You Should Freelance.
Think about it.
You make your own hours.
Work as much or as little as you like.
Part-time or full time, your choice.
Decide who you want to work for.
Get paid a lot for your work.
There’s no downside!
Benefits of Freelancing
Many people are unaware of what freelancing really is. They think it’s something you do along with work or perhaps it’s something you do in between jobs to give yourself a small income to find another job. It’s neither.
Freelancing (or being a contractor) is the act of working temporarily for a company or business to help them grow. This position can be full time or part time or even less than traditional part-time. When freelancing you typically get paid more than normal due to the volatility of the position
Here are a few reasons I enjoy freelancing.
Higher Pay: One key factor for most people when they look into freelancing is the pay. It’s typically higher than whatever you make hourly.
Fluid Scheduling: Being able to work whenever you want is a huge boon to freelance work. If you want to work from midnight to two in the morning you can.
Work Remote: If you don’t want to work from the office then you don’t have to when you freelance. All you have to do is get on your computer or phone and work. You can work from the gym, office, home, hotel room on a trip, or anywhere else you have a connection.
You Own the Business: When you work full time as a freelancer you’ll want to create an LLC. to function under to protect yourself legally. You probably don’t need to when you’re first starting out; however, when you’re getting more and more into it I would suggest making an LLC. They’re usually cheap to create. I think Mine was $50 but it will differ depending on location.
Work as Much or as Little: You can work one hour a week. You can work 20 hours a week or 40, 60 or even 80. It’s up to you to decide how much work you want to do. You can take contracts or deny them as you see fit. You can negotiate your contracts with companies. If they want you to write 15 articles a month and you only want to write eight then you can negotiate it. You’re no longer being hired but rather your company is being contracted to do work for them.
My Story
Everyone will have a different experience with their freelancing much like everyone will have a differing experience with everything in life. Your experience with college is totally different than mine. I hate college and think it’s utterly useless; you may love it.
My experience goes something like this…I write articles all day that I love to write. I script, record, edit, and produce video content through my day also. I also do some software development on the side but it’s not as big of a factor as my writing and video creation. I work 20–40 hours a week.
I make about $119 an hour.
That’s $0.17 per word
That’s $270 for one article.
That’s $300 for one video
That’s $8,100 a month.
That’s $97,200 a year.
If you add software engineering contracting to the equation that’s another $30,000 or so a year.
That’s around $127,200 annually.
I don’t have a college degree
I’m 22 years old
I’m in college part time getting a degree in Marketing.
That’s not bad at all!
Get Your Foot In The Door
First things first, what type of freelancing do you want to do?
Here’s a list of a few:
- Web Developer — Back End
- Web Developer — Front End
- Marketer
- iOS Developer
- Android Developer
- Copywriter
- Article Writer
- Blog Writer
- Data Entry
- Ghostwriting
- Content Creation (facebook, twitter, instagram, some writing)
- Video Creation
- Social Media Manager
- Social Media Marketer
- Influencer (usually on YouTube or Twitch)
- Legal Writer
There are many more. Hundreds and possibly even thousands of other jobs out there you can do freelance either in person or remotely.
Take a moment to research each of these if they interest you and then search for others. You can do this with a simple google search for freelance work, remote work, or contracting work along with whatever job you want to do.
For example: ‘freelance copywriter work’ in google should yield an array of results.
Beyond that search for other freelance jobs you’re interested in I didn’t mention because chances are they’re out there and you can find some to apply for.
Apply
You can apply anywhere that takes applications or via email. I’ve actually applied to freelance jobs on Craigslist before.
Here are a few sites to get you started:
- writers.work (for writers)
- upwork.com (for everything)
- fiverr.com (for everything)
- designcrowd.com (for everything design)
All of these are great places to get started with freelancing. I personally use Upwork and WritersWork often.
The most important part of becoming a freelancer is simply to flesh out your resume well as well as your online profile so anytime you apply for a job the possible employer has something to look at to gauge your work. I would also suggest an online portfolio. Here’s mine.
Notice how it’s very simple and straight forward. Your profile doesn’t have to be extremely intricate even if you’re an artist or front end website designer. Just make sure it’s sleek, responsive, and well designed.
If you’re wanting to go with an LLC I’d suggest making a full on website to show off your work and everything else you want your brand to represent. I am currently working on this aspect of my company; however, until it’s finished I will continue to refer people to my portfolio.
After You Apply
Followup emails and messages should always be sent to anyone you’ve applied to. If you do this it further shows the possible employer that you’re serious about the position; possibly more serious than other applicators.
Don’t hesitate to email them pretty much weekly until either they reply to you or you lose interest in contacting them.
With that said, the first email should go out asking if they’ve relieved your application for employment via contract as well as other thoughts, questions, or goals you have with the job. Doing this last part will again, further show your seriousness in the position as well as give the recipient more reasons to reply to you.
Always try to be as professional as possible anytime you’re writing an email. The worst way to start an email is “hey”…that’s how you start a text conversation to someone you have a crush on but are too chicken shit to just say you like them and want to better get to know them.
You’re applying for a job. you should start with “Hello, [person’s name]” which should be followed by the body and finally the end which should be cordial. I end all of my emails like this:
Thank you for your time,
Christian Helms
It’s straight forward. Not many people say “thank you for your time” they usually say “sincerely” or something like that because it’s short, generic, and professions. It’s exactly the reason I’d rather write “thank you for your time”; it’s more personal, long, sincere, and shows you’re thankful for whoever to even read your email in the first place.
Trial Contract or Sample Contract
These are actually quite common for any position that will last longer than a few months. If you’re a writer you’ll almost always hear about a ‘trial period’ before you actually get a legitimate contract for yourself through the company.
Personal example: I had to do a trial contract that included two articles and two videos before I was to negotiate my actual contract with the company that I work for. Usually a trial contract will be lower pay than you’ll normally have in the company or at the very least it will regulate the amount of content you’re expected to produce. The two articles I had to produce were for $0.12 cents per word while my post trial contract is $0.17 cents. Likewise with video, $250 per video then $300 after that.
If you’re offered a trial contract you should read it and make sure nothing fishy is going on then sign that bad boy. Even in the case that they ghost you and don’t pay you then if they do post the content you made down with a threat of legal threat. Beyond that, it’s only one or two pieces of content so it’s not a massive loss.
Best of Luck
Before I go let me recap a couple of important points in this article:
- Protect yourself legally via LLC
- Trial contracts are normal but make sure you read the contracts
Those are the two biggest points in this article because they’re focusing on legalities that can ultimately cause you to lose a lot of money if you’re not smart about it. I don’t want you to hold me liable for your own mistake of not reading or protecting yourself.
That’s all from me. I wish you the best of luck going forward in your future of freelancing and until next time, peace!
As always…Much love ❤
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