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Today’s post comes courtesy of fellow S&S reader, Lanie. If you’re self-employed (or just really want to be!), check out these tips!

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Smart and Financially Savvy Self-Employment Tips

In an effort to further careers and to work toward achieving a greater work and life balance, more of us are turning to self-employment.

Your business can just you, working for yourself, from home. Or you can hire a team to round out your small business. Self-employment has many benefits, like flexibility, reduced child care and commuting costs, and even potential financial freedom. So it’s easy to see why people lean toward flexible self employment to create a better life for themselves and keep their earning potential uncapped.

But be warned: you’ll often have to work even harder when you’re self-employment if you want to be successful.

So here are some tips for anyone looking to become self-employed. Read these over to see if self-employment will work for you, and to get some solid advice to help you to achieve your financial dreams and career objectives.

Love What You Do

For anything to last, you do need to enjoy it.

At first, anything new can be interesting and challenging. But when the novelty wears off, you still have to find it enjoyable. So figure out what you love or find a cause you’re passionate about.

If you are taking the leap to self-employment, take a chance on yourself and do something that you can get excited about every day for years to come!

Plan Financially

There are several financial considerations to make when you’re planning to go self-employed.

First, you need a feasible product or service. What can you offer others that they will pay for? And will they pay as much as you need them to pay so you can support yourself?

From there you can figure out how many clients you may need each week or month, and create a plan to make sure you can secure that many clients.

You may also need a cash investment to get started, even if you’re just working alone from home. You may need inventory, a new computer, software, or specific equipment. So make a plan to cover those upfront expenses. And figure out how long those investments will take to pay for themselves.

Keeping On Top of Bookkeeping and Accounting

When you work for yourself, you will have many roles. You are the CEO, the CFO, the CTO, the COO, the marketing team, and the admin.

But one of your most important roles, especially in the early days, is making sure that you are keeping on top of your bookkeeping and accounting. Not only is it a legal requirement to maintain records for your self-employment, but you also need to know what you are earning and when invoices have been paid.

Cash flow can be an issue for the self-employed from time to time, especially when records are not being kept very well. What if you have a contractor to pay, but your clients are late paying their invoices? You may need an interim loan to cover the contractor’s payment while you wait for your income. You can read this article to find out a little more about getting quick credit or credit online.

Network

There is no denying that working for yourself can feel a little lonely from time to time. Which is where networking comes in. Networking can provide some face-to-face conversations, as well as new contacts and new potential clients.

It can take some time to build up the contacts that you need as someone who’s self-employed. To help, you can join social media groups and local networking communities. A lot of self-employed people rely on recommendations from others and word-of-mouth marketing.

So offer some referrals to the professionals in your networks, and they’ll be sure to do the same for you.

Plan Your Time

Having a proper daily routine will help you make sure your work gets done. Sure, you can take time out of your day for a little R&R or personal appointments. That flexibility is a key perk of self-employment, after all! But the majority of the time, structure will help you stay focused.

The social media profiles aren’t going to grow themselves, just like the emails aren’t going to answer themselves. So schedule your day, and be specific about what you are doing and when.

As the saying goes: plan your week, or your week will plan you.

Create a Conducive Work Environment

If you are working from home, you may want to stay in your PJ’s and work from your bed. But doing that each day isn’t going to be productive.

Instead, make sure you have a separate space for your work. It helps switch your brain from rest mode to work mode. Keeping your space too casual can make your work casual, which won’t help your business progress.

Hope these tips help you on your way to becoming self-employed like a BOSS!