advantages of self employment essay

IELTS Advantages and Disadvantages Essay

This essay provides a plan and model response for an advantages and disadvantages essay in your writing paper.

Essay question:

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?

My initial ideas:

Advantages-

You can create your own schedule
You can dictate your own pay
You can travel with work
You can experience a wider variety of work
You’re in control
You can expand and personalise your skill set and knowledge base

Disadvantages-

It may not be consistently financially successful
There may be periods of unemployment
You are responsible for your income
You are competing with many others
It may feel lonely

Essay structure

Introduction

Paraphrase the question

Outline main ideas

State opinion (if required)

Main body paragraph 1- Advantage

Topic sentence- example

Explanation- explain the benefits/advantages

Consequence- state the result

Main body paragraph 2- Disadvantage

Explanation- explain the problems/disadvantages

Summarise key points

Loop back to beginning

Many people nowadays are opting to work for themselves, rather than for a company. There is a more palpable shift towards self-employment and a greater detachment from more traditional working structures. This essay will demonstrate how self-employment can lead to financial freedom and more flexibility of one’s output, but it will also show how financial freedom can be risky and the idea of creative flexibility can be illusionary. Whilst acknowledging the drawbacks, this essay will argue how the advantages of self-employment outweigh the disadvantages.

One clear benefit of working for one’s self, is the possibility of financial freedom and creative autonomy. By being self-employed, one has the room to create your own salary. Rather than being hemmed in by a fixed monthly amount, a person working for themselves can exceed this and create a salary that is reflective of their work and one that does not impede them by wider company policy. Although some people can see pay rises, this is seldom seen in many industries and despite the extra hours people work, their pay quickly hits a ceiling. Whereas, self-employment means you are not determined by someone else’s view of what you should be paid. As well as this, someone who is self-employed has more creative control. This is highly important as being passionate about what you do should be a key characteristic with any job. By having more creative control, we can determine what we produce and the effect we want it to have. Therefore, we are in control and can enjoy the work we ultimately decide to produce.

On the other hand, there are obvious disadvantages to being self-employed. Firstly, it can involve some financial risk where each month does not necessarily look financially the same. There may be dips and troughs where the individual is learning less than the previous month. This could seep into other aspects of their life and make certain things difficult, such as paying bills. Secondly, having to be constantly creative can be more difficult than perceived and its reality not as utopian as it may seem. For example, if someone is starting their own business or creating a course, the sole creative output rests on their shoulders and this can be difficult to routinely produce, rather than having a brief to fill which is passed down from a senior or fellow colleague.

In conclusion, whilst there are disadvantages to being self-employed, I believe the potential possibilities and benefits of being self-employed outweigh working for a company. Whilst working for a company is preferred by some, the working world is shifting to a model that is more innovative, creative and less reliant on the traditional ways of work.

word count- 446

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IELTS Writing Task 2 Sample Essay: Self Employment

This week’s IELTS model essay is one of my favourite tasks! It’s on the topic of self employment:

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?

Cambridge IELTS Academic 14 Test 4

In effect, this is an ‘advantages – disadvantages’ essay in disguise! The first question ‘why might be the case’ is really asking you for the advantages of self-employment. People choose to be self-employed because there are advantages.

So I think the question could be worded like this:

Nowadays many people choose to be self-employed, rather than to work for a company or organisation. What could be the advantages and disadvantages of being self-employed?

If you find it difficult to generate ideas for this task , you can simply search online for “advantages and disadvantages of self employment”. You will get lots of ideas! Here are some interesting articles:

https://www.nutcache.com/blog/self-employed-worker-advantages-disadvantages/
https://freelancinghacks.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-being-self-employed/

It’s probably a good idea to include some comparisons between self-employment and working for a company, because the topic isn’t only about self-employment: it includes the phrase “ rather than to work for a company or organisation” . So some comparative language is useful, and will increase your range of vocabulary too.

Reasons why (advantages)

Potentially higher earnings

may only get a small annual pay increase
self-employment: working harder can mean big financial rewards
don’t have to do what your boss tells you to do
e.g. make your own decisions
more flexibility with working hours / work

Disadvantages

Greater risk

no guaranteed income in self employment
employed people get regular pay
problem if you have mortgage
difficult to take holidays, may have to work weekends / evenings
working for someone else usually has fixed hours, finish by 5pm

This essay is quite long, so I decided to split my essay into four body paragraphs . This will make it easier for my reader to see the structure of my essay.

There seems to be a growing trend of people around the world choosing to be self-employed rather than to work for a company. This essay will consider the reasons for this as well as the drawbacks of working for yourself.

One of the main attractions of self-employment is the opportunity for higher earnings than you might receive when working for a company. In the latter, salaries are determined by your boss and increases are often limited, regardless of how hard you work. If you work hard as a self-employed person, the financial rewards are potentially unlimited, especially with online businesses. For example, using social media advertising can allow a solopreneur to rapidly increase sales.

But money is, for many people, not the main incentive of working for oneself. Instead, it’s the sense of autonomy you receive. You no longer have to do what your line manager tells you to do; instead, you can make your own decisions. This allows you to enjoy greater flexibility over things like working hours and the kind of work you do.

However, there are drawbacks to self employment. Firstly, there might be considerable financial risk. There is no guarantee of income, unlike those who receive regular pay cheques from their boss, and it’s not unusual to see new small businesses fail due to a lack of money. This is quite daunting for people who have regular expenses such as a mortgage, and so many people prefer the safety afforded to them by working for someone else.

Additionally, working for yourself will usually entail working long hours, sometimes at weekends and in the evening, leaving little time for the kind of recreation time enjoyed by workers who simply stop work at around 5pm. Furthermore, it may be difficult to take holidays if you work for yourself, so the work-life balance for self-employed people can be a problem.

In short, self-employment isn’t for everyone. There are clear drawbacks related to money and time, but for many people, the attraction of greater success and satisfaction is worth the risk.

(341 words)

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