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Many of us dream of becoming our own boss and setting up a business, but there is bound to be an element of fear and uncertainty surrounding these plans, as you try to weigh up the pros and cons of the idea.
Whether you follow a professional calling like Jacksonville car accident lawyers or have an idea for launching your own niche business that you have been thinking about for a while, there are a lot of questions that you need to ask and answer, in order to determine if a life of self-employment is what you want. Here are some of the pros and cons of self-employment.
If you don’t like Mondays
How many people who work for someone else, wake up on a Monday morning with a sense of dread rather than anticipation at the week ahead?
Setting off to work to do something that just about pays the bills but you don’t enjoy, is bound to take its toll at some point, and have you thinking about whether you could make it on your own and run a business yourself, rather than work for somebody else.
Many who harbor these thoughts tend to think that the job security they enjoy may just make the work they are doing worth persevering with, but the reality is that your next paycheck could be your last, and you could easily lose that job security in an instant, as there is no such thing these days as a job for life.
Do something with your life
It would definitely be a mistake to think that setting up your own business will set you on the path to wealth and a lifetime of happiness, but the point about self-employment is that it does at least open up the opportunity to achieve these two things.
You could attempt to climb the corporate ranks and increase your wealth and happiness working for someone else, but if you have the skills and industry knowledge to justify a decent salary, there is also a fair chance that you could successfully apply those attributes to running your own business instead.
Self-employed creates the chance to achieve something that you can be proud of and it could also bring you wealth, happiness and independence.
The lure of tax deductions
A common observation about self-employment from salaried people is that there are many financial benefits attached to the status of being your own boss, a situation that they can sometimes view with a touch of envy, as they do not enjoy the same level of control over what gets taken out from their money by their employer before they get paid their salary.
Tax deductions are on the whole a good aspect of being self-employed but you should not think that the system is as beneficial as it first seems.
Things like meals, business entertaining and travel costs are deductible within certain limits, but bear in mind things like health insurance, which are normally more expensive. Being self-employed limits your access to plans with lower premiums and you have to cover the whole cost of health insurance yourself, whereas if you are salaried, your employer will meet half of this cost.
When you look at all of the pros and cons attached to being self-employed, you may decide that you can’t face that Monday morning feeling anymore and start making plans for your own business venture.
Joe Bird has been self-employed all of his working life. Running a retail business for many years, he is now taking a backseat as retirement creeps up on him. He enjoys sharing his wisdom with the younger generation, if they can be bothered to listen to him!
This post gives a really good insight. It’s important to fully assess all the positives and negatives of any big decision, especially one as big as starting your own business because so much is at risk in pursuing that. It’s definitely a great idea for some people, but these things must be considered first! Thanks for sharing!