An ironic title as such joy is largely confined to the freedom to pick your work hours that exists in a quite limited sense if you’re providing services to people and you have to fit around their schedules.
Let’s look at the positive side:
- You’re the boss. Customers or clients may harass or harangue you but at least the boss won’t bully you.
- You have some flexibility regarding place and time of work that you may otherwise not be afforded as a PAYE worker.
- Expenses. You get to factor in some expenses associated with a home office into your tax bill. More on this later.
- Job security in the sense that you are ultimately responsible for whether you have it rather than a VP or SVP with no personal stake in your life deciding you need to be downsized because your division doesn’t look good on his spreadsheet or you’re at a grade where his costings suggest he could bring in someone younger to bugger up your job.
- The sense of achievement that comes with making it on your own.