Self-Employed: Pros & Cons

Advantages:

Flexibility

Oh the joy of having more flexibility to work at times, and in places, that suit you and not your employer.  You can now fit work around your life and ‘Monday to Friday’ and ‘9 to 5’ no longer have much meaning.  This control is fantastic, as long as you are able to prioritise and set boundaries for yourself!

Variety

Rather than political fire-fighting, form filling and endless pointless meetings, you can actually do what you love, and take on more varied work and projects.  Working for several clients at once or offering a wide range of products certainly adds more spice to life!

Creativity

Being self-employed often means we are unleashed on the big wide world of social media and start designing graphics and crafting sales messages…who knew we had that in us!??  Embrace this opportunity to be creative and let your personality shine through!

Savings

Yes…savings!  Those early morning coffee runs that inevitably include a tasty muffin, those meal-deals with sandwiches and crisps – they are a thing of the past!  Now you can help yourself to your own store cupboard.  Add to that travel costs and trust us – the savings will roll in!

Riches

It’s a well-known fact that most millionnaires are business-owners and this is because it is actually easier to amass more money when you are running your own business.  Also think about whether your business could be saleable in a few years time – retirement-fund anyone!??  Also day-rates for consultants are higher than salaries so yes, we are quids in!

Time

Working for yourself will save you so much time – no more long commutes, waste-of-time meetings, spending too long talking about last night’s telly at the water cooler!  With a bit of discipline and focus you may even find that you can knock-off early a few days a week and spend a bit more time doing other things and spending time with your friends and family.

Disadvantages:

Winning work

This can be a lot tougher than  you may expect.  Finding your target audience, engaging with them and moving them through the sales-funnel to convert them into clients can be a long, disheartening and discouraging task.  To work for yourself you need confidence and persistence in spades!

Expenses

It usually costs a bit more than you anticipated, so take the time to account for all start-up costs such as websites, registering your business, filing trade marks, insurances, accountant fees, social media promotions, memberships etc.

No salary

This is a massive downside to being self-employed – when you are sick or on holiday, no-one is going to be putting that salary cheque into your account.  Take this into consideration when figuring out a saving plan as it’s a good idea to have funds in place to cover these times.

Isolation

Even for those of us who are very happy to work on our own, just me-myself-and-I day-in and day-out can feel very lonely.  Luckily there are so many networks out there to suit just about every situation and personality-type so spend a bit of time finding the ones that work for you and invest a little time, money and effort into building network.

Admin

Oh brother…this is a biggie!  The amount of things to do and keep on top of when you run your own business is staggering!  The admin alone can be overwhelming with keeping track of clients, invoices, finances, compliance etc.  It’s a good idea to get systems in place right at the start to help you manage this task.

Separation

When you work for yourself it’s easy to become consumed by your business-baby and keeping your work separate from the rest of your life.  Put structures in place to make sure you are achieving that all-important work-life balance and make sure you build-in time for yourself. We hope this has helped you think about the pros and cons of going self-employed and remember, LSN Group is here to help you learn from, support and network with your fellow solopreneurs so head over to our Facebook Group to get involved!]]>