Hey Ian, I hope this isn't overstepping anything, but do you have any resources for someone trying to start freelancing? Every attempt I've made at traditional employment lately has sorta gone up in smoke and I'm trying to consider all my options.
Uhhhhh, it’ll depend on what kind of freelancing you’re looking to do, but, from my experience, the best way to freelance is to already be freelancing, which means, unless you have some connections already, the early going is going to be slow, frustrating, and grossly underpaid.
Like, the way I got started was to be in a living situation where I worked one day a week in lieu of rent doing direct care and had 6 unfilled days to hunt for gigs, and it still took months, and my first gigs were low-paying no-contract animation jobs off Craig’s List. The best advice is to never take a gig like that but, then again, I don’t know how else I would’ve gotten started. I also did a music video for friends of mine, unpaid but “for exposure,” and started editing a monthly podcast for $50 an episode via a friend of a friend.
But the more work you do, the deeper your portfolio gets and the more connections you make, and eventually it’s not as hard to get more gigs, either through references or people seeing your work. Doing my own stuff and putting it out there on the internet also got people interested in hiring me, but, again, that’s working for free with a potential payoff down the line. Near as I can tell, the go-to website for freelance gigs is UpWork, and they run on a social currency system, where you get points for every gig you complete and your likelihood of getting a gig depends on how many points you have. So, once more, your early work is probably going to be menial and/or low-wage and/or have shitty contracts. You can speed this phase up a lot if you’re good at networking, but I don’t have a ton of advice there, because I suck an networking.
In all cases, it’s a poor system that requires you to work for too long at less than you deserve before you have a large enough portfolio and a strong enough network to get the kinds of gigs you deserve. Even then, success often comes down to a lucky break, but, the longer you work, the more opportunities for lucky breaks you have. The only reason I was able to afford it at all was because I had a job that came with a free room and left my week flexible. If you have savings, or some leads on people who want to hire you, or a solid portfolio, or some work that people who might want to hire you have already seen, that’ll help see you through/speed up the slow part at the beginning.
Beyond that? I’d recommend joining the Freelancers Union. They have a lot of resources for, like, setting your rates, handling your taxes, and getting health insurance.
Best of luck. (Also, your Peridot avatar made Literally Vocalize My Laughter.)
