How to Be Responsible When Working for Yourself

Working for yourself has many different benefits that you don't get working a typical 9-to-5 job. However, you need to understand that you'll be facing different challenges when you are working for yourself, rather than working for a company. Incorporate all of this information into your practices when you start working for yourself.

LLC

After your first year of working by yourself as a boss, you're going to have to figure out how to do your taxes differently. While you can classify yourself as someone simply working freelance, it can cost more, plus be much more time consuming than other options. The best option for someone working by themselves is to create an LLC. With an LLC, you can put down all of your work expenses and payments to go directly through your LLC, meaning that you don't have to go through all of your paperwork in terms of bills at the end of the year. Ensure that you create an LLC for yourself when you're looking to work for yourself.

Work Ethic

When working for yourself for the first time, you don't think about how important it can be to have the right working space and work ethic. While working at home can have many great benefits, such as never having to commute, you'll have to deal with the idea that you can get distracted easily, since it's not hard to get out of your work to play a video game or watch a movie. To help have a strong work ethic, you'll first want to create a dedicated working space in your home. Dedicated working space can differ based on what kind of space you have to work with, either an entire room that you can keep as an office, or put it in a corner. Next, try to start your day as if you had to head into work. This means that you should try waking up at a normal time in the morning before getting dressed and having breakfast. All of this together should help you create a work ethic that can make you successful when working for yourself.

Budgeting

Whether you go through with starting an LLC or not, you're going to have to think about paying taxes more at the end of the year when working by yourself. When you work a traditional job, your workplace typically takes out a certain amount of money every paycheck to pay state and federal taxes that you still need to pay when you work by yourself. One of the reasons why many people receive refunds after tax season is because their work ends up taking too much money out of their check every week, but you'll most likely be more precise when doing your taxes, which means that you shouldn't be anticipating a refund. Now when it comes to having to pay your taxes by yourself, that means that you need to budget throughout the year. Depending on the state, you might be looking at paying 30 percent of your yearly salary to your state and the federal government, meaning that you need to make sure that you save money. A good way to do this is to create separate savings account strictly made for taxes. Every time you get paid, make sure that you deduct the percentage that you think you're going to pay in taxes, and put it in that savings account so you're able to budget for taxes. Ensure that you budget well when you are looking to work for yourself.

Following all of these principles will make it a lot better working for yourself. Make sure that you're always looking into ways that you can improve your work by either grabbing more clients or accomplishing tasks in a way that saves you time. Either way, you'll see yourself get better over time at being your boss.