There are various ways you can make money. Some people decide to go into full-time employment to earn a living, whilst others decide to venture into the sphere of the self-employed. In this article, we will explain some of the key differences between working within a company versus working on your own. Putting aside insecurity and the high anxiety levels of being self-employed, here are some worth mentioning:
Income
The income aspect is one of the main points to discuss when analysing a full-time employment versus self-employed career. The income from full-time employment is stable with no surprising changes in most cases. Being self-employed entails more risk as you will need to ensure you have a steady flow of work to make the required income. Although full-time employment guarantees stable income, a successful self-employed is likely to make more money. This is to be understood, especially when considering that a self-employed faces higher risks. This is also matched with the fact that a self-employed individual might find difficulty in getting paid and in some cases may not be.
Tax
One headache of self-employed individuals is that they need to cater to their tax returns and any errors might result in fines. This will require the services of an accountant and strict adherence to deadlines to ensure that one’s business undertakings are fully-compliant. When one is in full-time employment, his income tax and stamp duty are catered for by the employer.
Sick days
Full-time employees have a number of sick days for which they will get paid if they are unable to go to work. This provides a certain safety net which someone who is self-employed does not have. If someone who is self-employed falls ill, he will need to independently cater for the lack of income.
Loan capacity
Being self-employed can also cause some complications if you are applying for a loan. Banks may be reluctant to give out a larger loan to someone who is self-employed, especially if he has not been in this field for a number of years. Obviously, if your income is unstable, this is more likely to hurt your chances.
Working conditions
Most full-time employments require their employees to work for a standard set of hours, normally from eight to five. In certain cases such employees may be required to work additional hours. When you are self-employed, you can schedule your workload as it benefits you. Although if you have a lot of clients, you will end up working more hours, there is a certain sense of flexibility which cannot be acquired from full-time employment.
So after seeing the pros and cons of each, what would you prefer? I say go for both!
