What To Expect In The First Year Of Business
5 Myths of Self-Employment Busted
Written by Ashwin Satyanarayana for Gaebler Ventures
Lots of people choose self-employment as their professional career and the number is increasing day-by-day, but everything isn't as rosy as it might seem. Here are some common self-employment myths busted.
Millions of people from all over the world take to self-employment in a big way.
For most of them, it is catharsis - almost an anti-dote - to all the dirty politics, condescending attitudes and an ever prevailing corporate brutality that exists today. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce Census Highlights, roughly about 56% of all businesses in the U.S are home-based firms operated by sole-proprietors or self-employed professionals. Plenty of people are taking to self-employment and the numbers exist, but not without myths. Here are some common self-employment myths busted.
Myth#1: Self-employment is being in business
To be in business is to leverage time, skills and effort. In business you tend to use technology or human resources or usually a combination of both as an effort to leverage and earn more by using collective skills, time and effort through your staff. The potential to earn in a business is hence a lot more - in fact, several times more than what just one person can do. Self-employment is just what it means, a job that you own. Your revenue is limited by your time and effort and is subject to fluctuations due to your ill-health and many other externalities.
Myth# 2: Self-employment requires capital
No, it doesn't. You are starting out on something you can do very well (technically well, that is). For instance, you must be a writer, designer, programmer, doctor, engineer, etc., and you think you are better off doing your own thing. What does it take to start? It takes a lot of will power and the ability to get clients. You could build your one-person business one client at a time and build revenue slowly.
Myth # 3: Self-employment is the path to riches
Self-employment could provide you with a fancy pay check and complete flexibility or freedom. However, it is not the path to true wealth. Leverage is the key to build wealth which a self-employed professional doesn't use. True wealth has a way to build upon itself, but a self-employed professional is much like a highly paid employee with expenses to boot. That leaves self-employed professionals with very little wealth that could grow by itself.
Myth# 4: Once self-employed, I will always remain that way. I can never grow big.
This isn't true at all. It's all in your mind and that stems from what you want to do. If you want to build your one-person business into a company, you will have to make sure that you just push the right buttons to ensure that your company grows. You will have to undergo a paradigm shift in the way you think and start thinking like an entrepreneur and not like an employee. There are countless examples of people who started as self-employed professionals but eventually grew their businesses into Fortune 500 companies.
Myth # 5: If I intend to grow and have a team, I might reduce my potential to earn
As an individual you can only do so much and hence only earn so much. However, as a team, you will be able to utilize collective skills, time and effort which enable you to earn more because you get more done. Your time in a day is now duplicated and multiplied into the number of people you hire which translates to more revenue. When you build a team, you make more money than you could ever make as an individual.
Ash has an undergraduate degree in engineering and an MBA from Ohio University. Today he is a corporate trainer, business coach and a freelance writer.
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