How to Become Self Employed
There are various ways to generate income, for instance, you can work for a company as an employee, become a freelancer, or become self employed through several side hustles. These things will certainly help you make a living, even build wealth.
Jobs vs. Self-Employed: Which is Better
Being self-employed means you work independently without being on a company's payroll. Self employment could involve freelancing(working for individuals and companies without a long term commitment and only on task based jobs) or starting your own business. While self-employment offers benefits, it comes with a lot of risks. One of the major risk is not getting enough job opportunities or not generating enough sales to bring you constant income. Therefore, it is really difficult to achieve financial stability if you are self employed. If you decide on self employment, you need to make careful consideration about the challenges you will be facing as a self employed individual.
Some people do not like working for others and want to be self employed. Some people find self employment too risky. Choosing between working for others and being your own boss depends on your priorities. Employment offers a steady paycheck and benefits like pension and insurance, providing financial security. But income growth can be limited, unless you become a CEO or reach managerial position, it is not possible to draw a fat salary. Self-employment, though flexible and potentially lucrative, comes with higher responsibility and less stability. Assess your needs and goals to make the best choice for you.
Why You Should Stop Working for Someone Else
Working for someone else means you are working on a job for a company or individual. When you have a job you are working for someone else. Even when you are self employed, you are basically working for others because you are offering services to other people. However, if you own a business or have created a product, you are working for yourself.
Working for Someone Else vs. Working for Yourself
Whether you are on a payroll of a certain company, or are in short term contract, you are working for other. If you are a business owner, you are working for yourself.
Working for yourself is more profitable than working for others.
When you work for others, you are basically generating earned income. Earned income has high tax rates.
When you work for yourself, you are basically running a business or selling your own products. When you are working for yourself, you are basically generating passive income, and passive income has lower taxes.
How to Start Freelancing
The road to becoming a freelancer starts by joining freelancing platforms. You should begin by joining Fiverr and Upwork. There are many other freelancing platforms but these two are the most trusted and the most popular freelancing platforms where there are millions of buyers. On Fiverr, you will be creating your services for selling (popularly called gigs on Fiverr). You make money when someone buys your gigs and you complete the order. On Fiverr, you will have to apply to the available jobs, and when you are hired to work on the job and complete the job you make money. These marketplaces are very competitive and you should have patience. If you have accounting skills and knowledge, you can create gigs related to accounting and bid on jobs related to accounting and bookkeeping. A lot of care should be taken while creating your freelancing profile, you need to share your work experience.
You can consider yourself a successful freelancer only when you have a lot of customers in your pocket who regularly order from you. When you have pocket customers, you will never have a dearth of jobs, and when you are loaded with freelancing contracts, money will be flowing and you will be making consistent income. You can only make a consistent income from freelancing if you have long-term customers who order from you repeatedly.
So, how can you build long term customers? Or, let’s say how can you convert your first time customers into a long time customers?
Your first time customer will buy again from you only on one condition i.e. you have offered quality service for comparatively lower price. When you offer quality service for relatively lower price, your customers will be satisfied with your service and when they are satisfied, they will consider buying form you again.
Always ensure that your customers are satisfied, and you ensure customer satisfaction by providing high-quality services.
When it comes to freelancing, the obvious choices are for Fiverr and Upwork. However, if you are new to freelancing, Fiverr and Upwork might be very difficult for you to get jobs because these platforms have established freelancers, thus making harder for new freelancers to secure jobs.
For new freelancers, SEOClerks might be the better choice.
Based on the name (SEO), you might be tempted to think SEOClerks is a marketplace for SEO elated work, however, that’s not the case. Apart from SEO related work, you can also find works related to art and design, content and writing, Programming, virtual assistant, social media marketing, etc.
On Fiverr, you will have to create a gig and make money when someone buys your gigs. On Upwork, you will have to bid on jobs and can make money only when accepted. However, SEOClerks is a blend of Fiverr and Upwork, you can not only sell your gigs but also apply on jobs.
Can You Become Financially Free By Becoming Self-Employed
You might hear a lot of people discussing about financial independence. You might even hear them say they choose to become self employed because they will become financially free. They also state that they want to become freelancers in order to achieve financial independence. Their belief is based on the fact that when you are self-employed, you can choose your employer, you can choose your own job, you can choose your own work schedule, you can reject the job you don’t like
People perceive financial independence as the ability to work and earn without being dictated and ordered by another person. While being financially independent means you can work on your, being self-employed does not make you financially free. When you are self-employed, you will have to obey the rules set by your employers and clients. You do not have the liberty to reject jobs because rejecting this job means you might not have another task to work on immediately.
You can not make money independently, you will have to depend on other people in order to make money. It is obvious that if you have a job, you need to be depended on your employer to receive a paycheck. However, when when you are self-employed or a freelancer, you still have to depend on other people to make money. I am a freelancer and I work on upwork. I need to be depended on my employer for work opportunities and to make money. If the employer does not hire me, I don't make money, even if he hires but does not release payment, I don't make money. I have an online business, I am entirely dependent on buyers for generating sales. If no one buys my products, I don't make money, if a lot of people buy my product, I make a lot of money. We are dependent on the admin of the site to make money, the admin on the other hand is dependent on advertisers.
Now, tell me, is a freelancer actually financially free? Does he have the leverage to refuse work, does he not work under anyone, and is he not dependent on anyone to make money? I have been working as a freelancer for two years, I am a programmer, yet I cannot refuse any work because if I refuse, I might not be able to pay my bills, am dependent on my employer to make money, I earn enough to cover my bills but I am not financially free.
Why Many Freelancers Cannot Earn Enough
One of the common things you hear from freelancers is that they are not earning well. Well, it might be true because there are very few good freelancing marketplaces and these are very competitive. When I say good freelancing marketplaces, I mean freelancing sites where there are more buyers than sellers and there is no dearth of jobs.
However, there might be another reason why many freelancers are not earning enough?
Not having multiple skills: You might be a social media marketer, however, if you have graphic designing skills as well, you have better earning chances. However, a lot of freelancers are only focused on one skill.
Not working on other income stream: A lot of freelancers are just waiting for the clients to hire them. Why do they have to do this when they can do other things when they wait for someone to hire them? Instead of waiting for someone to hire you, you can start other things like blogging, vlogging, online business, etc.
How to Build Passive Income as a Freelancer
Freelancing is not a passive income source, it is actually an active source of income. A lot of people choose to become a freelancer because it gives them financial freedom and liberty to work when they want, where they want.
However, freelancing is not all good, there is also a disadvantage. In order to make money through freelancing, you will have to work actively, you will not make any money if you do not work. You either sell your gigs or bid on jobs to get contracts and make money when you complete them.You cannot have an income as a freelancer if you don't have any assignments. When you get sick or are unable to work due to some reason, you don't make any money. You will lose you income source, therefore, you must develop passive income.
As a freelancer, how do you create passive income?
Well, the answer is rather simple. While freelancing gives you the liberty to choose your own work and work schedule, you will not always have contracts at hand. When you do not have contracts, you can start working to build your passive income.
You can create passive income based on your expertise. When you are not busy with freelance assignments, you can a blog, a YouTube channel, an online store, digital courses, etc. Earning takes time but once you start, there is no turning back.