pros and cons of self-employment
July 20, 1996 (as amended)

Advantages

  1. increased independence - the ability to be one's own boss (make the decisions, choose the strategies, select the products, design the processes etc)
  2. a chance to make lots of money
  3. a sense of accomplishment
  4. a chance to be creative
  5. a chance to "make a difference" - a chance to improve the world, or at least some parts of it
  6. a chance to work on things of interest

Disadvantages

  1. independence is not attained - still the customer, suppliers, government and financiers
  2. there is lots of work - including accounting, tax, law, customer service - in addition to making and selling the product
  3. a chance of losing lots of money
  4. unstable earning conditions/variable income - there's no regular monthly salary
  5. difficulty getting a mortgage, loan etc (due to unpredictable income)
  6. constant pressure to make decisions and solve problems
  7. less social interaction
  8. a good employer might care about your well-being, but even good customers don't
  9. difficult to exit painlessly

Some benefits of being an employee:

  1. finding new customers is the employer's problem
  2. collecting payment is the employer's problem

Of course, if the employer fails too badly at finding new customers, or collecting payment, it's MY problem after all. But as a sole trader, I have nobody to back me up - in particular, the sharks can see there is nobody to save me from them.