Are you tired of being employed by another person or entity? If so, you are not alone. There are countless other people who feel the same way, and if they had the chance, they would probably give up their jobs and make a living as a self-employed person. If you’re reading this article, then perhaps you are already considering going the self-employment route. Let me give you some advantages of self-employment. These might help you make your decision.
You have the potential to earn more.
Yes, having a contract full-time job might give you a regular paycheck. No matter what you do, you will receive your salary like clockwork. However, if you are like most employees, you get a fixed amount every payday. If you go the self-employment route, you actually have the potential to make more money.
How is this possible? One reason is that if you work for yourself, you get rid of the ‘middleman’ – your employer. Let us say that you get paid $15 per hour. Let’s go further and say that your employer pays $30 total per hour, including overhead and other expenses. If your output earns your employer $60 per hour, he makes $30 profit. That money can go straight to you if you work with clients directly!
Another reason is that if you work for yourself, you have a higher degree of control over your client base and output. If you need more income, you just need to produce more. The idea here is that you can work harder and longer when you need to, without being subject to the decisions of your employer.
You have more flexibility with regard to your schedule.
Flexibility is perhaps one of the most attractive perks of being self-employed. As mentioned above, you have a greater degree of control over your work, especially with regard to time. That is, you have more flexibility when it comes to work hours. You can even decide to work 5 hours on Monday and then make up for it in the next few days. You can take a vacation whenever you need to, because at the end of the day, you are accountable to yourself and yourself alone. You just need to make sure that you get your work done – never mind the number of hours a day!
Now imagine the implications of this perk. You can take your children to school and pick them up. You can even attend that big soccer game. You can have lunch with the family. The possibilities are endless, simply because you are your own employer and you are in charge of your work schedule.
You can work from home.
This is another manifestation of flexibility. Depending on the nature of your business, you may be able to do without a brick-and-mortar establishment. This is especially true for web-based businesses and freelance gigs. A big implication of this is that you will save costs on rent, utilities, and the like. Of course, you will have to use electricity at home, but that is practically nothing compared to renting an office space and having to pay all the costs associated with that.
Working from home also opens up a world of convenience. You don’t have to dress for work – that also saves on buying new clothes! You do not have to commute to a different location – that saves you on gas or transportation fares. You don’t have to spend money at a restaurant or the office cafeteria for lunch. You can work in your comfort zone, and the list goes on and on.
You can avoid office politics.
Anywhere you go, you will encounter office politics. That’s a given. If you work for yourself, while you have to deal with clients, you don’t really spend 8 hours a day (or more) cooped up in an office with other people. That kind of environment is really conducive to gossip and office politics. Being self-employed will take you out of this unhealthy environment.
You have more tax advantages.
Believe it or not, there are huge tax advantages for self-employed individuals. In this regard, the government is quite good. The bottom line is that there are so many things that are tax deductible for self-employed individuals. Let me enumerate a few.
- Self-employment tax deduction (this is considered a business expense by the IRS)
- Home office deduction
- Health insurance premiums (including your dependents)
- Meals and entertainment
- Internet and phone
- Interest on business credit cards and business loans
- Car
Your sense of self-fulfillment will be unmatchable.
This could very well be the greatest advantage of them all. One of the things that gets to employees the most is when they don’t feel that they are getting their due in the company they work for. As a self-employed person, you don’t owe anyone anything. Whatever it is you are doing, you are doing on your own. You don’t answer to anyone (except your clients, of course), and at the end of the day your sense of achievement is incomparable. Now isn’t that worth giving up your day job?