While building skills related to your niche is a wise step, there are also quite a few areas where a businessman will gain an advantage in almost any industry.

Personal branding

Even if you are a low-key freelancer, irrespective of your industry, personal branding has become important. With around millions of Americans working in "alternative arrangements" (i.e. contracting and/or freelancing), differentiating themselves from fellow members of the gig economy is crucial for freelancers.

Often potential customers and customers make a first impression based on your personal brand. Creating and maintaining a personal brand online can impact your business from your logo to your website or digital portfolio to your LinkedIn profile. One study demonstrated that consistent branding increased revenue in between of (20-30)%.

Here comes Digital Marketing!

Digital marketing is one of the most common ways to get the word out of your business online. While this is a paragliding term for multiple marketing techs like think social media, search engine optimization or marketing, email, and content, it is possible to learn a little bit about several of these specializations to help you increase your reach.

Digital marketing tactics (especially content marketing and automation / email marketing) are expected to have the greatest impact on businesses in 2019, according to a recent Smart Insights report. And if these tasks can not be outsourced to a freelancer or contractor, try to gain some of this marketing knowledge for yourself.

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Paying for Social advertisement

On Instagram, Snapchat, and other social media platforms, you probably have your own personal profiles. But when it comes to growing your business, it can be a great way to reach different audiences by paying for ads on these social sites. After all, as of previous years, billions of people are using social media.

A recent CMO survey indicated that by 2023, social ad budgets are expected to nearly double. That's because companies can target social ads at the right time to reach the right people. As a result, over three - fourths of U.S. consumers buy a product they saw on a social advertisement.

But the prospect of creating and launching your own campaigns can be daunting for newbies with advertising rules that vary wildly between platforms. Fortunately, there are plenty of courses available to empower business owners to learn the basics of social ads with the knowledge they need.

IT Awareness

It's a bit intimidating to learn any new language— especially when it's technical. Whether you know the basics of HTML and CSS or are willing to tackle Ruby on Rails, coding is a learning skill that can benefit anyone. Two-thirds of computer jobs are outside the tech sector.

Financial management and bookkeeping

As you are not interested in accounting or you are not an accountant and not familiar (especially with tools such as Hermition), a little knowledge of bookkeeping can go a long way in keeping top of the financials of your business.

A course or two can help you get to know the basics of bookkeeping and financial management so you can gain a deeper insight into your business ' financial health without asking your accountant for constant updates.

Making investment on yourself

For the most part, the list of New Year's resolution is better off trashing. It is wise to set goals for you and your business as long as they are achievable and specific. And there is no better way to start a new year off right than through professional development to invest in yourself.