Do you have a dream?

A job that you would love to do?

We may all aspire to a job that we would love to do, but never quite get there.  For some people, they may find a dream job, get that job and love it.  For others, it may not be so simple.  For some people, working for yourself can be just what they want.

Anna has had various jobs during her life.  She worked 9 – 5 for many years, but found the routine quite hard to cope with.  She went into a care job and began to work shifts, which she enjoyed more.  But she still found that it wasn’t fulfilling her.  She eventually set up as a freelance writer.  She could work when she wanted and how she wanted.  It was hard work getting contracts and work at first, but over time, she built up a list of clients and worked full time.  She would work at 3am or midday at home or in a coffee shop.  She loved this and enjoyed the intellectual stimulation of working like this.

Marla decided to start working at home and set up her own recruitment agency.  She worked long hours and hated working alone.  She hated being in the house all the time, waiting for the phone to ring.  She missed human contact and eventually found a job in another recruitment agency and returned to work, and enjoyed it.

We are not all the same, not all of us want to work for ourselves or work at home.  Some of us would love to do that, others would not.  But in recent years, there has been a steady increase in self-employment.

• Public authorities may sub-contract work rather than taking on permanent employees.
  
• Employers may use zero contract staff, rather than permanent staff members.
  
• Private organisations may employ contractors.
  
• Some services can be provided by the individual alone who finds it best to set up their own business, such as property maintenance, gardening, landscaping, house-keeping, painting and decorating.
  

Nicholas worked for a painter and decorator and enjoyed it, but wanted to set up his own business.  He did and took on any contract he could find.  He would paint people’s houses, schools, businesses and so on. Over a few years, his reputation developed until eventually he began to get large scale contracts and took on employees of his own.

Be Realistic
When looking at self-employment - be realistic.

• Can you give up work and set up your own business straight away?
  
• Would it be better to work on your business part time at first around other paid work?
  
• Could you get financial help to set up the business?
  
• Are you being realistic considering what you could do?  Could you work at home?  Would you work with a partner?  Do you need an office?
  
• Do you have the skills and knowledge you need to set up this business?
  

Jack loves being outdoors and wants to be a gardener.  He starts doing gardening work for a few clients near where he lives.  He is good at the heavy manual labour of gardening, but finds that his clients start to ask him questions about what plant would be best in a certain area of their garden or how they deal with pests and so on.  Jack doesn’t know the answers, so decides to take horticultural courses to improve his knowledge.  He then builds on this knowledge and is able to increases his number of clients.

If you are thinking about self-employment and would like to find out more, why not have a look at some of our eBooks and short courses –

Small Business Start Up

Plant Pests and Diseases

Saving a Business

Working with Animals and Working With People

Starting a Nursery or Herb Farm

Getting Work in the Modern World, Work in Horticulture

How to be a life coach

How to be a Successful Editor