The more I look around me, the more self-employment seems to be the way to go for many people. I’m not sure if this is just my observation or if it’s indeed a global phenomenon, so I’d like discuss it with you.

There are two reasons why self-employment seems to be the way to go:

   1. Necessity
      Many people lose their jobs because of the recent financial crisis. I read many stories about people with high salary who suddenly found themselves out of work and found it difficult to get new jobs. For them, self-employment could be the only way to go because the job market isn’t as good as it was.
   2. Opportunity
      Many other people choose self-employment not because of necessity but because of opportunity. They find that self-employment gives them more freedom and flexibility, not to mention the potentially big financial reward they could get.

I am an advocate of self-employment and over time I become more and more convinced because of the stories I hear from people around me. I often hear about those who lose their jobs and how it could take them months to get new jobs, if ever. I imagine that if only more people went through the path of self-employment, I would hear less such stories.

More specifically, here are some reasons why I advocate self-employment:

   1. Your income source won’t depend on one party
      If someone works for a company, his boss could fire him and eliminate his income source. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel comfortable giving the control of my entire income to someone else. Being self-employed means that nobody can fire you.

   2. Your income won’t drop to zero if something bad happened
      If someone got fired from his work, his income practically dropped to zero. Those who are self-employed won’t experience that. Sure, you might lose clients, but it’s unlikely that you lost all of your clients at once. If something bad happened, it wouldn’t be drastic. Instead of having your income dropped to zero, it would drop gradually and therefore give you time to work on something else.

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   3. You can cut work-related expenses
      Since you work on your own, you have more control over the way you work. This often translates to saving on work-related expenses such as transportation costs.

   4. Your have more control over your time
      In most cases, you can arrange your own work time. This flexibility means that it will be easier for you to allocate time for other things in your life.

   5. Your reward is more proportional to your effort
      When you are in a corporate environment, providing twice as much value doesn’t necessarily mean getting twice as much reward. But when you work on your own, that can happen more easily. You contact with the market directly so any extra value you provide is more likely to be rewarded.

   6. The Internet opens new opportunities
      The Internet allows you to deliver your value directly to those who need it without any middleman. In addition, the Internet helps you aggregate potential demand. Let’s say you have a specific skill that only 1 in a million people need. Without the Internet, it will be difficult to find even one client in your local area. But thanks to the Internet, you now have access to over 6000 potential clients. It means that your ability to make a living from that specific skill increases exponentially.

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