have a lot of, um, control over it. Okay. Lots of cons or excuse me, lots of pros to social media manager, a few cons to consider. Um, let's talk about another popular one, just kind of the administrative role. So a few things I want to address with this.

(14:09):

First of all, I think a lot of people talk about a signature service and they forget this administrative bucket because it's not usually talked about as a signature service. It's usually talked about in more general terms like that. Like, this is something all freelancers do, and it's not there are there actually a lot of freelancers who don't do any of this administrative stuff at all. So this was things like, um, doing customer service, answering inbound phone calls, managing calendars, and managing online comments, or, um, maybe managing comments on like a chat feature on a website, doing supply orders, taking care of travel logistics, all of those kinds of administrative things. Um, email correspondence really can go under this as well. Um, a lot of times there are freelancers out there who, who specialize in this, and they don't really promote that this, that they specialize in it.

(15:03):

And this really can be a specialty. This is a whole being able to do customer service, you guys, and manage like online chat and be organized enough to manage people's calendars or supply orders or travel schedules and booking travel. All of that takes a very highly organized person. So this can be a specialty. This can be a freelancers signature service. If you were somebody who especially like wants to get into something quickly and you aren't sure what your signature service is yet, but you're good at this kind of organizational administrative work. This is a really good way for you to break into the business and have this as, as your signature service. So a few pros to this, uh, it's easy barrier of entry, right? Like you can get into it tomorrow. If you know how to do some of these skills very quickly, you can have this as a signature service.

(15:53):

Uh, it also doesn't take a whole lot of, um, technology that you yourself have to own or run. It can be done very simply with some apps and things that are free, like using Google calendar. Um, and, and you can, your barrier of entry is very, very low for the tech. It takes to do this as well. Now, another pro to this is there's a high need for it, almost every online business. I know, um, just about every brick and mortar business, I know needs this kind of assistance. They get to a point where they need customer service, help. They need somebody to help manage supply orders and calendars, um, travel logistics, maybe not so much today because people still aren't are, you know, doing online events, but there's still a level of it that that businesses are doing. So definitely a pro here is that it is needed lots and lots of people need this.

(16:45):

Um, a con to this, it might be hard for you to increase your rates more with doing administrative work is your signature service. Uh, it's not impossible, but I think it is easier to increase those rates with something else. I see the administrative bucket as being a little bit more difficult to have a place where you could increase your rates. So that's just, again, it's just my opinion, you guys, but that's one of the cons that I think to having kind of that administrative bucket, being your signature service that you should be aware of. Um, let's talk about another one, bookkeeping and, um, uh, accounts receivable, accounts payable. This is a really great signature service. Um, I have a friend Chris, shout out to Chris if you're listening today. Um, her business is she helps entrepreneurs with their bookkeeping, and then she also teaches freelancers how to do bookkeeping, how to learn, how to do that as a signature service.

(17:35):

And, um, I had Chris on the show really early on I'll look, I'll have to, um, put in the show notes, what episode that was. It was like really early on in my podcast. Um, but I will link her website in the show notes. If you're somebody who is in learning bookkeeping, Chris has got a course you can take to become a bookkeeper. She's a really great resource if you want to explore that option. So let's talk about a couple of pros and cons, some pros to bookkeeping. Again. So many businesses need this, whether they're online, offline, online, and offline with a brick and mortar store, every business, every entrepreneur, every organization can benefit from needing a bookkeeper. And so if you have this skill, if you understand this, this is a really great specialty because it is something that I think a lot of organizations want to outsource.

(18:26):

They don't have time for it. Um, they can't stay up on it. They get behind on it and they want somebody who can come in and take care of it on a consistent basis. So it's needed. That's the first pro the second, um, pro I think for bookkeeping is it's really a great service to have nice rates. You can increase your rates. You can have really good packages built out for bookkeeping. A third pro is it's a signature service where you can easily come up with a monthly retainer. So it's something people continue to need every month. And it lends itself to naturally be able to give you something that you can have a monthly retainer set up for your clients for. So that's really nice because then it gives you some recurring income. Now let's talk about some cons to bookkeeping, maybe not necessarily cons, but just things I think you should be aware of.

