Building Your Services or Business: A Four-Step Path

Start with what you already know, what you enjoy, and what others ask you to help with. A skill from your major, minor, work, community involvement, or personal life may become a service.

  •  List three activities or subjects you enjoy and three tasks people ask you to help with.
  • Review a class project you are proud of. Name the skills you used and the result you produced.
  • Explore careers connected to your major and watch professionals describe their work.
  • Research how freelancers describe and price similar services. Use examples for learning—not as promises of income or a required price.
  • Draft a starting price or pricing method based on scope, time, expenses, market research, and the value of the work. Revisit it as you learn.
  • Choose one possible service and describe the client problem it could solve.

Use the Independent Contractor Brainstorming Worksheet

You do not need to wait for a paid client to begin a portfolio. Start with work that shows your process, skills, and results, while respecting confidentiality and getting permission before sharing work created for someone else.

  •  Class projects: Turn a strong assignment into a short case study with the goal, your role, your process, and the outcome.
  • Project-based learning: Complete a Forage job simulation related to the type of work you want to offer.
  • Micro-internships: Explore short, paid projects through Parker Dewey and confirm current eligibility and payment requirements before applying.
  • Small practice projects: Offer a clearly defined project to a trusted friend, family member, classmate, campus group, or community contact.
  • Volunteer or research work: Build skills through a community organization or faculty project, then document what you contributed.

Before accepting client work, learn how to protect your time, communicate expectations, collect payment, keep records, and meet any applicable tax, licensing, permit, or immigration requirements.

  •  Define your service, what is included, what is not included, and how long the work may take.
  • Create a written scope or contract that covers deliverables, payment, deadlines, revisions, ownership, and cancellation.
  • Set up a simple method to track income, expenses, invoices, contracts, and receipts.
  • Build financial literacy: learn about budgeting, cash flow, saving for taxes, separating personal and business records, and planning for irregular income.
  • Research taxes, permits, professional licensing, insurance, privacy, and client-data responsibilities that may apply to your work.
  • Choose where clients will find you: a portfolio website, professional profile, social platform, marketplace, or a manageable combination.
  • Search for projects through professional associations, referrals, supplier or vendor portals, micro-internship platforms, community networks, and carefully reviewed contractor postings.

Your materials should explain the value you offer and make it easy for a potential client or professional contact to understand your work.

  •  Portfolio: Include your services, selected work samples, your process, outcomes, and contact information. Add reviews only with permission.
  • Resume: Describe projects and freelance work with action verbs, skills, clients or audiences, and results you can verify.
  • Elevator pitch: Prepare a 20- to 30-second introduction that names your skill, who you help, and the result you aim to create.
  • LinkedIn or professional profile: Use a clear headline, skills, projects, and a concise About section.
  • Networking questions: Ask professionals how they entered the field, found early clients, set boundaries, developed their skills, and learned the business side of the work.

Your first-week checklist

 ☐ Choose one skill or service to explore.
 ☐ Write a one-sentence description of who the service helps and what it helps them accomplish.
 ☐ Find two examples of similar services and note what is included, how the work is presented, and any unanswered questions.
 ☐ Select one class, volunteer, research, or practice project that could become a work sample.
 ☐ Complete the Immigrants Rising brainstorming worksheet.
 ☐ Choose one support resource or campus contact and write down your next question.

If this feels overwhelming: Pause after one task. Progress can mean one worksheet, one conversation, one project description, or one new question. Build the process at a pace you can sustain.

Important Information Before You Begin

An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) is issued by the IRS for federal tax purposes to people who need a U.S. taxpayer identification number but are not eligible for a Social Security number. An ITIN does not provide or change immigration status, authorize employment, or serve as identification outside the federal tax system.

Entrepreneurship, immigration, tax, professional-licensing, business-permit, and worker-classification questions depend on individual circumstances. This webpage provides educational career information, not legal or tax advice. Before accepting work or making a business decision, consider speaking with a qualified immigration attorney, tax professional, or business adviser.

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