Work vs Freelance vs Business
There are quite a lot of businessmen on Habré, even more freelancers and employees.
Most of us (I certainly did!) have fallen into the trap of a life rut approved by society as a standard: school => college => work for hire. Someone immediately moved into freelancing or business.
But the choice is not always made consciously.
In this article, I will try to objectively consider the pros and cons of each organizational form of self-realization so that such a choice can be made. Personally, after a deep rethinking, I gave up a promising career and went to my startup.
Let's start comparing on a set of parameters that I consider the most important, all assessments are subjective - based on my own experience in employment + business, as well as the experience of freelancing acquaintances.
Employment
- - The amount of income fixed by the labor market. It is possible to increase your income by 10 times, but by 100 it is almost impossible.
- + Income stability, which facilitates budget planning, creates a sense of confidence.
- + Social guarantees- the employer often includes medical insurance, food, communications, transport costs in the social package.
- + Training at the expense of the employer - either directly, with attendance at courses or within the company, or independently, but at paid time.
- + Team, which often gives not only communication, support, but also friends.
- - Schedule, even if flexible, usually means a minimum of 40 hours of work per week.
- - Relaxation limited, as a rule, to 4 weeks, and even then with agreement (and the more valuable you are, the more difficult) with the authorities, oh geocorrection in most cases you can forget.
- - Creative freedom is strongly limited by the scope of tasks descended from above.
Freelance
- - The amount of income again, it is fixed by the labor market, but it may well exceed the income from working for an uncle.
- - income stability lower than in employment, strongly depends on your qualifications and the ability to present it.
- - Social guarantees
- - Education at your expense, the client will not pay for it.
- - Collective absent, which means lack of support and communication.
- + Schedule You define yourself. The client, of course, sets deadlines, but you have the right to decide what time of the day / week you work.
- + Rest, geocorrection- up to you. Do you want to work hard for 1-2 months, and then rest for six months? This option is very real.
- + Creative freedom fixed within the framework of the client's tasks, but you choose the projects yourself!
Business
- + Income actually unlimited.
- - income stability low, today you can be a millionaire, and tomorrow - a beggar.
- - Social guarantees- all expenses are borne by you.
- - Education at your expense.
- + Team You choose yourself, however, you can do without it.
- + Schedule completely up to you.
- + Rest with proper automation, it can be permanent; geocorrection in the case of an online business is almost inevitable, there are many places on Earth where it is much cheaper and more pleasant to live.
- + Creative freedom reaches its climax - you can set yourself a task, choose how to solve it, and enjoy receiving feedback from the client.
To find out what is more suitable for you, I suggest filling out the table. In my case it looks like this:
Change the significance factor of the parameter and calculate the final amount in your plate.
This will give you an initial understanding of where you are and where to go.
What to do if there is no way to change the form of activity?
I don't recommend quitting immediately. Think it over properly connect intuition. In your free time, take tentative steps, exploring new ground.How to improve your life right now
Each of the considered minuses can be leveled, or even brought to a plus.Employment
- Income: think about how much money you lack for a comfortable life? Perhaps employment will more than provide this level. Update your resume, go to interviews, talk to your boss about growth opportunities - this will give you an understanding of what you are worth and what you can achieve.
- Schedule: make it flexible by agreement with the authorities, or by changing jobs.
- Rest, geocorrection: Find a contract job. It is not without its drawbacks (lack of social guarantees), but at the end of the project you can rest as much as you like. Organize remote work for yourself, perhaps working by the sea is more productive for you?
- Freedom of creativity: become a highly qualified specialist, an order of magnitude more creative tasks will become available (simply because no one else can solve them). Become a leader - you will be able to distribute tasks, including yourself.
Freelance
- income stability: find clients for monthly support.
- Social guarantees: earn more, spend less with the help of geo-correction, issue an IP for contributions to the Pension Fund.
- Education: set aside time for self-education, there are enough materials on the net, even professors from leading American universities are already conducting free online training (