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Where to start freelance work for a 13 year old?

Thread title: Where to start freelance work for a 13 year old?
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05-29-2011, 10:49 AM
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noisyscanner is offline noisyscanner
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  Old  Where to start freelance work for a 13 year old?

Hello all!
I'm 13 and living in the UK. I have been doing HTML and CSS since I was about 8 and I'm pretty good at that and in more recent years I have learned PHP, MySQL and Ruby on Rails. I might learn Python and Django soon too. I would like to maybe do some small freelance work to earn an extra couple of £. Nothing too big like "build me an entire e-commerce website...", maybe things like "PHP contact form" or "Add comments feature to my application". I've looked around the internet and found many sites that have been advertising work but I'm not sure if (being 13) I'd be allowed to do it. And if I was would people turn me down because of my age?
Also, these sites are mostly in dollars $.

I'd say I'm better at the backend of sites and applications because my design skills aren't "wonderful". I'm not that good at graphic design (ie Photoshop).

Could anybody point me in the right direction?

Thanks,
Brad.

P.S. Even jobs that pay £10 or £20 would be fine. I've seen jobs that are paying like $1000!

05-29-2011, 02:12 PM
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Brad,

This question, or aspects of it, has come up on this site several times in the past. You might start by doing a search and reading those comments.

My understanding (and I'm not a lawyer) is that if you want to work in England and you are under 15 years old, you need some kind of working papers. In the US, it's 16. And you may not be old enough to set up the accounts necessary to receive payment.

While a casual job every now and then may not be worth the government's time, there may be legal ramifications for your parents or guardians if you don't check out local and international laws before setting up shop.

05-29-2011, 08:14 PM
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I don't know the legal environment of the UK regarding child labor, but I am sure 13 is under the minimum age. I wouldn't worry about it, unless there they are actually trying to make you an employee no one will likely care. I would see these jobs as the same as the neighbors hiring you to mow their lawn. Nevertheless as lowengard suggested I would make sure. Other legal issues would include payment, you cant have a credit card or paypal account until you are 18. You'll have to use a parents paypal account (that is what I did until I turned 18).

Start with what you can do and continue, chances are you wont even be offered big jobs until you have a portfolio. Go to sites like this one and just offer your services. This takes time but can be done.

People will turn you down because of your age. Try not to bring it up. I used to lie about my age but in retrospect that could have put me in a bad spot legally speaking. Handle it how you wish.

As for currency, if you get paid by paypal it doesnt matter, I've been paid in US dollars, Canadian dollars, British Pounds, Euros, Australian Dollars, Yen and many other currencies. Paypal translates them to whatever currency you use. You can go to http://xe.com to translate currencies at the current exchange rate.

Finally, don't get excited when you see a four figure digit. A high paying job means there is a lot to do, spend four weeks on a $1,000 project and you've only made £3.70 an hour. Try to figure out how many hours you will spend on the project and go from there.

05-30-2011, 01:39 PM
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  Old

No, I wasn't getting excited about 4 digit numbers. :P That would be alot of HARD work.
I'll have to find out about the legal stuff about this sort of thing, though like you said. I remember hearing at school that you can do certain jobs at 13 and more at 14. I could just wait until my birthday passes.
Finally, I can set up a Lloyds TSB bank account LEGALLY at 13. It gives me a debit card and everything and is pretty much like a regular bank account. See here: http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_acc...9s_account.asp.
Thanks...

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05-30-2011, 04:31 PM
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You still cant setup a paypal account, your only method would be to have them mail you checks. That is a difficult method and is begging to be defrauded. The easiest way would be to have your parents set you up an account, if asked about the name just say its your business associates (which is technically true). I often get payments from other names and dont find it weird since many businesses are not one man operations.

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05-30-2011, 07:22 PM
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Okay, so say I got this Paypal account all set up. Where would I go to find a few odd jobs? I HAVE Googled around... Like Village Genius said, it's just like my neighbours paying me to mow the lawn (although I have no neighbours as I live in the countryside... it sucks).

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05-31-2011, 07:55 AM
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We have a marketplace here where you can find work. Other sites include sitepoint and digitalpoint.

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05-31-2011, 10:46 AM
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Some tips:

- Find your work on forums like these
- If no one asks for your age, don't tell. But be honest
- Let your parents set up a PayPal account to receive payments (ask their approval about making money online)

When working on a job, be professional. Don't make promises you can't keep, make sure you have enough time.
Don't take $10 jobs 'for fun', that may end up taking 2 week of your time.

Besides making money you could expand your skills by making a Wordpress blog or maybe something that sets you apart from the others. Keep up with the latest, like HTML5 and CSS3. This will come in handy when you're 16 and want to possibly work somewhere full-time.

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05-31-2011, 07:09 PM
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Be careful some people will run away with your work. Make sure you are educated about this issue!

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06-01-2011, 03:26 AM
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  Old

Forums are a good place to work on. Once you get a bit of cash in your paypal account (or your parents, whatever the legal issues are over here), you can subscribe to various job boards (they usually have a monthly fee). eg. freelanceswitch.com.

From my limited experience with forums, no one really asks for your age. So don't go out of the way to tell them your age.

Also Internet is filled with scammers. A person with a 99% feedback score is also known to scam you. So, do not work without getting a deposit first. (10%, 25% or whatever you may prefer of the total amount).

And never give the files before complete payment.

You can't sign a contract which will cover you in case of non payment, so this is the only way to go.

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