Does Freelancing Have an Age Limit? (Everything Explained) -

Whether you specialize in graphic design, web design, copywriting or even video editing, freelancing is a great way to make a substantial income on your own terms.

Are you under 18 and are wondering if you can actually make money freelancing?

In this blog post we will look at whether there is a legal age for freelancing and answer some concerns about the subject.

Answer To The Question Is there any age restriction for freelancing?

No, there is no age restriction to be a freelancer, but there may be some drawbacks to being a freelancer at such a young age. For example one of the best freelancing platforms, Upwork, has an age limit of 18+.

This means that if you are under 18 years old, you will not be able to register on Upwork because the legal age limit is set at 18.

This isn’t the case for Fiverr though, you can be as young as 13 years old to work on Fiverr. You may have to use your parents (or an adults) PayPal account in order to get paid.

So as you can see some platforms are easier than others when it comes to freelancing. Lets dive into how you can take your freelancing career into your own hands as someone who’s under 18.

What Are The Best Freelancing Gigs For People Under 18?

Although you’re young and think potential clients may not take you seriously, there are actually some gigs that are well suited to someone under 18.

Social Media

If there’s one thing younger people have the advantage in, it’s social media. Many businesses today are digitized by social media pages and profiles. There is a lot of potential for a younger person to excel in this area.

You can provide content for businesses and even use different growth tactics that will give the business more traffic to their page.

Creating Youtube Thumbnails Or Video Editing

Creating a good thumbnail or editing a video for somebody is a great way to get your foot in the door.

Many companies will want to create thumbnails for their videos and use platforms such as Fiverr or Upwork to have this done. You can even take it a step further and help create gifs from existing videos that businesses may need.

Writing Blog Posts

In today’s world there is a lot of space for written content. If you have a good grasp on the English language and enjoy writing, this can be a great gig to take on. There are many different types of articles that people may need written including product descriptions or blog posts. You can even try your hand at writing ebooks.

These are just a few different jobs that you can take on as a freelancer being somebody under 18.

What Are The Benefits Of Being a Freelancer Under 18 Years Old?

Although you might think of the downsides of being a freelancer at a young age, there are actually plenty of benefits that outweigh them by far.

You Can Learn Great Skills At a Young Age

Depending on the freelance work you decide to do, you can learn an inordinate amount of skills when you’re young. This is what will help you to progress in your freelancing career moving forward.

Not only will these skills help you throughout adult hood but they can also be added to your resume when you’re ready for your dream job.

For example, if you want to be a writer but are under 18, you could write blog posts for companies in your area. This shows initiative and can give you an edge when applying for writing jobs or internships.

You Can Set Your Own Schedule Working As A Freelancer

If you’re under 18 years old you may go to school. Freelancing is great because you can work around your school schedule and set your own hours.

Just make sure you learn to balance your schedule and make time for school work. You will need to be disciplined in order to make sure your grades don’t drop while freelancing.

Teaches You How To Deal With People At An Early Age

Effective people in life know how to handle people. Doing business with plenty of different people before you even go to college is a good way to learn how to communicate and interact with people. It will help you when it comes time for interviews and improve your ability to deal with different personalities in the work place.

Gets You In Touch With Your Creative Side

When you’re in school it can seem kind of repetitive. You do the same things over and over every day. This can kill your creativity. Working as a freelancer is a great way to explore your creative side and do something that interests you. You learn more about yourself when doing this kind of work than being at school doing work you need to do.

Early Retirement

If you could learn how to make really good money online from the young age of 13 or 14 it will give you the advantage of retiring early. This is 100% possible to do if you start learning now.

Learning how to manage the money you make at that age is a skill many people look back and wish they had.

How To Grow Your Business As a Freelancer Without Relying On Platforms

Age rules on freelancing platforms can change at any time, so it’s best to have a portion of your business where you learn to acquire clients without using those platforms.

Below are some ways to do this:

Social Media Platforms

This is the first step to gain clients outside of platforms. Posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn can really help you get the ball rolling. Make sure your profile is professional looking and that you post interesting content.

Relationship building is key to getting clients through social media platforms. There are many freelance people who use their followers as a test run for new projects they’re working on. If you start getting good feedback on those projects then you know it’s worth pursuing.

Content Creation (Blog or Youtube)

The more things you can create that are related to your chosen field the better. Blogs and YouTube channels are a great way of creating content that can be used to get new clients.

The more blog posts and videos you put out the better. You can use these posts in your social media profiles or in emails to prospective clients.

Through SEO on Youtube and your blog you can reach a lot of people through organic results alone.

Ask Clients For Referrals

If you build good relationships with clients they may refer you to other people who need your services. This is why it’s important to treat every client well no matter how big or small the project.

Build Relationships With Other Freelancers Who Sell Other Services

If you can build relationships with different freelancers who sell other services you can benefit from cross promotion with them. This is where you send clients to each other when they need different services.

You can even make this beneficial for both parties by giving each other a certain percentage for each referral you give to them and vice versa.

Conclusion:

If you’re under eighteen and you’re wanting to get good at freelancing then this article is for you. Many people focus on the negative reasons you shouldn’t do this but as you can see there are many benefits to starting young.

It’s time for you to take control of your life and be your own boss. When you get older life can get in the way of doing what you want to do, so why not start now while you’re still free?

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Does Freelancing Have an Age Limit? (Everything Explained)