Saturated Markets are a Myth
There is plenty of room at the top if you stop looking at the bottom
My last post on $20k/month freelancing got great traction and feedback. So here’s a follow that hopefully gives all of you some new tools in your toolbox!
The this is that freelancing often can feel like a crowded room where everyone is shouting the same thing. You see a thousand people offering the exact same service for a lower price every single day. It looks like a race to the bottom.
The mistake is looking at the market horizontally. When you do that, you only see your competitors.
If you want to find a real gap, you have to look at the work vertically instead. You need to stop seeing yourself as a service provider and start seeing yourself as a mechanic for a much larger machine.
Once you understand how to pull a business apart and look at the gears, the “crowded” market suddenly looks very empty.
The Crowded Market Myth
It is easy to feel like the freelance market is getting way too crowded. Most people think they have to pick a skill and just hope for the best. I want to show you a different way to look at your services so you can actually stand out.
Most freelancers work as what I call component builders. This means they spend their time building one small piece of a much bigger machine. That machine might be a whole business or even just a social media profile.
Think about it like this. One person writes the emails while another person runs the ads. Someone else might handle the copywriting. These are all separate parts. Because freelancers focus on these specific roles, they usually get very good at them.
The problem starts when new people enter the market. They see a successful freelancer and try to copy exactly what that person is doing. Usually, they just offer the same service but for a cheaper price. This is why everyone feels like there is too much competition.
I noticed this early on when I started out. I saw everyone fighting over the same small tasks. It felt like a race to the bottom where the only way to win was to charge less than the next person.
The reality of the situation:
Most freelancers only focus on one small task.
They copy what everyone else is doing.
They compete on price instead of value.
If you want to move away from the crowd, you have to stop thinking like a builder and start looking at the bigger picture.
The Component Trap
The fix for this is actually pretty easy. You just need to step back and look at the entire project instead of just your one small task. Once you see the big picture, you can break it down into all its different parts.
Let’s say you are an amazing email writer. That is a great skill to have. But if you write those emails, you are really just one piece of a bigger offer. You are helping a business sell something.
When you look at a full business offer, you realize it has a lot of moving parts. It is like a car engine where every belt and bolt has a job. Here are some of the components that make up a standard offer:
