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The Reality of Being Self-Employed
154 Plays1 year ago
In this episode, we explore the challenges of being self-employed. While there are certainly benefits to being your own boss, such as flexibility and control over your work, there are also a number of obstacles to overcome. We discuss issues such as irregular income, the need to handle multiple aspects of your business, and the difficulty of balancing work and personal life. We also offer tips and strategies for managing these challenges and thriving as a self-employed individual.
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Transcript
Introduction to Self-Employment Realities
00:00:15
Speaker
Hey guys, so welcome to Wild and Basics. So today we are going to be talking about what it is really like to be self-employed. I feel like I have talked like business aspect of things here and there, but I am never really dedicated in an episode to talking about what it is like to be self-employed because I feel like I have definitely talked about content creation and everything, but this kind of applies to a lot of people who own their own businesses, who are self-employed.
00:00:44
Speaker
so I feel like there's going to be a lot to talk about and hopefully this will be useful to some of you guys especially for people who are just starting out or might be starting out some things to look out for because I'm not going to glamorize it and just make it look like oh my god like everyone should do it because I feel like as much as it has so many pros but it also has like I wouldn't necessarily say like cons but
00:01:11
Speaker
Definitely a lot of things to just like watch out for or to be aware of because you know you never know and being self-employed comes with a lot of things that one might not necessarily know when you're the employee of someone and that's what we're gonna talk about. There are a bunch of things so we're gonna get into it. Before now let me just give you guys a little bit of updates because I feel like
Personal Story: Weather Challenges
00:01:36
Speaker
Last episode I recorded that was, um, before I was going to New York, that was like two, two weeks ago at least, at least two weeks ago. So it's been a minute. So currently right now, well right now it's pretty sunny, really nice day. Hence I'm recording because for the past few days it has been raining so bad. Like it has been pouring like a lot and I've seen like poor, like,
00:02:04
Speaker
Brain a lot in Miami, but never this crazy Thank God like it was not like terrible terrible and yesterday I was like, oh my god, like I need to go to Costco and let me just do it What a brilliant idea, right? I don't know. What was I thinking? I was going there like because I took some of the because I didn't go through the toll road the highway So I went through some like
00:02:32
Speaker
small roads or like neighborhood roads Some of them were like flooded. It was super scary experience for me I mean, I'm sure for people are local here or Floridians like that's like a normal thing I've never seen that much water because it's like I don't know how the drainage system works here or if there's even any drainage
00:02:57
Speaker
some areas at least like the water just stays on top of the ground like it just doesn't go down which is very crazy because in New York it's like even if it rains that much you would never see water piling up that much it will never be like few inches or even inch at all
00:03:14
Speaker
it just doesn't happen ever because we have sewer system it just goes through drainage and that's just it in here some of the roads it doesn't because there isn't a drainage system or there isn't a drainage system that actually works so here and there you know you never know so it's pretty bad and some of the some of the roads that I was going through I literally had to turn back and take another road because
00:03:41
Speaker
It was like a lot of water I can see from the far and I was like, okay That's not happening and also because I don't have an SUV like I don't have a higher vehicle It's a snap. So testa model 3 is like yes It's a little bit higher up the ground for a normal sedan, but it's still close to the ground so I don't want and it's like 90% of that vehicle is done and
00:04:05
Speaker
battery so I'll be screwed so I was like keep taking different routes and different turns it took me like 55 minutes it was initially gonna take 30 minutes 55 minutes or like an hour essentially to get to Costco and it was only like seven miles away
00:04:26
Speaker
Like in my term, that was kind of like very scary, obnoxious experience. Scary, not obnoxious, more like annoying too. Some parts it was annoying, so I was kind of like, ugh. But some roads, it was like scary. I was very scary because I've never seen that much water. Like I feel like last time I've seen something like that, I've seen like in movies or on news about it. I have never been a part of it. Just never. So it was definitely scary. But then I came home and like,
00:04:56
Speaker
The next day I would say which is like nice now and like Miami is like dress like it's completely dry. It's totally fine. You can never tell it's even rain. I've seen videos from Fort Lauderdale or Hollendale, not Hollendale, Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale Airport.
00:05:15
Speaker
Apparently it's like flooding like crazy like there have been more like cars underwater or like submerged or the entire airport is shut down because they cannot move like The vehicles cannot move even the planes cannot get the traction because there's so much water And some of my friends like sending videos of it. It's like very scary so this like definitely my and this thing is like it's so scary because like
00:05:41
Speaker
obviously insurance and some insurance don't cover it so that's why I'm so scared of it because I still haven't also changed my license yet very very scary like I don't know like a lot to like I don't know just think about sometimes you know that's why I feel like insurance is so expensive in Florida because of that flooding and everything and it's crazy to me that this happens now and it's not even hurricane season which is I think in June or July
00:06:08
Speaker
So it's like we have some way to go. So I hope they fix this because it's pretty bad. Like amount of damage it'd probably cost. And one of my friends literally said he had to sleep in his car because he could not go through the road to get his home.
Diving into Self-Employment
00:06:25
Speaker
And if he got through his car would probably submerge and he would not have been able to go through. So that is very scary. Like that is so scary. Anyways.
00:06:38
Speaker
I wish it was like more like positive note to start this update But I just like want to cherish you guys my first experience as living in Florida Not as bad so far yet, and hopefully it won't be I'm gonna knock on wood But that's what it's been so far
00:06:55
Speaker
Now let's get on to today's episode and talk about what it's like to be self-employed and things to look out for. Number one, this I feel like goes without saying, but maybe like someone definitely needs to hear this too. Being self-employed, everything depends on you. Like literally everything. And if you do nothing, nothing will happen. Hence nothing will work. Hence nothing will get done.
00:07:25
Speaker
unless you have employees but nothing will work anyways even if you have employees so let me give you guys like for instance but also this essentially say like overall that like you have to have discipline because no one's gonna tell you to get up and shoot that content no one's gonna tell you to do something that you need to do it's all up to you
00:07:48
Speaker
Like everything is up to you. And I feel like that is harder in the beginning because you've been so used to like getting up in the morning, going to work and like doing your thing. It's like, it's very consistent. You have the schedule. There is no such thing as schedule when you have, when you're self-employed. I mean, to an extent, maybe there is some things that you need to do, but there is a lot of things that it's all on you.
00:08:17
Speaker
Even because I don't have necessarily employees, but I have people that I have hired and necessarily hired is like I would call them my independent contractors because I hired them based on my project basis. Like I have two editors right now.
00:08:34
Speaker
that help me edit videos for me for my youtube channel and also for my podcast so those are the ones that essentially they're not my employees but i have them on a regular basis weekly or monthly i pay them to edit content for me but again i have to give them the content so they can do it if i don't do it they're not gonna do anything and they're not my employees that they would be like merce like you didn't send this content you know like it's up to me i have to be the one doing things or
00:09:03
Speaker
brand deals and everything it's like if you don't reach out or then they reach out to you and you don't do anything nothing's gonna happen versus like or also like if you have brand deal and like
00:09:14
Speaker
You have to, it's due like in 10 days or something. If you don't do it, no one's going to tell you not to do it. I mean, yeah, they might follow up, but some brands don't care. If you miss the deadline, you missed it, and they might not even pay you. I'm just saying, like it happens. It's all up to you. You have to have very good discipline. And that is so hard in the beginning. And I remember in the beginning, I was not good at it. And I would like follow, I'm good with deadlines, but I feel like I was never good, was like,
00:09:44
Speaker
in a way that I would be like seeing it ahead. I was always like, okay, I can do it now, I can do it later, like I have time, I have time, I can do it. But I never thought thinking through ahead of time that like, why I should do it earlier or why I should do this now, or what is something I should think about, like it's good to be consistent with what you're doing.
00:10:03
Speaker
And that is harder to do in the beginning, but I just feel like it also takes time too. But you have to have a really good discipline. Really, really good discipline. It probably comes with the time and experience, but that's something to think about. Because if you don't have good discipline, it's going to be so hard for you to be doing your own thing and to be self-employed. One thing.
00:10:26
Speaker
The second thing, this is like not to scare people, but just that comes with it too, not just being a creator overall.
Administrative and Financial Challenges
00:10:34
Speaker
Being self-employed has many moving parts, such as the taxes, the whole invoices, invoicing thing, contracts, PR, list just keeps going on. And this kind of connects to meaning like legal stuff, the business stuff, the tax stuff.
00:10:57
Speaker
All of this is on you. You don't have to be doing it. Again, you could hire people, but again, you have to be the one doing it to hire those people. And most of the time you don't have enough money to hire those people because they cost a lot of money.
00:11:13
Speaker
So you have to do it yourself or you have to hire part time or something like that. So taxes are pretty complicated. I have to be honest and I am not an accountant that I can give you advice, but I'm just saying that it's good to write things down and know what to do because if you don't have like regular W2 job because they take your, they withheld the taxes and hence you get refund at the end of the year.
00:11:42
Speaker
That doesn't work like that when you're self-employed because you don't have those things. You pay self-employment tax, which is a lot higher than usual. Hence, most of the time, you are paying in taxes versus you get in a refund. You usually never get a refund. Nine out of ten, you never get a refund, even if you make a lot less money.
00:12:06
Speaker
You have to be paying those taxes because you are not an employer. You are just W9 or you just get some bunch of 1099 consider self employment. Hence you have to pay some of those income taxes. It could be a lot. It could be harder and also like unlike regular.
00:12:27
Speaker
people or the people who have like, you know, nine to five, sometimes you might also have to pay it like quarterly, depending on how much you owe in taxes. Very complicated stuff. Very. I didn't know any of these in my first year. Had no idea. To this day, I'm still sometimes freaking out. Taxes are honestly so complicated, but like it's even more complicated when it comes to business and being self-employed. Second part, the invoices and everything.
00:12:58
Speaker
Be consistent. This is something I recommend to people that like use the software or something to keep track of who needs to pay you or when you need to get paid because if you just say like, oh, okay, they will pay me at this time. No.
00:13:13
Speaker
If you do a deal on something, send them an invoice later so they have your information and you also know when to get paid. Because with invoicing, like with QuickBooks or they have PayPal, I think it has invoicing, they have Lumon, they have so many invoicing systems, but make sure to have those because that's how you're going to keep track of your income and how much you will get paid. Again, because it's not like you have a salary or something,
00:13:41
Speaker
You have to keep track of your income and when is your income? When will you get paid? Because it's all up to you. Another thing is contracts.
00:13:53
Speaker
you have to really read it into detail because sometimes some brands put some little things clause in their contract and you miss it. If you miss it, that could cost you a couple of hundred dollars or even thousand because if they ask for exclusivity, you can charge extra for it. If they ask for something else, they can charge extra for it. Again, this might be just creator thing, but it's very similar with self-employed other people too. Always look at the contracts to make sure it makes sense to you because there's always
00:14:24
Speaker
at least one or two points that they mentioned you could charge them more or they could take them out and you could make more money with it just put it out there and lastly PR again this also depends too but that's also up to you too like to do marketing and PR because if you don't do it again no one's gonna do it it's all on you and
00:14:44
Speaker
so many moving parts it could be very very scary but that's why people hire like PR companies or marketing agencies to do their job but that's also something to think about because if you have product or you're yourself you're essentially marketing yourself you have to market that as well besides working on your business you have to also put your business out there so people know about your business hence i'm saying there's like legal part there's business part and there's marketing part so
00:15:14
Speaker
It's hard. That's why I'm just like saying that you should definitely think that ahead before you start any sort of business. So you have some kind of like an outline or like a map that you can follow and know where you're going. Number three, this is a part that that could be like a good thing or it was a bad thing. Nine out of 10.
00:15:42
Speaker
you will have irregular income. I know now people have the, what is this called? Subscription services that they use. And I don't say this in a bad way, but just like they have it, like they charge a subscription for their content, like OnlyFans or there used to be another one. I just forgot the name. But now there's so many subscription services that people can use and they get like money from it.
00:16:13
Speaker
like every month and that's a very consistent amount but most of the self-employment besides that again that's a creator part it's very irregular very irregular income one month you could be making 10 to 20k next month you could be making zero and I'm not joking you could be making zero dollars very very unpredictable so
00:16:41
Speaker
You really have to think ahead all the time. Unlike a regular person who has a paycheck to pay. They know what to expect next month because it's the same thing over and over.
