The DISC Assessment is a personal assessment tool that determines who you are by determining what you aren't. Many companies use this assessment to learn more about their employees and how to improve productivity, teamwork, and communication among each other in the office. I took this assessment almost a year ago when I was with CMS Solutions, and the results of that assessment were incredibly accurate, showing that what you aren't, and what you don't do, are just as important as knowing what you are and what you do.
When developing your freelancing or content marketing services business, you spend a lot of time figuring out who we are by determining what sort of services we will offer. But, with that it's also important to think about what services you won't do, no matter how much money you are offered. You never know when someone is going to want something done that you never considered doing before, and you can't be everything to everyone. So, it's vital to the business and you're branding to think about what sort of content marketing services you will never do under any circumstance.
For me, one of those services that I will never do is grant writing. From my understanding, grant writing requires special certification that I don't have and have no intention of obtaining. Fortunately, I know a few folks who are certified grant writers that I could pass along if I ever come across a lead who wants grant writing services.
Another one of those services that I don't do is social media management. This may seem crazy since it's a service a lot of people want, but I think that social media management needs to come from inside the company and needs to be done on a daily basis. I am not "inside" any one company and I do not have the time to manage the Facebook and Twitter accounts of multiple clients. Managing my own is hard enough. This one is based on personal philosophy and research, and while I will promote other companies and their content through my own social media channels from time to time, I will not do it on their channels. Any company who wants to outsource social media is making a bad move, in my humble opinion.
Knowing what you don't do provides focus, and allows you to market the services that you do better. For example, you could specifically target those services that you do offer, such as press release writing, or blog writing, or whatever it may be, instead of a jack/jill of all writing trades. It's much better for search engine optimization and it specifically targets the needs of potential clients. How often does a company need a writer to do just about everything? Not that often. More likely, that potential client needs a few select services, or maybe just one service or two. After all, if the company did need a writer for anything and everything, the company would be better off hiring someone full time instead of on a project basis.
Have you ever taken some time to think about what you don't do and what sorts of things you don't write? If you haven't, you probably should. You don't necessarily have to tell people your reasons, but it's a good thing to keep in mind when considering content marketing services.