How to start freelancing as an Architecture Student ?

Starting freelancing as an Architecture Student can be tough. As an architect student, you have skills related to 3D modeling and Graphic Designing which are very competitive skills in the freelance market. But if you don’t have a proper plan to start, then making your first earning can take a lot of time.
So here is a step-by-step process to follow to make your first earning as a Freelancing Architecture Student.

Main problems while starting Freelancing

1. No Portfolio – One of the main problem in starting is that as an architecture student you have no portfolio to showcase your work.

2. No past Experience- Another main problem is no past experience to show clients to win there trust.

If you follow these step it will save your lot of time in experimenting all the websites and you will make your first earning very soon.

Steps to start Freelancing as an Architecture Student ?

Step 1 : Make an account on Freelancer.com as an architecture student

You may question, Why start with Freelancer.com?

There are many other freelancing websites such as Fiverr, Upwork, Toptal, 99Design, PeoplePerHour but starting freelancer.com is best because of its Contest option. For starting freelancing as an architecture student this contest feature will allow you to start participating in contests with no experience.

What is Contest in Freelancer.com?

On the Freelancer site, clients can post a contest with prize money and a deadline to finish it. Freelancers post their entries on that contest before the deadline and after that clients choose the best entry which fulfills their requirements. He can choose more than one winner also.

As the winner is chosen, a contract is signed between client and freelancer where the freelancer provides all the rights of the entry to the client in exchange for prize money. After this client and freelancer got a chance to give a rating to each other, the rating giving by the client will be helpful for the freelancer to get work in the future.

Freelancer.com is the best site to start because there is no portfolio needed to make an account and start working. You can take part in any contest in which you think you have the skills to complete the requirements of the client.

The contest feature of freelance.com can help to start freelancing.

If you do not win the contest, then you will have some work to put into your portfolio.

Step 2 : Now make an account on Fiverr an architecture student

Fiverr is a freelancing platform where you create an advertisement for your skill and what work you can do with that skill. On Fiverr, we can this advertisement as GIG.

Now you have some work to show from the freelance contest which you will show through your Fiverr gig.

What is included in the Fiverr gig?

In Fiverr gig you have to make an advertisement saying, I will do …. (e.g. I will do 3D modeling of your House, I will do a detailed drawing of the floor plans).

In these gigs, you make 3 packages ( Basic, Standard, Premium). You can set what you will provide in these packages and at what rate.

You have to add some images to show your work. After this, your gig will be live on the Fiverr site. The client will search for service. He will find gigs from different freelancers. If he finds your gig perfect for his job then he will place an order and you will get a notification on it.

Fiverr account will work in the background to get orders while you will be busy on freelance contests.

Step 3 : Start approaching clients

Now you have decent experience and work to showcase your clients so they can trust you for their project. It’s time to approach the clients.

1. Freelancer.com – On freelancer you can approch buyer by biding on the projects they have posted. You will get 8 bids per month. You can buy more bids by subscribing to paided plans of freelancer.com. Here 5 star rating on your profile will play a major role in getting selected for the project.
2. Fiverr – Here you get a option of buyers request. In this selection you will get request from buyers with there requirement and budget for project. These buyers request will be send to you by fiverr according to the skills you have chosen. You can send offer to all the buyers request you receive. There is no limit on no. of offers you can send.
3. Upwork– On upwork you have connects, you get 10 connects each month and they get adding on if you donot use them. You send perposal to clients job post. In this perposal you add description, fee for this job and some sample pictures of your work similar to job post. Each job post has requirement of connects you need to spend to apply for that job. Usually it is 4-6 connects per job perposal.
4. Other – Rest all the sites have similar approching process to reach clients. Apply for as much as you can , it will increase the chances of geting a order.

Step 4 : Make online portfolio and showcase your work

Make a profile on sites like Behance, LinkedIn, and Artstation. And if you can afford a domain then you can create your own site on WordPress, Wix, portfolio box.

This will help you reach out to more people and you can share your work easily by just sharing your profile URL.

Step 5 : Start selling your model assets

Now at this point, you will have some earning and source files ( models, materials, renders).

You can sell these models and materials at sites like artstation or on your own site. It will need some marketing skills but it will generate you a passive income in long run.

This is all you have to do. And remember consistency and discipline is the key. As of now, you are the Boss of your brand.

If any queries or suggestions from your side, please comment down below. Love to hear from you.

————–Best of Luck ————–