I'm with Jarus when he says self-employment is overrated. It's a good thing for some but not for others, not everyone was cut to be entrepreneurs. Besides the path to being a successful entrepreneur is rarely rosy as some will have others believe. A salaried job may not secure you a listing on Forbes rich list but it does provide a regular income which with a little prudence will see the earner living a comfortable life.

make a step.
MTN nigeria started their network with gprs (32kb/s) today they are talking about 3g or higher. loose that rope today

This is the most retarded comment i've seen on this thread, Pleas what does this have to do with what is what the real topic is, dodoyon

Bawss1:

I'm with Jarus when he says self-employment is overrated. It's a good thing for some but not for others, not everyone was cut to be entrepreneurs. Besides the path to being a successful entrepreneur is rarely rosy as some will have others believe. A salaried job may not secure you a listing on Forbes rich list but it does provide a regular income which with a little prudence will see the earner living a comfortable life.

I totally agree.

Not everyone is cut out for it. I kno some people who form the whole, "i can't work for anybody". They try to set up their business and keep coming to ask me to borrow them money to sort their ish out.

People need to know where to strike a balance. I know people that work with me who have their thing on the side and they use their salary earned to continue building the business.

Naija people like to follow crowd, It's not for everyone

Self employment is the way to riches. I left my well paid job this year and my friends were like asking me, wont u look for another job? I said no.

Am surprised that within 5 months, am making more than my monthly salary. But I made initial mistakes while switching from paid employment to self employment like over-spending on office space. Gradually, everything is falling into shape. The first 3months were very discouraging anyway. I also did marathon savings for Two and half yrs while in paid employment in preparation. Not everybody has such courage but that's the best thing anyone can do for himself.

The most important gain to me is that I decide when to wake up from bed every morning and when to leave or be in my office. Am not under anybody's watch.

By the time, I remain self employed for 1yr, am sure I will double or triple my salary. No jokes.

okpara ugo:

Self employment is the way to riches. I left my well paid job this year and my friends were like asking me, wont u look for another job? I said no.

Am surprised that within 5 months, am making more than my monthly salary. But I made initial mistakes while switching from paid employment to self employment like over-spending on office space. Gradually, everything is falling into shape. The first 3months were very discouraging anyway. I also did marathon savings for Two and half yrs while in paid employment in preparation. Not everybody has such courage but that's the best thing anyone can do for himself.

The most important gain to me is that I decide when to wake up from bed every morning and when to leave or be in my office. Am not under anybody's watch.

By the time, I remain self employed for 1yr, am sure I will double or triple my salary. No jokes.

Good for you man, you sound like you're one of the people who know what they're doing.

okpara ugo:

Self employment is the way to riches. I left my well paid job this year and my friends were like asking me, wont u look for another job? I said no.

Am surprised that within 5 months, am making more than my monthly salary. But I made initial mistakes while switching from paid employment to self employment like over-spending on office space. Gradually, everything is falling into shape. The first 3months were very discouraging anyway. I also did marathon savings for Two and half yrs while in paid employment in preparation. Not everybody has such courage but that's the best thing anyone can do for himself.

The most important gain to me is that I decide when to wake up from bed every morning and when to leave or be in my office. Am not under anybody's watch.

By the time, I remain self employed for 1yr, am sure I will double or triple my salary. No jokes.

Good of you. although only half of people that take this step will have same story to tell.

however, at least you did paid job for sometime and saved to start your own biz. some self-employment theorists will tell fresh graduates not to look for job at all but should go on self-employment straight, as if they will be the one to give the poor men money to self-employ.

Jarus:

Self-employment is good, in fact very good, but I'm afraid it's been overrated with all these shouts about it and continuous demonization of salaried jobs.

Some questions:

1, Where do you get capital to start your business?
2, Where do you get experience to manage your business? Or you think you can just graduate from school and run a business like that?
3, Where do you get the network to sustain your business?
4, What do you fall back to if, just if, the business fails?
5, How many people will trust you - at least in the beginning - if they know you've not been tested somewhere else before?
Questions, questions and more questions

Truth is less than 15% of self-employed people actually made it without being on someone else's employ before.
Most of them started as salaried people and even there is nothing absolutely wrong in spending all your career till retirement as salaried person. A salaried person that rises to become a bank CEO, will be better off than many self-employed business owners.

