My only ‘work’ goal is to continue being self-employed for the rest of my life.
So, I’m starting a self-employment tracker. Each week that I am able to continue working for myself is a win for me!
Kicking this off with self-employment week: 63
I often come across content that goes something like,
"Don't just be a freelancer. Be your client's growth partner that is obsessed with getting them results."
As a freelancer myself, I find that hilarious.
Just because you've chosen your own path doesn't mean it can't still just be a form of work for you.
I do the same work now that I did at my last job. I just don't do it full-time. Does that mean I take it much more seriously, do it much better, or invest way more time upskilling?
No, I work for myself because I’ve figured out that’s a structure that works for me. I need as much control over my life as I can get. Having a job doesn’t give me ANY.
I do not work for myself for any other reason.
I don’t work for myself so that I can make more money, I don’t do it to create passive income or diversify my income, I’m not doing it to have a team that can do it for me, & I definitely did not quit my job to start a business.
(technically, I didn’t quit my job, I got laid off but ‘quit my job to start a business’ just makes my point better than ‘get laid off to start a business’)
The word I use to identify myself is ‘self-employed’. I use that word a lot & I use it very intentionally.
A lot of people have told me to use the word solopreneur instead since that’s a word more people will recognize.
But I just can’t get myself to do that.
To me, self-employment suggests that I have already reached the place I want to be.
Solopreneur suggests I am on a journey. That I am building something, that I have the desire for more. Which I don’t. Not for the foreseeable future.
Many of us believe that the privilege of getting to work for ourselves comes at the loss of boundaries.
That if we escape the 9-5, we must work 24/7. And we must do it happily. Because we chose this. We made this huge leap, took on a lot of risks, and blew up our life to not have a job.
Are we really going to work a fixed number of hours & clock out after it’s done?
Yes. Because it’s still work.
How TV offers entertainment. Work offers payment.
We’re the ones who can choose to attach more meaning to it.
If you want to work a lot on something, have at it. It can be an amazing feeling for that season of life.
But it is not what is expected of you only because you work for yourself.
But I didn’t always think this way.
When I was thrown into being self-employed, the first thing I did was start an Instagram business page, set up a funnel for consulting clients, film all the trending reels, set a revenue goal, used a course to figure out how to hit it, only to increase that revenue goal each time that I did hit it.
It was always about having more clients, making more money, growing your audience, being an expert, scaling to the next thing so that you could eventually at some point, in the far far future work less.
But now, I would tell someone:
You don’t need to have a crazy high ambition toward the work itself you want to do on this path. You only need to have a crazy high ambition for wanting freedom & control.
You can be completely indifferent to the work, & you’ll still thrive.
You don’t need to have a consulting/coaching business, want to have an audience or Youtube channel, or have a plan to launch a course or start a Substack.
You just need 1 client that pays you enough money & recognizes that you work for yourself.
That’s mostly what I have had for the past 1.5 years of being self-employed.
This arrangement has let me be remote, made me 4x what I made at my last job, let me not work for days/weeks at a stretch if I didn’t want to, given me a team (of sorts) to interact with, let me work on challenging & novel projects & have something to put on LinkedIn.
That’s all I require from my work for now.
I think there’s an expectation to show more dedication to what you do when you work for yourself.
To upskill more, to have more passion for it, to create content around it, to know everything that’s happening in the industry & have the most innovative ideas about it.
I think a part of that comes from a fear of it being taken away. Feeling like you have to be twice as better now that you are asking people to bet on you & only you.
But I don’t think that’s going to keep us from what we want. Which is to have a full life where work isn’t the center.
It’s okay to lose a client.
It’s okay to make mistakes.
It’s okay to not make any income for a month. (hoping your situation allows for it)
It’s okay to not know where your next client is coming from.
Because you will figure it out when the time comes.
But you won’t enjoy it when it’s good if you’re worrying about what to do when it’s bad.
It’s okay to:
Be ‘just’ a freelancer.
Have boundaries.
Get paid at the end of the month.
Don’t throw your hand up to increase your scope & work on more & more deliverables.
Have 1 client.
Work on weekdays.
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t feel like attending a meeting.
Explore different domains & services. Start from scratch.
Make the same amount of money every single month.
Don’t talk about what you do if you don’t want to.
People are not 'obsessed' with really anything in life, don't start with work.
I worked a corporate role for 7.5 years and have been freelancing fulltime for another 5. And I've always found it awkward to say I am a solopreneur. Love the way you've distinguished that from self-employed. Simple but clear and powerful. Thank you!
Beautiful perspective. Would you distinguish "contractor" from "self-employed"?