One Mom's Journey

For those of you who don't know the expression: the "Man" is the boss.  So if you work for the "Man" then you are employed, if you are the "Man" then you are self-employed.  I have been both and want to share my list of pros and cons for these two categories.

Working for the "Man"

When I finished my first degree in Marketing, I worked for a huge Marketing company that was all about rearing new grads into super fueled Marketing workaholic machines.  They did not have that affect on me - in fact, they were the company that paved the path to self-employment.  So let's start with the pros and cons of working for the "Man".

Pros

Cons

·         Steady pay check ·         Fixed hours (usually) ·         Paid Vacation ·         Company culture ·         Parties ·         Monthly cake in some cases (for birthdays) ·         Bonuses (in some cases) ·         Pay raises ·         Promotions ·         Praise ·         Car allowances and gas cards (in some cases) ·         Salary + commission (in some cases)

·         Steady pay cheque (no fluctuation in cash flow can be a con) ·         Unpaid hours (even though it is against the law) ·         Set number of vacation days ·         Company politics (you typically don't win if you are not a senior employee) ·         Cleakie and groupie (kind of like high school) ·         Not secure (unless government job) ·         Commute to work (if it is long) ·         Expected to work overtime ·         Most raises are based on inflation rate ·         Hard to have work life balance

Pretty even on both sides.  As you can see, depending on how you look at things a pro can also be a con.

Being the "Man" - Self-Employed

Being self-employed is no cake-walk, but it definitely has some advantages, again, depending on how you look at it.  Here is a list of pros and cons for the self-employed.

Pros

Cons

·         Your income fluctuates ·         Flexible working hours ·         You choose vacation time and take as much or as little as you like ·         You are the decision maker ·         You can work from home ·         You can work around children’s school schedules avoiding extra day care costs ·         You create your own Marketing campaign ·         You manage customers ·         You can write off a lot bringing your income into a lower tax bracket ·         You can work from anywhere in most cases (Internet has allowed for that) ·         You become part of a community of self-employed and feed off of each other for advice ·         You can barter –exchange services for services or product for product

·         It is hard to budget with a fluctuating income ·         You may have to work all night to meet deadlines from time to time ·         All the pressure is on you because this is your pay cheque ·         You are the decision maker but also the one at fault if something goes wrong ·         You typically have to wear all hats; accountant, marketing, advertising, PR ·         You have to find all your customers ·         You are in charge of all your own expenses ·         In the beginning, it is usually just you, so there is no corporate culture or employees to socialize with ·         Everything costs money – and you cannot make money without spending money ·         Typically, a business starts off slow and you have to put a lot into it to get a lot out of it