Being self-employed can be quite different to 'working for the man' as
an employee and can come as a shock to those used to drawing a regular
salary and enjoying paid holidays and other benefits.
Here are just some of the things - good and bad - about being
self-employed that, if you work for yourself, you will be all too
familiar with:
1. You are the envy of all your peers
The fact that you are your own boss and don't necessarily subscribe to
the 9 to 5 grind means that all your employed friends envy you. When
they moan about their boss, annoying work colleagues or that promotion
they got passed over for, you sympathise but feel smug in the
knowledge that you no longer have those problems.
In your office, there is nobody trying to get one over on you or
making you feel small - unless you have competitive employees - there
is only you. If you still have a bad boss then you need to take it up
with one person only - yourself!
2. You are master of your own destiny
Hopefully you have chosen to be self-employed because you are creating
the job of your dreams or have set up a business you really care
about.
Yes, it's hard graft, but instead of spending all your working life
toiling for somebody else or having them take the credit for your
achievements, you get to keep the profits and it's all about you.
You create your own career path. Don't fancy the sound of a project?
Then don't get involved. Remember - you get to choose the work you
want to do.
If you want training you can arrange it yourself, rather than wait for
some unenthusiastic pen-pushing manager to agree to sign it off - and
if you want to change direction and do something entirely different,
then you can just go for it. There is no one standing in your way but
you.
3. You are master of your own schedule
Fancy a day off? Forget those tedious holiday forms and the managers
you need to check with. If you work for yourself, you are freed from
all that annoying paperwork.
Got a doctor's appointment or need to wait in for a delivery? No
problem. You can just rearrange your schedule to allow yourself the
necessary time off.
But more than that, the joy of self-employment is being able to spend
time doing exactly what YOU want to do - while employees are stuck at
work doing only what their bosses want them to do.
It's the luxury of being able to arrange your working hours around
other commitments, like caring for family members or even engaging in
hobbies, like painting, studying for a degree or maybe even writing a
novel.
Our window cleaner uses his flexible schedule to enable him to make
his own films which he has shown at Cannes Film Festival.
As long as you can earn enough to pay the bills, the world is your
oyster and your time is your own.
The only downside is that you might have to work late or at the
weekends to catch up. But another truth about self-employment is that
it's hard work.
4. As well as the MD, you are also the accounts department
Unfortunately, working for yourself also has its downsides. Unless you
work for an umbrella company - in which case technically you're not
self-employed anyway - you won't be earning a regular salary and
you'll soon find out that some clients are better at paying than
others.
Unless you're a plumber or taxi driver and your clients pay
immediately on receipt of goods, it could mean waiting a month to get
paid or six months if your clients are lousy payers.
Cash flow is king and if the money isn't coming in, you could struggle
to pay your bills.
The wasted hours spent chasing invoices and the pathetic attempts to
become 'besties' with Maria the accounts clerk just to get paid -
believe me, I've done it - soon rack up. You could even have to take
your clients to court if they insist on not paying you.
Eventually - assuming you have the luxury - you'll learn only to work
for the clients that pay on time and to give those that expect you to
live on air a wide berth...
5. How hard it is to switch off
If you're an employee, the lines between work and play are usually
clear. If you're in the office, you're at work, if you're at home
you're off duty. OK, smartphones may have blurred the lines but in
practice this is still generally the case.
But if you're working for yourself, when do you stop being at work? If
you're building up your business, it can often be difficult to switch
off and relax, especially if you are home-based.
Working for yourself can be feast or famine - sometimes there is so
much work around that it's hard to say no but you can stretch yourself
too thinly. Other times it will be quiet, so you could be tempted to
work long hours in the busy times to compensate.
Continue..
ReplyDeleteWhen you’re self-employed, every hour you’re not working is unpaid. Holidays can be a bind. You’re effectively paying for them twice – you’re not earning while you’re away and on top of that, you’ve also got the expense of paying for the holiday.
Then there’s the risk you might miss an important opportunity while you’re away.
I once came home from a break just in time to find an email in my spam folder hours before it was deleted. It turned out to be for a lucrative piece of work which helped me pay for my share of my wedding.
But you’ll need to find a way of switching off from work mode so that you don’t make yourself ill or – equally – drive your loved ones nuts.
6. How lonely it can be
Nobody tells you how lonely working for yourself can be, if you are your only employee. If you’re a loner this might not be an issue for you and you may be happy with your own company, but if you’re gregarious, working alone all day can be tough.
If this is a problem then you’ll need to find ways of coping. It could be meeting up with friends who are at home during the day for a coffee or even working in a shared premises with other self-employed people.
When even the double-glazing salesmen are running away from your front door, it’s time to get out of the house.
7. You can run but you can’t hide from the tax man
There is no escape from the tax man, but filling in a self-assessment form often fills self-employed people with horror.
Knowing what to claim as a taxable expense can be confusing. But, despite what you might have heard, no, you can’t claim for that chocolate muffin you had at lunchtime and the onesie you wear all day does not count for tax purposes as a ‘uniform’ you can expense.
No matter how experienced you might be at filling in your form – or even if you pay for an accountant – there is always that fear that if you get something wrong the tax man will swoop.
Other problems employees don’t realise we grapple with are how to persuade mortgage lenders and other financial institutions to lend us money.
Getting a mortgage or loan can be tough these days if you work for yourself and you’ll need three years tax returns before you can even think about buying a property. One mortgage advisor even suggested I get a full-time job for six months just to make it easier.
8. There’s always that chilling fear you’ll never work again
All of us to some extent fear losing our jobs but – having experienced redundancy as an employee and the ending of long-term contract work as a self-employed worker – losing work as a freelancer is far more scary.
When your work comes to an end there’s no redundancy payments to tide you over. Worse of all, depending on your circumstances you might not be able to claim the Jobseeker’s Allowance. Being ill or having an accident is equally stressful.
The fear of knowing that, unless you have savings, you have no financial safety net, coupled with the irrational fear that you might never work again can keep you awake at night. But it also works as a double incentive to get right back out there in search of work.
9. That despite the downsides it’s all worth it
Despite all the worries and concerns, nothing beats the satisfaction of working for yourself. It’s not right for everyone – you have to be a grafter, self-motivated and above all, entrepreneurial – and you will experience difficult times. But it still beats working for someone else.
Source: Yahoo Finance