Not for the feint hearted (Self-Employment)

Member Name: Scruffstone

Product:	Self-Employment
Date:	24/10/08 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The better the business goes all the more money for you :)

Disadvantages: Potentially spending lots of time and money and getting nothing back for it

Choosing to be self employed is not for the feint hearted!

About me

My experience is as a part time stay at home mum with my husband working full time and earning enough to support us hence I can't write about the pressure of it as anything I earn we treat as an extra bonus.

I'm an artist and this sort of business (in my experience) is very slow moving. It takes time (years!) to build up a reputation, most of my work has been by word of mouth - be seen doing your art - people go "wow" I want one! - well sometimes :)


Advertising

This is a tough one - we all know that to get business you have to get yourself known "out there" somehow but it's a complicated world that we live in so what works for one isn't necessarily going to work for another. I'd highly recommend spending decent money (several £K) on a fab website - especially if you're selling a product. If you want to "go it your own" it'll mean at least a few hours spent making your own one (there are some very good freeby sites out there) but to get any kind of Google ranking you seriously need to know what you're doing! Many hours worth of research needed here!

Then there's endless places you can advertise either free or fairly cheaply - local newspapers/Friday Ad, local shops/schools/community buildings etc.

Either way expect to put alot of work in for very little return at least to start off with.

Obviously if you're on a winner the biggest bonus of all is that all the profit is yours! Well not quite you have to navigate the hairy road of who you have to pay what - tax, insurance, accountants, maybe solicitors.

Having said that there's tonnes of advice on the net and often organisations locally who offer free advice - your bank is a very good place to start...

Summary: Big risks but potentially big pay backs