(19:17):

Um, you have to like numbers, right? Like you have to enjoy doing bookkeeping and bookkeeping requires you to like numbers. Um, I think you need to be organized to be able to keep everything together for your clients to really keep their accounts together. Um, you really have to have that kind of organizational side to you needs to be a niche that you're interested in. And I think, um, bookkeeping, one of the things that I'm going to tell you is a con. Now I, you know, I'm not a bookkeeper, you guys, I'm just an outsider looking in, giving you some things to think about, but in my opinion, a bookkeeper really kind of has less of a flexible schedule. Now I could be wrong about that. I'm just guessing. Um, but I, I could see a bookkeeper really being needed during the hours of kind of eight to five and really having some things that they have to do each month or each quarter for their entrepreneurs that may lend itself to their schedule, not being quite as flexible.

(20:16):

So I just think it's something you should be aware of something to kind of check out if you decide to look at bookkeeping as a signature service. Um, and I will, again, I will link my friend Chris's, um, website in the notes for anybody who might be interested in this. And actually, um, I say this and it makes me think it might be good to have Chris come back on the show and talk about bookkeeping as a service for those of you who might want to do that. So, um, I'll make a note of that and I will link her website in the show notes. Uh, so let's talk about paid advertising. Uh, digital advertising specifically is becoming really, really popular. So this is similar to social media management, as far as my own personal pros and cons. Um, some pros to this is you can make some really good money as a digital marketing specialist, especially if you know how to do Facebook and Instagram advertising, you can charge a premium for this because it's difficult.

(21:11):

It is really difficult to learn in my opinion. Um, maybe it was just me, but I found it really hard to learn this. You really have to know all of the ins and outs and the rules of advertising on Facebook and Instagram. And there are a lot of rules. You guys, there are a lot of rules, there's words that you shouldn't use in your headlines. And like it, it's just very involved. So pros and cons here are a little bit similar, but let's talk about some pros. Um, you can make some really good money. If you know how to do digital advertising and print advertising, you can still make some really good money, but especially with digital advertising, you can make good money. It is a really cool specialty if you know how to do it, because there are very few people in my opinion, who know how to do this really, really well.

(21:57):

So if you know how to do it well, this can be a great signature service where you can make some serious bank. Okay. Um, you can have a very flexible schedule with this because typically you're going to be working on ads, creating the ads, getting approval, and then you're running them. And then once you've got them set up, they're pretty much running on their own. You may be doing some checking, some reporting and monitoring and some tweaking depending on how the ads are are doing, but for the most part, it's kind of, you know, set it up and move on. And because of that, you can have a very flexible schedule. Um, the next thing I want to talk about though, for cons for digital advertising is first of all, just I guess, full disclosure that because of my previous situation, I'm a little bit biased that I really don't like this as a signature service.

(22:45):

I'm just so full disclosure. You guys, you decide for yourself if this is for you. Um, but the biggest con again, just like with social media management is I think you are putting a lot of your eggs in one basket with being a digital marketing expert. Um, I really found, I, I didn't love it. You know, I did it, it was the only way I was going to know was if to do it, if I liked it or not. And I didn't. But the thing that bothered me most was I was so dependent on somebody else's platform for me to do my business, to make a living. And when I got put into Facebook jail, and then especially when they told me, you know, oops, sorry, we shouldn't have done that. There was no reason for it. Um, you guys, I lost like six clients.

(23:27):

I mean, what could I do? I had to outsource them to other people, give them referrals to other professionals who could help them that were in Facebook jail. And so, um, that was really just kind of an eye-opening experience for me. Um, I didn't want my business that dependent on another platform. That's the biggest con I see with being a digital marketing expert now for paid advertising, that's really not the case. Right. And yes, paid advertising is still a thing. Y'all okay. It is still a thing. Um, even, you know, advertising the banners you see on people's websites, um, if you know how to do Google ads, um, there are some other ways that you can do print and digital advertising that don't just have to be on Facebook and Instagram. So if you can find some of those other things that you can do, like Google ads, uh, there are some ways that you can make some really good money and be a specialist, but just be aware.

(24:20):

I just don't love that that income is completely dependent on another platform. If Google analytics decides to change something, or you don't do the right rules on Facebook, your income and your clients that you had, um, can go away very quickly. And so that's just something to be aware of. I personally didn't like it. Um, but you might end, it is, uh, it is a great signature service if you know how to do it because it is difficult. And if you know how to do it right, you can make a really good living doing it. Okay. Um, let's talk about grant writing. Um, grant writing is a really interesting signature service. Now this kind of could fall under copywriting, but I'm going to break it out. And the reason I'm breaking it out is I think you can specialize just in grant writing as a signature service grant writing is a really cool signature service.

