Anyone can be Self Employed
If you are here, you’re looking for change in your life – especially in the area of your career. It’s the reason I started this site – I wanted something different than the usual grind.
I really don’t HATE my job but what I’m wanting is to be more in control of my time and have the opportunity to make more money. I could be wrong – but my hunch is that’s why you’re here too.
Welcome! I hope to provide as much information as I can about different self employment options – whether it be dog sitting, knitting, internet marketing, music tutor or you name it!
Who Makes It In Self Employment?
Well the long and short answer to this question is…anyone can! It doesn’t matter what phase of life you’re in – you can totally do this. Whether you’re in your early 20’s or approaching 90, you can become self employed.
It all depends on how strong your desire is to make this change and developing a good plan of action to make it happen. It also depends on what interests you have and finding a way to make money pursuing those passions.
For some of you, you may like your job just fine but are wanting to supplement your income with a part time job or hobby that you already enjoy doing.
That’s a great way to get started if you can – it’s safer financially which is a big concern starting out.
You can squeeze in a few hours per week, on the side, to get started and see if it’s something you like. In so doing, you’ll see if it’s a viable way to make a few extra bucks or a full time living!
Others of you may be wanting to make a MAJOR change in life. You may be seeking a complete career change – or you might enjoy your current job but simply want to do the work on your own instead of for your boss or company.
Whatever your reasons for exploring self employment, there is A LOT of information on the subject. I found myself thoroughly confused at times after doing a simple google search on the topic. In part, because initially I had no clue what I really wanted to do – I just knew I wanted a change.
How to Find The Best Option For you?
To find what you really want – you’ll have to do A LOT of research.
I have a lot of interests and had a hard time finding one permanent self employment idea. I perused through a ton of information on the web and found myself getting excited about a lot of opportunities.
However, many times, all it took was a more in-depth search into a profession or job I thought would be the perfect career fit to discover that it simply wasn’t.
There can be a lot of “rule outs” when looking for a job – high overhead costs, poor return on investment, too much competition, and the list goes on. So doing good research helps to narrow down what will realistically work best for you.
And this research led me to where I am now – right here! Creating this website! I find that this work excites me. It’s something I always look forward to doing whenever I get the chance.
I don’t have the ability to quit my job doing it yet – but I hope to at some point in the future. That’s the goal I have set for myself.
Start Researching – just start typing in words related to whatever job, hobby, or interest you have. For example, if you are thinking of Work At Home jobs, just type in a broad search “work at home” and start from there. Then check out a few of the top results that show up on the page – this will provide more specific ideas to explore.
Then from that information drill down even more. I could click on ANY of the above links and find a few more ideas I hadn’t thought of. This is the exact process I did in searching for my own side hustle.
Keep repeating this process with a variety of topics/hobbies/jobs that interest you and you’ll start getting some clarity as to what’s a good fit for you and what’s not.
Don’t get discouraged – it can take a LONG time to find the career choice that works best for you but, with persistence, you can do it! Many people already have and YOU can be one of them.
Create Goals
This is key in finding what you’re looking for and making it happen. Without having a goal in mind, I’d be too unstructured to make a real go of this – so I set a goal of working on this site “X” number of hours per week and find a way to stick to that.
I add it to my calendar and stay with it no matter what – unless of course my job takes me out of town, one of my kids is sick etc. But then I adjust accordingly and carry on for the rest of the week.
Start with short term goals – mine are below:
1. I’m going to work on my site “x” number of hours/week. (this can vary each week)
2. I’m going to complete 2 tasks related to my business – in my case, it’d be writing two articles this week.
Since I have a full time job and a large family (married with 5 kids!), accomplishing these goals will take around 5-7 hours per week. So this goal is workable for me and I don’t have to sacrifice family time.
I can squeeze some of this time in on lunch breaks or by getting up early and working on it before I go to work.
Next write down a few long range goals – mine are below:
1. I want to be able to cut back on my hours at work by 1/2 in one year – so 20 hours per week. This is my goal, as long as my employer will go for it of course. I am already thinking of what I can propose when that time comes.If I don’t make it, that’s ok – I’m going for it! The worst that can happen is it will just take me a bit longer to make that a reality – even if I completely misjudged this and it takes me two years…no biggie! At least I’ll reach my goal and get that much closer to being self employed.
2. In three years, I want to quit my job and become fully self employed. Again – will I make this in 3 years? Maybe…maybe not, but I have this number in my head and am starting to write out specifically how to make it happen.
Even if it takes me 5 years to achieve this goal, I’m okay with it since I’ll be doing something I love!
You’ll have to decide what goals are reasonable for you – we all have busy lives and need to remember to stay balanced or we’ll burn out. Then other things in our lives will suffer and nothing is worth that!
But through all of this – it’s supposed to be fun and exciting! You’re on a journey to make a better, more independent life that allows you more control of your life. Keep this thought in mind and go for it!
Find Inspiration
It’s easy to be excited about becoming self employed in the beginning – the adrenaline is pumping and you’re stoked to get rolling. But as time goes on, you WILL run into a few snags along the way and maybe lots of them. It’s at times like these we need to find ways to keep that dream alive.
What’s great about the internet is there is a WEALTH of inspirational videos, Ted Talks, or just do a google search and you’ll find plenty to keep you going. I often look for videos about people who also struggled but eventually prevailed. Here is just one video I found helpful:
Final Thoughts
Thanks for visiting – this site is new so please stop by often! And please add your comments below – we can all benefit and support each other here!
If you like what you’re seeing, please poke around on the site. If you’re interested in how I make money as a self employed person (part time for now), read about the program I use here.
