Self Employment Advantages
It might seem a bad time to have a self-employed venture in a tough economy. In reality, it is probably the best time to have one. First, your personal business does not have to be full time. You can maintain your full time day job, if you have one, while you operate your business on a smaller scale during off hours. In fact, an employment market is emerging that favors a combination of part-time jobs, contract work, and other patchwork projects. This is perfect timing to put a personal business together.
In a recession, a regular “day job” is either on or off. While you have a job, it is great, but when business for your employer declines to a point, you get laid off. there is usually no in-between. With a personal business venture, even if business slows, you still have a job. You may have less income, but at least something is coming in.
You also have control of how your company reacts to the marketplace, because it is your company. You are not reliant on a boss or company owner to make crucial decisions in a bad economy. Not every manager is capable of doing that, even those who have done well in a good economy.
Empty Cubicle: Icon of 2009
Running your own business is tough even in a good economy. The reality is that it will be a little harder in a bad one, but not as hard as dealing with being fired from a regular job.
Brenda Renzaglia from Minnesota isn’t dwelling on the sour economy. Instead, she’s focused on the positives of self-employment.
“I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to do,” Renzaglia said. “Go fight hundreds of people to put in application at a major corporation? I didn’t want to do that.”
There will be a few basic things to figure out in setting up your enterprise. Advertising and promotion, day-to-day activities, etc., but none of these is rocket science, and there are many online resources written by people already running their own business. Pamela Slim writes a blog called Escape From Cubicle Nation that has excellent advice on many of the details of a self-employed profession.
Once you figure out how to navigate your specific business through a recession, you will be an expert at making it thrive in better markets. You’ll probably come to realize that what your old boss was doing that looked so hard was not that magical after all.
[...] course, creating a personal business venture is an ideal way to add an element of security to a [...]