I Tried A Modern MBA Program For Independent Workers

Here’s how it helped me double my rates…

I’ve been working for myself and mostly by myself for the last 8 years. My career, like most twenty-somethings’ careers, has gone through ebbs and flows. But, all the changes have one thing in common — they exist within the context of independent work, a space that my business degree never prepared me for.

Back in 2014, I’d just graduated from college and my one goal was to find a way to make enough to cover my basic expenses without having to go into an office. I was fresh off of a stint of being my grandmother’s caregiver and subsequently losing her, so mentally I was in no state to take on a full-time, in-house job.

So instead, I haphazardly said “yes” to 2–3 clients who needed someone to write copy for their Twitter feeds. It was my means for survival and I quoted my rate like it was. I didn’t think I was building a business, so I never put forethought into a pricing model that reflected my experience or the value I was offering. They paid me pennies as a result.

I’ve learned so many business lessons since then, but I admittedly still felt very lacking.

Almost a decade since starting, this was the year that I acknowledged I had a few huge gaps to fill: