Ways to Become Self-Employed

Being self-employed is exciting, but it can be scary. The thought of unsteady work is enough to send many people to the standard 9-5 office environment, where consistent pay is (mostly) guaranteed. While working for oneself does get it’s fair share of miserable naysayers, there is actually a lot of opportunity out there for people making their own work.

Consequently, here are some ways to become self-employed in the following roles; blogger, cab driver and web designer.

 Blogger

While it can seem daunting at first to transform noisy thoughts into well-crafted copy, the anxiety is worn down by experience like in any other line of work. While it’s useful to have training or an intricate university education, all you require really is a flare for words, a computer and a drive to succeed.

To begin with, volunteer for different outlets online or in your local area. This will first help you refine your writing skills in spelling, grammar and tone across many different audiences and outlets. You’ll be building up a diverse portfolio of work and references that can be shown to paying clients in the future. Therefore, this is a solid place to begin.

After that, it’s simply a case of applying for paid work online, updating your portfolio and building up your cliental and profile through social media. Don’t restrict yourself to only the niches that interest you. Apply for a mix of roles with busy marketing agencies and individual blog owners to keep a healthy amount of different work flowing through. Then, set yourself up with a nice office space at home, a strong Wi-Fi connection and get to work!

 Cab Driver

Obviously, you can’t just past your test and drive around while touting yourself as a taxi business. Taxi companies must meet lawful demands to qualify for that status, and it’s something you need to consider before branding yourself a cab driver.

While Cab Direct offer great rates on taxi vehicles for purchase, you need more than this to be a fully-fledged cab driver. There are conditions you need to adhere to, such as; be at least 21 years old, pass an area knowledge test and a GP medical examination, as well as completing written and practical tests that are tailored for taxi drivers. You’ll also need to get your eye sight re-examined to be operating as a taxi driver lawfully.

Once all the paperwork is out of the way, consider refining your service. Perhaps learn snippets of different languages so that you can converse with different kinds of customers, as well as work on your conversational skills if that’s an area where you struggle. Install a satnav to make things a bit easier, and you’re off and away!

Web Designer

A self-employed web designer has a lot in common with the self-employed blogger. Once again, a university education in your field would be beneficial, but this another area where experience and self-teaching have a much bigger impact.

To start with, pace your workload slowly and try to aim for a ‘one project at a time’ system so you can get to grips with how different building software and programs function. Like the blogger, volunteer on the side for different projects to get the ball rolling and to learn from a few peers, then start seeing if you can be paid when you’ve built up enough knowledge and experience.

However, web designers deal with more standalone clients than the freelance blogger. Some of them may try to dupe you into performing web services for illegal, shadier websites or cut and run before you’re paid. There’re are no colleagues or peers to hold them accountable for bad behaviour, so keep a track of all your correspondences and invoices to stay ahead of such people.