Olim

April 10th

The real truth about self-employment - part 2!

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Hey! Welcome to the 40th (!) instalment of the Olim Love Letters - a weekly newsletter written by me, Eloise. Here, we talk about connection, copy, Really Weird Childhood Stories™, and the odd linguistic snippet thrown in for good measure.

Right - we’re diving straight in, Reader!

Last week, we pondered the question “Is self-employment worth it?”, covering the first of a few reasons as to why my answer is usually “Yes, always”.

These were:

• You deserve to find out if this is actually what you want.
• Self-employment can be as secure, if not more so, than employment
• It can be the most financially rewarding AND life-affirming use of your skills and abilities

But if you still need convincing, I’ve got you. Here are three more reasons as to why self-employment is a brilliant thing to try:

1. Self-employment will help you find your edges

Honest confession: I never ever (EVAH) wanted to be self-employed before I, erm, became self-employed.

Frankly, it looked too much like hard work. When I contemplated what going it alone would involve, the theory of it filled me with cold horror. Invoices and marketing and admin and contracts and DOING the actual work? *faints*

You mean I’d have to figure out what I did that was valuable and then tell people about it? Ick.

I’d need to get to grips with self-assessment and tax and HMRC? Urgh.

And it’d be essential that I get organised, plan sales, grow my offering, etc? Gag.

On the other side of being pseudo-forced into doing my own thing, though, I can happily say that Past Eloise was not only completely right about what she’d need to learn to do, but she also grossly underestimated how much work would be involved.

There is one thing she didn’t factor in, though, and that’s the fact that this process happens gradually. You expect lightning-fast results and the pace of change to make your head spin, but actually, starting the freelance thing is a lot of moving in slow-mo to start with.

On one hand, that’s a bad thing. You don’t feel like you’re making advancements (you are, you just can’t see it yet). One the other, it’s a blessing - you have time to adapt.

What self-employment will do is dramatically stretch your skillset and your self-perception. You’ll achieve things just because you decide to give them a bash and see what happens.

There’s more room for experimentation, success, and failure. All of that is par for the course. What’s exciting is what you discover about yourself and your capacity along the way. You find your edges, your limits, whatever you want to call them - and then you push a little bit further. It’s awesome and addictive. I highly recommend it.

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​2. It will bring you a truly incredible network full of people you might not otherwise meet and they will make you, and your life, better than you imagined.​
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I joke about this a lot, but I built Olim on the back of sliding into stranger's DMs on LinkedIn. If I was emailing you, I’d say something like this.

“Hi Reader, thanks so much for connecting here on Linkedin. Your strapline about (brilliant thing you do) really caught my eye - I’ve never come across something like this before!

I’m just getting started as a freelancer and was wondering if you might have time for a quick chat about how you got to where you are? Your work looks fascinating and it’d be great to hear more about your career.

Absolutely no problem at all if that fills you with cold horror instead, and thanks so much for your time either way.”

That little email has brought me revenue, yes, but also brought me wealth beyond measure in the form of people who I now consider incredibly close friends.

Theme park architects! Community founders! Strategic general counsels, psychologists, UN diplomats, award-winning creatives, internal comms specialists, editors - you name it!

If I had stayed in my lane as an employed person, I might have met great folks, sure, but the sheer variety of amazing, good humans that I’ve met over the last few years is an embarrassment of riches.

They’ve taught me so, so much and have been ridiculously generous with their time and insights, and I really do think that can be unique to self-employment. We understand what each other is going through. There’s deep compassion, real kindness, and camaraderie.

Self-employment can be lonely, sure. But if we do it right, it doesn’t stay that way for long.

3. It’s FUN!

Saved the best for last, huh?!

Here’s my parting shot: freelancing is fun. It’s not always fun, of course, but if you approach it right, it can be a truly joyful way to spend your time.

Meeting new people is fun.

The thrill of sending a proposal and having it accepted is fun.

Thinking up silly videos to share on LinkedIn is fun.

Trying something different is fun.

Choosing how you want to approach your work is fun.

Seeing your clients succeed is fun.

Sharing your wins and losses is fun.

Finding your community is fun.

Learning is fun.

Taking a sneaky Thursday afternoon off for spicy margaritas in the sunshine is fun.

Most of all, believing in yourself is fun. It sure as hell beats the alternative, anyway.

So please, Reader, from the bottom of my heart: if you’re thinking about starting something all of your own, would you let me know?

I would love to cheer you on, be wildly enthusiastic about what you’re doing, and encourage you to have some of that fun. You deserve it.

Big love,

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Eloise x