(25:09):

Not a lot of people do it. So if you can do it and you are good at it, and you can show proof that you have gotten some grants for, for grants that you've written for organizations you've written for, you can be incredibly successful at this. There is a skill to know how to submit a grant correctly, how to write up a grant correctly and how to do the research. And in all of the information that goes with the grant, there is literally an art to it. So if you know how to do this, you can make really good money with it. You can maintain a very flexible schedule. It's a great specialty to have because not lot a whole lot of people do it. Um, some cons to grant writing. Uh, I personally, I feel like it's got a little bit of a higher barrier of entry.

(25:54):

You have to kind of, there's a lot more to learn and research in order to get into this. Um, but it's totally possible. And once you do, you can make a really good income. And it's a very cool specialty to have. We have a grant writing, um, instructor who's going to be coming on the show. I think she's coming. Uh, I should looked, I'm sorry. I believe she's coming in like mid October. Um, her name's Eliana, and she's going to come on the show. She specializes in teaching people how to write, do grants, uh, how to do grant writing. I have a little, a little bit of familiarity with grant writing from my days in politics. Uh, but this is not my specialty. I've never, never had this as a specialty. So I'm going to bring somebody else on here who can talk to you about that for those of you who are interested.

(26:36):

Um, so some pros to grant writing is you can make really good money with it. You can maintain a flexible schedule. It's a super specialty because not a lot of people are doing it. Um, if you're, if you are a writer, but this is, this might be a form of writing that you really enjoy. And so it can help you really become a specialist within kind of that writing field. Um, some cons to grant writing is it's, it's a little bit higher barrier of entry. It takes a little bit longer to learn in my opinion. Um, that's just a con to, to consider. Um, another con I think to consider is sometimes, um, while it's easier to find clients, right? Cause you're so specialized. You can really go after organizations that, you know, need grant writers. So it's, it's kind of easy to identify your clients, um, in, in easier, in my opinion, than in some other specialties to get clients.

(27:26):

I do feel like grant writing can be one of those things that you could get burned out on kind of the monotony of it a little bit. Um, that's just my opinion. So something to, to kind of think through that could be a potential con lots of pros though, to grant writing as a specialist. Uh, next let's talk about being a software specialist. Um, there are so many businesses that need tech help that don't have them, especially because so many online businesses that got started in the last couple years are solo preneurs. There are people like me who, you know, may have an assistant or two or some outsourcing they do, but they don't have a team of their own. And they certainly don't have a tech person of their own. So a really cool specialty. Um, I don't know if you guys have seen this, I've, I've seen only a few people who offer this, um, but I'm sure that there are more of an out, there is a freelancer whose specialty is being your tech support.

(28:18):

And so this would be somebody who you contract out. Usually it's either going to be on a monthly retainer or an as needed fee per needed basis. And so this just as an example would be, um, let's say I'm using a convert kit. I'm not, but let's just say I am for my email service and I need some help. Um, like, yes, I could call convert kit for some tech support. I'm sure, but I really need to know, like, how do I set this thing up? I need some help thinking through the strategy. I'm going to do it myself, but I just need a little extra help. This would be the kind of enter the freelancer whose service is being tech support for online entrepreneurs. You specialize in knowing two or three different technologies, maybe, you know, convert kit really well and, you know, Kajabi really well.

(29:05):

So this would be your services that I would call you and you would be able to help me figure out what I need to do to set up this email sequence that I want to build in convert kit. Um, or maybe you specialize in Kajabi and do you have videos I could pay for that? Teach me, you know, how does that have a sales page in Kajabi? I dunno, I'm just making that up. But you, as a software freelancer specialist, you would pick some software that you are really, really good at, and you could offer tech support to entrepreneurs for that program that, you know, really well. Another thing you could do is of course you, they could outsource you to just do it for them. But as one of your services, you could be tech support for those entrepreneurs who just need a little bit of extra help with those services.

(29:52):

Now, under that kind of technology specialist, you also could specialize in webinars like helping with rubbing running webinars services, um, SEO, if you know, search engine optimization, you could be an SEO expert when it comes to helping entrepreneurs, um, brick and mortar businesses, organizations who don't really understand SEO as well. So that can be your specialist too. So a few pros and cons about this, some pros are, it's got a really, really great potential for income because anytime you're, you know, software and tech support, that's going to have a great option for high income, high earning, um, con it takes some time, right? To get to know those, those programs and understand that technology. If it's something that you, if it's a technology, you already know the time to enter this into your signature service may take less for you if you already know it.

