At some point in life, most people dream about becoming self employed. You often hear about the advantages to self employment; such as having no boss, making your own hours, and deciding when you want to work. But there are also disadvantages, such as no paid holidays and no guaranteed monthly salary. Studies have found that self employed people work twice as many hours as those traditionally employed. With that in mind, here is how to become self employed.
Step One
Decide if being self employed is the best choice for you. If you can work well independently, self motivate, and keep yourself on task, then being self employed may be a good idea. If on the other hand you need someone to tell you what and how to do things, or the lure of your bed being 10 feet away is too hard for you to resist, self employment may not be the best choice.
Step Two
Think about what you would like to do while self employed. The two most common approaches to self employment are becoming a small business owner or offering services as a freelancer or independent contractor.
Step Three
Make a list of your skills. Put down on paper everything that you feel you do well enough that someone might agree to pay you for doing it. Then review your list and put a check mark next to those items that you also enjoy doing enough that you could see yourself doing it for 40 or more hours a week without quickly tiring of the work.
Step Four
Research the items on your list that you are both good at and enjoy doing to see if a market exists. If you are considering marketing your skills locally, check to see who else is already offering the services, what they are charging and if there is still a local need. If you are considering doing freelance work on the Internet, search the Internet to see what opportunities exist.
Step Five
Explore financing options if you want to start a small business that requires startup money for equipment. Small business loans, personal loans, and home equity loans are the most common ways that people choose to finance new business ventures.
Step Six
Update your resume and start applying for freelance jobs if that is the route that you decided to go. If starting a small business is your chosen form of self employment, write a good solid business plan.