Ready for Self-Employment?

The photo is Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes – a company that gives a new pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair that is purchased.

See a video in article below: Are You Ready for Self-Employment?

Many high ability people have creative ideas and energies for social activism, which can make a business venture even more meaningful and spiritually rewarding.

Gail McMeekin is a career/creativity coach and writer on personal, professional, and creative development.

She writes, “Ah, the fantasies . . . make your own hours, invent your own rules, choose your own associates, express your creativity, and make unlimited money. These are the dreams of the aspiring self-employed.

“Yet, if you interview people who have built a profitable business, they will tell you about the long hours, financial insecurity, lost contracts, loan problems, self-employment tax, and the daily dance with risk that it takes to run your own business.

“On the positive side, there are many self-employed folks who thrive on the excitement and challenge of designing their own company.

“What’s the best option for you? Are you emotionally ready for the journey?”

She gives a number of examples of people on entrepreneurial adventures in her article Are You Ready for Self-Employment? – people who are self-employed from anger, or desperation, or (the best chance of success) a dream, a vision.

Attitude and perspective are key elements

n her article You Don’t Need A Job to Make a Living, “Turning Interests Into Income” expert Valerie Young writes:

The alarm clock jars you awake at some insanely early hour. As you hit the snooze button you think, “there’s gotta be a better way to make a living.”

As someone who rolled out of bed this morning at 8:30, I’m here to deliver the good news: there is.

She continues, “A lot of people dream of escaping ‘Dilbert’s world’ and being their own boss. Perhaps the biggest reason these dreams get derailed is money. Or, more accurately, faulty thinking about what it means to ‘make a living.’

“I’m no exception. For a long time I thought before I could take the leap to self-employment, I had to first figure out a venture that would generate the same amount of income as I was then earning.”

Develop Multiple Profit Centers

“Not so, says Barbara Winter, self-bosser and author of Making a Living Without a Job. Winter is an enthusiastic advocate of what she calls ‘multiple profit centers.’

“Instead of thinking in terms of a single income, i.e. a ‘job,’ Winter recommends aspiring entrepreneurs develop several income sources.”

From Young’s article You Don’t Need A Job to Make a Living

Also see The Inner Entrepreneur site

characteristics of entrepreneurs, psychology of entrepreneurs, personal qualities for business success

Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the Creative Mind series of sites which provide “Information and inspiration to enhance creativity, emotional health, and personal development.”

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