(30:46):

But if you don't know a technology yet that you could really specialize in, you would need to go learn that first. So pros, definitely your income, um, and that there's a really high need for it. Cons a little bit higher barrier of entry. If you don't have a technology that you're already a specialist in yet. Um, but certainly is, is doable. Just may take a little bit more time. So those are some pros and cons of that. Um, let's talk next about being an e-commerce expert. So this is somebody who's an expert at e-commerce at online stores, things like at sea or Amazon storefronts. Um, this is interesting. I don't have a whole lot of exposure to this, but I think it's an interesting niche, uh, because so many businesses, even that are brick and mortar stores have an online presence now, and that can be hard to figure out if you don't know how to do that, I can see a very easy target market.

(31:40):

If this is your signature service, to go to brick and mortar stores and offer to help them with managing their online store or getting their store online, if it's not already online. And so if you understand the ins and outs of this, if you know how to set up an Etsy store and how to make that Etsy store great. If you know how to do Shopify, if you know how to do point of sale systems online, if you really become an expert in all things, e-commerce, you have a huge network of businesses out there who need those services. And in many cases who don't have somebody in-house, who knows how to do it. So again, some pros to this, um, really, really a great way to specialize in something, um, high income potential, um, a lot of need around this, certainly a lot of needs.

(32:27):

Some cons might be again, a little bit of a higher barrier of entry, not a lot, but a little bit of a higher barrier of entry. I would say. Um, another pro though is so easy to find your people, right? It's a lot, it's very easy to find people who are selling things online or in your community who have a store and should be selling things online, but aren't yet, that would be a great target market for you. I'm sorry, if you guys can hear the wind blowing today, I have the windows open and the wind just kicked up. So I hope that's not too loud. Um, so the next thing we're going to talk about is event planning. Um, if you're somebody who loves to coordinate events, if you like to plan parties, if you like getting all those details together for events, event planning could be a great signature service for you.

(33:12):

Um, a high need for this. So some pros, the high need easy to specialize in it. Um, high income potential, and some cons for this one is it does restrict you a little bit in your schedule because most of the time you're going to be, you're going to be all hands on deck before an event happens. And during an event, if you're required to go to the event, um, and sometimes even after with kind of some followup stuff. So you do have a little bit of a scheduling, um, restriction to be aware of if this is going to be your signature service doesn't mean you can't take, you know, time off after you do an event. Um, but when you are running an event, you could potentially have some schedule restrictions that you need to stay within. Um, and another con I think to event planning, he is you, you really have to be, um, in relationship with vendors to do this well.

(34:03):

And so for this reason, um, depending on what type of a venture planning, it may be hard to run it purely online. Um, that's just my personal opinion, even planning, for example, if you're a wedding planner, you're going to want to have really great relationships with, you know, printers for invitations, with florists, with photographers, um, with wedding venues, uh, in, that's easier to do if you're local. And so this is, this is a really cool business to run locally. Uh, in my opinion, a little bit more difficult to run it online, not impossible, but just a con to think through, um, that it may be something that's not as easy to do online. Now you could, you could be somebody who specializes in online events or conferences. Um, and that would be a little bit less geographically restricting if you went that way. Um, great signature service, a high potential for income, and certainly a need for it.

(34:58):

Um, but you do need to be somebody who really loves planning, parties, planning, big events, planning, all those logistics. Y'all God bless you. If this is your thing, okay, God bless you. If this is your thing. Um, because it is not mine. I hate planning events. I am not a good host as, um, I don't, I I'm a detailed person, but not when it comes to planning events, I am not a like social person when it comes to doing this kind of thing. I just am like, Nope, I don't want to do it. I don't have the time for it. I don't like coordinating a bunch of people and a bunch of schedules. So if this is you though, if you enjoy that, this potentially could be a really great signature service for you. Okay. Next I want to talk about, uh, graphic designers kind of under the graphic designers.

(35:44):

I'm putting logos branding. Um, you have to be a very creative person for this. So that's the first thing a huge need for graphic designers and people who know how to do graphic design, um, both for organizations for, for entrepreneurs online, offline, huge need for this. Um, if you're somebody who is interested in, in anything creative design work artwork, um, this is a really cool signature service that potentially could build you a great business. Um, high income potential, certainly with this one easy flexible schedule. In my opinion, um, the only cons I came up with for this are, again, a little bit of a higher barrier of entry, in my opinion. Now, if you're somebody who's naturally gifted, when it comes to graphic design, um, then the, the barrier of entry for you may not be high at all. Uh, I feel this way because I can't draw a stick figure.

