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What are the best freelancing skills to learn in 2023?

Anything considered a "hustle" and not necessarily a CENTS-based Fastlane

PrTend

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Hello everyone, i'm looking for a way to increase my current 0eur/h income to something more reasonable when it comes to building a foundation for future bussiness endevours and i believe freelancing is the way to go. For context i am a 17 year old senior in highschool. What are some good freelancing skills i can start learning today?
 
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Jobless

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Depends on what you are good at. You can't build a 'foundation' on your weaknesses. It should be built on your innate strengths/talents.
 

K1 Lambo

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Hello everyone, i'm looking for a way to increase my current 0eur/h income to something more reasonable when it comes to building a foundation for future bussiness endevours and i believe freelancing is the way to go. For context i am a 17 year old senior in highschool. What are some good freelancing skills i can start learning today?
Learn marketing and sales. You master those two and selling whatever services or products will make your life SO much easier.

As far as what to do, you have to find something that is in high demand and sell it as much as possible. My little brother for instance who's a year older than you runs his own little e-commerce store and he's probably netting $6k-$7k a month just by flipping apple products, TVs or video game consoles. He's been doing it since he was 14. You can make money in pretty much any industry if you have the work ethic, strategy and you have something that's in demand. Good luck!
 
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PrTend

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Learn marketing and sales. You master those two and selling whatever services or products will make your life SO much easier.

As far as what to do, you have to find something that is in high demand and sell it as much as possible. My little brother for instance who's a year older than you runs his own little e-commerce store and he's probably netting $6k-$7k a month just by flipping apple products, TVs or video game consoles. He's been doing it since he was 14. You can make money in pretty much any industry if you have the work ethic, strategy and you have something that's in demand. Good luck!
Thank you! This is really helpfull! Big thanks!!
 

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Hello everyone, i'm looking for a way to increase my current 0eur/h income to something more reasonable when it comes to building a foundation for future bussiness endevours and i believe freelancing is the way to go. For context i am a 17 year old senior in highschool. What are some good freelancing skills i can start learning today?

IMO...

1) Helping businesses create short-form video out of their long-form video. The best bit is you don't need to ask for creatives and you don't need to ask for permission. Just find some big YouTube channels with long-form videos and create some short-form videos for them. Take it from there.

OR

2) Running paid ads for businesses. By default you should be dealing with businesses that already believe in spending money to generate leads/sales, AND they're likely already paying monthly to do so.


Maybe even combine 1) and 2) above and learn to create videos and then how to profitably put ad spend behind them.
 

heavy_industry

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Depends on what you are good at. You can't build a 'foundation' on your weaknesses. It should be built on your innate strengths/talents.
This is the worst advice that you can give to a 17 year old.

At this young age you haven't even developed your basic life skills and your brain is so plastic and can learn so quickly that any "weakness" can become your greatest strength and any "strength" can become your greatest weakness if you stop training it - in just a matter of years or even months.

Trying to play by your perceived strengths and weaknesses at 17 means sabotaging yourself and severely limiting your extraordinary potential.
@PrTend Please don't do that. Try as many things, learn as many things, and work as hard as you can. What you do now will influence the rest of your adult life.


As @Martin Z has said, it's much more important to develop a very solid work ethic and ability to think strategically. You will be able to apply this to any field of work and be successful.

As for the specific freelancing methods, there are endless opportunities so pick whatever you want. The important thing is that you start immediately, strive to achieve mastery, and you keep working until you achieve your goals (financial or otherwise).

Good luck and don't waste your time.
 

K1 Lambo

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This is the worst advice that you can give to a 17 year old.

At this young age you haven't even developed your basic life skills and your brain is so plastic and can learn so quickly that any "weakness" can become your greatest strength and any "strength" can become your greatest weakness if you stop training it - in just a matter of years or even months.

Trying to play by your perceived strengths and weaknesses at 17 means sabotaging yourself and severely limiting your extraordinary potential.
@PrTend Please don't do that. Try as many things, learn as many things, and work as hard as you can. What you do now will influence the rest of your adult life.


As @Martin Z has said, it's much more important to develop a very solid work ethic and ability to think strategically. You will be able to apply this to any field of work and be successful.

As for the specific freelancing methods, there are endless opportunities so pick whatever you want. The important thing is that you start immediately, strive to achieve mastery, and you keep working until you achieve your goals (financial or otherwise).

Good luck and don't waste your time.
True. Actually from ages 16-26 you should be trying out different things, learn to fail and get up as quickly as you can because you're still very young and have lots of time AND even if you fail big, it's not really going to matter since those will be lessons for you THAT you can later apply when you're starting something that's working for you.

How is the average 17 year old nowadays going to know what's he's good or bad at when most 17 year olds are scrolling or dancing on TikTok all day or playing Fortnite all day? I know it because I was 17 4-5 years ago and my dream back then was to be a professional football player.

Actually @PrTend , do what actually scares you. Because most things that are worth it in life come from doing the uncomfortable things or the things that make you uncomfortable. Do what you don't want to do.

DO what scares you the most man, it'll help you out tremendously later in life. Scared of door knocking or doing cold calls? Do it anyway, you'll learn so much by doing it. Are you scared of putting your face up on YouTube or social media? Do it!
 

PrTend

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This is the worst advice that you can give to a 17 year old.

At this young age you haven't even developed your basic life skills and your brain is so plastic and can learn so quickly that any "weakness" can become your greatest strength and any "strength" can become your greatest weakness if you stop training it - in just a matter of years or even months.

Trying to play by your perceived strengths and weaknesses at 17 means sabotaging yourself and severely limiting your extraordinary potential.
@PrTend Please don't do that. Try as many things, learn as many things, and work as hard as you can. What you do now will influence the rest of your adult life.


