Deciding to work for myself

Lucy here. I thought I'd try writing about little things I've noticed about being self-employed/having a small business. In case it helps anyone else who has, or is about to, take the leap. We'll see how this goes.

I started doing extra freelance work early in my career to supplement my salary. So I gained a bit of experience at having a 'side hustle', although no one called it that yet. This continued for about 5 years alongside salaried jobs. But when I think about seriously deciding to work for myself, it's a specific time.

I had a decade's worth of in-house experience with smaller local companies and large global networks. So I knew what working for other people was like. And I was tired. I knew I wanted a change and was contemplating going thermonuclear - retraining to something totally different.

I don't hate what I do

Fortunately, before enrolling in an expensive multi-year course I had a thought. I decided to commit to 100% self-employment in my current field, and to set myself up as a proper business. After a few months I had a revelation: I don't hate what I do. I just didn't really enjoy who I used to work for and the way I had to work.1

Which was a relief because retraining and starting from scratch is a lot of effort. I'm not saying don't retrain, I fully endorse new adventures. But for me, I'm glad I gave my career a second chance with self-employment. I didn't lose my hard-earned experience and contacts. And my new-found autonomy helped me enjoy work, without all the workplace stuff that drives people crazy getting in the way.

There's not really any groundbreaking advice here, just some moral support. If you're good at something, earn a decent wage from it, but are sick of it, self-employment might be worth a try before walking away from everything. You can still enrol in that jet-ski-instructor course and make a gradual change if it's your true calling. ;-)

Footnotes

  1. If you're reading this and you used to be my manager and we liked each other, you know what I mean – it's the whole 'big workplace' thing that I wasn't good at. If you used to be my manager and you got drunk in your lunch hour every day, you were part of the problem. ↩