If you are fully employed by a company or on a contract, this will not be an issue for you apart from the initial negotiation of your terms and conditions. However, if you are self-employed, there is no doubt that lack of security is a major issue and it may be one that will never be completely resolved. This is because however successful you become, there will always be good times and mediocre - if not bad - times, and as the owner of the business, you will take the brunt of this. However, there are ways you can minimize the lack of security experienced by self-employed homeworkers :
- Set yourself realistic targets over a reasonable time-frame. If you previously earned £100 a week in your previous job, but set yourself the task of earning £200 a week each and every week from the day you start work, you will give yourself unnecessary stress trying to achieve it and may end up feeling depressed if you don’t.
- Learn to average out your earnings. Being self-employed is not like earning a salary where you get a set amount paid every week or month. A self-employed person may earn a great deal one week, nothing the next, so it is important to average your earnings out over a period of time. Setting yourself monthly or even three- monthly targets will be better than weekly ones. Remember it takes time to build a business. Not even Anita Roddick or Richard Branson made a fortune in their first few months.
- Talk to other self-employed people about how they cope with peaks and troughs. If you can chat with a self-employed friend or family member about your difficulties, you will soon find that you are not alone and they may be able to offer constructive advice.
- Keep an eye on the market. If other people in your field are going through a boom time and you are in a slump, you may have reason to worry. However, if things are bad everywhere, it may be unrealistic to expect your business to be expanding by the week.
- Keep yourself busy. If you have a quiet week, rather than spend it fretting, work on new strategies for increasing your market share, call prospective clients or network to find some new ones.
If you still haven’t decided whether you are right for homeworking try this just-for-fun quiz to assess whether you are likely to thrive — or skive — if you work at home.
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