Are you, or have you ever been, self-employed?

[MacMahon]

What line of work are/were you in?

What was self-employment like? How's it going?

AIBCI to consider it for myself?

Bump.

I own a small garage with my husband, who is a mechanic.

It has its pros and cons. The main pro being not having a boss, the main con being the stress.

Should you do it? Impossible to say without knowing your business plan.

Yes, for 15 years.

Whether you should consider it for yourself or not depends on a myriad of factors and given that you have told us precisely nothing in your OP, it's impossible to say.

Yes.

Whether you should do it is impossible to say. It’s a rollercoaster. A lot of people don’t love it.

Do you have the means to support yourself while you get started?
Do you have a skill that you can sell?
Will you, realistically, sell yourself? Will you actually market enough?
Can you keep yourself going when it doesn’t feel like it’s paying off?
Is there demand for what you sell?
What would your costs be? Can you cover them and still charge an acceptable rate?
How well do you cope with stress?

There’s a myriad of things to think about. I don’t regret it, but there have been some HARD times.

I have been for 4 years, started my business late 20s I love it but it's not for everyone

You'll probably get more helpful responses if you tell us what you plan on doing as a self-employed person.

I've been self-employed, once was a disaster. This time it's going well.

Yes. But I can't/won't advise you because you haven't given any information. To be moderately helpful, I was a freelance in a specialist field and pretty well paid. I worked flat out eight months of the year and almost not at all most summers.

Self employment is such a broad category! What line of work are you thinking of? I've been a childminder for 13 years and it works for me.

Yes I was self employed as a freelance financial modeller for 10 years.

Sort of. I'm a law firm partner. But I get paid holiday, sick leave, etc. But pay tax as a self-employed person rather than paye.

Have a business doing freelance graphic design and communication services for a niche industry.

For me, I couldn’t go back to employment after just a year of doing this. I love the flexibility it gives me. But, it can be lonely, and I’ve had a huge learning curve in figuring out what you can and can’t divulge to friends as I’ve experienced weird jealousy.

Whether or not it’s for you, as PP have said, depends on your skills/business plans/connections.

I'm a self-employed dog walker.

I wouldn't go back to working for someone else ever again.

I have always been self employed firstly as a dentist now as antiques dealer online you need to be self motivated and have a back up plan antiques dealing just took a few thousand to build up some stock and packaging supplies and a decent camera to get photos and a car to transport them ( which i already had)

I’ve been self employed as an IT freelancer, and now I’m starting a micro business related to one of my crafts.

The pros are you are autonomous (although in some IT projects I’ve been in a client lead team), I work from home & I can nip out for a dog walk/make a cuppa/pit on a wash load between meetings.

The cons are I work longer hours on fixed rate projects (if it’s a tendered project for £10k, you want to complete it as fast as possible to get paid within, say, 2 weeks to get another contract started - the more projects completed, the higher the pay per year).

You don’t have holiday or sick pay. Bank holidays are unpaid too.

You’ve got to factor in accounting, tax returns, VAT returns, company returns etc. Always a pain in the backside.

You need to be insured - I pay around £80 a month for public & private indemnity, equipment etc.

Running a web site (whether you run your own host server or not).

You have to pay for your own equipment.

And the worst thing?

Chasing clients for payment on delivery; can you wait 90 days after you’ve delivered a project to be paid?
What if they never pay? I haven’t had a court case I haven’t won, I’ve got the experience to defend my own cases now, solicitors cost a bomb!

Despite all of that, I loved it, even if with our last client (on a 5 year contract) we took off 3 unpaid days (!) - 1 for our wedding, and a Monday & Friday bookended over a weekend when we went to collect our pup!

Now I’ve shifted focus, to make physical products, I’m working 18hrs a day, from home, but at least it’s on something I love doing!

I’m a self-employed headhunter. I love the freedom to choose my own hours, work from wherever I like, take as much holiday as I like… On the other hand I’m paid on commission only so pay days can come in fits and starts.

I run an IT business with my husband (plus 5 employees). I hated it for a long time. Now we are making money, I like it. But it took probably 10 years until I enjoyed it.

Taking the risk of running your own business is very stressful, and can be all-consuming.

😁
Happily employed again

I'm a self employed relationship therapist -
Pros : can work around the children and DH does evenings.
no boss to micromanage me
i really like my job - getting people to see their relationship in a new light is fantastic.

Cons: No holiday/sick pay
No colleagues to socialise with
The buck stops with me - tax has to be paid,
insurance/rent/professional fees.

I wouldn't go back to working for someone else unless I had a lot of autonomy now.

Self employed as a financial adviser since early twenties. Best thing I ever did, would never go back employed again.

I ran my own company for years before retirement, recruiting specialist HCPs

Best decision I ever made, though self employment's not for everyone - not least because time management skills have to be pretty high

As PP have said you need to give more infomation about what kind of work you want to do.
I am self employed, I don't earn anywhere near minimum wage per hour, lots of unskilled gig economy stuff, it's awful but it's either this or unemployment for me. You will have others earning shit tonnes, what are your skills?

What are you wanting to do as a business?

I’ve got some experience but it might be useless to you if it’s not the field you’re interested in

Yes, less well paid that being employed but less stressful or more depending on which sort of stress you prefer

Self employed since 2004 and love it.

I work as an online business manager for service based businesses. So I help them improve strategy and systems behind the scenes.

It gives me the flexibility I’ve needed to manage my family and I’m lucky to do something I love.

I started off as a virtual assistance so my business focus and service has evolved over time.

Consider it yes. Plan it - definitely.

What are you passionate/good at?

I've been self-employed since 2011, originally so I could work part time while my kids were small. I love it, but sometimes I wish I had someone else to turn to for advice or to lighten the load. Everything is up to you. Work is constantly on your mind. No employer pension contributions, no sick pay.

That said it also comes with a lot of flexibility and autonomy and I personally couldn't imagine having to give that up. But so much depends on what exactly you're considering doing.