A big struggle in college is the balance of work and school. We’ve got bills to pay and sadly, we need to eat. Many of us work less-than-exciting jobs at coffee shops and fast-food places for that reason only: to pay the bills. But what if you were able to make money to support yourself and do what you love?
Students can choose to become a freelancer in college, and become masters of their own schedule while doing what they’re passionate about — and be paid.
Sounds like a dream, right? Depending on your major, freelancing could be in your future. You could flex your skills in graphic design, press releases, website building, social media management, create a marketing plan — or pitch and write articles as we do in the journalism department.
The website, Students Who Freelance, cited a statistic from the book Freelance Confidential on the profit of freelancing students: using 3,200 freelancers, the author found that freelancers ages 21 and younger made about $12 grand a year, with nearly a $30 hourly rate and work 5 hours a week.
But how do you get to that $12 grand a year?
Number one is getting started. Put your online portfolio together on a free website like Tumblr or WordPress. Talk to your professors and colleagues about the work you want to do, and if they know anybody seeking your skills. List yourself on Craigslist. Spread the word about what you specialize in, and get your name out there.
Freelancing can take a lot of different forms: odd jobs, working for friends and family or even starting off with unpaid work to build a portfolio. All of these jobs will produce work that you can showcase in your online portfolio, which you can use to both find clients, and to show how great you’ll be at the job they need completed.
As you get started, it’s good to know that freelancing is a business first and foremost. Read up on how often you’ll need to file taxes, and download templates to build contacts and invoices. Most importantly, do research on the rates you should be charging, and decide where you want to price your work.
Since students also have school and homework, it’s important to know ahead of time how much free time you have available each week for freelancing work, and be able to schedule deadlines according to that availability with your clients.
“Your time is very valuable and you charge your clients accordingly,” said Natalie Yemenidjian, a 26-year-old journalism student at SF State who does freelance web design, graphic design and user experience design. Yemenidjian said it took her a while to understand how important time management is, and thinks it might be easier for older students to balance.
Freelance Switch’s article, 5 Reasons You May Not Be Ready To Student Freelance, talks about how time consuming freelancing can be, along with students need for client experience in order to freelance successfully. Many of us haven’t worked in jobs where we solve client problems and complaints outside of the retail or food industry. Freelance Switch recommends students try a job with client interaction to get a better feel for how it should be done.
While there are a lot of challenges with freelancing, it offers an opportunity most college jobs don’t: the chance to do what you love, while you’re in college. College doesn’t just teach us the skills to get a job, but it gives us the toolbox to build our own brand and run our own business, doing exactly what we came to school to learn and do for the rest of our lives.