00:16:56
Speaker
So if you make a purchase or something, you can be like, okay, I'm expecting this. Then you have, when you're just self-employed, no, you have to invest. First of all, you have to invest at least 20 to 30% of your income for taxes. And some of it also you have to kind of just save or invest because you don't know if the next month you will have the same thing. Even if you have like income from other things or,
00:17:25
Speaker
from AdSense or from a bunch of other things as a creator, you never know how much you will get paid because the economy, it's very, it fluctuates all the time. Like every month it could fluctuate. Some months could be great, some months could be terrible. Hence, it's good to like, whenever you get paid something, put some of it on the side, even if you need the money, you definitely need to save some of it too because you don't know how it's going to be next semester, not in the next semester, I mean next month.
00:17:55
Speaker
That's what I'm saying. This journey, this route is not for everyone because if you like stability, I don't think being self-employed is for you because there is no such thing as stability with the same sentence as self-employed because it's just so different, very, very different lifestyle. And it's not going to be stable for a while.
00:18:20
Speaker
better in the future, but even for big creators I have been hearing, it's just not that stable. Another thing, unless you are 26 and you will have your insurance with your family, but after the age of that you get kicked out, you're not going to have any health benefits or employee benefits like retirement account or health insurance. You're not going to have any of those.
00:18:48
Speaker
So remember that, so you have to get your own insurance. You can deduct that later depending on what kind of insurance you get. But retirement, it's all you, honey. It's all you. No one's gonna... Unlike your employer who matches what you are putting towards your retirement account, like 401k.
00:19:11
Speaker
There is no 401k because, you know, you're self-employed. You have IRA, like individual retirement account that you have to set up yourself. So yeah, it is... It is different. It sucks. Like that's what I'm saying. It's a lot on your hand.
00:19:32
Speaker
I have to be honest, I don't have my individual retirement account. I'm probably thinking about doing it at one point. Probably should soon. But yeah, I'm just saying those are some things to think about because
00:19:43
Speaker
you constantly want to get ahead of your like the game so you don't worry about it in the future but there are also so many things to consider and this is just like one of the biggest parts. Health insurance is huge obviously because you want to protect your health also yourself but also retirement I mean retirement is important because you know it's not like a regular job that you will have in your employer giving a retirement or
00:20:09
Speaker
helping you with your retirement account, you have to do that yourself. Essentially, you are always looking out for yourself. That's the essential part of self-employment. Literally, the emphasis is on self. Literally that. Then other things, there's something kind of connected to what I was saying earlier, is that
Work-Life Balance and Social Dynamics
00:20:26
Speaker
There are no sad hours, obviously, and that's what makes it, I think, so appealing to so many people. They're like, oh, you have your own flexibility. Obviously, you do. You really do. But that also means that sometimes some things happen in like random points, which is like sometimes it can be a good thing, sometimes it can be a bad thing.
00:20:48
Speaker
There are many times I was kind of like, oh, I'm on vacation or something, and I've gotten a brand deal while I was on vacation, or a little I have gotten invited to an event, or gotten invited to do something, or got the collaboration request very last minute the next day or something.
00:21:07
Speaker
Literally, it happens all the time. Sometimes you even receive an email about a collaboration, like 9 p.m., because their companies and places can reach out to you from all over the world, which is a great thing that there's so many possibilities and so much potential to make money. But at the same time, there are no turning off, and this sometimes becomes harder to just balance work and personal life.
00:21:34
Speaker
because you just never know when to turn off because sometimes you cannot just turn it off. Even if you don't have like, even if you're just not a creator, you're just self-employed or you have like your online business, if a customer reaches out to you or like you just started your business and customer reaches out to you and like asking you something,
00:21:54
Speaker
you have to respond to them even if it is late because you cannot just be like, oh, it's after five. I'm not responding. No, it doesn't work like that. You have to respond. You have to be on that game because that's how it works. Like if you don't, you might lose your business to someone else. And that's how it works sometimes with my job is that like,
00:22:13
Speaker
Whenever I get a deal or an email from a company that wants to work with me, it's better that I respond to them the same day or the same hour because I might lose that opportunity. You never know. You really never know because everything is up to you. It's not like they're going to wait on you. It could be a bunch of other creators that they want to work with. Lastly, the part I feel like I am still debating because I'm honestly not 100% sure is the fact that it could be very challenging
00:22:43
Speaker
to just like hang out, not only hang out, maybe hang out also, but also make friends with people who have like just nine to five jobs because they're constantly looking forward to their weekends and they can hang out and do stuff. But sometimes I don't have that opportunity because obviously because I have all this time that I can do my own thing on the weekends or weekdays.
