Software freelancing to freedom in 3 months

[ab1863]

Interested to see how this went!

 

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[ohmamecr]

I'm Hugo. I'm 19, French, and I want to become a software engineer and data scientist.
I wish to use the skills I gain along the way to help people & businesses and add value.
For the next three months, I'll be freelancing doing software.

Why?
Recently, I was accepted to an software engineering school. The issue is that it's far away, so I'll have to relocate and pay for an apartment. The other issue is that I had 0€ to my name just a year ago. After a year of saving up and reselling on eBay, making many mistakes along the way which helped me learn, I've got about 2.5k, which is not enough to cover my stay for a year and all one-time expenses.

After some calculations, my living expenses will be around 400€/mo in the worst case, and I'll stay for 10 months, coming back home during the summer. So my goal would be to earn 4000€ to cover my expenses.

I talked about this with my mom, who suggested that I get a job as a cashier during this summer and the next two, in order to cover the rent for next year and not have to work during the school year. Now I love my mom, but working as a cashier for the next three months, in a job where I learn nothing sounds like a lot of BS .

So, instead I've taken it into my own hands to earn 4000€ during the next three months. My deadline is September 1, because that's when the school year starts.

How?
I've learned providing value is a nice way to earn money. Looking inwards, what can I offer that can add value to someone else?

I could start my eBay reselling business again. The problem is that it's low value - I'm not creating anything, just arbitraging prices and making money off the margins. It's also a very easy business, so profits are low.

I needed something more immediate, so I turned to my own skills. For the last two years I've worked both in and outside of school to acquire software engineering skills.
I decided to put them to use: doing freelancing as a short-term strategy, for the next three months. Afterwards, I'll assess my situation and adjust accordingly.

In the worst case, I execute everyday, learn many lessons, and get a sizable portfolio and skills that can be reused later down the road.
In the best case, I have strong earning potential and can pivot somewhere else, while knowing I can fallback on my skills when capital is tight.

What?
Right now, I'll be freelancing on Upwork. I'll stick to one very specific niche: data visualization with d3.js. The barrier to entry is high, because d3 is hard, and data visualization is tricky in general. I also know React, and the MERN stack, from a full stack course. I've done one data visualization for Upwork before in d3+React, which I'll be leveraging, and then build up my portfolio further to gain trust.

I have an remote internship that's required to complete my current school until June 26. During that time I will be working during the week after my internship, and fully during the weekend. After the internship, I'll have unbounded time to freelance.


I'll keep this thread updated during this time and share both my failures and successes. Feel free to comment as I progress.

Try to resell things on wallapop too, or make a business in shopify, it take more risk but the profits are higher, wish you luck bro, im in a similar situation