Full guide
How to start video editing as a teenager
Plenty of teenagers can edit. Almost none of them will reply within a day, hit a deadline and hand over a file named properly. That is the actual product, and it is why the people who do it get paid while better editors do not.
What it costs
What you actually need
- Free editing software
- $0
- A computer that can handle it
- $0
- Headphones
- $0–$40
- Somewhere to hand over files
- $0
DaVinci Resolve is free and professional. CapCut is free and fast for short vertical video. Neither costs you anything to learn.
Use what you have. A school computer lab counts. Edit at lower resolution if it struggles.
Audio is where amateur edits are exposed. You cannot fix what you cannot hear.
A free cloud drive. Never make a client chase a download link.
Borrow before you buy
Do your first three jobs with equipment you already have access to. Buy your own out of money a customer has already handed you, never out of money you are hoping to make.
What to charge
Pricing, honestly
Start at the lower end of each range. Raise it once five people have paid you without hesitating.
- Short vertical video, under a minute
- $15–$40
- A pack of four short videos
- $50–$120
- Longer video, 5–10 minutes
- $50–$150
- Rush turnaround, under 24 hours
- +50%
Depends entirely on how much raw footage you have to watch.
Offer this. Repeat work is worth far more than a higher one-off price.
Agree how many rounds of changes are included before you start.
Only offer it if you are genuinely certain you can do it.
Your first five
Exactly who to ask, in order
Warmest first. Your first attempt should be with someone who will be kind about it, because you will be bad at it.
Person 1
A local business you already buy from that posts badly, or has stopped posting.Person 2
A coach or club near you that films games and never does anything with the footage.Person 3
Someone in your family who runs a business. A first real client who will forgive a first-timer.Person 4
A creator with a few thousand followers who is clearly editing their own and running out of time.Person 5
Your first client's own network. Small businesses in a town all know each other.
Send this
“Hi — I'm Rowan, I edit short videos. I took three clips off your Instagram and recut one as an example, it's attached. I'd do four videos a month for $90. If the sample is not what you want, no hard feelings and it cost you nothing.”
Change the names and the price. Keep the shape: who you are, how they know you, what you do, the price, and an easy way to say yes.
Not optional
Staying safe
- Get half the money up front on anything over $100, from someone you do not know.
- Agree how many rounds of changes are included, in writing, before you start. Unlimited revisions is how this job turns into unpaid work.
- Never hand over the final file before you are paid. Send a watermarked version to approve.
- Do not use music you do not have the right to use. It gets your client's post taken down, and it is your fault.
- Keep your own copy of everything for a month after you deliver.
Tell a parent or guardian where you are working and when you expect to be finished, every time.
The actual business
Getting them to book you again
- Reply within a day, every time. This alone puts you ahead of most freelancers.
- Hand files over named clearly, in the format they asked for. Nobody says thank you and everybody notices.
- Send one idea a month that they did not ask for.
- Offer a monthly pack after the second one-off. Predictable work beats bigger work.
- Ask which video performed best, and make more of that one.
Anything about licences, taxes or getting paid under 18 is on the Ontario guide. More ideas are on the full list.
Free, for students
Want help actually starting one?
These are what people commonly charge, not what you will make. Look up what adults near you charge for the same job, then start a little under it and raise your price once you have five happy customers.
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