Should you be backing yourself to run your own business? Before you go making any dramatic and life-changing decisions, this article presents a few of the pros and cons of taking the step.

The Pros

Perhaps the most obvious advantage of being self employed is the opportunity it presents to gain more than one income source. When you’re employed, more often than not you will work for one employer. While this does bring with it some security, if you lose that particular job, you lose your entire monthly income. On the flip-side, if a self-employed person lost a customer, they will ideally still have a number of other income streams remaining.

There is a degree of freedom that comes with being self-employed; be it in the hours your work or the clients you work with. While this freedom does bring with it plenty of pressures, from client expectations to your own time management, being in charge of every aspect of a working day does appeal to a lot of people who decide to become self-employed.

The Cons

While as an employee you carry no personal or financial liability for your employer’s debts, this isn’t the case when running your own business, increasing the risk to yourself. Another negative aspect of being self-employed is having to take care of all your tax and NIC obligations to HMRC, rather than it being done for you by your employer. This gets more confusing when your turnover exceeds £85,000 – where you’ll also have to deal with being VAT registered.

The obvious initial investment required to set-up and run a business can prove too big a task for those looking at branching out on their own, and that’s before you have to take into account the benefits you will miss out on by being self-employed; from holiday pay to sick pay – all of which that will come as a guarantee when employed.

How We Can Help

The team here at Bracey’s have supporting new business set-ups for a number of years and can provide assistance with a variety of aspects of starting a new business. Running your own business may not be for the faint of heart, but with adequate planning and support, setting up and building a business can be immensely satisfying and rewarding.

Please call if you want to explore your options.