12 Nov Measuring yourself as Self-Employed
Self-employment is when a person works for themselves and is not on a salary or wage from an employer. Income is earned by performing profitable activities from trade that operates first-hand. Currently, large companies are reducing the number of employers and labor is replaced by machines, thus leading to many people starting their own businesses; For instance, in the United States, statistics show that a new small business is started every 11 seconds. However, self-employment is not trouble-free and starting a business is one thing while staying in the business is a whole other magnitude.
Advantages
Being self-employed has its advantage and often individuals with a good strategic plan are likely to succeed. Self-employment comes with job security, thus more employment opportunities are created for other individuals, and the self-employed individual does not have to worry about getting a job. Personal satisfaction is achieved when someone is self-employed, one can be free to do what they love and enjoy for instance if one loves cooking, they can start cooking from home and selling to people. Also, business ideas can come up as a result of the need to satisfy or help a certain group of people i.e. one can create weight loss food plans for people who are struggling to lose weight.
Freedom and flexibility are another advantage of self-employment. When one has an employer it’s very difficult for them to try new things and do perform activities according to their own competence. Unlike being self-employed where an individual is free and flexible to make decisions concerning the activities taking place in the business. Furthermore, the main reason why people start their own businesses and become self-employed is because of profits. After paying all the expenses the income remaining is the profit and it belongs to the business owner. Unlike when employed you get a fixed amount that could be less than that of a self-employed individual.
Disadvantages
Self-employment is no piece of cake and needs research and a good strategic business plan. It is very risky as income is not always guaranteed, when there is no profit there is no income, unlike when being employed whether the business makes profit or not the employees will still be paid their salaries. No benefits like holiday allowances, life insurance or retirement plans – this will all have to be covered by self-employed individual. Taxes is another pain in the neck where a self-employed individual is solely responsible of doing their taxes correctly and on time.