5 reasons why being self-employed is awesome

Self-employment is at a record high, with 4.6 million people in the UK working for themselves. There’s no limit to the work you can do on a self-employed basis either – the most common jobs are taxi driving and trades, such as joinery and carpentry, but many people are providing digital services such as graphic design and copywriting. We’ve all heard the warnings – no holiday pay, the work might dry up – and that’s true, but the smartest self-employed people plan ahead for this. If you’ve been thinking about making the leap into self-employment, take a look at these five reasons why it’s the best thing you can do for your career.

You spend less money. It can be hard to get your finances on track when you’re self-employed, with half of small businesses worrying about cash flow, but it’s not all doom and gloom. If you work from home, you won’t have any travel expenses, nor will you be spending any money on renting an office. Not to mention the money you’ll save on daily coffees and lunches, because it really does add up. Depending on the nature of your business, you might find that your startup costs are next to nothing, with many people running the show from their laptop alone.

You make your own schedule. Some workplaces are so strict with timekeeping that you’ll even be warned if you’re one minute late for work. Being self-employed frees you from time constraints, but that doesn’t mean you’re lazy, because most self-employed workers rack up more hours per week than those in standard office jobs. Just be mindful of how much time you spend on work, because you still need to take time out and recharge.

Choose who you work with. Hate working with clients in a sector you have no interest in? When you’re self-employed, you don’t have to. You’re free to seek out clients you want to work with and you have the final say when it comes to the important negotiations. Not only that, but you have more freedom over your ideas and projects without any micromanagement. Sure, you’re going to receive criticism from your clients and you can’t always avoid certain sectors – for example, if you’re thinking about freelance illustration jobs, you could end up working with anybody – but you don’t need to run everything past someone else and have your ideas shot down one by one.

More control over your future. Your employer can change your role and salary, and there’s not much you can do about it – we’ve probably all heard the classic, “well if you don’t like it, you can leave” line. Unfortunately, if your employer decides to make any changes, you have to accept them or you risk losing your job. But by being self-employed, you have full control over the decision making process and you’re much more than just a number.

You’re your own boss! What’s not to like about that? You get to call the shots and the important decisions are yours. Of course, being in charge of making every decision can be stressful, but wouldn’t you prefer that instead of being told what to do and how to do it, every single day?

Deciding to go self-employed is a big decision, so don’t rush into it. If you think you’re ready to make the change, you’ll have a busy (and at times, stressful) few months ahead of you, but once you’re up and running, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner!