Why self employment is better than working for a company?
Apr 16th, 2007 by MadV
While quiting Infy I used to wonder what next. Should I join some IT company over here and start it all over again and continue living like a machine. The other choice was to get into something which is purely of my interest.
During the period I was with Infy, except for the bunch of good friends that I gained, nothing was exciting. Job seemed to be tedious and tension filled. And the worst fact that I ealised is that reward is fixed and not based on your performance - both me and the one on bench used to get the same salary. [What I mean is that the appraisal system was not immediate]
Having a boss, makes yourself eligible to be fired on your shortcomings. Wont you love to work with time in your hands? Wont you love to do something which never makes you feel that you are working? Wont you prefer to work at your convenient time and at convenient place, eg. your bed :-P?
These are the prominent advantages of self employment. You are your boss. Being your boss may put you in trouble as well. You have to be too sincere and dedicated towards your work or otherwise you’ll end up in a mess which cant be rectified.
Coming to the profit, or self employment income part, if you want more profit work more, Unlike in a company where you wont get paid according to your performance. There the better you work hard more the company will benefit. Compared to the profit that the company is making out of you, your profit margin is very less and work load is more.
I remember myself pleading damn politely for leave for attending some function at my home which was nothing but my engagement with Veeran. And they made me work like an ass so that even in my absence I’d be running ahead of the deadlines.
If I was working for myself or self employed I could have planned previously and would have been able to lessen my work load during the time when my family needed my physical presence badly.
Now comes investing the profit gained. When you are working you never think of investing, not because you dont want to but because you wont get time to. If you are self employed you have plenty of time to get into so far unexplored areas of finance, for eg. top performing mutual funds. Hence you can invest wisely after good amount of fruitful research.
Summarising the benefits of self employment
1. You are your own boss
2. The freedom of working at your convenient time of the day and also your convenient place
3. More profit
4. More time to spend with your kids and family
5. More time to learn market and finance and hence be able to invest wisely
6. and, you are doing something of your interest hence no pressure on your work
So far I’ve been stressing about self employment. But I never said what are the available options. To pick up the easiet I’d say internet has lots of employment options. If you are good at programming or web designing you can offer your skills as a service and get paid for it. If you are good at gardening you can think of owning a nursery with lots of saplings for sale.
Even blogging can be taken up as a profession. Check out http://labnol.blogspot.com to see how Amit is making his living out of blogging. Want more? See how Sidin, IIMA pass out is enjoying his writing profession. Think how Harsha Bogle, being an IIM graduate got into a diverse profession right in sports, ie. cricket.
I always had the advantage of having someone to be followed, Tuning.
As a foot note, I’ve yet to explore details on self employment tax. Hopefully there is some good self employment tax calculator or estimator available for us to learn.
PS: Self employment makes you live like a human being rather than just a machine.
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11 Responses to “Why self employment is better than working for a company?”
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Excellent post!
Good thoughts but cannot totally agree.
You forgot to mention the risks involved while you’re self employed. Most of the things which are taken care of if you are working for someone (or some company) would now have to be done by you and only you. As it turns out - you would have more things to take care of and more things to do than you had to before.
“Now comes investing the profit gained. When you are working you never think of investing, not because you dont want to but because you wont get time to.”
—- Not totally true. Actually its the other way around. You invest in things when you know that you have a decent steady income and that you can rely on your job if your investment isn’t fruitful. On the other hand if you are self employed - you might not want to take the risk of investing the money you have EARNED on your own and put it somewhere else. Of course 10 year down the lane you might, but for that you would need to have a good bank balance which you can risk.
Then comes the pressure to succeed. Of course we all know that you wont be successful from day-1 and that success would come eventually from hard work and diligence but the pressure you would be under would be high !
I’m not saying that self - employment is not better but just that you would need a whole lotta experience and gud luck. Working for a company for some years and then putting up something on your own - would be a better idea
Nice post, its a really cool blog that you have here, keep up the good work, will be back.
@ Jason:
Thanks for a positive feedback!
@Rajesh:
Ofcourse there are lots of risks involved in turning to be self employed. And it is indeed true that you need lots of good luck to succeed in it. But let me tell you ,More than luck what you need is determination and dedication towards the work.
Apparently what you reap is what you sow. The crops may not grow well in a barren land. You’ve to add lots of fertilizers and tonnes of effort to harvest heart full. Similar for an entrepreneur.
I guess the strongest disadvantage of working for a company is that you get fed up of the job fast. Am I not right?
And coming to the investment part.. That is what I experienced. May be if I stuck on to Infy for more time I’d have thought of investing.
Altogether I prefer the life today to what I used to have in Infy.
@Bijoy:
Thanks a lot for visiting in. Do visit often and boost me with strong feed backs.
Hmmm…so you self employed now?
@ Sujith:
Yes I am!
Too many proverbs in your reply
Hmm .. you do get fed up if you don’t enjoy your work - correct. But if you like what you’re doing then you should be happy and less chances that you get fed up.
All in all - if you have a financial support [or someone else to support], you are in a much better position for a self employment. If you’re on your own and have to look out for yourself and others - self employment may not be a good idea. I say “may be” because there are people who have grabbed the opportunity with both hands and have succeeded.
@ Rajesh:
Yes I’ve the advantage of somebody to support me financially. But I know someone who dint have anyone’s support, still took the risk and succeeded. That’s why I say determination is what matters.
[...] I recommend that atleast you can think of a part time business and once you start succeeding you can switch completely into it. Enjoy the happiness of being self employed. [...]
I went thru all this not long ago. Currently, I am self employed - and loving every second of it…
http://binnyva.blogspot.com/2007/03/quiting-job.html
@Binny: :-). Good for the nation!