Are you currently in employment or just leaving full-time education, and thinking about how you want to spend the rest of your working life? Being self-employed might just be an option for you. Think of the freedom of working for yourself, making your own decisions, moving your business forward, whilst balancing all of that against the very long hours, the meticulous planning needed and the financial uncertainty you may face at the start.
However, the advantages are worth thinking about. You will have the freedom to demonstrate the natural skills and talents you have and won’t have to fit these around the job you are doing in someone else’s company. Being self-employed will bring out and use these talents to the full. Your talents will not be hampered by your job; in fact, your talents will flourish because of your self-employment.
You can take a business idea – whether for a product or service, in whatever sector – to the market, using your own imagination, your own creativity and your own instinctive business acumen. You will learn quickly as you go along, adapting your strategy and tactics to your emerging ideas with the changing demands of the marketplace
You will be making important decisions, for you and your business. You might take advice from family, friends, business acquaintances, but you will make the final choice, whether it is changing your supplier, extending your overdraft, branching into new areas, opening up business premises or continuing to work from home.
Despite the potential long hours, you can still decide to work when you like. This will especially be true if your business is doing well and you can afford to take some time off. After a while of course you might even employ an accountant, an administrative assistant, maybe even a sales manager, to run the business and look after things while you are away.
If you are working from home, or have rented a business unit or an office nearby, you can avoid the stress and uncertainty of commuting to work every day. The problems and hazards of today’s commuting experience is one of the most common complaints you will hear from those who are employed by someone else. You can decide to avoid this.
For freelance researchers, writers, newspaper or online journalists and for a range of professional consultants – whether in marketing or education – self-employment may well be the obvious way of working, because of the contractual nature of the work you are likely to be doing.
There are also some financial advantages, as you will be able to claim tax relief for expenses used in running your business, such as computer equipment and stationery.
Whatever happens to your business, you will have the satisfaction and independence which is only dreamed of by those who work for other people.
And, if you are self-employed, you will be able to think for yourself, decide for yourself, choose for yourself, and create for yourself the future you have always wanted.