We have been meaning to make this video for a while, but it never felt like the right time to do so. However, after 4 years of being self employed, we’d like to share with you what we have learnt from the experience, both the positives and negatives.

Check out this video we made to illustrate this content here!

As everything in life, being self employed is a mixed bag of awesome things and not-so-great ones. It is only after a longer period of time that you can reflect on it and have a more complete outlook.

So let’s start with the negatives shall we?

Instability

Having a “regular” job is no guarantee at all since companies close down all the time, but it is true that working for yourself makes it less predictable and therefore can be more scary. This instability affects everything, from your work schedule, to your economy, so take that into account when you decide to start for yourself.

Huge accountability

Doing stuff for yourself makes it clear from day one that you’re accountable for everything that happens in the company. In other words, you have nowhere to go when facing a problem or a mistake.

Always online

Managing your time can be a huge challenge as a self employed person. Deciding when to start but especially when to stop is more complex than we thought at first. We take brakes more frequently than most, but we are always connected and aware of what’s going on. From a campaign that needs to run to an invoice that needs to be paid.

Difficult to be “normal”

What we mean by that is not having a standard income makes it much more difficult to access all the elements that a regular society has in place. In our case this means not having easy access to for instance buying a flat. Banks in Norway take greatly into account what your annual income is. In our case, we’ve decided to pay ourselves a bit less in order to be able to have a healthy company. That complicates things for us to enter the market, so think about it.

But how about the positives then?

Freedom

This item is by far the most important one. As self employed people, have the possibility to dictate where and when we work or where our priorities lie. There is no one telling us what to do and even though it sounds cliché, freedom is what makes us get up in the morning.

Responsibility

This could be interpreted as the other side of the coin of point number two in the negative aspects and in a way it is. Being accountable for your actions is great as it makes you grow and develop as a person. You’re bound to make mistakes, but the important lesson is what you learn from them. I have personally grown so much since we started this adventure, that I can’t imagine myself doing anything else.

Investing in our future

These 4 years have been a great adventure and as a result we’ve picked up plenty of new skills along the way. This has allowed us to do things we did not think were possible before we started while giving us great experience that will ultimately be reflected in our resumés. Our intention is not to find a “regular” job of course, but we are in a better position should we aim for one.

Desire to do better

This one is quite evident but by working for ourselves, we always strive to achieve more. We want to make the best out of our venture and we keep challenging ourselves, what we know and what we do in order to do so. These videos are a great example of it. A year before we would not have been able to do it, but now we are.

Sense of accomplishment: We are very pleased and proud of our journey so far. We are far from perfect of course and there are many things we could’ve done differently but the process and the journey is worth it. We may fail one day or succeed, but nobody will be able to say that we did not try.

That’s it for this one! We have been wanting to share our thoughts with you and we feel now was a great opportunity. If you’re considering starting your own business, do it, there are very few things that can be more rewarding and stimulating.

Thanks for reading!