(36:39):

That looks correct. Okay. Um, so for me, this would be really an impossible barrier of entry, um, but just something to be aware of. Uh, but there are so many resources for learning graphic design. So if it's not something you currently know, but you want to know it, uh, it's, it's great because there are a lot of avenues to learn it. So high-income potential with graphic design, a huge need for it. You can maintain a flexible schedule. I give that one a five stars. If you're somebody who, uh, has those talents, that's a great signature service to have the last one I want to talk about. Oh, no, I'm sorry. There's two more. Um, almost the last one is being an affiliate marketer, marketing specialist, affiliate marketing is becoming so huge today in the online space. Um, it's, in my opinion, affiliate marketing is slowly starting to take the place of, of MLMs of multi-level marketing companies.

(37:30):

Now I know there's MLM people out there that are like gonna throw rocks at me for saying that. So don't throw rocks at me. Uh, but let me explain this a little bit. I think there's always been a little bit of a, I'm totally gonna dig myself into a rabbit hole here, sorry. Excuse me. For any of my MLM people out there, this is not meant to be offensive. This is only my opinion. Okay. Um, so I personally think there's always been a little bit of a stigmatism out there with multilevel marketing companies for a couple of reasons. First of all, you don't own it. You don't own your brand. And so if that MLM goes under, if they make changes that, that you don't like your, your businesses is very much dependent on them. And so I think that's always kind of been an issue with multi-level marketing.

(38:13):

The second thing is, um, having to really have a lot of people like under you in order to get paid and make it work. And I think there's, while it's possible, I do think it's possible. I think there's a lot of MLMs out there that are very good and that are effective for people and have given people an avenue to build a business that work from home. And I think that's great. So don't, don't misunderstand me here for what I'm, but there's always kind of been a stigmatism around them, in my opinion, where you don't own that business. If something happens with that business, your business goes with it right now, if that, if that increases your business goes with it, which is great. But if they go under or they go out of business or they just decide to change their programs, you're kind of at their mercy for that.

(38:52):

Well, in my opinion, affiliate marketing is starting to kind of take the place of that because entrepreneurs who liked to work together, you have similar products to offer their audience are working together to refer one another. And in doing so building programs where you can earn commissions for referring the things that you love, right. Which is kind of where MLM started. And it's now where affiliate marketing in my opinion is kind of taking its place. And so an example of this, um, I'm going to give you is, is Kajabi. So we'll just stick this in here. Today's sponsor is going to be Kajabi. Um, so I am an affiliate for Kajabi, which means I signed up and I have a link that they've assigned to me. And when you guys click on that link in the show notes, so everybody go do that. Um, if you sign up for Kajabi using my link, I get a small percentage of a commission every month for your membership to Kajabi.

(39:48):

And truthfully, I can't even remember what it is. Um, I don't, I don't do a lot of these, but I think it's, I don't even know. I think it's like $20 or $50 or something like that, that I would get each month. And so that is affiliate marketing. Well, because affiliate marketing is becoming so popular with online entrepreneurs. There is now becoming a space behind that for freelancers who want to do that as a specialty. And so if you know how to set up affiliate marketing, if you know how to pitch people to do an affiliate program for somebody, if you know how to create the program, how to set up the backend, how to market it for, for people. This can be a great signature service because it is becoming more powerful are, but I feel like the education behind it hasn't quite caught up yet.

(40:31):

Like I had to, to do some serious research, to know how to set up an affiliate program. Now, some companies like Kajabi who are big, and they've got this off, I figured out there's this pretty easy, right? Like easy for me to figure that out. Like I log into my partnership dashboard or whatever, and I copy the link. And when I share it, I get a commission, they track it for me. They do all the work. But when I started coming up with some of my own affiliate marketing programs, I had to do some serious research. Like, how do I even do this? How do I set it up in my system? How do I track it? How do I make sure people get paid? How do I find out if it's working? How, like, there was so many logistics to it. And so of course I started looking for somebody I'm like, are there people out here who specialize in affiliate marketing?

(41:16):

And so this is becoming more and more prominent. And if you're somebody yeah, author, who's like, I've heard it all. I don't want do digital marketing and don't want to be a copywriter. I don't want to be a bookkeeper. I don't want to do social media management if you've kind of heard all of this. And you're like, I still don't know what my signature services affiliate might be a really good signature service for you. It is growing, there is a low barrier of entry, but there's a high need for it. And there's potential to make a really good income. Now there's a couple of ways. I'm just gonna like take a side road here for a second and tell you there's a couple ways to set up your income when you're an affiliate marketing specialist. Um, you can do a percentage of income earned on all of the programs you set up, or you can do a one and done fee, or you could do a sliding scale, or you can do a mix of both.

