By Michael Dalali
Is there a reason for one to keep on being employed to work for a monthly salary, if one can earn the same salary, in fact an annual salary, over just one day?
This is serious!
If at all, one can do the same kind of activities or more suitable ones that give him/her peace of mind under contract basis as a consultant, or running an independent business that earns well, then why keep on holding an employed job from which in real sense one earns less annually?
A typical example is Mr. Juma (not a real name), who is employed in an organization where he earns TShs 500,000 per month. That means, he earns TShs 6,000,000 annually.
However, Juma sometimes gets short term contracts as a consultant, and through them he earns a minimum of TShs 1,600,000 in a weeks time.
Juma has four clients so far who normally give him such kinds of work within a year. Hence he is assured of having four short term contract works per year! That amounts to TShs 6400,000. It should be noted, all activities under short term contracts are done over four weeks which is equivalent to one month.
Amazing thing to question: Why does Juma keep on working under the organization if he can earn an almost similar amount of income within a month?
Can’t he see that he can be in a good position to increase his income and clients within the remaining 11 months of the year if fully he dedicates himself to work as independent consultant?
Juma isn’t alone who is in such a trap. I can call it the “employment trap”!
One of the huge reasons facing people can be fear of losing an assured income that they enjoy getting on a monthly basis!
The second thing might be the notion that, if somebody is not employed or not under the umbrella of an organization or consultancy firm, he doesn’t deserve being given such contracts as they might disappear or escape before delivering the desirable.
Thirdly, the notion from society at large is that you need to be employed to earn a good reputation. This is a consequence of the education and common knowledge in our society today where, between “employed and self-employed”, employed are highly respected. In this sense, address or names of companies to some matters a lot.
On the other hand, they also question themselves about whether they will have a constant flow of such consultancy tenders in the long term.
All in all on embarking on a completely new approach in life, such as being independent or commonly called “self-employed”, normally faces fear, worry and uncertainy.
The strong who have the guts to make a new road map and do the unusual are the ones who eventually survive in the competitive world of self-employment.
It is a matter of cracking the nut and enjoying the endowed potentials within.
Once you sense the feeling and start thinking of being self-employed, right there is the moment to go for it. Because, there are so many retired employees who had wished to be self-employed but they couldn’t hold to the fears and uncertainties.
There is no single formula to go for it. It is just about making a good assessment and embarking on the journey. Ups and down are constant in each and every thing done by a human being.
Remember impossible is nothing!
© Michael Dalali 13th March, 2011
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I think a secure way for going for it is by starting a company under the name of the organization for which Mr. Juma works. Think about it in lines of a ‘spin-off’.
So, he would actually start his ‘consulting firm’ and still be an employee at the organization. And slowly and depending on whether his business pays off he would go public and become self-employed…