WHICH IS SAFER: WORKING FOR YOURSELF OR SOMEONE ELSE?

WHICH IS SAFER: WORKING FOR YOURSELF OR SOMEONE ELSE?

Employed or Self Employed ? The younger members of today’s workforce think about business and careers in a very different way than previous generations. While there have always been job-hoppers and entrepreneurial-minded individuals, there seems to be exponentially more of these types of employees present. Employment is someone else’s company is riskier now than ever before. That sounds silly, doesn’t it? Traditionally, going out on your own as an entrepreneur was seen as the big risk. And telling someone you were going to make a career change and work as a freelancer was sometimes interpreted as code for “I’m unemployed.”

But the recession and subsequent layoff of hundreds of thousands of people in “secure” jobs reminded us that as an employee, you’re always at the mercy of someone else’s business decisions. Your risk is unlimited; you could lose your paycheck for any reason, any time.

And for most employees, that paycheck is 100% of their income. With less and less pensions, job security, and loyalty obligations of employees and employers, more and more people are starting business on their terms, life needs, and ultimate goals. But what are the  rewards to employment? They’re limited compared to business owners, because again, someone else makes the business decisions around your earnings. Sure, you can earn a raise or bonuses. But you have to negotiate for higher pay, or hope that you meet someone else’s quota or standards to secure that extra money each quarter or each year.

Even if you do successfully negotiate for a raise each year, the average raise was estimated to be about 3% in 2014 (few people were given raises last couple years with budget cuts and pandemic financial strains on companies). The Consumer Price Index / CPI (which isn’t even accurate since the algorithm completely changed in the 1990’s in 2021 was 7%.  Based on 1970’s CPI calculations, it was closer to 15-17%.  It is very hard to be successful long term when your job income isn’t even keeping up with inflation rates.  You are literally working each year for less and less purchasing power from your paycheck.

With a business, you can increase prices and determine which products and services you want to offer based on needs and changes with bigger trends happening in society.  I have shifted from less in person conferences to online trainings for midwives based on limited ability to travel.  It is easy with owning your business to adapt to ever changing times, but as an employee it is doing things on the company’s terms which may or may not be best for you.

With working for yourself or someone else, I personally want to be in charge of my own financial future, work / life schedule, vacations, mission and services being offered, and impact I can have on the midwifery world.  For some people, working for another person with constant consistency and hoping department structure change occurs within the hospital or office gets rid of your role.  I have seen it happen too many times over the years where great midwives are let go for new administration and financial leads not feeling their midwifery position is needed anymore or their beliefs on how to care for families isn’t consistent with mainstream medical standards.

I personally believe that business ownership with proper training, mentorship, and resources is a safer option for midwives than working for the larger medical system in today’s ever changing health care environment.  If you would like to talk about your midwifery dreams and see if I can help make them a reality, please sign up for a 15min discovery zoom meeting: https://calendly.com/midwiferybusinessconsultation/15min?back=1&month=2022-02