(42:04):

Like, there's a lot of really cool possibilities with how you can get paid. If being an affiliate marketing director sounds like your thing. Now, some cons to it would be because it is so new. I think a lot of people are doing it themselves. So you may have a little bit of marketing to do to market yourself as this being your signature service, but high income high need for it. And it's becoming a more popular. So I see it as an area that's going to continue to grow, which is really good if you're making it your signature service. So just some things to think about there, with that. Now our last one is public relations and media relations. Now this one is near and dear to my heart. For those of you who've been listening for any length of time, know, this is where I started my career.

(42:48):

And so this was my specialty was public relations and media relations specifically within the political world with elected officials though, some pros to this are, um, really, really great opportunities. If you were interested in public and media relations, you can do PR and Mr. In just about any field, you can specialize in this as an industry, but apply it to just about any field. So my field was in politics. You may choose to do it in the tech industry. You may choose to do it. Um, for nonprofits, you may choose in politics like there's, um, you know, tons of, of different organizations who hire a PR PA ma. So PR is public relations. M R is media relations and PA is public affairs. So you may, if you've ever kind of seen a position advertised for a PR professional or for a PA professional, um, those are very common public relations, public affairs, um, Mr.

(43:47):

Professionals, media relations. So in this world, you can become a specialist in that industry and then apply it to just about any other industry, which is really cool. Um, the, the con to this is a few things, first of all, high barrier of entry, you really have to be a specialist in this in most cases, not in all cases, but in most cases to get hired for this position, you do have a college degree requirement, not in every case, but in many cases, um, a con to this, in my opinion, is you really have to have thick skin. If you're somebody who has thick skin, this is going to be great for you. If you're somebody who does not have thick skin, I don't recommend this industry. Um, another thing is it's really a full-time gig. And the reason I say that is a lot of the, especially with PR and media relations, this depends highly on your own network.

(44:42):

And so in media relations, you have to have, you have to really have a personal network within the media space with reporters, with, um, you know, certain anchors. You really have to maintain those relationships because the organizations oftentimes that hire you don't have those relationships they're hiring you because you have those relationships. And so you have to have the ability to, you know, call a reporter and say, Hey, can we have lunch today? I want to talk to you about, um, this thing that's going on. This bill, that's getting drafted. And I want to talk to you about the angle to take on a story. And that's, that's hard to do if you don't have relationships with, with reporters. And another thing about this is yes, you can do it online. There is also some opportunities locally in any local community to have this and really get to know the people in the media locally.

(45:31):

So kind of a high barrier of entry in my opinion, needs to be a full-time job. There's a lot of relationship building that needs to happen, but some pros to this are, it's a really cool industry. It's a really, really cool industry to be in. It's a great specialty to have. Um, it takes a very special skillset and there's definitely some high income earning potential. Um, another con I would say is not so much on the flexible schedule, not so much on the flexible schedule. Uh, you kind of have to be available just about at any time of day or evening and, and vacations, like most of the time in this industry. Um, there's not a whole lot of flexibility and you pretty much are always on call and need to be available. So, um, last, and certainly not least, we're going to talk about copywriting and content marketing.

(46:18):

Now you guys know, right, this is my favorite signature service, because this is my signature service, and this is what I teach. Um, so let's talk about copywriting and content marketing. This CA everything kind of falls under this such as speech writing, blogging, writing newsletters, writing, lead magnets, um, writing emails, books, or eBooks, or being a ghost writer for an author doing podcasting and YouTube scripting editing and proofreading, and doing sales pages, website copy. All of this is under content marketing and copywriting is kind of where I put all of it under that bucket. Now, you guys probably can assume that I could speak all day long today about the pros of being a copywriter and a content marketer. So I'm not going to do that because if you've been listening to the show, you kind of know what some of these are, but let's hit some of the highlights.

(47:11):

Um, this is a really great specialty because you can be a copywriter and have that be your niche, but you can do it for different industries. And so I've talked to you guys before about one of my favorite things about copywriting is you can get paid to learn and research about other industries. So if you're thinking about being a copywriter for health coaches, and you're also thinking about being a copywriter for nonprofits, you can go do both. You can find a client, you can, you can do some writing for both of them and get paid, to do some more research and learn more about those industries as you do the writing that you're hired to do. And then you get to decide, you get to decide, do I love the nutrition and health coaching space or not? Do I love the nonprofit space or not?

