Ask any college student anywhere about their feelings towards the cost of attending college, and no matter who is asked the answer will remain the same. This answer being that the cost of higher education is gradually rising with no signs of going stopping coming anytime soon. That is such a shame for the age group that on average, in any country really, generate the lowest annually income. What is a college kid to do?
Well there actually is a practical solution to this if one has the determination and talent, start freelancing! The college years are a great time to jump right into freelancing for multiple reasons: no real start-up costs, you aim to at the least match what could be made at the typical minimum wage job other college students have, learn great life lessons, and embarking on a great career journey. These are just a few, but with these there really shouldn’t be any questions about how the possible positives outweigh the negatives.
Of course there is one catch, who is actually willing to hire a young inexperienced college kid? This is a challenge that is going to be unavoidable. I’ve been freelancing for three years now and still have to deal with this from potential clients from time to time, so don’t feel bad about it. It’s just how life is when you’re young.
So you’re young, seemingly have talent in a marketable skill, and you have the determination. There is only one thing missing, quality clients. That is why in this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the best places a college student can get quality clients as a freelancer.
Your Professors
If you’re the type of student that really doesn’t interact with your professors outside of conversations about coursework and your grades that’s perfectly understandable. Everyone is like that for the most part, and that isn’t something to hold against yourself. However, it could be quite beneficial to stop that soon.
It may not appear so, but establishing a good relationship here can open you up to a lot of incoming work. College professors are always looking for one of their students who shows some initiative with their talents, and will gladly spread your name around with colleges and outside work friends if you show enough talent and are reliable.
Clubs/Organizations
There is always some type of event being hosted by an organization or club at every university all the time, why not take advantage of that. These clubs are always looking to have things like fliers, websites, or any other type of creative marketing product for events and/or club awareness. This will prove to be the best continuous source income because they will ALWAYS have work that a young freelance creative person can do, but don’t have the funds to pay someone with more experience.
Your Fellow Classmates
There is a lot of entrepreneurial spirit to be had with this generations college students, understandable considering the success of earlier college businesses planted so firmly in front of them. Now you won’t become rich quickly by exploring this client resource. However, the stability found in the jobs coming from here really can’t be compared. This is so because although they may have little money on general, there are a lot of ideas brewing inside this young minds. If you also do good work you r name will spread fast, and if your offered skill is very versatile, you’ll find yourself getting job offers all the time as you walk to class.
Your University
This isn’t always the first place that pops into anyone’s head about having good freelance opportunities, but that is why this area has a lot of potential. Big businesses, local businesses, some retail stores, and everyday people in the community, all come by to the university nearest them looking for some student who has the time to work on a project for them. These projects can range any and everywhere, its easy to find someone looking for a personal trainer while another is looking for a contract C++ programmer.
The projects offering the most money can always be found here for the most part, but the clientele you might discover might be less than ideal personality wise when compared to the others. However, the clients found here do tend to lead to bigger projects then you’ll see coming from the others.
In Conclusion
The areas for clients listed here are great ways for the college student starting to freelance doing anything to find good clients, who can offer more projects your way down the line. The main thing to remember is that you let everyone you can know what you do, without being annoying about it, and don’t get fooled into doing work when the price is drastically lower than what a non student freelancer would be receiving.