There is also the risk factor. Some people are just risk-averse and cannot take all the risks associated with owning the business.

Instead of demonizing paid employment, I think emphasis should be on how to strike a balance - invest your income while under paid employment(preparing for rainy day); if possible, run your private biz while still on another man's employ and break out when you get your footing; if you can't get paid job at all, then try strive your way to identify self-employment opportunities, rather than die looking for paid job.

@Jarus you raised a valid points, however some of your questions, find the answers
1, Where do you get capital to start your business?
( You play the role of mandate or intermediary between sellers and buyers and raise capital through commission eg importing rice into Nigeria for a buyer whom is not perfect through online business. So not all business involves capital. or Better still become an Agent to house owners)

2, Where do you get experience to manage your business? Or you think you can just graduate from school and run a business like that?
(Read books, or better still ask for recommendations on some books for your guide. For me i read Rich dad poor dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki)

3, Where do you get the network to sustain your business?
(Before you embark on business, you must have a lay down procedure to actualize your dream. Using a house agent as example, your network should be moving around with your proposal, or better still sourcing for buyers or sellers through online trade sites. Or if it became worst, you get part time job and still focusing on your business)
4, What do you fall back to if, just if, the business fails?
(Before going into a business you should have financial IQ, in which you should be able to know what asset and liability is all about. For Example you establish a business with lets say 1000000 naira, after three months, you experience slight increase in your goods / capital and all you could do is just to buy a private car worth 800,000 naira, automatically you have killed the business because your car pull out more cash from your investment instead of yielding to it which is a big liability.
5, How many people will trust you - at least in the beginning - if they know you've not been tested somewhere else before?
(Trust?? well if it have to do with online business, i will agree with that. But if it have to do with physical goods, you can have surety or have something for colleteral, for example you need loan from Bank, once you meet their requirements they will release the money for you.

executinal:

@Jarus you raised a valid points, however some of your questions, find the answers
1, Where do you get capital to start your business?
( You play the role of mandate or intermediary between sellers and buyers and raise capital through commission eg importing rice into Nigeria for a buyer whom is not perfect through online business. So not all business involves capital. or Better still become an Agent to house owners)

The OP is talking about straight buying and selling. Where does he/she get the money from?
What percentage of buyers will be willing to lay trust on an unknown entity?
How does one start?

executinal:

2, Where do you get experience to manage your business? Or you think you can just graduate from school and run a business like that?
(Read books, or better still ask for recommendations on some books for your guide. For me i read Rich dad poor dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki)

Experience not Knowledge. You can't buy experience neither can it be read in the books

executinal:

3, Where do you get the network to sustain your business?
(Before you embark on business, you must have a lay down procedure to actualize your dream. Using a house agent as example, your network should be moving around with your proposal, or better still sourcing for buyers or sellers through online trade sites. Or if it became worst, you get part time job and still focusing on your business)

Why don't you contentrate on the basics of buying and selling first

executinal:

4, What do you fall back to if, just if, the business fails?
(Before going into a business you should have financial IQ, in which you should be able to know what asset and liability is all about. For Example you establish a business with lets say 1000000 naira, after three months, you experience slight increase in your goods / capital and all you could do is just to buy a private car worth 800,000 naira, automatically you have killed the business because your car pull out more cash from your investment instead of yielding to it which is a big liability.

Are you lecturing the common man or business houses?

executinal:

5, How many people will trust you - at least in the beginning - if they know you've not been tested somewhere else before?
(Trust?? well if it have to do with online business, i will agree with that. But if it have to do with physical goods, you can have surety or have something for colleteral, for example you need loan from Bank, once you meet their requirements they will release the money for you.

It's not all about books ya know.
You can't teach some things

Good counter-responses, Jay bee. These 'self-employment' theorists oversimplify many things. Truth is: it's not as easy and straightforward as you guys want us believe.

The fact is you can't get rich being a salary enda except there is fraud.So self employd is the ulltimate anytime.

