What Does Working for Yourself Look Like?

By Danielle Wirsansky on November 30, 2016

For some of us, joining the workforce is not an exciting prospect. Some of us are too much of a leader to do well when given commands; some of us cannot stand to work in group settings; others cannot stand the prospect of working from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every weekday for the rest of their lives.

This average work style does appeal to many — otherwise it would not be the average way of working. But for those who cannot stomach the idea of it, there is another option: working for yourself.

Working for yourself can give you a lot of freedom but it can also take it away. It can be confusing, perplexing, difficult and daunting. So before you choose to go down that path you need to know: what does working for yourself look like?

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Flexibility

When you work for yourself, you get to set the rules. Whatever you did not like about working for someone else, you no longer have to do. And whatever you did like about working for someone else, you can. Hate crunching numbers? You no longer have to do it. Hate doing paperwork? It is not something you must do.

You have the flexibility to choose the tasks you are interested in doing and take those on for yourself. Tasks like crunching numbers and doing paperwork probably still need to be done in every business, but when you are in charge of your own little company, you are no longer forced to do tasks that you find unpleasant. You can hire an assistant or outsource tasks that you abhor so that you have the time to focus on the part of the business that you like best.

Of course you could be creative and find a way around those tasks you hate or find a way that you can make them more bearable to do as well. And you could always not do them but to keep working for yourself, you need to be successful so you probably should not just flat out ignore activities that you dislike for that reason only. You could though, if you wanted to. It is one of the perks of working for yourself and having the flexibility to pick and choose what you do.

Another aspect of flexibility that you will get to enjoy is choose when to work. Does the idea of a 9 to 5 work day make your insides shrivel? You do not have to! If you are a night owl, then work at night. If you are a morning person, work during the morning. Need to have your Wednesdays free? You can work on Saturdays instead and make your own weekends. Want to see your little brother’s school play? You can do that. Want to take the day off on your birthday? You can!

You get to work when you want to and no one will reprimand you for taking a day off. You still need to be responsible about how you run your business though so that you can be successful.

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Responsibility

In order for your independently run business to be successful, you must be responsible. Working for yourself means just that — you are in charge and it is up to you, and only you, if you are successful. Especially when you first start out working for yourself, you have no money to hire employees. You are starting from the ground up which means you are responsible for every single aspect. You have to do the accounting, the marketing, the selling, the designing, the everything!

Setting up a new business and establishing it takes a lot of hard work and you need to be able to rise to the occasion and meet the challenge. You have to take the initiative and follow every lead. You need to work whatever hours necessary in order to make your business flourish. This might mean working hours and days you might prefer not to or even working more than you did before for even less money.

But if having the environment to choose what you do and what you pursue is the right one for it, the hard work to establish yourself as a company will make all the hard work you do in the beginning worth it. When everything is up and running smoothly, the work you do will not feel as much like work. You will be in a happy and healthy environment doing exactly what it is that you love to do. Your success hinges on how seriously you take your responsibilities — to the new company, to your new clients, to your new employees, to your family, and most importantly, to yourself.

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