The high-school freelancer: $30K per year before graduating?

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We all know the saying “If I knew then what I know now, I’d be rich”. Can it be true though? Could you actually be a high school student and make $30,000 per year in your freelance business? I believe it’s possible and I will show you how in this article. When I was a teenager and getting involved in the computer, I heard this all of the time: You need to get off there and find something else to do. You know you won’t make any money playing around on the computer all day and all night. How wrong were my parents? If you’re still in school (or even just starting out in college) this article is for you.

How can the high school student make money?

For the freelancers out there, this one might seem like a pretty easy question to answer, but I think that for the younger aspiring freelancers, the answers below are key in learning what you could do to make money. Obviously, this article is geared towards online businesses, but you could take the principles in this article and build them into an offline business also.

• Web Designer
• Web Developer
• Writer
• Stock images/graphics/photos/audios

If I could give one quick piece of advice though – just because you’re a high school student and you’re just starting out, please do not let people bully you around on pricing and projects. If you’re sticking to your guns on pricing, don’t let people knock you on that. You could also just not even mention your age – it’s not really required and not something a lot of people ask for – just make sure you’re acting like a professional and thats all that will matter to your clients.

3 things every high school freelancer should remember

If you had only 2 minutes to read this article and take away a couple of points, these are the ones I’d hope you take away.

1. Find something you love, and do it – even if people say not to
2. Present yourself as a 30 year old seasoned businessman – even if you’re only 14
3. Stick to your deadlines and keep everything positive

Breaking down the numbers to hit $30,000

O.K. here’s where we get to the actual numbers, so I can prove my point and show you that it IS possible to make this much money as a high school student.

Web Designing

• $400.00 per website design (no coding)
• 7 jobs per month (around 2 on average per week)
• $2,800.00 total per month
• $33,600.00 total per year*

Web Development

• $50.00 per hour (php, css, xhtml, jquery, ruby on rails, ect)
• 50 hours per month / 600 hours per year
• $2,500 total per month
• $30,000 total per year

Writer

• $20.00 per 500 words
• 1,500 total articles
• 125 articles per month
• 31 articles per week
• 4-5 articles per day

There are just three examples. The numbers don’t lie – they’re even on the low end of the pay scale and tend to keep your time needed small. This doesn’t take the time needed for invoicing, conversations, networking, ect – just strictly money making time. I hope this article helps the aspiring high school freelancers out there to realize that you can make a solid income without having to flip burgers, bag groceries or even go to college if you don’t really feel like it.

*thanks to Ali for the typo note. I appreciate it