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Freelancing or job

Submitted by Mary Hull on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 22:10.
Question Category: 
Business Advice

I have the chance to take on a role as a writer with a newspaper on the staff. I am presently enjoying myself as a freelance and I can come and go into different roles which is a nice way to live.

So, should I attach myself to the job? Or should I stay in a freelance environment where work assignments are continuing to flow in?

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Submitted by Tony T on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 11:08.
Hi Mary
 
I have been having the same conversation with a good friend of mine who is in the midst of deciding whether to continue self employment or take on a major employed role paying over double what he made even in his best year.  Here are a few of the questions we have considered which may help you, or open up other lines of thought. 
 
How long have you been freelance?  Is going back to being an employee a real option?  Could you go back to being employed where a lot of the control over what you do may be taken away from you - with perhaps little choice over what you have to write, a pain in the neck editor who rewrites everything, the hours you work, where you work, daily commute in terms of time and cost, staff meetings, HR policies, office politics and all the other distractions that being an employee can bring to your day?  Perhaps your new role does not fit that profile and many of these things are not issues for you?  That said, I do know that many people who have broken away from being employed find it very difficult to go back by choice.  If you are still happy with the idea of being employed then at least it is still a realistic option.
 
Are you looking at the move to employment for increased financial stability?  In the current climate I would suggest that being employed or self employed and keeping an income is a lottery with equal odds of success for either!  One line of thought is that if you are self employed and one source of income falls away you still have others to fall back on.  You can look then look to replace that income with another piece of work; and if your finances dictate it, you could look to take on work that you may not really want to do (so no different to being an employee!) as an interim measure.  If your employer no longer wants you - that is 100% of your income gone in one brief moment. For these reasons many people argue that being self employed gives you far more control than being an employee.
 
Is there a third way - could you do a bit of both your existing freelance work and work part time for the newspaper and try for the best of both worlds?
 
One final potentially dull point - the tax arrangements for being employed and self employed are very different.  Would losing a chunk of income every month in PAYE versus just paying your tax twice a year through self assessment, perhaps offsetting various expenses along the way be something that you need to think about?
 
For my friend the financial issues quickly fell away as very much secondary, almost irrelevant issues in his decision making, for him it all boiled down to one thing;  who had control over his work & life.  Was he happy to give up a lot of that control to become an employee?
 
 
 
There is no decision yet - he has until next Wednesday to decide!
Submitted by Chris on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 20:15.

That is sound advice Tony.

To jump or not to jump. The freedom of self employment versus the tied to an employer tag. As you say, either way is unsafe so Mary would do well to stay as she is without the hassle, unless there is a huge financial incentive. I know that as far as quality of life is concerned, your job can take over and you can lose vital time with friends and family. Is it worth putting in the hours and being away from your family for a few exra quid. Enjoyed an interview recently with Claudia Winkelman. She has a young child and refuses to be drawn away on long trips to be away from them. As she said, when she's old and frail and looking back on her life, the last thing she can imagine saying to herself is, 'I wish i'd gone on that business trip that took me away from my 2-year-old daughter for three months. 

Submitted by Rosalind Howard on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 15:03.

Interesting comments. A few poeple I know have gone back into employment after being self employed not many though and most people self - employed or running a small company say they would not like to work FOR anyone again. The control thing does seem to be key. so if you  are making enough money to live on money isn't the main issue. - it's different if you are not really makig a living - even then I know a couple who both earn very little working for themselves but are happy to have their destiny in their own hands.

 

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