The popularity of freelancing has skyrocketed in the last few years. Today, it comes with significant perks like flexible schedules, easy choices, and being your own boss. A group that has tremendously benefited from freelancing is the students.
Today, freelancing allows students to launch their careers even before the actual graduation. They no longer have to choose to commute to a workplace or decide to work in a field that is no way related to their majors.
The many perks aside, freelancing will still demand your enemy and time. If you are ambitious to manage both, we have some tips here that help you out.
Get Academic Help
It doesn’t matter if you actually understand what is being taught in lectures. Unless your grades reflect your knowledge, you will not be able to graduate. Assignments and term papers are time-consuming yet a necessary part of academic requirements.
Thankfully, now there are educational platforms such as the essay writing service EssayPro.com to help you handle such tasks. Students can get reference essays, assistance in research as well as referencing and citations.
This will help you complete writing tasks in much less time without spending energy on collecting the data. Your writing skills will also improve as you work closely with professional academic writers.
Know Your Skills
It is not necessary that you need to freelance only in your area of study. While it might be the obvious choice, you might land better luck selling your other skills. For instance, freelance writing is high in demand, and it should fit well into your talents. You could also tutor other students in your subjects, thus helping yourself as well.
Alternatively, students can also look for options in their hobbies, such as design, photography, or even coding. This way, freelancing might strike as work. Instead, it will be a smart move to earn money off your favorite pastime.
Find the Right Platforms
Freelancing is not only about completing projects on your schedule. It has other challenges such as finding clients, networking, getting recommendations, and, most importantly, ensuring that you get paid for the work. Undoubtedly, the best way for a student to start is on reputable platforms such as Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.
These services ensure that your rights are protected. Though you have to pay a certain percentage of your earnings, this way, you can always communicate with clients via secured means and get the payments on time.
If you have any trouble, there is also customer support available. The effort on managing the payments is least from your side.
Prioritizing the Projects
As you might have guessed, it is not always a smooth path in freelancing. You will first need to convince clients to hire you. The question is, do you want to merely work to gain experience, or you want to make money. Of course, the perfect option would be the balance of both.
However, in the beginning, you might have to take up projects for lower remunerations. For platforms such as Upwork, this might help you get sufficient ratings and customer reviews to attract more clients with better pays.
Know When to Say No
While it might be worth it to initially take less-paying jobs, you will also have to learn to say no. It is likely that you will spend all your resources and time on it no matter how small the project or pay is. It might even eat away your study sessions.
Additionally, being a freelancer does not mean you have to say yes to every project that comes your way. Evaluate whether the time you invest is worth what you get in return. If not, it is best to turn away the project in a friendly way to maintain the network with the client.
Promote Yourself
Though the freelancing platforms can connect you to customers, there is nothing wrong with a bit of self-marketing. As we discussed earlier, freelancing can be an excellent way to launch your career. If you are taking up work, make sure that your resume and portfolio reflects that. Even better, if you have the time, you can even set up a website.
In the meanwhile, use social media platforms such as Linkedin to your advantage. Discuss your freelancing career with professors and alumni as well. If you are able to manage your academics alongside, it will definitely impress your professor and open doors for you.
Think Beyond Deadlines
When you are juggling work and academics, you need to plan every bit of your day. It is not only essential to remember deadlines. In the real world, you cannot succeed professionally if you plan to cram the work just before the deadline. Consider what you need to accomplish in order to meet the deadlines, especially when there is more than one.
Calculate how long each step would take and what resources you need to complete the project. Then go ahead and plan your days accordingly.
Wrapping Up
Remember that while freelancing is an exciting endeavor, as a student, academics should always take priority. Make sure that you have sufficient time for studying when you take new projects. It is unquestionably achievable.
With a bit of effort, you will already have glowing recommendations from clients by the time you graduate.
