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Entrepreneur / Self Employment isn't practical for most people as a primary income source First, you pay the full SS tax 15%, in NYC you also pay another 8.85%... Not only do you have to pay for everything from computer paper to maybe renting an office you have to deal with individual health insurance which from what I experienced in MASS (which is similar to Obamacare) which is expensive and offers inferior benefits with high deductibles and often no Rx Coverage compared to what you get working with a major employer.
Then there is also the social factor -- its considered socially acceptable to have a real job, you know work -- getting up in the morning commuting being part of the working world and much easier to build a resume and find future opportunities.
You're supposed to start your own business while still having a regular job. Once your business starts to pick up and generate a decent income, you then leave your regular job. Virtually no one starts their own business and leaves their regular job without their business generating a decent income first; unless they are being fully funded by an incubator program, a venture capital firm that funds very early stage companies, by a wealthy angel investor, or can fund their own business as a result of being independently wealthy already. Also, what is this about it being socially acceptable to have, as you call it, a "real job"? Correction: It's considered socially acceptable to contribute to and enhance society as a whole. Entrepreneurs are the one's who enhance society the most because they are the leaders and the one's with the creative ability and drive to make the lives of others much much better; average everyday workers do not. Every business in America was started by....guess who.....that's right, an entrepreneur. Without entrepreneurship, you wouldn't even have a job.
However, it's quite evident that you don't have an entreprenerial mindset whatsoever so you don't even have to worry about starting a business.
Last edited by bicoastal10; 08-17-2012 at 10:41 AM..
Theres people who walk the walk and people who talk the talk. People who are well suited to being an entrepreneur will naturally become business owners. People who aren't will fail or never try.
Today, I just realized that working for other people, meaning companies and corporations, is the hardest job I have ever had. I love working for myself in arts and crafts though I have not made much money yet I will eventually as I build my skill and unique crafts too! My business is something I regularly can do and enjoy all day long and everyday. It is fun, but also challenging and I must take breaks at times to rest my mind and fingers, but it is so beautiful to me to be able to create. To me, that is my idea of heaven.
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Employee for 15 years, entrepreneur for 22 years then an employee again the past 8 years. I became an employee again in preparation for retirement. Didn't want the hassle of owning a company and being 65 years old.
Things to remember.
When I was self employed I would guess the average number of employees working for me was 8 and at the high point I once had 25. So yes, I was a small company.
If I had earned half the money my employees thought I earned I would have retired 20 years ago. I did well but didn't make that much on an hourly basis once you considered a short week for me was 50 hours and a standard week was 60 hours. Sometimes I worked 7 days a week and I always worked 6 days with half a Saturday always worked. Well, 90% of my Saturdays would find me in the office working for at least 4 hours. Always.
Most of my projects were federal prevailing wage where an average employee would earn $1,000 for a 40 hour week. At my high point I earned $2,500 for an average 60 hour week which put me 75% more than my average employee on an hourly basis. That was high point but I averaged $2,000/week... not that much more than my employees and certainly not enough for all the risk I was taking.
Risk? My projects were mostly bonded. I had lots of risk.
All my employees were sure I was earning $5,000/week.... God how I wish!
Sometimes I didn't get paid. All my employees got paid on time always but there were times my check would stay in the drawer.
Worry. There were times I would wake up at 3:00 AM Tuesday morning wondering how I would make payroll on Thursday. Where can I find $20,000 cash fast? That said I always made payroll.
Very good post.
So many people have this idea that if someone has their own company than they have plenty of money, and it is all crap. So many times in my life I worked a 2nd job on the weekend to keep my company going while I was getting started, there were a couple of times I took my paycheck from that 2nd job and put it into my company account just so I could make payroll. Yet my employees thought I just worked weekends because I was a workaholic, they would have never believed it was about making sure they got paid.
There are many days I wish I could go work for someone else, but reality is that I am an entrepreneur, I enjoy the ups enough to deal with the downs, I enjoy having a company that I can walk into and say I created this and have made it work all these years. I will likely be self employed until the day I retire, but it is not always easy and the money is not always great, and some days I just think I have lost my mind working so hard for less money than I can get working for someone else. It is not for everybody.
You're supposed to start your own business while still having a regular job. Once your business starts to pick up and generate a decent income, you then leave your regular job. Virtually no one starts their own business and leaves their regular job without their business generating a decent income first; unless they are being fully funded by an incubator program, a venture capital firm that funds very early stage companies, by a wealthy angel investor, or can fund their own business as a result of being independently wealthy already. Also, what is this about it being socially acceptable to have, as you call it, a "real job"? Correction: It's considered socially acceptable to contribute to and enhance society as a whole. Entrepreneurs are the one's who enhance society the most because they are the leaders and the one's with the creative ability and drive to make the lives of others much much better; average everyday workers do not. Every business in America was started by....guess who.....that's right, an entrepreneur. Without entrepreneurship, you wouldn't even have a job.
