How I began freelancing/working independently... ✨

I am a multi-passionate, creative person and I do a lot of different things. I'm a poet, a dancer, a director, an arts fundraiser, a book editor, a content creator. One element of my life that allows me to be and do all of these things is the extra income I make by freelancing, also called working independently, from anywhere, any time.

The number one question that I get asked on my TikTok when I share my day to day life is...

"how did you get started freelancing?"

Let me break the timeline down for you. While reading, just know that there's no one right way to do this, but this was my journey. If you're not interested in my personal journey, you can skip down below to my tips and tricks:

✍🏻 2013-2016: I worked toward my undergraduate degree in English - Creative Writing at DePaul University in Chicago. I minored in French and Philosophy. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but did very well in school and enjoyed that my liberal arts school valued critical thinking and deep inquiry. I loved reading, writing research papers and writing poetry.

✍🏻 2014: I took a research assistantship working for a literary journal housed at DePaul and worked under the editor who was also a professor. This was my first step into literary publishing. In that role, I learned a lot about how an editor selects work, and did a lot of copy editing and proofreading. I also worked as a barista.

✍🏻 2016: I graduated from DePaul Summa Cum Laude with distinction in English and my professors encouraged me to apply to MFA programs to pursue poetry writing. At this point, I thought my only option for careers if I wanted to write poetry was to be a professor or to work in publishing, both careers that were interesting to me but low-paying.

✍🏻 2017-2019: I got into Emerson College in Boston, MA on a full fellowship to receive my MFA in Creative Writing - Poetry. I moved to Boston and began my program at Emerson. I wrote prolifically. I also worked as a barista. During this entire time, even though I was on full fellowship, I struggled with finances and the extreme living expenses in Boston.

✍🏻 2017: I worked as an adjunct professor teaching intro to college writing to freshman. I loved the students, but quickly realized being a professor was not for me, and that working in academia could be a real ripoff.

✍🏻 2017: I got a job as an editorial assistant at Ploughshares Literary Journal, one of the most well renowned literary journals and media outlets in the country. I worked with the editors, authors, and guest judges. I learned the ins and outs of editorial, and did a lot of project management, volunteer management, and copy editing/proofreading of forthcoming issues. I loved it and it paid very poorly.

✍🏻 2018: I became the Editor-in-Chief for Redivider Literary Journal, the journal housed at Emerson College. I selected work to be in the magazine, and ran and executed the operations of the organization from beginning to end. It was a volunteer position.

✍🏻 2019: I realized that literary publishing was low paying and did not challenge me enough. The part of the organization I was most interested in was administration, fundraising and grant writing, so I took unpaid internships at two local nonprofits to get fundraising experience.

✍🏻 Late 2019: I graduated from my MFA in December 2019 with about 50k in debt just from living expenses. I loved my program and gained so much from it, and do not regret it.

✍🏻 2020: I got a 9-5 job working as a fundraiser for an art and design college. I still have this job today. I love it -- I work from home, I am paid well, I set good boundaries, and my work is creative and meaningful.

✍🏻 2020: When I was done with grad school, I had more time on my hands, and let my colleagues know that I was open for editing projects. This is how I began informally freelancing. I would edit books or advise on poetry of friends, or friends of friends.

✍🏻 Late 2020: I had settled into my 9-5, the quarantine had happened, and I was started making vlogs on TikTok. The gravity of my debt settled in. My wedding was coming up in 2021 and I wanted to be more proactive about increasing my income and decreasing my debt. I started to see videos about various freelancing platforms and signed up on all of them, including Fiverr and Upwork. I opened services such as book editing, beta reading, and reviewing poetry. I also threw in fundraising writing since I do that as my 9-5.

✍🏻 2021: The orders started pouring in for my book editing gig on Fiverr. I got one 5 star review after another. I expanded onto more freelancing sites and continued getting organic business. I signed up here on Contra as well. I'm hoping to send all of my organic clients through Contra, as it's an amazing platform and they don't take any of your money (Fiverr, Upwork, etc. take 20%)

✍🏻 Today, I work about 10 hours per week (evenings and Saturdays) on my freelancing business and am scaling slowly and carefully. I am paying more towards my debt while saving more. I am dreaming of opening an agency and continuing to scale my business. I am starting to think of ways to teach others how to do what I'm doing. I am focusing a lot on content creation and starting a YouTube channel.

