Being self-employed definitely comes with its perks. You get to decide what career you want to pursue, what hours you want to work, where you’ll work, and who you’ll work with. You can also decide what products and services you want to offer, and how you’ll go about making money off of those products and services.
But being self-employed also comes with its own limitations and drawbacks. Continue reading for a short list of a few of the things you need to consider before taking this route of employment.
You Need to Be Comfortable Doing Everything Yourself
When you’re self-employed and working for yourself, you’re 100% responsible for everything from finding work and networking, to delivering products and services by the deadlines that you’ve agreed to. You also need to be able to create a product or service that people will want to purchase, and you’ll be responsible for marketing it and promoting your business. And you’ll also need to be the accountant, managing all accounts receivable and accounts payable.
Think About Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Because you’ll be responsible for every aspect of your company, you should consider what your strengths and weaknesses are, and then seek help from other professionals in areas where you find that you’re weak. For example, if you need help with a particular aspect of your business, you can hire freelancers whenever necessary. If you don’t know how to prepare your tax returns, you can hire a professional accountant. This will prevent you from spreading yourself too thin or taking on more than you can handle and eventually dragging your business down as a result.
You’ll Need Business Insurance
Even if you’re self-employed and working from home and you’re the only employee at the company, you should purchase business insurance to cover your assets in the event that they’re damaged, such as from a flood or fire, and to protect you from lawsuits in the event you have clients on your premises and they become injured accidentally. Sites like bizinsure.com make it easy to find policies that are right for your business, so click here to see what options are available to you.
You’ll Need to Balance Work and Personal Life
When you’re self-employed, it’s easy to find yourself working all hours of the day and night without a set schedule. And if you work from home, you may even find yourself hardly leaving the house unless necessary because you’re too focused on making your business work and keeping clients happy. After all, if you have a lot of clients and you can do a lot of work, you can make a lot more money. But the truth is that you need to find a way to balance your work life and personal life. Otherwise, you’ll quickly burn out. If you aren’t disciplined enough to set specific work hours and off hours, you may want to reconsider going the self-employment route.
Now that you know a few of the drawbacks of being self-employed, as well as some of the things you should consider before starting off on your own, you should be able to better gauge whether this is the right path for you or not.
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
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