Self-Employed

Online Sales

May 2014 • Snellville, GA

What I liked

That I can set my own schedule and work as many hours as I wanted. I am able to work around any and all obligations I have as well as control my own income based on how I work in terms of hours and tailoring my sales to my market and customer base.

What I wish was different

Being able to work with at least one other person to relate to within the work.

Advice

Must be highly motivated, organized and self disciplined to work self employed. You must be able to set your own schedule, duties and priorities on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to stay on track. It can be very easy to get side tracked and not get enough work done, so having these 3 main traits is very important when working for yourself.

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Graphic Designer

May 2019 • Tempe, AZ

What I liked

I loved growing my graphic design portfolio by creating graphics for businesses in Arizona.

What I wish was different

Advice

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Modeling

May - August 2019 • Philadelphia, PA

What I liked

Being a combination of professionalism and creativity, modeling taught me networking, communication, how to grow a social media following and innovative skills. It also taught me to manage my time because, being self-employed, I was creating my own schedule.

What I wish was different

I wish I lived closer to a city so that I could have spent more time at it.

Advice

Modeling requires a lot of work, and given how competitive the field is you would need to spend a lot of time networking and improving your skills in order to eventually land jobs.

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Landscaper and Household Assistant

May - August 2019 • Elgin, IL

What I liked

I loved meeting and connecting with my clients. I was able to establish many new relationships in my neighborhood and city.

What I wish was different

I wish I was more cautious about what to wear on the job because I did get poison ivy that was not too comfortable.

Advice

I would share that starting your own business or service is very beneficial in that you get to schedule your own hours, establish your own wage, and be in control. I also think that networking on your own and creating a cliental is very important for future careers.

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Landscaping Business

April 2013 • Kuttawa, KY

What I liked

I employ myself as it is my business. So I choose my hours and how much I want to work.

What I wish was different

I wish I had taken on a few more projects as I only worked about 3 days a week.

Advice

Definitely try and have your own business so you can pay yourself. You earn a lot more this way than working for someone else. If you work hard in someone else's company you get paid the same amount as if you were lazy. Pay yourself and I'll guarantee you'll work harder.

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Handyman

August 2018 • Romeo, MI

What I liked

I enjoyed the freedom and responsibility of self-employment. I had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of project types.

What I wish was different

Nothing.

Advice

It is vastly important to be able to keep oneself accountable when self employed.

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Math Tutor

June - August 2019 • Madera, CA

What I liked

I really enjoyed watching my student grow. He had a really unfortunate experience with an unorganized and impersonal teacher in 4th grade math so he was being left with an incomplete math education for his grade level and left to try to and keep up which made him very unmotivated. I really enjoyed reigniting the joy in working with numbers for him through games and puzzles. It was inspiring to see his growth and that having never done math tutoring before, I helped improved significantly in a summer! I was happy to incorporate prayer into the beginning of our sessions as well since they were a Christian family and it was a blessing to get to know his family and help him also with building good character and attitude.

What I wish was different

I wish I was more confident in myself from the start since I was a little nervous and overthinking that I would ruin his math education, especially it being my first time doing paid tutoring. However, now that I have done it and have received positive feedback from his family that he is doing extremely well in his math class this year, I am more confident and prepared to tutor math again to anyone.

Advice

Get to know the student and how they think. It's okay to take some time to move a little more slowly to first understand what they like and and how they think visualize and verbalize things first so that you can adapt to their learning habits and make their education enjoyable to them! Make it fun and express that you enjoy what you teach as well because children pick up on attitudes and the presence you bring within the first moment you interact with them.

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Building Carpenter

May 2019 • Crested Butte, CO

What I liked

Good wage, physical work

What I wish was different

Advice

Great skills to acquire, but I'm not planning on making a career out of building million dollar homes that sit empty most of the year.

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Freelance Artist

June - September 2019 • Minneapolis, MN

What I liked

What I wish was different

Advice

Don’t burn bridges; always keep networking.

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Nanny

May 2019 • Norwood, OH

What I liked

The flexible hours, working with children, the pay.

What I wish was different

I wish I had pursued something more closely aligned with my career path.

Advice

I would definitely suggest to spend time exploring your options for employment, internships, etc. That time is very valuable in the future and can be a great asset to you in your career. Get some experience!

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Swim Instructor

June 2019 • Irvine, CA

What I liked

I loved working with first-time swimmers on fundamental technique concepts.

What I wish was different

I wish I had been able to start earlier in the summer.

Advice

If you have a skill that you can teach, self-employment is a great option for university students who are home for the summer. It’s very rewarding and the hours are flexible, which makes it easy to budget your own time and balance working with a social life, school, and spending time with family.

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Pool Maintenance and Repair

March 2016 • Phoenix, AZ

What I liked

Flexible schedule, self-accountable, I manage my take0home pay.

What I wish was different

Not having to work outdoors so much

Advice

Drink plenty of water.

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Babysitter

June - August 2019 • North Little Rock, AR

What I liked

I liked the flexible schedule and being able to take the kids with me to run errands that I needed to run. It freed up a lot of time in my personal life.

What I wish was different

Advice

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Foreman

January 2012 • Terre Haute, IN

What I liked

The pay was great

What I wish was different

More hours

Advice

Work hard and you will get great things back

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Nanny

June - August 2019 • Altus, OK

What I liked

I really enjoyed spending time with the child and learning things about them. I also learned new recipes as I cooked for them every day.

What I wish was different

The child was very spoiled, which sometimes made long days very hard when we couldn’t do something she wanted.

Advice

I was too afraid to discipline the child because I’m not her parent. However, as the nanny, you are allowed to say no to things and you are allowed to shut down a situation when the child is misbehaving.

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Nanny

May 2019 • New Orleans, LA

What I liked

Hanging out with babies all day

What I wish was different

More hourly pay

Advice

It’s not for everyone but if you like it, it’s really fun!

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Drawing Tutor

May 2018 • Bradenton, FL

What I liked

I liked the ability to form a relationship with the student and family.

What I wish was different

It was a long commute so I wish that had been shorter.

Advice

Don't be afraid to make yourself known to potential employers.

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Landscape

May - July 2019 • Carmel, IN

What I liked

Stayed in shape physically.

What I wish was different

I wish that the schedule would have been more defined and our work wasn't dependent on weather circumstances.

Advice

Landscape is hard and there is a tough market for it. Market share grows slowly but there's always people looking to change their services to better providers.

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Digital Marketing & Business Development Consultant

April 2019 • Omaha, NE

What I liked

This opportunity has afforded me the experience to dig into a start up e-commerce shop. The company recently opened a shop in Omaha, NE where I was able to organize a technology stack used in day to day operations. Most of the technologies are able to work hand in hand with the online shop as well as the physical store front. The best part about this experience so far has been using facebook business manager, and the tools within to best target potential customers.

What I wish was different

One thing I would have done different in this experience would have been to hire a team member for my consulting services. By doing so, I would be able to bounce ideas and gather new insights that would help steer growth and assist in target marketing campaigns/tactics.

Advice

One piece of advice that I would offer anyone diving into a similar experience would be to not be afraid of any opportunities whether big or small. Before I was given this opportunity, I had always worked for someone else. With the opportunity to start my own business and help other small businesses grow, I have not only gained a tremendous amount of knowledge on what it is like to run a business of my own, however I get to work with small businesses to provide strategies for growth in their respective industries.

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