(47:57):

Um, maybe you like advertising and you want to specifically write ads. Um, maybe you don't want to run the ads, but you just want to write the ads now that I like I still do that. I still do writing for ads, even though I don't run them anymore, I will write them. Um, that's a much better place in my opinion, to be then to be actually in charge of running them. Copywriting gives you the ability to research a lot of different industries and get paid while you research it, which is pretty cool. Um, copywriting gives you a very flexible schedule because most of the time you're going to get hired to do a job. You do the job by a certain deadline, and you kind of do it on your own. You work on your own on your own pace, and you're not really stuck into a nine to five type schedule.

(48:38):

Nobody really needs you between the hours of nine to five, unless you are going over some copy with clients that you wrote, and you're kind of going through some drafts, but for the most part, once you get hired for a position or for a contract, you can do the work. If you want at 4:00 AM, or you can do it at midnight, or you can do it at two o'clock in the afternoon. As long as it's done by deadline, you can basically do it whenever you want. If your kids are napping and you want to do it during nap time, do it during nap time. Um, if this is a second a side hustle for you and you want to do it at night because you have a full-time job, it also lends itself to do that very naturally. So I love copywriting because it can give you a niche, a specialized signature service, and yet you can apply it to many different industries.

(49:23):

You can do it on a very flexible schedule and there's a high income potential. I also think personally that copywriting is a low barrier of entry. Now, some people may disagree with me just like graphic design to me has a high barrier of entry because it's not my talent for somebody who has a hard time with writing, who just finds it very difficult. Um, well then first of all, copywriting may not be for you and that's fine. Um, but because writing is something that comes natural to me, something that I I've always kind of gravitated towards, I feel like it has a lower barrier of entry. Not everybody may feel that way, but to me it has a lower barrier of entry. Um, you don't have to have a college degree in my opinion to do it. I know some people were argue with me about that, and we'll have to agree to disagree.

(50:11):

Um, but you can become a copywriter fairly easily. You can start to learn, copy by reading some books by great copywriters out there. Um, you can get on my wait list for my course. That's coming soon, by the way, um, email [email protected]. If you want to get on my wait, I am going to have a special price for the people who are on my wait list. So email me hello at [inaudible] request.com. If you're interested in getting on my wait list for my course, that's coming out later this year. So copywriting is a low barrier of entry and it is there's huge need just about every business organization, entrepreneur out there needs a copywriter. Now not everybody calls it copywriting. You'll see people talking about, I need help with advertising. And when you dive into it a little bit, they're looking for somebody to write their Facebook ads, or they're looking for somebody to help them with their website.

(51:03):

But then when you talk to them, they need help, you know, writing the copy. And so not everybody calls this copywriting. So I would encourage you if copywriting is something you want to do. Um, when you're looking at entrepreneurs who especially online are saying, I'm hiring for a website help, um, take into that a little bit deeper because sometimes they're looking for somebody to write the copy, but that's not the words that they're using. Not everybody knows exactly what a copywriter is. So that's just, as I know, um, we're going to do another episode here soon on how to find clients and we'll talk more about that. Um, so anyways, some cons to copywriting, uh, if you don't like writing, that could be a conduct copywriting, you probably are not going to love the industry. If you don't like to write. Um, if you don't like to do research, this is not an industry for you.

(51:50):

Um, if you're not good with deadlines, this is not an industry for you. If you don't have tough skin, also, this is not an industry for you. You have to be able to have to take criticism to your work. Um, people are going to edit your work when you write for other people, that's just how this goes. And they have every right to when you were writing on their behalf and you really have to have tough skin. You have to know that when people criticize your work or edit your work, it has nothing to do with you as a person. It has to do with the fact that you were writing on their behalf. Um, every, everybody has an opinion when it comes to writing, it's kind of like art, right? Some people may like it, something that you wrote other people may not. And so you just have to have tough skin.

(52:29):

You have to let things roll off your back in this industry, um, and not let it get to you personally, if those things don't describe you, then copywriting is probably not a very good industry for you. Um, you have to like research in this industry and you have to actually like writing. You don't have, you have to not mind deadlines. Um, personally, I think people who procrastinate are probably not going to love this industry because of the deadlines. Um, because procrastinating as a writer is really, really hard because, um, you are up against some deadlines that you have to stick to. So, um, some, some pros there to copy again, it's a great industry to be able to get some exposure to other industries while doing your niche, um, high income potential with copywriting. If you really get good at it and build up a great portfolio and clients who have some great testimonies of your work, this can be a great way to earn a living and get a flexible schedule.

