For the past two weeks of my updates I kept it real with you guys. I was making $0 despite putting close to full time effort into my various ventures. Today, I’m happy to tell you that I finally broke $0!
Two Cents Totals
Total Billable Hours: 6
Hourly Rate: $25/hour gross; $20/hour net
Total Income: $150 gross, $120 net
My Client Stopped Ghosting Me
Last week on Instagram, I mentioned that I was supposed to start a follow-on project with an old freelance client, however, he was ghosting me. It turns out, a family member had become very sick, so he was unable to prep the project in order to turn it over to me.
I was excited to see that he touched base with me last weekend and we got a start on the project this week. Basically, I am designing a presentation for him and also providing lightweight analysis for the content in the presentation. My client is a non-profit that is looking to establish an endowment, so my job is to provide an overview of the endowment building process and provide a recommendation as to which financial advisory firm they should hire to manage it.
Although this job is challenging given the research and industry knowledge it requires, I’ve enjoyed drawing on research and analysis skill that I developed in past internships to add some value for the client. I have also been able to leverage my network to make the research stage go much faster. Rather than starting from square one, I’ve contacted a few people with knowledge in the space to help me gain a better perspective.
I put in a total of 6 hours for this project at a rate of $25/hour. Since we are working off a contract hosted by Upwork, 20% will go to fees, so my actual hourly rate is $20/hour.
My Network has Turned into a Gold Mine of Opportunity
The other area of work that I want to talk about this week is my search for a temporary part-time or full-time job. Although this type of thing isn’t usually considered a side hustle, I am counting it because it is on the side of my delayed full-time employment. Any money I make in addition to that of my “real” job is considered side income to me.
At the end of last week, I really kicked my search into full gear when I realized how hard it was going to be to make money doing the projects I was already working on. I decided to start my search with a few online applications to some temporary remote work. One of these applications actually turned into an interview (which went very well)! Since the company was a staffing agency, I’m still waiting to hear whether the job is going to go through, but I’m pretty sure if it does, it’s mine if I want it! The work would be reviewing contracts and summarizing them in a database for 40 hours/week $19/hr with time and a half overtime pay.
The area of opportunity that has really surprised me is my network! I started notifying people of my job search (think professors, LinkedIn connections, other professional networks, alumni networks, Instagram community) last week, and boy, I’ve gotten wind of so many great opportunities. In a few cases, people reached out directly to me without me having to apply to anything. In others, I just had to send a resume and a short note to get considered for an opportunity someone had forwarded to me. It seems like these opportunities are much more high quality and require more skill than any of the ones I was finding online.
Currently, I am still following up on many of these things, so I don’t have any concrete updates, but I am very optimistic that I may end up with a great opportunity that I would have never found without my network!
Want More?
If you want to continue to follow my journey and also incorporate financial literacy into your everyday life, follow me on instagram @twocentswithjulia.