Freelancing has become a popular option among young artists. I talked to Lina Sattarin, an entrepreneur and photographer about how she got into this line of work and how other people interested in entering the world of freelancing can start.
(Sattarin) “I just started taking pictures of my friends for fun for free just because I liked it” “You hear a lot of photographers say it doesn’t matter what kind of camera you use it just matters about your eye, your creative eye, and how you edit and stuff, so you could really do it on your iPhone if you want to”
To outsiders, freelancing can be seen as just the project it is, but in reality, there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes to keep business flowing.
(Sattarin) “It’s a lot of just, networking and my name just going around different people so they know to come to me, and social media is so important because they’ll go look at that to see if they want to hire you.”
(Sattarin) “I just started photographing weddings they’re a lot of fun, they’re stressful but I like doing those more because senior pictures are like an hour and its over weddings are a couple hours or a whole day, its juts cool to build a relationship with the bride and groom and I love sending out the pictures, that’s probably my favorite part of the process is sending out the pictures and seeing my clients post them on Instagram it makes me happy”
In today’s world, learning information has become easier than ever and Lilly Swanson, a freelance graphic designer told me how she learned these programs from home
(Swanson) “YouTube, it taught me everything and yeah just finding people on YouTube who have a great array of the basics. I’ve also found great lectures actual classes that were free, and I spent hours and hours and hours watching those and following along through all of that”
The freedom of being your own boss sounds great but while freelancing, this requires more responsibility and the drive to keep pushing toward your goal.
(Swanson) “I mean creativity basically and dedication to do so because you get to be your own boss and it takes time to get used to that aspect or to get jobs and clients you have to be dedicated even if you go weeks without anyone messaging you back, or selling anything or getting clients you just have to keep at it takes time”
(Sattarin) “You never know when some random person is going to find you through your Instagram or even through your website and yeah, I guess the hardest part is always being on top of the next thing you’re doing”
Overall, Lilly and Lina both agree that if you’re wanting to get into freelancing, start today. There are so many resources from YouTube videos to free lectures.
(Swanson) “For graphic design if you’re not in classes or whatever you need to teach yourself first but like getting started there’s no day like today and it takes time to even get a response back or anything when your first starting you need to feel out what it’s like and juts it’s a waiting game and you have to be at it every day”
Reporting from The Campus Ledger this has been Paige Winters