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Contractor Management

Pros & Cons of Self-Employment. How to turn the Negatives into Positives

By 18 March 2015No Comments

Being self-employed involves some uncertainty and risk taking. While it can be tempting to ignore the possible downfalls, it is important that you prepare yourself for the potential hardships. By understanding all the advantages, disadvantages, and potential risks to your business and finding ways to minimise their impacts, you will be giving your business the best chance of success.

 

Some of the advantages of being self employed include:

• The opportunity to choose your own hours;self employment1
• Independence and freedom to try out new ideas;
• Increased job satisfaction.

 

The disadvantages of being self-employed as a sole trader or through freelance or consultancy work include:

• Pressure from setting up the business and ensuring it succeeds
• Adhering to legal responsibilities such as tax compliance and Super;
• A lack of free time. You may find yourself working every day as you are not only responsible for selling your product or service you are also in charge of all administration tasks too;
• Money worries. You may have to go a few months without having any earnings as you build up your business. This could even result in needing to take on a part-time job to keep up with your living expenses;
• A lack of holidays, sick pay and company benefits. You won’t be covered if you take time off work for any reason as you are solely responsible for earning your living and you will need to pay all of your contributions to a private pension.

 

Here it is evident that the cons for becoming a business owner outweigh the pros. However, there is a way to turn those negatives into positives. If you contact a management company such as Pendragon, you can alleviate some of the responsibilities associated with owning your own business. You and the management company can negotiate the tasks in which you would like to outsource. Your company can outsource a variety of administration hassles such as; set up of employee contracts, payroll, banking, accounting, accounts receivable and payable, etc. Relieving yourself of these additional responsibilities will free up time and allow you to find more potential clients, expand your business and become more prominent in your field speciality. For more information on how Pendragon can assist your business visit our Back Office Support or our Contractor Management page.

 

Purnima Kabra