Jack of all Trades, Master of None

[missashley8705]

I have seen a countless amount of forum posts discussing multiple gigs. This is especially true when someone starts a discussion about needing more sales. It seems like a popular word of advice is “offer more gigs”.

Here is my personal opinion about this subject. When people have two or three gigs with a common theme, that makes sense. The gigs offer different services or products but they are in the same basic category. It seems logical that if the seller has the skill to do the one gig then they have the skills to do the others as they are in the same fields.

However what doesn’t make sense to me, are the people who have 5+ gigs going. None of the gigs are even remotely similar, ie I will write your name on my stomach, proof read your article, drive you unlimited web traffic, create your business cards, translate english to swedish. These gigs are all totally unrelated but offered by the same user (hypothetically). The chances are, the user is probably only good at one of these things if you are lucky. It seems sloppy and unprofessional to me.

I understand that the goal is to make money. In my experience though, a seller can do just as well with one or two gigs that they are extensively experienced in and overly qualified to do versus offering ten gigs they know a little bit about.

As an occasional buyer, I only buy from people who specialize in their gig. If I am trying to buy a logo and I see that the seller not only creates logos but will write my name using ketchup too, I find someone else.

If you are truly multi talented then sure, offer gigs for all of your skills. I just think that claiming you can do everything, might translate to a buyer that you probably shouldn’t be trusted to do anything because you don’t take any one task seriously.

Think of it in real life. If you went into a furniture store and upon walking in you were asked if you wanted an acupuncture session or perhaps a new haircut, you would be totally confused and I guarantee you would politely turn around and walk out. Maybe that store had excellent furniture, but the other random things they offered you distracted from that one thing they were truly skilled at.

This is just my personal opinion as a buyer and a seller. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

[mgjohn78]

I have multiple occupations (around 18 years in school bench) and loads of job experiences in different fields but for the above reasons + other reasons i do different work on different sites and some work i only do offline. Its not just easier and more believable for the clients but its also easier for me to manage my work this way.