Lately I’ve been under a persistent battle with myself, questioning whether I made the right decision in my career path, and re-evaluating whether self-employment is going to work out for me. I often find myself day dreaming about a job I can go to from 8-5 every day, and when I get home at night I can just shut off, and quit thinking about work. For those of you that don’t know I have been a marketing contractor for 2 months short of a year. I spend my time, thinking of new ways for companies to market, and helping them implement those plans. I develop anything from websites, to business cards, and content ideas.

It allows me to work on my own time, and move at whatever pace is suitable for me. Lately it’s been hard for me to find motivation to get everything I need to get done within a day, which leads to sleepless nights, and stressful days. The truth about self-employment is that you can’t have off days, and slow moments, if you want to grow you have to push yourself to do all of the things you hate.

So I thought it would be fun to tell you all about the bittersweet truths behind self-employment, granted this is just one small list from a goldfish in a very big pond, but here you go:

It’s nearly impossible to not be a workaholic. I find insanely difficult to not intertwine my business life and my personal life. I know I will eventually get to a point where I can balance things far better than I am now, but at moment I’m just working on taking small steps to dedicate time to my personal life and relationships. With that in mind I would love to hear how every self-employed person schedules sleep into their life.

You’re going to get less sleep. You’re lucky if you work for a company that puts an emphasis on home life being just as important as work, that’s something that was trained into my head throughout my internship. You might be able to leave at 5:00 pm and generally not touch work on the weekends. Owning your own business and working from home makes it much harder to turn one part of your life off. Even when I try to shut off from work, it’s a constant reminder in the back of my head that I should be doing more whenever I can.

Surround yourself with people you love and are inspired by. I never realized how much you feed off the energy of those around you until I became self-employed, and I find myself constantly feeding off those around me. When I hear friends talk about how they struggle in their work lives I realize I love the flexibility in my own job. When I see my friends enjoying their weekends seamlessly I can’t help but be a little envious, but the truth is we feed of all energy. Surround yourself with people that make you a better person. Find people that push you to work harder and become the best version of yourself because when things feel low, they’re the reasons you’ll keep pressing forward.

Forget the worlds definition of success.  We live in a society that constantly reminds us of what success should look like. Embrace society’s notion of success, and then throw it away. People constantly ask me, “how’s business” my answer as of late has been, well the bills are paid, and there’s beer in the fridge. Yes, I do say this jokingly but I also say this as a reminder to myself. I’m young, this is new, and sometimes keeping your head above water in the beginning needs to be enough.

Take time for yourself and the things you love. Working from home is a constant reminder that there is still a need to have a work life balance. Take time to spend with your friends and family, and more importantly take time to take care of yourself. Go to the gym, shower and get dressed, even if no one is going to see you that day. I may not have a required uniform, but working from your jammies daily is less than motivating. Find a way to take your mind off of work at least just once a day, because after all there’s so much more to life than a paycheck, and a death date.

Instability is okay. Working for yourself doesn’t always mean that your paycheck is a set number, you have months where you sleep 3 hours a week, and some months it feels like you work 3 hours a week. Instability feels like it’s almost inevitable when you work for yourself. Acknowledge that, and plan ahead.

I am my own boss. Apparently, people hear this phrase as I don’t have to work. The truth is just because I’m my own boss doesn’t mean that this eliminates all pressure from me. I still have clients with deadlines and agendas to achieve. Being your own boss puts pressure on yourself just as much as having to answer to someone higher up.

It is super exciting, and slightly terrifying. I would be lying if I didn’t get nauseous every time I have to answer the question, “So what do you do?” Truthfully, it just hasn’t set in that at 22 I could decide my own work schedule and try to grow a business. Yet, at the same time owning my own business is absolutely exhilarating. It gives me the opportunity to see things in my own light, and persevere into what I think my future should hold. I’m not spending time building dreams for someone else, and that’s HUGE, but at the same time if I fail, I’m failing at my own dreams…and that’s TERRIFYING.

No employer, no benefits.  When I graduated college, and started looking for jobs, I focused on finding a job that would provide great benefits from insurance to a 401k match. Now that I’m self-employed these are things I have to worry about on my own. I have to ensure that I’m holding enough for taxes aside, and that I have insurance, and I’m constantly investing in my Roth account. These weren’t necessarily things I had planned on doing at 23, but the truth is thinking ahead is something you constantly have to do while you’re self-employed. Not having paid vacation is disappointing, but I just remind myself that I can still work while I’m on vacation.

You need focus. For someone who spends an excessive time having “squirrel” moments, I’m starting to realize how important focus is. If I spend an entire day trying to work but getting distracted I rarely get anything done. If I dedicate a few hours a day to intense fast paced work, it’s rare that I fall behind. Focus is so important, but so hard to attain. Find your own way to focus and push forward through every task at hand.

I know there is still so much more to learn, and it seems that I learn more daily than ever before, but truthfully this roller coaster I’m on is nothing short of exciting for me, and as nervous as I am I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

 

Until next time,

 

Me