Changing jobs is always a little nerve-wracking, even scary. It’s hard to leave a job you know and understand - even if you don’t like it, at least you know what to expect. Facing a new job, new environment, new people – it could make anyone hesitant. But facing self employment…well, that’s a whole new job market.
When you get a new job, at least you have some idea of what it will be like. You know when you’re going to get paid, when your benefits start, what those benefits will be. You’ll get this much vacation time, and you’ll know exactly who your boss is. Self employment isn’t like having another job at all. When you’re self employed, you only have yourself.
What could be more frightening than that? You won’t get paid every two weeks – sometimes, you mightn’t get paid at all. Want health insurance? You have to buy individual care and pay for it yourself. The only thing you have to depend on...is you.
But what’s the worst that could happen with self employment? You might fail. Whenever anyone leaps into something brand-new and different, they always risk failure. In the case of self employment, failure means not making any money. No longer having the mans to support yourself. In that case, you feel less self employed and more like someone who’s just out of work. And it can feel more terrible than the failure itself. Facing that is frightening, but that’s the risk that self employed professionals have to take. When you fail at self employment, you really fail.
That’s a lot to deal with. Have a Plan B, an escape route, a way to save yourself. If you think you’re failing, it may be a good idea to bail on self employment for a while. You can always go back to working full time, and focus on self employment efforts in your free time. When you start to succeed at self employment, you can always try it a second time. But if you never face the fear of failure, then you never get the sweet taste of success.
