If you have decided that you want to become self-employed and want to work for yourself, then congratulations!
However, it is a long and hard road that will test every aspect of who you are, and you shouldn’t go into it unprepared.
Here are some of the best tips to get started running your own business, and some different paths you can go down.
1. See If You Want To Run Your Own Business Or Work With Others On Your Own Time
Being self employed doesn’t mean dropping everything to create an online store, buy out a brick and mortar, or start hiring employees.
You can do that and try to find clients yourself, but there are plenty of self employed people that are just working for people and companies in a freelance role.
The difference between working freelance and working at a 9 to 5 office is that you often have more control over your own time.
Do you want to work in the morning and spend the afternoon with friends? You can!
Do you like sleeping in and banging out your work during the afternoon and evening? You can do that too.
One of these ways of being self-employed isn’t better than the other, and most people do some mix of both.
They make money working freelance on things that they enjoy, while also trying to build their own business and find their own clients on the side. There’s no reason you can’t do that too.
2. Be Ready to Provide Forms and Paperwork Your Clients May Need. Such as a W-9 Form
No matter which option you pick, your clients are going to need some paperwork from you, and if they don’t other organizations will.
For example, one of the most common forms is a W-9 tax form, and thankfully creating a W-9 form online is very easy.
Other items that your clients might need are samples of your work, because they want to see what you can do before you work with them or they hire you for work.
Having all of these forms and paperwork can also help you whenever it is time to do your taxes, because your taxes aren’t being taken out of your paycheck like they would during a traditional 9 to 5 workday environment.
Instead, you will need to do all of that yourself and those forms are going to help you organize your income and submit your forms to the proper authorities.
3. Pick An Initial Niche, But Don’t Be Afraid To Change It
Whether you want to write, fix cars, or code websites for yourself or other people for a living, you need to pick a niche of what you want to do.
Even if the niche is vague like “I want to write blogs for a living” it is at least something.
Eventually, after some trial and error you will figure out that you want to write about specific topics, and then you can narrow down your job search to that.
Don’t be afraid to wrestle with your niche and change it as you learn more about what you want to do and what the market demands.
You might stumble upon a type of work that is both perfect for you while also paying very well, and then you should stick with it!
There’s a lot more that goes into becoming self-employed, but the final most important tip is never give up on your dream.
Eventually, you will be able to support yourself doing what you love, and you just need to keep going.