July, 2 2010
Happy Independent's Day to All Self-Employed Professionals!
Posted by Liz GreeneThis Fourth of July, on behalf of everyone on our team at MBO Partners, I'd like to wish you a Happy Independent's Day! We invite you to celebrate not just the liberation of our country, but the liberation of talent.
More specifically, your own talent and independence. Whether you've already been self-employed for some time now, or you are just beginning to start a consulting firm, you are the embodiment of the new workforce. We are entering a new era of self-determinism and self-responsibility, where every individual is in command of their own career. The "rugged individualism" that made America what it is today has come home to roost in the way we work.
Your career is not something that is given to you by some employer, and you are not dependent on a corporation to give you a "job." Rather, your career is the talent you develop, and the solo business you build to channel that talent into a prosperous life. This is true whether you accept work as an employee or as an independent contractor . . . the legal engagement is now just an administrative detail. Either way, we are all self-employed now, in a sense.
The Deck Is Stacked Against the Self-Employed
I know that all is not perfect and fair for independent consultants, freelancers, and independent contractors -- yet. There are still challenges, from managing freelance invoicing and taxes, to getting access to real group benefits instead of the individually-rated (and often scary) independent contractor benefits usually available for self-employed people.
Even maintaining the legal right to work as an independent consultant can be a challenge, with state and federal agencies putting more scrutiny on whether individuals are really businesses or if they are instead mistreated employees (a problem, to be sure, but one that independent consultants who want to be solo shouldn't be penalized for).
Our company, MBO Partners, is one of many businesses out there providing solutions to these problems and helping level the playing field so individuals and micro-businesses can get every advantage they deserve. Whether you choose to operate your solo business through a Portable Employer of Record, build your own consulting firm as a corporation, or work as a sole proprietor and freelancer, I respect and admire your pursuit of independence, and I hope that one of our programs can help you attain life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
So for those of you who have made the decision that you are in charge of your own destiny, I'm thinking about you this weekend, and I'd like to offer you one of my favorite poems, Invictus, written by the Victorian poet William Ernest Henley:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
The recession has hit many small businesses pretty hard, but consultants I've spoken with recently have told me stories of consulting success and survival. Their heads are bloody, but unbowed. They are still committed to their own small business success, and they are making it.
Happy Independence Day!
You are the master of your fate, and the captain of your soul. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise!
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