Job vs self employment argument…
I was having this discussion last night with my other half about whether our children should be looking for a job or setting up in business and becoming self employed.
There is no problem with them going to university or college and starting out in a job, but the old saying that job stands for ‘Just Over Broke’ is mostly true. So to earn any real money and to be truly self sufficient, then my argument is they should become self employed in the long-term.
I don’t mean to become a plumber or electrician per se, and there’s nothing wrong with this in itself, but what I mean is for them to own a business with staff and selling a product or service. The problem with being a self employed plumber, for example, is that instead of ‘Having a Job‘, you now ‘Own Your Job‘ – you’ll have to go out and quote for new work; got out and do the work yourself; and then finally raise the invoice and do the collections – this can become highly stressy.
That’s not to say that running a business is not stressful though.
To me the benefits of having your own business and self employment are, as follows:
1. You are your own boss and you can do what you like when you like (within reason, and subject to what stage the business is at).
2. Your income stream from your business has no limit – the only limit is on how large you want your business to be.
3. You have an asset – so once you decide to stop work or make a change, you can sell your business (on the contrary with a job, if you stop working, that’s it you get nothing thereafter!)
4. Running a business can be fun and very full-filling – creating employment for people and creating products or services can be very rewarding.
5. You make a difference and contribute to the economy of the country you live in – by creating employment and creating a ‘tax pool’ you help your country.
I’m sure there are other benefits to running your own business over having a job, but these are my top of the list reasons and worth considering, should you be in that job vs self employment dilemma right now.
Good luck in what ever you do though!
