Are You READY To Be Self Employed?

in #life7 years ago

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Self-employment, The ultimate goal for most people.
I managed to accomplish this at the age of 23! I quit my job in August of 2016. I prepared in every way imaginable, Growing several sources of income, And even using my vacation time to "practice" the self-employed life, For three weeks to see if I was capable of handling it.

Your Emotional State

Being self-employed is a little harder than I expected on an emotional level. And It turned me slightly into a hermit. While this may not be the case with a lot of self-employed people. This was the case with me. Being self-employed changes your life in a lot of ways you wouldn't expect it to. And you don't fully see the effects until you become self-employed. Which is something to keep in mind!
I always forget that other people have 9-5 jobs, So It's always bizarre to me seeing people drive to work. Haha. Little things like that make your life truly unique.
Also, it can be a lonely life, If you don't have a lot of friends, Or if you don't surround yourself with people. I Underestimated how happy my Coworkers at Ups made me each day. And this was a hard thing to deal with when I became self-employed.

What Is Your Financial State?

You obviously need to be able to cover your bills once you quit. But you also need to make sure your business or self-employed gig, Will be around for a long period.
You also need to have back up plans in place in case something falls apart, As well as multiple sources of income.
Here's an example of my income sources currently.

  1. Steemit (For Emergencies only)
  2. My Shirt Business (It's diversified on four platforms)
  3. My Coloring Book Sales
  4. My Kindle Book Sales
  5. My Ecommerce profits that are owed to me the next two years.
  6. UPS
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    Currently, my biggest income sources are my shirt business And second place Steemit. Let's say tomorrow; Amazon bans me. That would cause 1/2 of my Shirt business to be shut down in one day. And that's if Amazon were to ban BOTH my Merch And my Seller Central Account (Usually only one is banned at a time)
    I would obviously be in big trouble.
    But guess what?
    I'd survive.
    Because even though 2 of my ships would have "Sunk." I still have my other sources and platforms to provide me with money.

Can you REPLACE Your Job?

No I'm not saying you should bank on the fact that you'll need your job back. But when I say "replace". Think deeply about the benefits that your job is offering, Can you replace those things?
The good health insurance?
The discounted movie tickets?
Every little thing that you use, You need to keep this in mind.
When I left UPS. I left some of the best health insurance you can have. Plus I was only required to work part-time, And NO I never even had to pay 1.00 out of my paycheck for it.
That's a pretty big sacrifice, The insurance I have now, Sucks. So if I need any health or dental care, I pay a lot out of my pocket.
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The Less Obvious Benefits

If you work a labor-intensive job, Going from that, To potentially working a desk/ Self-employed job. Will cause you to gain weight. That's a big reason I went back to UPS. Because I started gaining all this weight, Even though I was running 6 miles per day. It got the point, Just to maintain the weight I was at, I'd have to have an almost perfect diet.
Which was hard.
These benefits can add up; You need to find a replacement.

For me, I could have gotten a gym membership. But why pay money to work out for a few hours every day to keep my weight down. When I can go to UPS and load boxes as fast as I can and keep my weight down that way. Plus get a weekly paycheck.

Becoming self-employed is a wonderful and empowering thing.
But it also can have downsides that many fail to anticipate.
Hopefully, this helps you get a clearer view from other angles so you can prepare better.

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It's a massive leap! Because of the state of the UK economy and the rise of 'gig' jobs, I ended up going self-employed by accident. That is, I was 'hired' by an SEO company who later told me I had to register as self-employed, or as a sole trader in the UK. Since then the only work I have is on a self-employed basis. I do prefer the freedom it gives - and if the value of SBD keeps going up maybe Steemit will be a valid source of income!

Sorry to hear about your insurance difficulties, btw - I'm in the UK and we have the NHS, which is free at the point of delivery. It's maybe the most beloved institution in the UK, although not without its problems. I feel really sorry for Americans, because on average they pay almost double what we pay for expensive insurance premiums, but get worse healthcare and often not even full coverage. But it's also hard to comment on another country's politics!

Fantastic writeup. I might add you will be missing an employee sponsored 401K as well. For my mental health & wellbeing self employment is very attractive to me, esoecially the older I have gotten. I'm currently in between jobs right now as my physical therapy contract at my job got cut at 12 weeks instead of 13 ( common for this to happen. ) I love my job in PT but have some health conditions that make doing it full time, difficult. So right now as I am between jobs, I'm glad to have three extra income sources steemit, nutraceuticals ( Have sold nothing yet but it'll come), and crypto trading. Are these enough for me to bare bones survive.... not yet but they help a lot. That's why I am trying to be a more successful blogger. I Have so many interests it is hard to "brand myself. " I love art, fitness, running, photography, steemit help, paranormal, fiction writing. Yeah that is a bunch of stuff. And working on ECS curation ( @eastcoaststeem my account to support primarily ECS through thoughtful curation)
It is alot and my expectations don't always match up but I'm thankful anyway. Great post, hope your leg is continuing to feel better

Good to see a new photo of you, it is a lovely photo and you look great in it! :)
I agree with not realising how much more you need to pay because of having a job. My little brother does powder coating and his clothes need washing everyday, he needs a decent shower to get it all off him and more.

If the job pays decently though, you can usually come back on top, depending what expenses in your country really are though.

I often see people give up when they do not see progress . But being motivated and staying to your word and making it happen is how it should be . Nothing comes easy in life

@kaylinart Hey Lady keep the Content coming the SBD is now over $12.00 per.................Love It !!!

RIGHT!? I just want to buy ALL of it right now LOl.

@kaylinart You Warm my Heart, I want all the Best for you too young Lady.

girl you are totally awesome! tshirts, coloring books, and more - so creative! what kindle books did you write? :)

I wrote a couple basic Money saving ones back when I was 19 LOl.
Thank you! It took a while to build up. Certainly didn't happen overnight lol.

Yes of course, you are soo inspiring! i have interest in making a kindle book and also maybe some shirts (with fun pole sayings!) ... :P I really need to look into it! I kind of started with the book a couple years back but didn't finish the project lol

Aww you totally should. Even shorter books do surprisingly well.. and you can sell them on amazon with kdp.amazon.com
Thank you so much :) IF you want to make funny shirts, you can also get an account with Merch. They print and ship all the shirts for you, It's a great program. But it can take a while to get accepted. So you'll want to sign up asap hehe.
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oh thanks kaylin!! Ill definitely start taking a look into these - amazon is so cool that they will print and ship it!!! :D

Some people (like myself) are probably "unemployable" and need to work for themselves. I don't mean that we are incapable of working for others but we will never be happy doing it. As you get to know yourself, you might find that this is the case.

I know how that is, I'm similar. I need that massive amount of freedom to be happy. lol

You are one of the most creative author today. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about self-employment. God bless!

Thank you so much :)

Self employment is the way to go, some of us hate working on mondays, but we do work the other days of the week.

Great article. Why Amazon should ban one of your tshirt selling acc?
I also have a suggestion, save 5% of your income in a stocks. They will be a relief in a 5 years period