What I Learned Doing Freelance Jobs in College

In college, I was often searching for ways to apply my classroom teachings to the real world. I felt that by putting what I had
already learned in the classroom to work, I’d be able to find the most value while in college.

I had a bunch of internships, but I was still hungry for more unique experiences. This is when I came up with the idea to do freelance work for any business that would give me a shot…

Getting a small business to pay for my freelancing abilities was a challenge. I knocked on the doors of many small businesses and received many no’s. These businesses included coffee shops, sporting good stores, restaurants, clothing stores, and bars.

Through rejection, it was clear that I had to redefine my pitch to small business owners. I had to create stronger proposition for why these small business owners would want my help. This meant I had to find solutions to their unique problems. I did this by asking a whole lot of questions.

Every small business is different, which means they might each undergo a unique set of problems. As a freelance worker, you need to understand their unique challenges, in order to understand how to fix them.

Here are some of the questions I began to ask small business owners:

1. What is your target customer?
2. How do most of your customers find out about your business and offerings?
3. Are you currently running any promotions with college students?
4. How much business are you seeing come through the door? How does it fluctuate by day of week?
5. How is your social media presence?
6. Are you willing to try out new and creative campaigns to drive sales?
7. How much money have you spent on marketing?
8. Do you have any competitors in the area? If so, what are they doing better?

With my new approach, small businesses began to become more interested in meeting with me because they saw how I was actively interested in solving their unique challenges.

My persistence paid off and I was able to connect with the owner of a sports pub near my college campus. The pub, Tobacco Road Tap Room, happens to be the first Chicago sports pub to affiliate itself with an entire collegiate athletic conference. During our conversations, we both saw how our ideas for Tobacco Road’s future were heavily aligned. He needed help driving foot traffic, boosting online presence, and creating event engagement. These were all things I knew I could help him succeed with.

After our initial conversation, I told him I’d return in a week with a PowerPoint presentation outlining specifically what I’d bring to the table. My presentation would layout his problems, my solutions, and why I was best equipped for the job. This helped him clearly see how he’d get a return on investment by hiring me as a freelance worker. Always layout your plan.

He ended up hiring me and I worked with Tobacco Road for over a year. My freelance role evolved over time, and I had opportunities to work on some very interesting projects.

Here are some of the things I did for Tobacco Road:

1. Deployed interactive marketing campaigns that increased foot traffic exponentially.
2. Helped Tobacco Road connect more effectively with 21+ college students for events.
3. Ran Tobacco Road’s social media and online advertising across all social platforms.
4. Created unique specials and day-of-week deals for customers.
5. Developed video promos and visual content that helped Tobacco Road trend within the community.
6. Marketed events like: live band karaoke night, concert ticket raffles, and mechanical bull nights.

Overall, he was very satisfied with my freelance work because I was able to deliver strong results for Tobacco Road. I did this by understanding his challenges, creating monthly metrics, and meeting with him often to see if new challenges arose and how I could help solve them. In addition, the responsibilities of freelance work gave me unique experiences that I wouldn’t have received elsewhere.

Everyone wants to do freelance work, but how do you actually get hired?

1. Have a Presence — Ask Questions and Be Engaged.
2. Have a Passion — Show small business owners that you‘re passionate about what you do.
3. Have a Plan — Come to meetings prepared with a plan of how you will solve their unique problems.

Small business owners want to know whether or not you’re able to help solve their challenges, in order to help their business grow. Freelance work is problem-solving.

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