(53:25):

Um, so of course that is my favorite one. Not that that's any kind of a surprise if you're listening to this podcast. So you guys, that's a great list of signature services that you can have as a freelancer, all kinds of opportunities. We went through some pros and cons. Again, those are my personal opinion, but I hope that that's helpful to you to hear some of those pros and cons from my perspective. So you can see how once you have a signature service, it can help you with your own marketing to be more specialized in your own marketing, to call yourself a specialist and know who you're targeting that might need that service. And it can help you increase your income. Once you've got a good portfolio to show of being a specialist in that area, right? If you can show some entrepreneurs that you have really cleaned up their books and kept their books on top of things and dang, especially if you can find ways to save them some money, right?

(54:18):

Like those are some great testimonials to have. If bookkeeping is your signature service, if grant writing is your signature service, and now you've got a couple of grant writers, uh, or a couple of grants that you've written for, they received the grant successfully. That's a great thing to put in your portfolio and then be able to call yourself a grant writing specialist and have that be where you could increase your income in your business. So again, having a signature service does not mean that you don't do other services in your business. It just means that you're putting your stake in the ground and claiming that one of these services is in fact, your signature service. Now, as you can imagine, having a signature service can also really help set you apart in the industry as a freelancer. And so when an entrepreneur let's say is specifically looking for a grant writer because they need to apply for a grant and you, you show that you are a specialist in grant writing, that's really going to help elevate you and your services above others who don't do grant writing, right?

(55:18):

That's just common sense. So having a signature service can really help you set yourself apart, differentiate your business in the freelancing space. Now having a signature service to build your online business can also give you more flexibility in your schedule. So we talked about some of those things here today that lend itself to being more flexible, like copywriting copywriting is a great service that allows you to be more flexible. Um, being kind of that affiliate marketing director offers itself to being very flexible. If you're somebody who got involved in freelancing, because you wanted to be your own boss, build your own business and have a flexible schedule, have no ceiling on your income, but then you found yourself kind of stuck in this busy work of other people. And you need a specialty. Having a specialty can really help you be the one to say, this is my schedule.

(56:13):

This is when I work. These are my services, especially if you're choosing a service that doesn't require people to contact you during those eight to five hours. Um, this is just my opinion. You guys, um, based on my experiences as a freelancer, when you do some administrative work, I feel like people expect you to be available during eight to five. And that may be okay for you if you, if you are available during that time. Now, if you have a full-time job and you're freelancing as a side hustle, you may not want to choose the service that people are calling you between eight to five when you're at work. Right? So do you kind of see what I'm saying, having a signature service that allows you some flexibility can really help you build that business. That I think a lot of us got in here for, which was high-income flexible schedule and really being a specialist instead of doing, you know, administrative work during eight to five.

(57:04):

So if you love administrative work, do it to God's glory, y'all do it to God's glory. But if you want something that can really help you become a specialist and not get stuck in that eight to five schedule than some of these other signature services may be good for you. So I hope that gives you a great list of pros and cons and things to consider. If you're looking at a work from home business, or if you already have a freelancer business, and you're just looking for what that signature service is that can help you become more flexible and increase your income. I hope you found that useful y'all if copywriting is one of the ones that you want to consider, uh, jump into my Facebook group, I'll put the link in the show notes. Um, I am growing that Facebook group, and now we're going to start doing monthly Q and A's.

(57:50):

So if you want to jump in once a month and ask some questions about building your copywriter, copywriting business, if you've got some work you've done that you want an extra set of eyes on. If you want to help, um, have help in there building your portfolio. We're doing all of those things in the Facebook group. So jump into that community. I'll link it in the show notes and then send me an email if you want to get on my list for my course. [email protected]. Let's thank our sponsor. One more time. Today is Kajabi. Kajabi is my one-stop shop for everything in my business. My website is on Kajabi. I use it for my CRM. It dissolve my email marketing. My blog is on Kajabi. I love Kajabi other it's it's got a weird name, right? But I love good Javi as a platform. I'm going to put that link in the show notes. If you want to try a job, you get to try it for free for 14 days as a listener of my show. So if you've been thinking about doing Kajabi, I'm going to put that link for you in the show notes, to go check it out. You can try it, no risk for 14 days and see what you think. All right, you guys, thanks for being here today. Go out and build your awesome freelancer business until next week. Go share your unique message

(59:00):

With the world. Thanks for listening today, friends and spending a piece of your day with me to get more information on my copywriting and content marketing and messaging services. Go to Amber glass.com. You can also learn more on Instagram with me at Amber gloss until next time go share your unique message.