The Business of Freelancing with Carly Stern
Thu Apr 25, 2024 5:30 PM - Thu May 23, 2024 7:30 PM PDT
Online, Zoom
The Business of Freelancing with Carly Stern
Thu Apr 25, 2024 5:30 PM - Thu May 23, 2024 7:30 PM PDT
Online, Zoom
Description
Thursdays, April 25th - May 23th | Thinking about going freelance but don’t know where to start? Are you looking to pivot careers? Do you love to write but struggle to actually sell your work so it sees the light of day? No idea what a W9 form is or why you’re asked to pay taxes four times a year? This workshop is geared toward freelance creatives of all types — journalists, memoirists, videographers, essayists and the likes — and will lay the groundwork for how to run your creative enterprise like a business. Whether you chose to go independent or fell into freelancing as an interim measure after a layoff, this class will equip you with the basics of what you need to know.
In this course, we will cover pragmatic strategies for how to make a living from freelancing in the changing media landscape. We’ll cover how freelancing can be used to break into a creative field, supplement a part-time or full-time job in another industry, rebound from a layoff and cultivate a network of clients. Through class discussions and short prep worksheets, students will learn specific strategies for: marketing their services, diversifying income streams, monetizing different writing-related skills, negotiating rates and contracts, finding grants, building a portfolio website and managing a variable income. We’ll also cover nuts and bolts like filing quarterly taxes, calculating the value of your time and understanding liability as a freelancer.
This will be an interactive course that involves regular discussion and personal reflection. Students will be asked to complete prep materials consisting of a few short readings or podcasts, along with brief worksheets and prompts, before class. This is primarily a course focused on developing business skills related to freelancing, not craft.
Carly Stern is an independent journalist based in San Francisco who covers the intersection of health care, housing and economic inequality. Her writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, the Guardian US, The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle, among many others, and she has won nine San Francisco Press Club Awards. Carly is a contributor to Nieman Storyboard and a research editor for Air Mail, where she fact-checks features and manages the research operations for a monthly vertical. Carly designed, launched and taught an inaugural course on the business of freelancing at Duke University, her alma mater.