Nowadays more and more people are finding the idea of becoming self-employed increasingly more desirable. Self-employment rates hit their peak at the start of 2020 with approximately 5.03 million self-employed workers throughout the UK. Although the pandemic resulted in these levels falling to rates seen in 2015, they are slowly on the rise again. Furthermore, with the introduction of the Government's self-employment support scheme more and more businesses found the support they needed.

In a study run by SimpleTax, they found that one in five young people aged 16 to 21 expect to become self-employed. After asking what they made this decision based on 75.1% said it was to have an interesting job, 58.6% to achieve job security, 44.5% to spend time with family and 30.8% to achieve a high income. However, although all these reasons are valid and sound amazing, being self-employed isn’t so easy, to be able to become successful when self-employed you need to maintain certain personal qualities.

Quality One: Determined

When you’re self-employed determination is essential, you’re your own boss now and no one is going to be scheduling your appointments or going after clients for you. You need to be able to motivate yourself and have the discipline to sort out what needs to be done. Being determined also means that you have to have the perseverance to stick with your business, most self-starters have to work unpredictably for a year or even more before they can start reaping the benefits of self-employment. So, to persevere and have the determination to stick with your business is essential for its success.

Quality Two: Organisation

If you want to be self-employed, you must be organised. You will have the sole responsibility of short term and long-term planning. Short term organisation includes coordinating your day, structuring your work week, and making sure all tasks are completed. To make sure you are hitting your necessary goals, long term organisation must include; developing a business plan, setting progress targets and deciding where you want to be in a year’s time.

Quality Three: Risk Taker

Starting the journey to become self-employed is a huge risk in itself, especially if you’re leaving your current employment. Though it is essential to stay organised and plan for the future there are somethings that you can’t plan for. When running your own business, you’re never guaranteed sales or demand for your product so being able to take that risk even when it might not pay off is necessary.

Quality Four: Vision

Starting the journey to become self-employed is a huge risk in itself, especially if you’re leaving your current employment. Though it is essential to stay organised and plan for the future there are somethings that you can’t plan for. When running your own business, you’re never guaranteed sales or demand for your product so being able to take that risk even when it might not pay off is necessary.

Quality Five: Passion

Finally, what some may argue is the most important qualities to have when you want to become self-employed, Passion. If you don’t have passion for what you do, if you don’t love your work or if you don’t see a future in it then you will give up. Passion is a necessity which fuels everything you do in your business, passion for your work allows you to still have determination do the boring stuff and keep going when you feel like giving up.

Being able to recognise these qualities in yourself is the first step to reaching your self-employment goals. If you’re looking to start your journey to self-employment, or have already started, then you can find support and online learning in the IOEE community.