Most of the time my working life is pretty varied. I work from home and I also work around London. I teach violin and I work on my blog and so my CV is pretty ‘pic n mix’ but I love it. I used to work in accounts but since then I have changed from an office job “9-5” to a flexible way of working. But what is it like to be self-employed? Is it better for you? I thought I’d share the pros and cons of being self-employed with my experience of both worlds…
Your Own Boss
I love being my own boss and deciding what I can do during a day. Sometimes in an office, by working your set “hours” this is thought to be productive and pleasing. However, working productively in those hours is far more important. When you are your own boss you can decide what tasks are best to do on that particular day and not spend ages on something you can’t achieve at that very moment. For instance, if I can’t take blog photos during the week I can use a weekend to do them. Being flexible with my time is such a plus and it makes me more productive.
Knowing When To Stop
When you are your own boss it is hard to know when your work day ends and when your social life begins. Emails never go away and I always feel the need to reply to people straight away and not keep them waiting. So, I will spend my evenings replying to violin lesson emails for example to sort out various lesson arrangements etc. It is also hard to take a week off. Whilst I am writing this it is half term so I have not had my normal teaching. However, I have still had teaching admin to do and also spent the extra time on writing blog posts to get organised. I wouldn’t change this though and have just had to learn to embrace it. It is hard to take a week off like an office job without switching off also. Blogging especially is hard to take a full week away from. I guess the enjoyment of doing both acts as my coping mechanism.
Being Flexible
I love how I can be flexible with my time and if I need to do something like clothes washing during the day I can. I teach in the evening and at weekends sometimes and so it is nice on those days to have a chilled cup of tea or longer lunch to balance it out. On days where everything is getting too much and my energy levels are low I can take that odd hour off if I really need to!
Sporadic Income
My income is not reliable as things can change. Pupils can cancel because of things going on in their lives and this can be frustrating when you are expecting the income. I have learnt not to spend my earnings until the half-term is over and this can be hard to finance if you are not used to it. I am lucky my boyfriend has a regular income but one day I would like to not worry so much about this.
Something I love
At the end of the day I love what I do. I love blogging and violin teaching. Life may be hard with budgeting sometimes but who’s life isn’t hard? I am so much happier following my dreams and doing something I love. Quality of life is so important for us busy millenniums.
Are you self-employed? What advice would you give to anyone thinking about ditching the “9-5”?
