IWOC Meeting - Niche Selection and Development

IWOC Meeting

Niche Selection and Development

Join IWOC-ers as corporate, transactional and intellectual property lawyer Florence Hardy, director of the Small Business Development Center at the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), counsels us on how to select and develop niches that inform and diversify the subject categories, formats of writing and editing and work products freelance writers can offer and produce to meet the needs of clients.

To help freelance writers to launch and grow their businesses with appropriate niche selection and development, Hardy’s topics will include:

• The benefits of specializing in niches and building a freelance writer’s platform on blogs, newsletters, e-books, e-newsletters, resumes, professional letters and other formats or work product types to boost his or her visibility, authority status, expertise, network, number of gigs and amount of revenue;
• How to brainstorm, explore and create a list of subjects, formats of writing and editing and work products that a freelance writer may be passionate about, conceive of and deliver expertly for clients in need;
• What methods of considering or measuring market demand and profitability of niches work best in deciding whether to pursue or discard them from a freelance writer’s list of offerings or specialties and when best to do so;
• How to prioritize and narrow down a list of professional writing/editing niches to the most viable specialties or to group niches with similar themes under umbrella offerings;
• Which types of clients, client budgets and client goals factor most into a freelance writer’s decision to select and develop a professional niche or niches to produce work, and;
• Reliable professional tools and sources of research on market demand, profitability, budgets, pay rates and client goals such as job boards, surveys, professional calculators and pay rate charts.

The meeting is free for IWOC members. Non-members pay $10 with online preregistration/payment or $15 at the door.

All attendees are welcome to join us for a buy-your-own dinner at a nearby restaurant after the meeting.

*Graphic courtesy of VectorShots at freedigitalphotos.net

Meeting Location

IWOC monthly meetings are held in Room 4F at the Gratz Center, 126 E. Chestnut Street, adjacent to the historic Fourth Presbyterian Church (see map, below).

Discounted parking after 5:00pm is available (with validation coupon available at the meeting) at 900 N. Michigan Avenue.

View Gratz Center in a larger map