Alternatives to Employment
Generally speaking, the vast majority of people tend to work in employed, nine to five positions.
This means that they will work for a company or business, be on their books, their employer will take care of their taxes and other contributions (deducting them from your paycheck on your behalf) and you will work for them on set hours – usually, nine am to five pm.
This works well for a lot of people. There are a lot of perks. You get paid annual leave. You get paid sick leave. You have stability and job security. You have a sense of consistency.
But while this may all be true, it’s not necessarily for all of us. Different modes of work will suit different individuals better, and if you’ve found that you’ve been yearning for something different and want to try something else out, it’s good to know that there are alternative options out there
Here are just a few alternatives to employment you might want to take into consideration.
Freelance Work
Freelance work is an alternative to being employed. When you’re a freelancer, you are self-employed and work for yourself.
Sure, you’ll have to find your own clients. Sure, you’ll have to register as self-employed. Of course, you’re going to have to sort your own taxes out.
- But you gain so much freedom.
- Work from home.
- You can choose your field of specialism and specify your role yourself.
- You can choose your own working hours.
- You can choose what you charge.
This is something that hugely appeals to many people and is easy to get involved in. Just register as self-employed, advertise your skills or services and entice clients.
Engaging with stocks, shares and trading could be considered freelance work, but this is a means of making money from the markets.
Of course, you can do this for someone else, working for a bank, investment firm or hedge fund. But it’s something that you can do yourself and something that you can do full time, part-time or occasionally too.
Now, if this is something that you’re considering, make sure to do your research and learning first. While you don’t have money to lose in freelance work, as pay is contracted and secured, you can lose money while engaging with markets and trading.
Make sure to fully understand your chosen market, use a user-friendly crypto exchange, try out stock simulators before putting real money down and generally get comfortable with the entire process before diving into the deep end.
Running Your Own Business
If you want to go all out, you could consider running your own business. This, of course, involves a lot of investment. Investment of time. Investment of money. Investment of effort.
However, bear in mind, the potential rewards you could reap could be huge. Start out by developing a product or service concept. Do some market research to see if there’s a market for it. Then you can see things continue from there on out!
Of course, there are alternative options – many more than these alone. These are some of the most popular. Maybe one or two will appeal to you and you might like to try them out.
What alternatives to employment have you found work for you?