As @Martin Z has said, it's much more important to develop a very solid work ethic and ability to think strategically. You will be able to apply this to any field of work and be successful.

As for the specific freelancing methods, there are endless opportunities so pick whatever you want. The important thing is that you start immediately, strive to achieve mastery, and you keep working until you achieve your goals (financial or otherwise).

Good luck and don't waste your time.
Thanks for the advice! I guess i will just choose any freelancing skill my eyes slings to and just commit myself to it instead of just looking for the "best" one all day. Thanks you again for your in-depth reply it was really helpfull!
 
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Andy Black

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Btw... "learning" shouldn't be your goal.

Help people, get paid.

Do it right and you'll get paid to learn.
 

PrTend

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True. Actually from ages 16-26 you should be trying out different things, learn to fail and get up as quickly as you can because you're still very young and have lots of time AND even if you fail big, it's not really going to matter since those will be lessons for you THAT you can later apply when you're starting something that's working for you.

How is the average 17 year old nowadays going to know what's he's good or bad at when most 17 year olds are scrolling or dancing on TikTok all day or playing Fortnite all day? I know it because I was 17 4-5 years ago and my dream back then was to be a professional football player.

Actually @PrTend , do what actually scares you. Because most things that are worth it in life come from doing the uncomfortable things or the things that make you uncomfortable. Do what you don't want to do.

DO what scares you the most man, it'll help you out tremendously later in life. Scared of door knocking or doing cold calls? Do it anyway, you'll learn so much by doing it. Are you scared of putting your face up on YouTube or social media? Do it!
I mean i have already failed in a great deal of things : programming, music production and now currently illustration (though illustration more so due to fear of AI.) Though i think ironically fear of failure is a big crutch in my life right now thats stopping me from making any real descisions or actions. Thank you for your reply it really opened my eyes on that part.
 

ZCP

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get a sales job. preferably commission based. sell, sell, sell.
look for opportunity.

AND run a side hustle. buy / sell. make connections. arbitrage.
 

PrTend

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IMO...

1) Help businesses create short-form video out of their long-form video. The best bit is you don't need to ask for creatives and you don't need to ask for permission. Just find some big YouTube channels with long-form videos and create some short-form videos for them. Take it from there.

OR

2) Run paid ads for businesses. By default you should be dealing with businesses that already believe in spending money to generate leads/sales, AND they're likely already paying monthly to do so.


Maybe even combine 1) and 2) above and learn to create videos and then how to profitably put ad spend behind them.
Thank you for the ideas! I'm actually thinking of doing something similiar in terms of the first option. I checked out Fiverr and apparently people are getting paid for promoting music on their youtube channels. It would take some time but i believe i could achieve similiar results, if not better results than them.
 

heavy_industry

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Though i think ironically fear of failure is a big crutch in my life right now thats stopping me from making any real descisions or actions.
The only way you could possibly fail at 17 is to not do anything, like most kids that don't understand the preciousness and limited nature of time.

Fear is great. But use it to your advantage:
Don't be afraid of trying and "failing", be afraid of doing nothing and staying the same.
 
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Andy Black

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Jobless

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This is the worst advice that you can give to a 17 year old.

At this young age you haven't even developed your basic life skills and your brain is so plastic and can learn so quickly that any "weakness" can become your greatest strength and any "strength" can become your greatest weakness if you stop training it - in just a matter of years or even months.

Trying to play by your perceived strengths and weaknesses at 17 means sabotaging yourself and severely limiting your extraordinary potential.
@PrTend Please don't do that. Try as many things, learn as many things, and work as hard as you can. What you do now will influence the rest of your adult life.


As @Martin Z has said, it's much more important to develop a very solid work ethic and ability to think strategically. You will be able to apply this to any field of work and be successful.

As for the specific freelancing methods, there are endless opportunities so pick whatever you want. The important thing is that you start immediately, strive to achieve mastery, and you keep working until you achieve your goals (financial or otherwise).

Good luck and don't waste your time.
You may lack skills at 17, but you do have genetic advantages and limitations from the day you were born. You possess some level of natural intelligience that can be categorized into areas such as verbal, logical, visual-spatial, social etc. There are many types. I don't believe in 'tabula rasa.'

I agree that few people know themselves enough at 17 to determine the best path forward, but they may perceive useful clues from their environment. If they don't know where they are most capable, they will have to find out. Only this can unlock their potential.
 

fastlane_dad

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Sales. I went into it at exactly your age (17).

The more 'Customer Forward Facing' the better. It'll challenge you to question all of your assumptions and what you thought was true.

No better way to get your head in the game and get your a$$ kicked in more way then one.
 
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Andy Black

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I'm going to be controversial (and biased of course) and say NOT to go into sales.

Pick a skill, help people with it, get paid. You don't even need to be an expert at the skill, you just need to be willing to roll your sleeves up and figure it out.

There's a line of thinking I subscribe to that employees are trained in sales to make them think like a business owner. Every employee minded person I've spoken to who's had sales training has sucked at building relationships and creating win-wins.

So my suggestion to a 17 year old who wants to become a better business owner is to provide a service to business owners and find out real fast how business owners think.

My two original suggestions above (create short-form videos from long-form videos, and to run paid ads) are both B2B services that help businesses make more sales. Making sales for businesses is more sexy than saving money. Making sales for businesses makes you their new best friend. Successful business people roll with other successful business people. They get brownie points from their friends by referring great resources to them.
 

theazizmoh_

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Hello everyone, i'm looking for a way to increase my current 0eur/h income to something more reasonable when it comes to building a foundation for future bussiness endevours and i believe freelancing is the way to go. For context i am a 17 year old senior in highschool. What are some good freelancing skills i can start learning today?
I would say video editing
Both short form and long form
 

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