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10 Myths About Self-Employment  

by: Steve Pavlina

1. Self-employed people have to work really long hours.

Many self-employed people work longer hours than employees. Some because of the enjoyment, others set up their businesses in such a way that their physical presence is necessary for income generation. Either way it's a choice. You're the one who decides how to set things up.

There's no law of self-employment that says you have to start a business that only generates income while you're working. If you start a business like this, you're really just creating a job for yourself. 

Think of self-employment in terms of systems building. Build an income-generating systems that generate income for you, systems you own and control. You own the golden goose, and it does the work of laying the golden eggs.

Working long hours is a symptom of the business you create, as well as your personal choice. If you don't like working long hours, you certainly don't have to.

2. The only reason to build a business is to sell it.

While you can certainly build a business to sell or to take public, you can also build a business to keep. As a self-employed person, you're free to build whatever kind of business you want. You're the boss. Build a business to sell, or an income source that doesn't require you to get a job, that's fine too.

Serial entrepreneurship is starting a business, running it, and then either selling it or closing up shop. Then repeat the process.

Running multiple businesses might sound complicated, but once you've been running a business, it's not that hard to repeat the process and spawn another. Variety can be fun if you don't overdo it.

3. Self-employment is much riskier than getting a job.

Security is a result of control, and self-employment gives you far more control over your income than you have with a regular job. When you're self-employed no one can fire you or lay you off. Which is more secure - owning your income stream or leasing it?

As an owner who controls all the business assets, you have the ability to rechannel resources to increase income. Having control makes a huge difference.

4. Self-employment means putting all your eggs in one basket.

How many people would have to turn against you to shut off all your income? For employees the answer is one. If your boss fires you, your income gets turned off immediately. Whether or not it's justified is irrelevant -- you suffer a total loss of income regardless of the reasons. That's putting all your eggs in one basket.

With self-employment however, you can diversify your income streams and reduce your risk. Generating different types of income from thousands of customers is a lot more secure than receiving only one paycheck.

5. Being self-employed is stressful.

What's stressful is not being able to make ends meet, whether you're an employee or self-employed. But given the same standard of living and income, self-employment is less stressful because you enjoy more control. Not having control over your time and your life is stressful. When you have the freedom to say no, you can more easily control your stress.

Self-employment can be very low-stress by turning your office into a relaxing place to work, setting your own hours, and taking time off to relax.

6. The customer is always right.

Self-employment allows you to fire customers that cause you grief. Turn a customer away and refuse to accept any more business from that person. Some customers just aren't worth having.

If you're self-employed, there's no need to do business with people who think it's their privilege to treat you like dirt or behave like jerks. You won't enjoy such customers, and you won't enjoy the referrals they send you. Besides, it's a lot of fun to refer these people to your competitors. My customer service motto is: no civility, no service.

7. Being self-employed is lonely.

It's easier for self-employed people to recognize the need for social activities outside their work. At the very least, this may be motivated by the desire to network and to learn from other business owners.

Take the time to pursue other social outlets. Hang out with other self-employed people. They have an energy and proactivity that you rarely see in employees.

A self-employed person can socialize freely at any time of day. An employee can be fired for excessive socializing on the job. Self-employment gave you the freedom to put your social life ahead of your work.

8. Self-employed people have to do everything themselves.

Self-employed people may be responsible for making sure everything gets done, but it's usually foolish for them to do everything themselves.

You don't even have to design your own system if you can leverage someone else's. Generate advertising income from the vast majority of ads served up by Google Adsense. Google handles all of the ads and deasl with the advertisers.

9. Self-employment is too complicated.

Self-employment can be complicated with a lot to learn in the beginning, such as accounting, taxes, payroll, legal issues, insurance, etc. It does take a while to learn the basics, but most of it isn't particularly difficult. Get yourself a good book on the subject, "Small Time Operator", is a good recommendation, and you'll be off to a great start.

10. You need lots of money to start a new business.

That depends on the business. You can start an online business for very little cash since domain names and web hosting are dirt cheap. We're talking less than $100 to cover the whole first year.

Steve used about $20K of his own money to launch his games business in 1994, but learned his lesson because the money went way too fast. So when he started the personal development business, he did it as cheaply as possible, spending only $9 (to register StevePavlina.com), and requiring that any other expenses come out of revenue. After 22 months the business is now earning about $9000/month.

You don't need to pour your life savings into your first business. You do need an intelligent way to provide value to people. An online business can create value (like an article) for a fixed time investment, and technology can deliver that value millions of times over without costing you any extra time or money. Invest a little time in the initial value creation, and get paid for the ongoing value delivery. Technology does most of the work for a cost that's virtually zero, but you get paid for its results (significantly more than zero).

Try it for yourself

I think Steve has dispelled some common myths of self-employment. Such irrational fears aren't representative of the reality. Of course the only way to really understand self-employment is to experience it yourself.

I've met quite a number of self-employed people in my life, but I've never heard any of them say that becoming self-employed was a mistake and that they wished they'd gotten a regular job instead, even if the business didn't do well financially. Self-employment is a powerful vehicle for personal growth, and often the greatest value comes from the skills and self-knowledge you gain along the way. Like many other self-employed people, I'd sooner give up all my businesses than the lessons I learned from building them.

For more articles on this subject, please see Lone Star Merchandising Services - Articles

Lone Star Merchandising Services provides services to all retail outlets throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. With over 15 years of retail experience, we offer professional merchandisers for scheduled resets, remodels, and category updates in all areas of the retail market.

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