Benefits of Being Self Employed

Recently I had the opportunity to try working my first “normal” job while in Australia on the six months of off season. Below is a simple comparison chart of my findings: 
 

After a thorough analysis of my findings I have determined that I prefer the benefits of being self employed.

In all seriousness, at times it can be a lot of work. Yes, there are many days I wake up at noon call my employees then go to the beach. But it took me a lot of work to get to that point. (But I do refuse to wake up to an alarm clock…)  

Besides calling my employees, I also have to deal with the occasional customer complaint as well as equipment maintenance, accounting, and scheduling to name a few. 

But one major benefit of being self employed with my business versus a “normal” job is I can make my own hours. So although I have a set of duties I can pace myself and do things at my own pace rather than nine to five with a half hour lunch break. If I don’t feel like working one day, I call up my customer and tell them I got held up at another job so I won’t make it in until tomorrow. 

I don’t have to call in sick to work, and I don’t have to request vacation leave. I don’t have to do stupid tasks that I think are a waste of time but have to do anyway because my boss says so.  I can take vacation when I want to, and however long I want to. I don’t have a set number of vacation days per year. 

The other major benefit is I am in full control of my income. The more I put in, the more I will get out. It is motivating knowing this. At my “normal” job I get paid a flat rate of $19/hr. Why should I work hard, when I get paid the same amount no matter what? (This is exactly the reason why I typed this entire website while at work.) 

With my lawn care business, I will work hard when I need to, since I know that the more effort I put in to my business, the more benefit I will get out of it. 

On the other pages I will explain to you how I got where I am today.