We had been struggling, dealing with diminishing checks, lack of security, fear of having no health care (or bad health care coverage), and that’s back when my husband had a regular job. Now we’re self-employed and for the most part, those concerns are gone.
My husband is a computer programmer and about a year ago, when he was laid off again, we were beginning to find out that the high paid jobs were probably the least secure—this was just more of the tech bubble bursting. What we found is that the more “flash and cash” a company showed, the flakier they seemed to be.
At the time I had been diligently building my own business, doing Web sites, and internet marketing. Mostly for moms with businesses who understood that I worked at home and sometimes the kids were sick and I’d have to take a week off. It was a great “gig” but we needed my husband’s “secure” job. I say this because as time went along, we realized that his job was anything but secure. So, the last time he was laid off, he joined me in my business venture and we’ve never looked back.
We have now been working on our own for over a year and it’s been interesting—navigating the world of quarterly taxes, insuring ourselves, dealing with the ebb and flow of cash, and realizing there is WAY more to a business than just doing it. However, we love it and we’ve never been happier. We are probably as financially insecure, but now it’s at our mercy, not the mercy of some employer who can lay you off at a moment’s notice. We also have the potential to make a lot more money and not by groveling for a raise.
So, what do we get for this trade off for the “regular job” versus the insecurity of our own business? We have flexible hours, but that also means working some weekends. We get to spend a lot of time together, but we have to spend a lot of time together! We work at home, but we have the potential of getting sick of our home. It’s a trade off, but for us, it’s a perfect fit.