00:23:05
Speaker
I can do whatever I want to, not to say I don't have anything to do, but I'm just saying I have more flexibility. So I'm not like, oh, I'm just looking forward to Puerto Rican. I can literally take Thursday off or Friday off if I did all the work that I need to do ahead of time.
00:23:20
Speaker
So on weekends I might need to work so it becomes a bit complicated over time because I think that like I think you can make friends with anyone doesn't matter they have they don't happen to still have the same lifestyle and stuff but I feel like it does get sometimes it becomes like very difficult to manage because they want to do things on the weekends sometimes you have to work on the weekends or you have things to do on the weekends or when you bring them to your work and they don't necessarily understand your work
00:23:50
Speaker
like usual times that I haven't even a couple of times that like I have brought friends to like I don't know a beach or something and I was like oh I have to actually do this content and I've asked them to take pictures and some of them are kind of annoyed that I even asked them to take pictures because I'm like but this is why I came to the beach because I'm obviously gonna write up all these things because it's my business expense but I'm also doing the content so I'm saying like there are so many things that that kind of gets
00:24:18
Speaker
misunderstood because it's hard for them to understand each other, I also understand them too. But I feel like that's why sometimes you have to be surrounded with people who have this similar lifestyle as you. Not to say they have to be exactly the same, but I feel like they understand you better because they know that
00:24:36
Speaker
You have to do this, you're going through this. They get it so much better. Versus someone who is just 95 and they have completely different style. And I would say there is one exception to that. There are so many people who have 95 but they also have a side hustle or they have other things that are going on.
00:24:55
Speaker
they have more things in common with who are self-employed because you understand better each other because you know what else you're looking for but usually lifestyle sometimes can be harder to match hence it will become at such a lonely place because again that's what I'm saying the whole emphasis in the self-employment part is self because you will be by yourself a lot like that's the whole thing I'm not saying you're gonna be like lonely
00:25:23
Speaker
But there could be those times that you are going to be lonely, and that's just given. That's why I'm saying that you're not going to be surrounded by your co-workers. Only times that it's going to be, per se, co-workers would be other creators or other people who are in the same things as conferences.
Conclusion: Weighing Pros and Cons
00:25:42
Speaker
events or like some product launches that you can go to and that's when you're going to meet other people who are in this similar industry but that's not going to happen every day so you have to get used to the fact that you're going to be doing many things by yourself at least in the beginning so I feel like that is something that
00:26:04
Speaker
I wish I knew earlier because I like being around people, I like surrounding myself as people, but I never realized how lonely it could get. Not to say like I...
00:26:19
Speaker
I don't know what I would say like not to say like I'm like over regretting it But I just wish that I knew about it before that's I'm saying like the whole emphasis on this self-employment part itself Literally, I know everything but I'm just saying like it's just like that's why like it makes so much sense to it but Considering all of these things that I just mentioned Regardless, it's such a cool job because you have so many opportunities you have so many
00:26:46
Speaker
things that you should be grateful for because of it. As long as it brings you joy and you get to do what you want to do and you love what you're doing.
00:26:57
Speaker
I think that's what matters in every job but that's just like one thing I would say about being self-employed that it gives you so much flexibility. It could be a con but it could be also the greatest thing that you're looking for when it comes to your career and I think that's one thing I wanted to end it with. So I hope you guys liked this episode and I hope some of these were helpful. I just want to be completely, completely honest so you guys know
00:27:24
Speaker
what to search for or what to consider if you are trying to go into this category, go into this industry because it's not like all rainbows and sunshine and that's why I wanted to point you out that it's great industry, it's great to be your own boss but there are also these things to consider so I hope you guys like this episode, if you do please don't forget to rate us on Apple podcast or very gay or podcast and I'll see you guys next week with another episode