There’s No Such Thing as ‘Working for Yourself’

There’s no escaping the come-ons flooding our social feeds and inboxes: lost your job? So what! Work for yourself!

Sounds great, doesn’t it? You’ve always thought your boss should do things your way, anyway. If you work for yourself, you’ll have the best boss ever. If you even count yourself as your own boss.

It’s all a lie.

Unless you were born independently wealthy, there is no such thing as not having a boss.

Sign up for the The Career Lattice newsletter for news about courses and resources for translating your career experience and expertise to self-employment.

When you become self-employed, you trade one boss for a few – if you have clients – or a lot – if you have customers.

And if you think bosses are demanding, try clients and customers.

The truth is, the person who pays you is your boss.

Clients, who buy services, are bosses for the duration of the project, and if you like your clients, as I do, you get to renew your contract with that form of boss.

Customers, who buy things or commodity services, such as utilities, are bosses of the transaction. They can return something that isn’t what you promised. They reasonably expect you to stand behind what you sell. If they like you and become repeat buyers, you get them as bosses again and again, for each transaction.

The ‘be your own boss’ mythology is deeply rooted in American culture of independence. The framing view of the Revolutionary War was preponderance of colonists telling King George III that he wasn’t the boss of them.

The trouble with today’s pitches that appeal to those of us who don’t do well with traditional bosses, is that they perpetuate the myth that self-employment is all about you.

It never is. It’s all about the relationship. And relationships go both ways.

Let’s take a look at one pitch that fell into my inbox this morning. “Tired of the corporate grind? Four career ideas where you work for yourself

Why, yes, I am tired of the corporate grind! Let’s get to these ideas that will spring me from the evil eye of the boss.

Here goes:

  • Blogger – about what? Who knows?
  • ‘A career in health care,’ perhaps as buying a health care franchise (whatever that is)
  • Consulting ‘in a specific area’ – and by area, the writer means, geography, not area of expertise
  • Freelancing – as what? You decide

This is spectacularly unhelpful advice and not just in the lack of specifics. It’s unhelpful because these are business models, not professions. And these four options are presented with zero reference to clients or customers, who are the other side of the equation.

Self-employment is a completely different mode of work. You have the chance to build equity in your own name, to choose whether you have clients or customers, and gain much more control over your daily schedule.

But don’t buy into the lie that you will be your own boss. Your customers and clients put the ‘employ’ in self-employment. Without them,it’s just you, alone by yourself.

Sign up for the The Career Lattice newsletter for news about courses and resources for translating your career experience and expertise to self-employment.