Five Things You Need for Self Employment

Posted by KC Morgan Mar 25, 2009

There are more than five things you need for self employment, not the least of which is plenty of self-motivation. But if you’d rather reach for something a little more solid to prepare for a self employed career, find out which five things can help you get prepared.

Self Employment: Five Things

There are at least five tangible things you need for self employment. All the intangibles, like perseverance, should already be part of your make-up (or at least, be in your mind) if you’re going to stick it out with a work from home career. Everything else? Well, it can be purchased or put together.

• Working computer with an Internet connection. The whole world’s going online, and you should too. If you don’t have a working computer with an Internet connection you can access on an unlimited basis, it will be more difficult to make self employment a success. Many work from home professionals, in fact, work and earn exclusively online - that’s how much work you could be missing if you’re not plugged in, too.

• A self employed resume. Even if you don’t have a lot of self employed work history, you can put together an impressive resume to highlight goals and skills. Include relevant work history of any kind, education, special skills you possess or special projects you’ve participated in to beef up your resume a little.

• An online portfolio. Have a presentable collection of your best work in one, easy-to-access location online. Many Web sites will allow you to create free pages, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t have a great online portfolio to show off to potential employers.

• Professional email address. If you were an employer and you received an email from RowdyFunGuy47, you’re not going to take it as seriously as you might take the mail from JohnJamesFreelancing. There are too many free email accounts available - create one that you’re going to use for your professional, self employed life.

• Personal space. Want to work at home? Then you’re going to need a space in which to do that work. Create a space and make it your own, even if your self employment jobs carry you out of the house. It’s nice to have your own personal “office,” and will help you maintain the professional feeling you’ll need to maintain self employment.