Benefits of Self-Employment in 2023
Self-employment has numerous benefits that you should be aware about. If you’re looking to start a new career or you’ve been in a career for some time or are looking for a change, self-employment may be something to consider. For some, these might convince you to make the change. But for others, these might not seem like benefits. It all depends on your personal preferences.
What Are the Benefits of Self-Employment?
In this article, you’ll learn about some of the benefits of self-employment. These are all things that I have personally experienced since making the switch to self-employment. Should you choose to make the switch to self-employment, you may find some more benefits that are unique to you.
- Control Over Your Career
- Time Freedom
- Coworker Choice
- You Make (most of) Your Own Money
- Money Savings
- You Can Set Your Own Work Environment
- Your Salary is Determined By Your Actions
- Growth in Skillset
- Increased Productivity
- You Can Follow Your Passions
For this list, I have tried to keep the benefits more universal. These are things that generally occur with self-employment, though it varies based on the person and their chosen career.
You Have Control Over Your Career
When you’re self-employed, you have ultimate control over your career. Whether you choose to work for somebody, do freelance work, or start your company, you can choose what you do. Say for example, you want to work for somebody to have a bit more security when you’re first starting out. You can choose the industry you want to get started in, and you can potentially choose what it is you do for that company.
On the flipside, if you want to start your own company and have ultimate control over your time and career, you can choose exactly what industry you go into. When you’re first starting out, you may have to do a little bit of everything, but as you grow, you can start to hire out different parts of the business and focus your time exactly where you want to.
This isn’t to say that you don’t have control over your career when you work a “traditional” job, but it’s just different with self-employment.
Time Freedom
Self-employment allows you time freedom. Most of the time, you won’t be reporting to a boss on a daily basis. Because of that, you’ll be able to set your own schedule and work more or less whenever you want. When you do this, you eventually have the freedom to do the things you love on a more consistent basis. Additionally, if you want to limit your hours on any given day, you can very easily do that.
You Have The Ability To Choose Your Coworkers
When you’re self-employed, you generally have the ability to choose your own coworkers. If you’re planning on starting your own business, you have the option to work alone, or if you need some help, you can hire people to do some work for you. Either way, you’re either working alone or choosing who you work with.
You Make (Most of) Your Own Money
Being self-employed allows you to make money for yourself. Aside from whatever expenses you may have, you will see the majority of the profits from your efforts. In a traditional 9-5 job, you may see a good bit of compensation, but you end up making the company a lot more money than you end up seeing.
You Can Save Money
As strange as it may sound, self-employment can allow you to save some money. Assuming you commute to work, you have transportation expenses. Additionally, you have to account for clothing and whatever other expenses come along with working at an office.
You Can Set Your Own Work Environment
Being self-employed really allows you to set your own work environment. If you work better from home, you can set up anywhere in your house and work from there. On the other hand, if you work better in an office environment, you can easily rent out an office space and work from there.
In a whole other realm, you truly have the freedom to work wherever you want. If you’re an avid traveler, there’s no reason you can’t work from anywhere in the world, given you have internet access.
Your Salary is Determined By Your Own Actions
With self-employment, your salary is truly determined by your actions. Even if you’re working as a freelancer, you can set your pricing and decide how much you want to work. Or if you work for a small business, you can generally set your own hours and work as little or as much as you want.
If you plan on starting your own company, you can scale your business to higher levels of success by how much work you put in and how you market your products to consumers. If you want to scale even further, you can hire out some of the work and focus your efforts on other scaling tactics.
You Can Grow an Impressive Skill Set
Most of the time, you’ll be doing a large number of things for any given business–whether it’s your own or someone else’s. With a growing skill set comes more opportunity. If you’re currently working for somebody, but are self-employed, you can use some of the things you’ve learned to start your own business if that’s something you’re interested in.
On the flipside, if you have your own business and you’ve learned a number of skills that you’re good at, you can potentially start a coaching business or launch an online course where you teach others these skills that you’ve learned.
You Have The Ability to Be More Productive
When you’re self-employed, there’s a good chance that you can be more productive. This is especially true if you work for yourself, as you can work in your ideal environment, during the times that you’re best.
When you work a traditional 9-to-5, there may be a number of factors that can limit your productivity. Be it unexpected issues, random distractions, new projects, meetings, or whatever else may come up during the course of a normal work week, there are definitely things that can limit your intended focus.
You Can Follow Your Passions
Self-employment allows you to focus on what you’re truly passionate about. Everything from the focus of the business itself to your role in the day-to-day operations can be determined by you. When you do this, it becomes so much easier to stay motivated.
FAQ
What is one downside to being self-employed?
One potential downside of self-employment is that you may have to pay higher taxes.
How Do I start self-employment?
To start self-employment, there are a number of steps to follow. You can check out my full guide to starting self-employment here.
What Is Self-Employment?
Self-employment is essentially just working for yourself. This can include, but is not limited to, owning a business or doing freelance work. Self-employment generally allows you to work the hours you choose in whatever environment you’d like.
How Can Self-Employment Benefit You
Self-employment can benefit you in a variety of ways. From allowing you the time and freedom to do the things you love, to working wherever and whenever you’d like, and choosing what you do during the day, self-employment can help you to build a more satisfactory life.
Wrapping Up
The benefits of self-employment are numerous, and truly are dependent on the person. Some things that are massive benefits to some may be drawbacks to others. But with such a wide range of things to consider in the world of self-employment, there are things for everyone to consider.