The joys and pit falls of self employment  

For anyone who has tried to be self employed they how hard it can be. It can be even harder if you don't plan out how you are going to support yourself or your family during the dry spells.

Working for yourself does mean you get paid all the money from the job you do which is nice and rewarding. Being able to create your own hours and decide what days you want to work. Sounds like an ideal situation, so why doesn't everybody do it. Because there are pitfalls to it. If someone isn't careful they can cause themselves and their family great financial harm because they didn't plan.

For instance you get to keep all the money but you still have to pay taxes, bills, and you should put some away for when you don't have any work lined up and the money isn't coming in. Normally people who work for themselves do pay their taxes so why wouldn't it be normal to stock away a certain percentage of the money for when it's really needed? I've seen too many cases where people claim to be self employed, get sick or the work runs out and they cry poor mouth because when the money was coming in they blew it on things that weren't important or needed to live. They then fall behind on their bills. Simply putting away 15% to 20% of already earned money can help so much in times when the money becomes tight.

Another thing picking a good trade that will help keep you employed. I know of people who pick a self employed trade where they only work 3 seasons out of the year or the work they do takes a long time to finish so the money comes in spurts. Most of them put away money from their earnings to cushion themselves for when they don't work but they are responsible enough to know they still need to pay bills and excuses or I.O.U's don't have value. Unfortunately, I also know a few who don't and they end up depending on their family to help out or worse they fall behind on things such as rent and they put their family in jeopardy of losing their home. They make others suffer because of their inability to be responsible.

Doing what you do well. If you are self employed then you know your success depends on how well you did your last job. It also depends on advertising and word of mouth. Get an unhappy customer and they sing your mistakes to the world. Create a happy customer and be sure to ask them to use them as a reference, heck ask them if they know anyone else who needs your services. Keep them happy and they will keep you in mind when they hear of someone in need of what you do. Of course the same holds true mess someone over and if they here someone looking for your services they will recommend steering clear of you.

I guess another pitfall of being self employed would be not having paid vacations or paid sick days, once again this falls under the put some of the earned money aside so you don't get stuck hurting for money if you get sick, injured or work is slow.

Being self employed really comes down to personal responsibility. If you want to take the risk be sure to plan ahead and be responsible enough not to be impulsive. Don't go making $60,000 a year and have nothing to show for it because you spent the money before paying your bills. Making others suffer like your family or the companies you owe money to, only looks bad on you. Having enough money to pay everything one month and then not having enough to pay the next month all rest on personal responsibility and planning.

I am sure there are those out there who have seen people be very successful being self employed but I think we all know a few who didn't make it. Some failed because they didn't offer the right product or service, others because they did not plan their money better. They failed because they became greedy and started doing shoddy work for the money they charged and created a bad name for themselves. They fail because they become lazy and stop accepting jobs or it could be a combination of everything. Of course there self employment businesses which fail because they become victims of the economy,it's a great service or product but people can't afford it. Other self starting businesses do well for a time but then stop doing well because the service or products life span is short or a fad. There are several more reasons also.

Of course if someone is irresponsible in their personal affairs then the likely hood of them being responsible with their own business is slim. Does anyone think because of the growing inability to take responsibility that we will see more and more self employed people fail?