My experience working as a freelancer in Leeds

I have been working as a freelancer in Leeds for just over a year now and have learnt a lot since I started. The importance of time management, being able to go out and speak to people about my work and of course finding time to actually sit down and get work done. Since starting I have founded a limited company with two friends and now split my time between running that business and working for myself.

Upon leaving university I found there was a lot of help available through university-led channels as well as independent organisations such as Business Link. It is clear that higher education institutions are keen to keep creative talent in the local community, especially as many people working in the digital sector tend to move down to the capital in search of work.

Personally, I am quite happy to stay on in Leeds and set up my professional working life from here. I have met plenty of interesting people doing exciting things here and there are opportunities available - it's knowing where to look and who to talk to that counts.

Events such as Digital Week, Open Coffee, the regular GeekUps and BarCamps as well as countless tech-orientated conferences are all strong indicators that there are lots of active, interesting people in West Yorkshire, often sharing office spaces or 'media centres' such as The Round Foundry, The Old Broadcasting House and Shine. These co-working spaces and creative hothouses are springing up in cities across the UK and further afield now - a clear sign that these small businesses and agencies are becoming more popular and successful. Our world is increasingly web integrated and many see the industries that are blooming out of today's hyper-connectivity as a new industrial revolution of sorts.

Stuart Childs is a Director at The Jam Jar Collective, based at The Old Broadcasting House and Red Eric Studios offering digital art workshops for education and interactive technology for events.

Last week you may have come across Stuart Childs having breakfast with Audioboo at Marshalls Mill. This week, you'll find him here:

http://twitter.com/sc_r
http://stuartchilds.com
http://jamjarcollective.com