Self Employment

[Chairman of the Bored]

I'm self employed. I'm supposed to be working tonight but I can't be bothered, so I'm going to watch Basil vs Spurs instead. Work life balance, footy when you want it, a lie in too. Anyone else think self employment is a breeze?

[Guest MattP]

It's an absolute piece of piss.

Problem is when times are good I slack and piss off on 3 week benders around the World, this ends up with me coming back to a mess and no money.

[Kyle_Le_Don]

What do you do? My last so called 'self employed' was a FAIL!

[Guest MattP]

What do you do? My last so called 'self employed' was a FAIL!

My current one will be in 3-5 years so I'm making sure I enjoy every minute of it.

[Harry - LCFC]

Really trying to incur the jealousy there aren't you?

[21st Century Fox]

I enjoy being able to wear a cardigan and shorts everyday, growing a beard when I feel like it and listening to my choice of music while I work.

I don't enjoy, doing my own finances, battling my own procrastination and having to walk further to meet friends for lunch.

[Fox92]

Want to go into (or at least try) self employment in the future. After I finished my degree and had a solid job for a couple of years etc (hopefully).

Always liked the idea of it, but I know it's not always as good what you imagine (unless you're someone like Richard Branson!)... Used to work in my local printers (great job that was), and they were self-employed.

[purpleronnie]

When I was at the post office I started to buy and sell online in the earlyish days of the internet, I started to make the same as I did as a postman so after a couple of months I left the post office (I was planning to anyway) and continued for around a year until I was offered a job I felt I couldn't refuse.

Being self employed was pretty good as the orders never seem to stop and my commute was about 5 yards from my bed to my PC.

It was easy too, I just had a look at what was selling, sourced a cheap wholesaler and boom I was away. The boring part was spending most of the day packaging my items and going to the post office to send them off and doing my own taxes.

[FoxesAreBlue]

Doing the books is a pain but the rest is alright, not easy though.

[purpleronnie]

I would only sell one particular item, I'm sure if I had branched out with 4 or 5 different items I could have made a very nice living and probably would be employing a couple of people....or maybe it would have gone tits up...who knows.

[whoareyaaa]

Can't beat being self employed but its not as easy as people make out unless you've got a shit load of savings to start with or an investor, that's if your building a business.

Plus with every man and his dog trying to make it on the internet the competition in almost every market is really tough, even tougher for a new start up and within a year most will fold, key is to build a good brand find the right market and product and hit it hard with a proper marketing stratergy if you can stand out then you will make money.

[Guest MattP]

I would only sell one particular item, I'm sure if I had branched out with 4 or 5 different items I could have made a very nice living and probably would be employing a couple of people....or maybe it would have gone tits up...who knows.

Any regrets not trying?

[pSinatra]

I don't think I could ever go back to being employed by someone else.........working for dicks getting paid twice as much, knowing half as much.

You certainly get out what you put in & nobody but yourself benefits from your hard work.

[purpleronnie]

Any regrets not trying?

Sometimes, but the job I got allowed me to travel and that was exciting at the time and the guarentee of a weekly wage was important as a lot of the time the money I made whilst self employed was simply reinvested into more stock, so seeing the profit was sometimes a drawn out process, but when I have to listen to my various bosses droan on day after day I do sometimes wonder what if?

[Webbo]

I enjoy the lifestyle. I could earn a lot more but then I'd have to work harder. It's worrying sometimes when work gets short, I get by though.

[kingfox]

Hopefully Spurs don't kill Basil.

I used to love Basil Brush.

[purpleronnie]

Hopefully Spurs don't kill Basil.

I used to love Basil Brush.

Was he self employed? i know he had someone working under him.

[vandamman]

I think it depends, for some people they have to put in a lot of hours, with little reward. Somebody I know owns a car garage, they have always made good money but most of it goes on the running of the garage. Not as lucrative as some people may think.

[Alexikokopops]

I enjoy being able to wear a cardigan and shorts everyday, growing a beard when I feel like it and listening to my choice of music while I work.

I do the same and I'm employed normally - maybe you just worked in the wrong place before?

Being self employed was pretty good as the orders never seem to stop and my commute was about 5 yards from my bed to my PC.

Did you get bored of that at all? I can work from home pretty much when I like but I tend to get bored and miss company. In fact I worked from home today and I'm looked forward to the office tomorrow (and my 20 minute bike ride to get there).

[notnow john]

I do the same and I'm employed normally - maybe you just worked in the wrong place before?

Did you get bored of that at all? I can work from home pretty much when I like but I tend to get bored and miss company. In fact I worked from home today and I'm looked forward to the office tomorrow (and my 20 minute bike ride to get there).

Anyone tried the franchise route . What are the pros and cons?

[purpleronnie]

I do the same and I'm employed normally - maybe you just worked in the wrong place before?

Did you get bored of that at all? I can work from home pretty much when I like but I tend to get bored and miss company. In fact I worked from home today and I'm looked forward to the office tomorrow (and my 20 minute bike ride to get there).

A little, I missed the joking around with the lads down the post office, I didnt miss getting up at 4am and walking around if it was raining.

[Zingari]

I'm self employed. I'm supposed to be working tonight but I can't be bothered, so I'm going to watch Basil vs Spurs instead. Work life balance, footy when you want it, a lie in too. Anyone else think self employment is a breeze?

I hope no one mentions the war .

I was self employed once , but the boss was an idiot .

[Daggers]

I hope no one mentions the war .

I was self employed once , but the boss was an idiot .

I'm thinking about filing a sexual harrassment case against mine.

[ozleicester]

Was he self employed? i know he had someone working under him.

Not sure... but it was a very hands on role

[Monk]

I run my own ltd company so technically I'm not 'self employed' from a tax perspective, but I guess its the same principle as this thread.

Love being abe to vary my work and have lots of clients. I find regular permanent employment a bore and wouldn't last more than a year in a job before I get itchy feet.

The down side is the amount of work I do, and it's so hard to say no when there's money on the table. 2 nights this week I've worked from waking to sleeping. Not a good habit really, but you do it when you're self employed. Working from home can also be very boring at times.

On the plus side, I take holidays when I want. I can take a 3 hour lunch break, start at 7am or 11am as I wish, and I suppose ultimately earn a lot more than I would in a regular job.