However, it's quite evident that you don't have an entreprenerial mindset whatsoever so you don't even have to worry about starting a business.
LOL, unless you are building and selling bird cages from the garage very few people start real businesses on the side, they may have a side job delivering pizzas or something, but most businesses are going to require your being available at most hours during the day.
Most people will gather up some money through savings, retirements, and loans to where they feel somewhat comfortable, and then they go for it. Of course many companies fail, but if you want a real chance to make it in something that requires working in B to B or with wealthier clients than you will need to be available when they do business.
LOL, unless you are building and selling bird cages from the garage very few people start real businesses on the side, they may have a side job delivering pizzas or something, but most businesses are going to require your being available at most hours during the day.
Most people will gather up some money through savings, retirements, and loans to where they feel somewhat comfortable, and then they go for it. Of course many companies fail, but if you want a real chance to make it in something that requires working in B to B or with wealthier clients than you will need to be available when they do business.
Absolutely false. It's not a business when it becomes a job.
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I think that there are few misconceptions about the differences between being self-employed and working for someone.
There is a perception that as an employee you have more "stability". Paychecks arrive on time, chances are company has been in business for a while and has a proven business model, often times benefits offered provide a nice safety net, and you as an employee are able to leave work at home.
For all those reasons above, even if they are true sometimes, employee gives up three things: competence, autonomy and pay. If you are willing to give up those three things to a certain degree, then you are better off as an employee. If however, you are confident in your skill set, you see angles that many don't, can monetize your business model-not just day-to-day, but in the future as well, then you will do well as an owner.
Personally, I never wake up worrying about Cash Flow-my cash flow is projected 13 weeks in advance. I never worry about my next account, my pipeline is always filled with at least 3 months worth of work. I don't worry about payroll, income, state or any other taxes-I have people to do that for me. I don't worry about my employees, if I did my job up-front, I will never have to. I never, ever go without paying myself first and most, if I ever do, I will quit. My only stress comes from not having enough time in a day to do everything that I want to do.
Just like anything else, some are built to run their business, most are not.
Being an entrepreneur sucks for the most part. You are always on the clock and any failure is YOUR fault. The stress and lack of structure is difficult to manage. There is little support from your friends and family until you are successful, then they will pretend they were on your side the whole time. Forget about dating, having a wife, kids or family.
"working for someone else" implies a stable job, comfortable income, great job security, benefits, progression through the ranks into management, etc.
"being an enterpreneur" implies a constant hassle, 24/7 availability and very hard work, constant need of capital -- and all this while the outcome is extremely uncertain, sometimes even leading straight to bankruptcy (which happens a lot more often than becoming extremely rich overnight).
both ways of making a living are good, to each his own I guess. I personally prefer to work for someone else, collect my steady paychecks and enjoy my guaranteed benefits and all the time off work. who knows, may be later in life I may come up with a brilliant idea and will work for myself eventually...
Steady paychecks, job security, stable job? Do you realize that you are DANGEROUSLY COMFORTABLE? Your employer can pull the rug out from under you tomorrow and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Tomorrow you can have your income shut off because of either poor business decisions by the company you work for or because your boss decides he doesn't like you. Working for others is not secure since you can be fired for pretty much anything.
I almost opened up my own biz three years ago. It wasn't really something I set out to do, but I was in between jobs and wasn't getting lots of hits in response to my resume postings (in the education field). I was lucky in that my wife had a fairly good job and didn't have to have my income to get through the next two or three weeks, but I still felt pressure to keep up with my student loans. At first I did some independent contracting, which was okay, but I wanted and needed more, so I went to Craigslist and started advertising my services. The first two weeks were really a downer, but I started doing a better job of marketing myself and I started getting work on a regular basis. I was getting to a point that when I got
The thing I just didn't like about it was that you put just as much energy - if not more - into marketing yourself, collecting money, figuring out what people really want, figuring out how serious they are about actually working with you, and keeping up with your bottom line as you do in terms of the actual service you provide. Once you get to a point where you start having a regular clientele, it's imperative to really start setting up systems that make yourself more efficient. And honestly, I didn't always want to be 100 percent efficient, lol.
But I loved, loved, loved the fact that I made the rules. I made my own schedule. I got up when I wanted. I started and stopped work when I wanted. Took breaks when I wanted. I performed work according to my client's expectations only, and I used approaches that made sense to *me* -- knowing that my methods actually worked. I didn't have to answer to someone who was mindlessly implementing a policy that they had no hand in writing themselves and didn't have a clear rationale for.
To be real, I think the ideal for me is to have a good employer, to work for a place that trusts me to do a job, stays out of my way enough to let me do it, and compensates me fairly. Not always easy to find, I guess.
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