Where should I work? Getting a job vs self-employment –
What we're covering..
Introduction 👋
If you’re wondering what career path to follow, it can be really helpful to know the differences between self-employment and getting a job.
Getting a job and self-employment are the two main types of work.
You can do just one or the other, or you can do both!
Today we’re weighing up your options on where to work. 💼
Self-employment vs getting a job – what’s the difference? 🤷♀️
Before we weigh up the pros and cons of these 2 types of work, here are the main differences between them!
Self-employment 👩🎨
- You work for yourself 🙋♀️
- You’re in charge of your own business 👑
- Unless you hire other people to help you, you have to do everything from promoting your business, dealing with customers, to paying bills 🤹♀️
- You might have a lot more work to do, in order to pay your taxes. You might even hire an “accountant” to help you pay your taxes (What is tax? 💸) 💰
- You get paid by customers giving you money 💳
- Getting paid by customers can be irregular 📈
- If you want to set up a pension or retirement plan, you might have to do it yourself (Why you should save for retirement when you’re really young 🧓) 🧓
- If you want more money, you may need to increase your prices or take on more customers ⬆️
- You can often choose your working hours ⌚
Getting a job 👩💼
- You work for an employer e.g. a business, a charity, the government 🏢
- You sign an “employment contract” to agree to the work that you will do for your employer 📜
- Jobs are usually paid by the hour or are given a “yearly salary” 💷
- Money gets sent regularly to your bank account for your work (usually each week or month) 🔁
- You are usually given a “job description” that tells you what work you need to do 📃
- You are given a “payslip” that tells you how much you’re getting paid each week/month (How do payslips work? 🧾) 💸
- Your employer often helps to send your tax payments to the government 📨
- Usually you should be offered a company pension to help you save for retirement (free money from your employer!) 🧓
- You might get given bonuses when you perform well at work 🎁
- You are usually given set working hours ⌚
- If you want more money, you might have to ask for a pay rise, or get promoted 🙏
- You might be given training for your job, or even get your educational certificates/exams paid for by your employer 👩🏫
- Could receive benefits like health insurance, paid time off, retirement plans, etc. ✨
The pros and cons of working for yourself 🤷♀️
It’s important to weight up the pros and cons before making any decisions about where you should work.
Weighing your options can help you to work out which is the best fit for you. 🧩
Pros ✅
The pros of working for yourself are:
- Independence – You can make your own decisions rather than an employer making them for you 🙋♀️
- Flexibility – You can adapt your work to fit your lifestyle by choosing the type of work you do and your working hours 📆
- Choosing colleagues – You have more choice around who you work with, rather than someone else choosing for you. 🧑🤝🧑
- Location – You can choose where you work, and don’t have to commute to an office if you don’t want to! 🗺️
- Variety – Get bored easily? When you’re self-employed you can create a lot of variety and new experiences in your work. 💃
- Effort – When you’re self-employed, you create your own success. You benefit from all of the work and effort you put in, whereas working hard for an employer doesn’t always guarantee that you’ll benefit. 🏋️♀️
- Job satisfaction – You can adapt your work to create a job that makes you happy! 😀
- Income – The amount of money you can earn from self-employment is limitless! How much you earn relates to how hard you work, and what you decide to charge. 💸
- Your own boss – Hate having a boss? If you’re self-employed, you are your own boss and don’t have to deal with the stress of performance reviews from them, or office drama. 👑
Cons 👎
The cons of working for yourself are:
- Motivation – You need to be very motivated if you’re self-employed because nobody is telling you what to do!🏃♀️
- Finding clients – It can be challenging trying to find clients and make money when you’re self-employed 🕵️♀️
- Demands – Because you’re not guaranteed an income with self-employment, self-employed jobs can become stressful and demanding when you’re not making enough money. This can make it hard to find time for other things in life like hobbies, family, and friends 🥴
- Uncertainty – It’s not guaranteed that you’ll make money from self-employment, which means you can potentially lose money instead of making it. 🤷♀️
- Money skills – People who are self-employed need really good money skills – whether it’s keeping enough money aside to pay your tax bills (What is tax? 💸), deciding how much to charge for your work, making sure that you have at least 6 months’ income saved up for emergencies, or deciding how to spend your earnings. 💳
- Organisation skills – Self-employment can need a lot of organisation for things like keeping track of how much money you make, and filing paperwork for your taxes. ✍️
- Legal knowledge – When you have an employer, they usually have a legal team to help you avoid making legal mistakes. When you’re self-employed you don’t get this support, and have to keep track of lots of different laws on your own! 👩⚖️
- Employee benefits – If you’re self-employed you don’t receive employee benefits like sick pay, paid time off, bonuses, or retirement plans. 🎁
Conclusion 👍
So that’s it!
Self-employment and getting a job both have their benefits and drawbacks.
The important thing is to decide which is the best fit for you! 🧩
If you know any friends or family members who might benefit from learning about self-employment vs getting a job, share this post with them!
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