The job market is changing and people are no longer eager to chain their lives to the 9-to-5 schedule. Since the 1980s, the modern work setting has been studied in both academic and informal types of research. Climbing the corporate ladder, going by company policies, doing overtime, and calculating the exact time when you can ask for a raise are things many people are not looking forward to. Millennials, in particular, feel like there are other options and they are not afraid to explore them.
Building a Business
Being your own boss can also imply being the boss of others. We can well understand the appeal of this, especially those of us who have had experience in the workforce and have been disappointed with various types of management. But having a business is not all about ordering people around and having a boss-like salary. It’s about responsibilities and stress. To some, it is worth it. To others, there is no other decent way of making money.
Advantages
- You are the boss! If you ask kids what they want to do when they grow up, many of them will tell you they want to graduate from Boss Academy and be a boss. A dream come true for many!
- You get to call the shots. Having great management skills really pays off. Making the right business decisions and choosing the right people is essential.
- You can delegate the tedious tasks. Even the best job as an employee has some tedious tasks. But if you are the boss, you can have your employees do that.
- You get a higher income than you ever could with a salary. A company can be very productive and if you do the numbers right, and you could end up with a nice sum at the end of the year.
Disadvantages
- You may not always be the boss. Depending on the structure of the company, you might have to be accountable to investors and associates.
- There is a lot of responsibility for employers. People will be expecting you to provide their salaries.
- Some employees might not be productive, although they will be expecting compensation. And it will be up to you to handle the problem.
- You need to have amazing organizational skills to keep track of numbers, laws and regulations, industry changes and employee performance. Even if you have others take care of every detail, you need to keep an eye on the overall picture.
- You can lose a lot of money. Profit is not a guarantee and you can end up losing money even if you do everything right.
Creating a Job for Yourself
Working as a freelancer means constantly having to push yourself to find new opportunities. Outside of a traditional work setting where tasks are assigned to you, when you are on your own, you need to keep a constant workflow in order to secure a steady income. This is enough of a challenge to keep some people tied to their desk jobs instead of making the leap to self-employment.
Advantages
- You make your own hours. Most freelancers get projects, set their own deadlines, and work when they feel inspired.
- You constantly have to invest in yourself and keep updated with industry changes. This keeps you active and well-prepared.
- All the money you make on the project is yours (except for taxes, obviously). This makes you work better and more.
- You choose the projects you want to work on, the clients you want to work for, and the people you want to work with.
Disadvantages
- Your income depends on your capacity to get projects and to get paid for them.
- You work alone and it can sometimes make you feel isolated from the rest of the world. Also, there is no one there to share responsibility with.
- Sometimes you have to accept projects from clients you dislike working for, just because you need the money.
- If you accept projects you do not like, you are the one who needs to do the work.
- As your company grows, you will need much more than just employees and yourself to keep things in check. You might need managers and directors. Don’t know what the difference between a manager and a director is? Managers keep an eye on employees with a hands-on approach, while directors manage managers with a hands-off approach. As your company grows, you will need both.
- You need to keep track of regulation changes. Unless you have an accountant or a lawyer to do that for you, you need to keep updated on these things yourself.
- In some cases, the money you make can be less than a normal salary.
Building a Business or Creating a Job for Yourself
Many people who are just getting started on their own way in an industry are wondering whether to start a business or to work by themselves as a freelancer. There are clear advantages and disadvantages in either case and choosing between them can be difficult.
All in all, it can all come down to how much you are willing to invest. A business is much more than what you want to do for yourself. If you have a passion for graphic design and you wish to keep doing that, then you may want to become a freelancer. But if you like graphic design plus you understand how the industry works and how to help others build a career in the field, you could start a business.
If you are good with numbers and feel confident in your ability to make money and pay other people as well, then you can start a business. On the other hand, if you do not want to take responsibility for others and only want to make money for yourself, then you should become a freelancer.
There is also the idea of how far you can take a career in freelancing and how much you can do with a company. With freelancing, you can only become so good that companies will fight for you or others will want to work with you or learn from you. One way or another, if you are amazing at what you do, you will either end up working in a company or building one as the next step. Building companies is for the people who know they want to take things as far as possible, even from the very beginning.
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