A business venture in which any individual earns money based on independent work is called self-employment. It includes small business owners, entrepreneurs, subcontractors and freelancers. While there are a plethora of benefits to being self employed — including a flexible schedule, greater autonomy, the freedom to pursue your passions and many more— in this business individuals must also bear greater responsibility to succeed.
In 2014, 19.4 million U.S. companies were self-employed, which means the entrepreneur is both the owner of business and its only employee. In order to give their business ventures the best shot and surviving long-term, self-employed persons need to possess these four key abilities.
1: Strong Interpersonal Skills
A self-employed individual interacts with many people regularly, including vendors, contractors, and clients. Evidently, these interactions quality can affect the long term success of your business.
Whether negotiating a low price from vendors or just trying to land customers, a self-employed person must possess strong verbal as well as written communication skills. While it is good to be flexible and friendly, it is also crucial to be reasonable and firm because making too much concessions can harm your credibility.
2: Always Remain Self-Motivated
One quite obvious fact of self-employment is that you will not get paid unless you strive. Without motivation, it is next to impossible for entrepreneurs to secure jobs on their own. Together with sourcing work independently, a person must ensure that all the tasks are timely completed and to the clients’ specifications to retain business and bring new prospects via referrals.
In order to keep the motivation levels high, you need to make sure that the venture you pursue is something you are passionate about. In addition to this, every self-employed entrepreneur should try to maintain positive attitudes and celebrate their big as well as small wins.
3: Proper Time Management Is Crucial
In this digital era, there are a plethora of modern technology and gadgets that have improved the business efficiency manifolds. On the other hand, it has also increased the number of distractions that an employee face on the job.
From phone calls and answering emails, to browsing Twitter and Facebook, there are many ways for workers to lose their focus throughout a day. Unlike large corporations where little inefficiency might be overlooked, a self-employed person needs to be rigorous with his time management. It is crucial to re-evaluate tasks on a regular basis, because no one can predict the ups and downs of the business operations more than you do.
While it is important to stay focused, a self employed person should also make time for themselves. Working too much can hinder overall performance for your business. For best results, you should make proper balance between work and health. You should hold to a healthy diet and properly exercise, as well as occasionally give yourself some downtime.
4: Be Tech Savvy
It is true that no one needs to get an engineering degree to launch their own business. But if you have the proper financial or technical expertise, you can have an unquestionable leg-up on the competition.
Most professionals who are self-employed work on tight budgets and can barely afford to hire a team of financial or technical experts. Therefore, it is crucial to have a basic understanding of profit margins, cash flow, return on investment and other various other vital metrics.