Self Employment, What’s it like? John Blyth from BTG knows….

Self employment….
Why do people think you’re going to work for mates rates? Or “It’s only a half day job/it’s only half a days pay” then there’s, “It’s only a wee job, should only take you an hour or so.” “Didn’t think it would be that expensive…….”

And the ones who don’t even have the courtesy to return your call /text /email.

Well, sir, this is our job, our livelihood, the thing we do to keep the wolf from the door.
We still have families to feed, food to put on the table. A mortgage to pay, a car to run, kids to look after.

Holidays and treats – Christmas, birthdays, special occasions.

We have no long term security. We have no contract. We get no holiday pay. We get no pension.

We get no sick pay. No unemployment benefit.

When there is no work ,we don’t work and when there is work,

we have to put the hours in, as we never know when it’s gonna dry up.

We get grief, hassle, let down, late payments, arsehole customers.

Self employment can be a hard life.

The uncertainty, chasing money, doing estimates/invoices, working weekends and nights to keep customers happy…..most of the time with no gratitude.
All the unpaid work we do just to keep ourselves in work. Missing valuable time with our loved ones. The promise of job that never appears.
The stress can be awesome. The truth is self employment is not for everyone, in fact even after 12 years I sometimes think it’s not for me.
Sometimes I’d like to go to work  Monday -Friday 8.00am-4.30pm,  money in the bank every Friday, 5 weeks off a year with holiday pay. When you leave the job, you switch off.

So don’t sell yourself short. Because from this day forward I know I won’t ever sell myself short again.
All I want is a fair days pay for a fair days work.

That’s all anyone wants John, so BTG members, think you can write about something important to you? Get in touch with us at [email protected]