I'll be finishing school in two weeks, which means I'll also be going home (2.5-3 hours from where I am now). While in school I've been "working" for the school's studio, basically just doing whatever jobs they've thrown at me.

So I have a bunch of contacts and projects that I'm looking forward to working on when I come home from school, and that has motivated me to go freelance part time, as a way of diversifying my income.

My goal is to be able to work 3hr/week on average in the second half of 2016, moving up to 5hr/week in 2017 (this doesn't mean work every week, I'll be looking more for the occasional 12 hour days).

While word of mouth will hopefully be getting around the cities near my school (most of the students here are locals), I'm particularly interested in how to start networking in my own town, on my own, with no mentors to immediately vouch for me.

But any tips would be fun - let's just make this thread a general tips thread for making the switch :)

Thanks!!