It must be interesting to make money while becoming a college student.

As college students have sparse schedule of lectures, they have a chance to use up their leisure time possible to be a freelancer. Yet, both academic activities and professional freelance work have to be managed correspondingly to make sure that each runs on the expected track. Time management for college students is not hard to plan, but quite challenging in practice. In this regard, the following steps on becoming a college freelancer might be helpful to follow.

Step 1: Summer is a good moment to get started

This step applies for freelancing novices who cannot get a client immediately. It’s common to happen. Even if you don’t have any previous portfolio, summer will be a good moment when you can practice producing quality samples of work to attract any potential clients of yours. You have three months at least during summer. Don’t feel sorry for being unable to spend time together with fellows for having fun. However, you are just about to start harvesting you prosperous-freelance tree in this summer. The following things are worth preparing instead of your sorry:

1. Build up your own website. You can ask for some help, if you cannot do website building by yourselves.
2. Post your best portfolios. Regard this step as your voluntary work in order to build up your freelance profile upon the client’s image.
3. Simple management of freelance job is important, bookkeeping especially.
4. Market yourself to clients as well as you can.
5. Decide on the tasks that you can possibly carry out during school year.

Step 2: Class Schedule First

Schedule is always important to help manage our activities run smoothly. Good schedule can prevent from clashing time between classes and freelance task from clients. Make sure that you have put down wall your classes, related academic activities, as well as the due dates of freelance tasks on the same calendar. It is much easier to know exactly whole plans you have got to do in a week or month. Thereby, you can keep track due dates of your freelance tasks while being assured that you will not miss any class at college. The big college days like final test or exam can be made free of client’s task to work out. You can focus more on making good score at college still. Additionally, if you were involved within social organs with a few regular agendas, you would have to write them down on the calendar.

Step 3: Equip yourself sufficiently

Not all colleges provide enough facility like computer for students at campus. Even if, some do so, several up-to-date software and programme are not yet available. Most of colleges and schools ban any commercial-oriented use of campus facilities by the students. In fact, computer is the only weapon to get the client’s order done on due time, especially freelance writers, web developers, and IT-related jobs. It is a good choice to invest your extra cash to procure such equipment for the sake of your own easiness to carry out the freelance tasks. You can use own computer as you please to earn some dollars from freelancing.

Step 4: Focus on long term gigs if possible

Freelancing normally takes the rest of time that college students have after their fulltime studies at campus. If you decide to work as a freelancer while having fulltime schools, it means you have to minimize extra activities out there besides the two. Since finding a new project after another usually takes time, focus on the long term gigs possible spanning for months. You may be selective to decide on working for a short term project but clearly affordable to accomplish. Having long term gigs will be much easier to manage in terms of scheduling and psychological comfort while focusing at the same time on your studies.

Step 5: Keep your Students Status covered

College students are somewhat considered as entry-level freelancers no matter the quality of your work usually. If you college students status is known by the employing company, you will face such a lower price of payment. The worse scenario will be repeated rejection from certain companies who do not have an interest to employ college freelancers. Therefore, keep your status covered. Avoid putting any facts about your fulltime activities by which your companies or clients can know more about your personal data. Simply let them know about the quality of your work to get the tasks given done very well.

[via freelanceswitch.com]