Self employment of course!!! Any day any time.

naija , we dey there,

Those who risk nothing, do nothing have nothing and are nothing, Robbert Schuller

I left my job about 6years ago. Many friends and relations abused me, even my overall
boss and uncle, ex-CEO of GTBank felt something was wrong with me. But it is history now!

My monthly take home then, is what I make easily in a single day now and at times more!
I am into both online and offline business. I have time for my wife and kids. Bourgeoisie rule
the world not proletariat!!!! I vote for self-emplyment joor

PS:You can, if someone else can!

Self employed , Corporate/government employed , it all adds up to the same thing: employment. There is nothing wrong about being employed in a other man's business because your employer is like a client, he pays you for your service. There are self employed people who are rich
Bill gates
Dangote etc
There are employed people who are also rich
Steve Balmer was worth over $6 billion US over ten years ago and he is a Microsoft EMPLOYEE.
There are many self employed traders in Nigeria who can barely scratch a living. I know people in corporate employment netting close to #5 million a month in Nigeria.
It's all a matter of perspective and how well you play your cards.

@tomX:

Self employed , Corporate/government employed , it all adds up to the same thing: employment. There is nothing wrong about being employed in a other man's business because your employer is like a client, he pays you for your service. There are self employed people who are rich
Bill gates
Dangote etc
There are employed people who are also rich
Steve Balmer was worth over $6 billion US over ten years ago and he is a Microsoft EMPLOYEE.
There are many self employed traders in Nigeria who can barely scratch a living. I know people in corporate employment netting close to #5 million a month in Nigeria.
It's all a matter of perspective and how well you play your cards.

On the bolded, kindly find time to peruse ''capitalist theory''

OP, it should really read salary(job) vs self employed vs business owner vs big business owner. Self employed is too vague a term. I usually see a self employed person as someone who still has a job/salary, but works for themselves. If a self employed person doesn't work, they don't make money. e.g. a lawyer who doesn't take any new cases, a trader who won't trade etc, not all that much different from a salaried worker. Now an entrepreneur/business owner, like Richard Branson, will have an idea, form a company, raise finance, design a business model, hire far more talented people to get the product out on market, then hire people who know how to run the day to day operations of a company. i.e. he'll get out the way, and still make money. I wouldn't say Richard Branson was self employed, I would say he's a business owner. Now a self employed person can make lots of money, but they won't ever be rich. Rich is when your monthly passive income (the income you don't work for) exceeds your monthly expenditure.

I think that it really boils down to ambition and risk averseness. If you’re ambitious, It does not really matter if you work for someone or work for yourself, you will make it.

1. Politicians in Nigeria are not self-employed.

2. Lawyers don’t have to be self-employed. Actually, Lawyers that work for a big firm will make more money than almost any lawyer that has his/her own law firm with 5 or less employees.

3. People who work for start-up companies that become successful are not self-employed. As an engineer, your quickest way to riches is to slum it out with a startup company and hope that they go public. Typically, startups don’t have the cash to pay you your normal salary and they make up for it by paying you in shares of the company. However, taking a job with a startup means that you can show up to work tomorrow and find the doors closed.

Having a business is great especially if you can find the capital needed to start and sustain it. But if you’re like most people, it might be easier to get a job in the interim and use your paychecks to save the needed capital.

Also, what's with all the testimony? For every person that comes here claiming to have made it in the business world, assuming that they really did, there are thousands that are living comfortably working for some else.

@success4, there is a reason why the "capitalist theory" is called a "THEORY".
Anyway success does not come by any one route and there is as much arguments for paid employment as there are for entrepreneurship. The very qualities you need to succeed as an entrepreneur are the same qualities you need a to succeed in paid employment. At the end if you are a success, your success is not diminished because you were under employment, Jacob was a success under Laban, Joseph was a success under pharaoh, Steve Ballmer is a success under Microsoft, Roberto Goizueta was a success under cocacola, etc.

The way to getting this done is wishing and longing for it as if your life and existence depends on it. Who says reading can't be a source of experience? Listen!

I got information leading to what am doing right now from NAIRALAND.

I had no previous experince in that area of business. I just used the info to make contacts and thats it.

self employed is the way to wealth, so self employed is it!!!

