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Chief
Conversation Starter
Additional Posts in Advice, please!
Rising Star
Rising Star
What are "paper pushers" called nowadays?
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You mean drop out of Brandcenter to do this? Or do it while still taking classes?
As a Brandcenter grad myself, I’d suggest throwing yourself into your classes 100%. You will be much more skilled by the time you finish than you are now. Starting a boutique agency is something to consider down the road after you’ve proven yourself and had some career success and built relationships. Usually the people behind those agencies have had massive success at agencies first, and even with that it’s incredibly tough.
Unless you’re trying to be an agency that does social posts for local businesses in Richmond or something, I don’t suspect it will go well. (Or, if something like my example is your goal, I’d suggest aiming higher.)
Seriously, devote all your time to making stuff with no rules for two years, both for assignments and for side projects. There will be plenty of time to answer to client demands later. Don’t even waste your time freelancing during school (though obviously do an internship during the summer). You’ll get way more out of the experience, and go much farther in the long run, if you’re laser focused on school.
Start with small freelance clients, and if you’re successful, you’ll get referrals and start to build a reputation. I don’t think there’s a way around starting small until you have the record to prove your worth, unfortunately. Just my opinion though—interested to see other takes.
The advertising bowl may also be a good place to post this if you don’t get responses here
My bad! Definitely plan to stick through Brandcenter. My roommates and I want to work for ourselves and put what we’ve learned to the test until we find jobs in the industry. We want to take on small local clients to put in our books, plus we have a huge garage and think it’d be awesome to have real work.
This could totally just be us living in a fantasy. We saw the garage as an opportunity to collaborate and make some money to pay off our rent, haha.
OK update.. my roommates and I went through with making the agency. We’ve got all the social channels, logo, and are working on the site. Any advice for getting clients or where to search? We want to work with local businesses.
We won’t be dropping out of Brandcenter, this is simply to pay our rent and flex what we’ve learned (and get paid doing it).
I used to get all my clients from a coworking space. Idk how covid effects this but they may still have ways to connect virtually and you can join and network there. I found working with early stage startups to produce better work for my portfolio than established local businesses starting out. A lot more freedom to be creative.