So, if you’ve taken the plunge to start working for yourself in the last few years and months, you’ll know what a rollercoaster it can be. With the economic impact of the coronavirus hitting us, there are certainly a few more downs than ups this year.  

I experienced this a few years ago when I launched my coaching and consulting business and I’m now passing on that knowledge and helping self-employed people to smooth the bumps as a Business Coach with EnterprisingYou.  

 

It can be an exciting time when you launch your business. You’re full of enthusiasm and raring to go.  

The benefits or ups include: 

• Bringing those amazing ideas that you’ve had brewing in your mind for years to life. Now you can work on what you truly love to do, and you can use your strengths to work in an area that you are good at.  
• You have control. You can bring as much variety as you want to your work. You will need to adapt to your market so there can be lots of variety from that too.  
• You are your own boss – you can do what you want, when you want. You have freedom to plan your day or week around commitments such as caring, childcare and other responsibilities. You set your own hours. It often means you work more but it is your choice.  

• There’s no limit to what you can achieve or earn which is amazingly motivating if you’ve had the limits of a job previously.  

 

The downs or disadvantages: most are down to finances.  

• You lose the stability of income you get from being employed. Work can be really inconsistent. It will take time to get customers and you’ll have some months with no money coming in. You have to be ready for that and look at the long-term. You also need to remember things like making sure you keep money for tax if you don’t want a big shock at the end of the year.  
• There are days when it is hard to be motivated and you can be easily distracted. You must keep positive to keep going but it can be hard.  

• There’s the complete opposite when you are working too much and you don’t have a good work-life balance. There’s no time for friends and family and looking after yourself can take a back seat. You do need to put time to socialise and exercise into your day.  
• You have to do everything - there’s no IT department. It’s easy to lose hours trying to fix a website or printer!  
• You are also the marketing department, so you need to find your customers and make sure you have continuous income from existing or new customers.  
• It can be lonely as you have to make all the decisions.  I found things like networking and social media support groups to provide great support for this. You do need to find the right ones.  

  

It absolutely is worth it when you see the results of your passion and hard work.  

It is definitely really helpful to get support from a Business Coach. You can share these ups and downs and work through them together. A Business Coach will also provide that friendly kick up the bum to keep you going. They can help you put together a plan in all areas of your business to help you grow and have less of the downs!  

EnterprisingYou provide fully funded support to the self-employed and gig economy workers across Greater Manchester. If you would like to find out more about EnterprisingYou, register online, email info@enterprising-you.co.uk or call 0161 667 6900 to speak to one of our business coaches. 

More information about the EnterprisingYou programme can be found here.