Becoming a freelance writer is a fairly recent decision for me. When I was in my junior I considered freelance writing a little bit, but I thought that I would have to be fairly experienced before considering it. When I jumped into creating a business, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I have a healthy amount of experience already.

1. You Do Your Own Accounting

When I found my first paying client, I got the chance to create my own invoice, meaning I finally had to keep track of my earnings. While you’re a college student, you have to keep track of your long time loans as well as your daily expenses. You might consider working an extra job or looking for paying internships.

2. You’re On A Four-Year Plan, Or Six, Or Eight…

When you sign up for college courses, it is assumed that you will complete them within a set amount of time. Same goes for a business. Having daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals is crucial to success. What college teaches you is that it’s not enough to know how to get to your goal, having a definite time frame for completion also matters.

3. Networking Will Add To Your Success

Within the past four months I must have collected around 100 business cards. They’re stacked on my desk right now. They’re all from people I’ve met in person, ranging from lawyers, to writers such as myself. Once I got my own cards, I handed them out as well. I introduced myself to various people with the intent of possibly working with them in the future.

During your college career, you have lots of time to meet as many people as you are able, whom will help you along once you graduate. The more people that know who you are, the more likely it is that you’ll find an organization that can use your skills.

4. Sometimes You Have To Work Weekends

I remember a couple of days during these past few months where I voluntarily spent a Saturday looking for clients, or obtaining more knowledge about the freelance writing field. I remember many more weekends of extra homework and studying.

5. National Holidays Are Awesome

While I was in school: “Day off? Awesome.”

While running a business: “Everybody is on vacation today? I guess I am too. Awesome.” (Although some days I’ll just work anyway.)

In conclusion, if you’ve considered a job working under someone else after college, and think starting a business might be beyond your skills, realize that you’ve most likely been developing entrepreneurial skills all along. In addition, if look under the surface of your college career, you can see the qualities a student needs to develop in order to gain the most success: consistency, research skills, self-promotion, and quality work.