@Semi4life, a good number of us can be self employed. There are a lot of needs out there, you'll be surprise if you hear different methods people use in servicing peoples need.
On a final note, get a paid salary and at the same time have other extra curricular stuffs that brings money in.

heh

i wonder who these self employed want working under them

as to the delusion that you are your own boss - no - your client is your boss - unless u are into buying and selling and calling it entrepreneurship

@tomX:

@success4, there is a reason why the "capitalist theory" is called a "THEORY".
Anyway success does not come by any one route and there is as much arguments for paid employment as there are for entrepreneurship. The very qualities you need to succeed as an entrepreneur are the same qualities you need a to succeed in paid employment. At the end if you are a success, your success is not diminished because you were under employment, Jacob was a success under Laban, Joseph was a success under pharaoh, Steve Ballmer is a success under Microsoft, Roberto Goizueta was a success under cocacola, etc.

The fact it was called ''Theory'' does not mean it is in THEORY!
You did mention Jacob under Laban, good point, however, deeper
study of the characters you mentioned showed that God was blessing
Laban because of Jacob.

I will bless the work of your hand not the job you do!!!!

I hope you remember that Jacob had to struggle to be alone.
I hate being a slave, most salary earners are slaves, ALL their
precious and ACTIVE time is being controlled by fellow being
too bad,,,

Cine:

OP, it should really read salary(job) vs self employed vs business owner vs big business owner. Self employed is too vague a term. I usually see a self employed person as someone who still has a job/salary, but works for themselves. If a self employed person doesn't work, they don't make money. e.g. a lawyer who doesn't take any new cases, a trader who won't trade etc, not all that much different from a salaried worker. Now an entrepreneur/business owner, like Richard Branson, will have an idea, form a company, raise finance, design a business model, hire far more talented people to get the product out on market, then hire people who know how to run the day to day operations of a company. i.e. he'll get out the way, and still make money. I wouldn't say Richard Branson was self employed, I would say he's a business owner. Now a self employed person can make lots of money, but they won't ever be rich. Rich is when your monthly passive income (the income you don't work for) exceeds your monthly expenditure.

This is the the most intelligent post on this thread.

It seems that the advent of internet has given everyone the liberty to come up with their random opinion and make it a fact.

Below are the REAL FACTS:

a. As an employee, you CAN NEVER be rich.
b. You can NEVER decide when you get to work (No Freedom)
c. You can NEVER request your pay grade to a certain level (its always capped)

As a Self Employed:

You can NEVER be RICH
You'll never have freedom of Hours (you'll be doing most of the work)


As a Business Owner, you'll be super rich
You'll have multitude of people working for you


Everyone claiming that being an employee is good are only saying it to make themselves feel good. There is no way you can be richer or have time than your employer.

Individuals who are into their own business and are not better than employees are the self employed.


Lastly, let me tell you a FACT: The most brilliant student will become a PROFESSOR to teach the average student to become an EMPLOYEE for the drop out student who becomes an ENTREPRENEUR, (Quote by Olugbenga Aijotan)


Its your choice to determine which one you are!

An employee can never be rich! take it or leave it.

Most people who are not into biz will never understand the word ENTERPRENUERSHIP.

binbass:

An employee can never be rich! take it or leave it.

Say who?

Is an Employee earning 3million per month not rich?

Some self employed don't make 20k per month after doing business for years.

<quote>
I hope you remember that Jacob had to struggle to be alone.
I hate being a slave, most salary earners are slaves
</quote>
Joseph was never recorded to have been freed from slavery but he was second only to Pharaoh in wealth and influence.
Roberto Goizueta died an employee but was one of the worlds richest men.
Steve Ballmer is still an employee an at over $12 Billion US, he is one of the world richest men.

It's sad how people just generalise on a number of things ranging from religion to politics to economics, etc.

Look deep into yourself and decide what you really want. I would prefer not to work if I can manage it, unfortunately dont have any inheritance i can live on, so i am working with a company and do a side business once in a while, hopefully might own my business eventually. If by any chance, that doesnt happen, i will still be a happy employee,

That's close to how life should be lived. Me thinks working in a job with good benefits and salary might be better that being self-employed.