For many HR professionals I speak to in the course of my work, self-employment is something they’ve been developing as a long-term goal over quite a long period of time. I think that’s actually a good thing. It’s a huge decision; a life-changing one usually. Being self-employed is very different from working in an employed in-house role and requires a lot of consideration. It’s also less likely to succeed if it’s a rushed decision I think. Sometimes people ask me about lead-times for our new consultants – how quickly we expect people to make a decision about working with us, and once a decision is made, how quickly we expect people to launch their business.
My answer often surprises them. I always say that launching a business at the right time for them is my most important criteria. We have several of our consultants and potential consultants we are talking to who had/will have a long lead time between making the decision and actually starting work in their self-employed role. Sometimes they want to save up a financial cushion, sometimes they want to see their employer through a particular project or difficult period, or sometimes they are planning their launch around changes or circumstances in their personal life. Whatever the reason, the result is that not only are they making sure that logistically circumstances are optimal for the challenging first year of self-employment, but they have also then benefited from a significant period of time getting their head in the right place, planning their business and being 100% ready to launch themselves into a working world which is usually very different from the one they leave behind.
Self-employment is a big decision for anyone, and one which should be taken with consideration. But it’s also exciting, fulfilling and rewarding, and seeing our consultants develop in their businesses and talk to me about their successes is the most rewarding part of my job.
If you’re pondering your options this year, and are considering setting self-employment as a target for 2023, I’d love to talk to you about our experiences and help you establish whether it’s a step that will give you what you want from working life, and whether working with us might help you achieve your goals this coming year.
If you’d like to find our more about becoming a partner with face2faceHR.com, do get in touch.