Band 6+: Nowadays many people choose to be self-employed, rather than to work for a company or organisation. Why might this be the case? What could be the disadvantages of being self-employed? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Recently, there has been an intense and ongoing debate over the meaning of self-employment. Attracted by the flexibility and freedom ensuing from it, many people quit their job in companies and organizations to start their own business, regardless of the high instability that follows. This essay will discuss the reasons behind the phenomenon and the silver lining of it in details.

To begin with, it is the high convenience of self-employment that drives people to start their own business. Regulated by traditional jobs, many people suffer from repetitive and mundane work from their leaders. All they have to do is to follow the boss’s lead, whereas they have more say when they are the bosses themselves, thus leaving more space for creative and meaningful work. People will gain a strong sense of fulfillment in the process. Moreover, the payment is more satisfactory, compared with the situation when they are forced to share the payment with other colleagues. Therefore, it would be both spiritually and materially rewarding for self-employers.

However, with greater responsibility comes with greater pressures. Individuals involved in self-employment tend to shoulder higher risks due to its instability. Unlike companies, individual business is extremely vulnerable to changes, thus necessitating making decisions wisely. In normal companies, a decision is usually made after several meetings with different departments, while for individual business, this job often rests on one person, and thus might lead to careless and biased decisions that contribute to business failures. What makes matter worse is that the consequence of the failure also lies on the self-employers themselves. Therefore, people who run their own business should be highly cautious during decision-making in case unbearable tragedies happen.

In conclusion, even though self-employment allows more meaningful creativity-oriented work and might be more financially rewarding, people should be more careful when making decisions to avoid higher risks, compared with normal job in companies and organizations.