Now that you've heard my personal story, here are my tips and tricks if you want to get started yourself...

💫 Don't overthink it; just start. There's never going to be a perfect time where you feel fully ready or prepared to do something new and different. You have to make time in your schedule, learn the skills that you're going to offer as services (or decide on something you already know how to do), spend a lot of time fully filling out your freelancing profiles, and try not to make excuses for why now isn't the time.

💫 Do something you love. My purpose on this earth is to create, and to help others create to their fullest potential. I chose to edit books because I feel that it aligns with my life purpose of helping others create art to their full potential. If I did not love what I did, none of this would be worth it. Freelancing takes a lot of hard work and initiative, so it won't be sustainable if you don't like or find contentment in what you do.

💫 Don't let the initial investment deter you. Nothing good happens without putting in some effort. Getting your freelancing journey started takes a lot of work. This is not a get-rick-quick scheme. It will take a lot of time to put together high quality freelancing profiles, a portfolio of your work, or learn a skill to offer if you don't have one already. I recommend Fiverr as a good place to get started, and this site here, Contra, as an amazing place to host your portfolio and send organic clients. Once you have all of this set up, it will probably take some time and a scrappy, resourceful attitude to get your first few clients. You must be willing to put in the work during this period of initial investment without expecting any return for a few months. I promise that if you stick out this period, you will reap the rewards tenfold.

💫 Time block your days. Most people have to keep some sort of regular 9-5 job while they get started on their freelancing journey. Or, you may be like me and WANT to do many different things! I'm a multi-passionate, creative person and I actually love my 9-5 at an art school, love my freelancing business, love making art of my own, love content creation and want to do it all! In order to do this, it's very important to make the most out of your days, and also prioritize rest and recovery. Use a paper planner, your google calendar, or even a Notion layout to schedule out your days hour by hour. Try to align this with your own patterns and needs. For me, a typical work day goes something like this:

• 7 AM wakeup
• 7:15 AM gratitude journal, morning pages, work on poetry, read a book
• 8:30 AM edit and post tiktok vlog
• 9 AM start working 9-5 from home
• ~11 AMish once I finish initial tasks from my 9-5, I work on customer service/answering messages for freelancing
• 1 PM lunch break / walk outdoors if possible
• 5 PM finish working 9-5 from home but stay at desk
• 5 PM work on freelance book editing
• 6:30 or 7 PM work out, either cardio and yoga at home or resistance training at the gym
• 7:30 PM cook homemade dinner
• 8:30 PM relax and unwind, sometimes work on freelancing another hour or so if needed, but usually do not
• 10 PM absolute logoff time, I never work past 10 PM to have good sleep hygiene and ensure I have time to relax and hang out with my husband!

💫 Keep a mindset of constant learning and improvement. Engage with media and trends around freelancing, independent work and online work. Read books, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos -- there is so much free, incredible information online. Independent work, remote work, working online, the "gig economy" are the way of the future. If you want to be the most successful you can possibly be, you will need to follow news, social media creators, groups and forums, etc. that discuss these topics.

💫 "side hustling" is not for the faint hearted. No matter how you swing it, freelancing is hard work. Especially at first, it took me some fourteen hour work days to get things started. The thing is, this is something that you're building for yourself, not for some other employer. The more hours you put in, the more successful your business will be. And once you get to a point where you can raise your prices and scale your business, you will be able to work less to earn the same amount, and more, and find financial freedom, but you have to work hard to get there.

To wrap this up...

I am of the belief that everyone has the power to break free from doing things that don't serve them. I know there's a lot of discussion around quitting corporate jobs, but don't let anyone else's narrative pressure you. My number one piece of advice is to do some real work thinking about your vision for your life. If you never had to worry about earning money ever again, what would you do each day? Once you have that answer, work backwards to figure out what you must do today to facilitate that life for yourself tomorrow. What are your habits? What are your values? How do you spend your time? What type of job serves your life goals? Oftentimes, freelancing can fit really well into this vision for many people because it offers more freedom.

If you have any questions, I'm always open to chat about this. You can DM me on TikTok, or email me dana.alsamsam@gmail.com.

If you're interested in booking my book editing services, you can do that here!