Freelancing after college may sound like a great idea. You can set your own hours, build a business for yourself, and open yourself up to a higher growth potential than a 9-5 may offer. Despite the many benefits, there are some considerations you should take into account before deciding to freelance after college.
My Journey to Freelancing After College
I am a recent college grad who has had the unusual opportunity of having seven open months between graduation and starting my full-time job. I have been using this time to explore many avenues of spending my time. Since I am lucky enough to have food and housing provided to me by my parents, there was no urgency to build up a steady income stream.
During this time, I have been trying out different things—some income generating, some not. One of these things was doing freelance research and PowerPoint design. In college, I gained experience designing PowerPoint presentations through internships and school projects. I would also do extensive research for these projects in all industries from tech to retail. I decided to take this skillset and try to make some side money off of it.
In May, I landed my first job on Upwork (a freelancing platform) at $25/hour, which ended up being a success and turned into a ~$1000 project. However, it has turned out that may have been a case of beginner’s luck. It’s been tough trying to pick up more projects. The process has taught me some lessons about the viability of a career as a freelancer after college.
When Freelancing, Experience is Everything
Many people harp on the importance of experience when it comes to getting hired for jobs, however, I think experience is just as important for yourself as a freelancer. What I mean is that, as someone with very little professional experience, it has been hard to offer expertise or advice to my client as an equal. Sometimes, I fall into the trap of asking for permission or for direction.
Freelancers can offer much more value if they have a honed skillset developed during a few years of work in the industry. Clients are looking for specialized skills and freelancers with expertise in a specific area. Luckily, my client was looking for the specific style of pitch decks that I had created in college. However, with more exposure and experience, I could offer this specialization in more than one area.
Freelancing after college prevents you from getting industry experience. Without previous working experience, you might have a harder time adding value and expertise for your clients.
As a “Broke College Student”, Less Funds to Invest in my Freelancing Business
As it turns out, bootstrapping a business requires a little more upfront money than I expected. When I got started, I thought that using Upwork was all I would need to do to start landing clients and making that moola. However, the thing I didn’t realize is that running a successful business requires more than just gaining clients.
One thing that I’m concerned about is doing my taxes next year since I have a lot of random income streams and some business expenses to deduct. With a little bit of startup money, I could designate a CPA as an investment to my business. Also, investing in things like the Adobe creative suite, a premium zoom account, and even a new computer would allow me to focus more on the actual work rather than fooling around with workarounds.
Freelancing after college will limit your ability to invest in your business. The upside of gaining experience at a 9-5 is that you can concurrently be saving up money that you can dedicate to your business once you are finally ready to take the leap.
Lacking a Focus
As a young 22-year-old, the world really is my oyster. I get a new idea every day of what my dream life would look like. Heck, I was just watching Selling Sunset and thinking to myself that it would be sick to be a real estate agent turned investor. With such a fickle mind, it is hard to really focus on one thing with the intentionality needed to start and build a successful business.
It is important to give yourself the bandwidth to explore, try something new, fail, and then try again. At the end of the day, working a 9-5 will give me an idea if that is right for me. If not, I can build something of my own. After I get that traditional experience, I have a feeling I’ll be that much closer to figuring out just what it is I want to build. If you are young and feeling lost, consider taking a structured opportunity like a 9-5, fellowship, or grad school in order to give yourself time before leaping into something riskier.
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