Fork in the road

For some time now, I've been wanting to jump in and do more with this web design thing (I should probably stop calling it a thing). For the past couple of years, people have asked me to do websites for them and I never have the time or I just don't want to do because of the type of site they want.

About a year ago a friend asked me why I keep turning people down. She asked me if I keep saying no because I'm afraid to take a risk. In a way, website design is like giving birth. Unless the client has a set idea in mind, they expect you, the webmaster, to come up with a masterpiece. You have to come up with the site that will help them promote their business and make them millions while you sit at home trying to figure out how you're going to pay your rent and keep the lights on because they didn't pay you what you are actually worth... (Sorry, I'm eight days away from pay day and completely broke). If the client doesn't like what you do, it feels like they're you telling that your kid is ugly. I can't take that kind of rejection.

I decided to go back to school last year summer to get my bachelor's degree. I did it because I really want to teach some online courses at my community college(cc). I graduated from CC in 2001 and really had no intention of going for a bachelors. I don't have the attention span for it. I like to take a class and use my new found knowledge immediately. A university education seemed like a long drawn out process to me, filled with classes I'll never need or use. I'm still not completely convinced that I'll ever use Intro to Physical Science or American Government in the real world. But I have to take them.

So here's where I stand. I'm working fulltime and taking classes parttime. The bachelor's degree will definitely be a resume booster. But in the meantime, I hate turning people down. But what I hate more is seeing people with less skills than I have getting paid for developing not so great sites.

I don't know where to find the happy medium or if there even is one for me.