Why do so Many Tradespeople Choose Self-Employment?

The entrepreneur Lori Greiner once said that being self-employed is “working 80 hours a week for yourself so you don’t have to work 40 for someone else.”

Does that sound about right to you?

Over 4 million people in the UK are currently self-employed. This includes everyone from plumbers and heating engineers to hairdressers, drivers and chefs. But why do they work alone, despite the financial risks and challenges? What’s it all about?

Why Go Self-Employed?

There is no single reason why someone chooses to go self-employed. Some people like the autonomy self-employment offers – the ability to control your job schedule and have the last word. Family commitments are also a big one. Who wouldn’t like to take a month-long summer holiday if they fancied it? You can’t do that working as a salaried employee, where you get 20 days of statutory leave, which you must book in advance.

Some people go solo for the earning potential – for example, working as a self-employed plumber is likely to net you more cash than plumbing for your local council. This is a huge one – as money really does make the world go round. If you can earn a better crust plying your trade for yourself, then many among us would prefer to take the punt rather than stick with the security of a stagnant wage. Further, many self-employed tradespeople choose to get paid out-of-hours by booking in emergency work at a higher rate.

Others just hate dancing to someone else’s tune, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

The Self-Starter vs The Salaryman

The Japanese have a term, ‘salaryman’. It essentially means a person working in a full-time, long-term role in which they pledge their loyalty to their company. In Japanese popular culture, the salaryman sacrifices most of their personal identity in their pursuit of their job. There isn’t an ounce of entrepreneurial spirit in the salaryman’s body, and it’s seen as a wider sign of conforming to social norms and not having any grand personal aspirations of your own. If this sounds like your worst nightmare, then you’re probably more of a self-starter.

The UK has thrived on its self-employed tradespeople for centuries. The celebrated blacksmiths, weavers, wheelwrights and tanners in the 1600’s would now be your gas engineers, electricians, painters, and gardeners.

In fact, we’d love to see a study on whether the great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandparents* of today’s tradespeople might have been on the tools themselves. We at Rhino don’t have the time to do it (too busy providing award-winning insurance), but if anyone from Who Do You Think You Are is reading this – give us a call.

Rhino’s Survey Results – How Long Have Our Customers Been On the Tools?

At the end of last year, we sent a survey to 512 tradespeople. The results were revealing – they showed that most of our customers were relatively new to self-employment with 50.2% tradespeople having worked for themselves for between 1 – 5 years. The next largest group was those who had been self-employed for 6 – 10 years (18.2%), closely followed by some master tradesmen who had been at it for between 11 – 20 years.

One respondent had been a tradesman for over 51 years. This means they probably entered the trades in the early 1970’s, when life in the UK looked a little different, and witnessed five decades’ evolution of the trade landscape. If you’re reading this (the survey was completely anonymous) – get in touch as we’d love to interview you for the Rhino blog!

Our nosy survey questions didn’t stop there. We also asked, ‘would you recommend being self-employed to the younger generation?’.

The results showed that 441 respondents (86%) would recommend self-employment, while 71 (14%) would not.

The 14% who wouldn’t recommend self-employment might be fed up with the challenges of the trades. Nobody said trades work was easy, and working for yourself does bring with it a certain amount of stress. Further, things like tool theft, grumpy customers who refuse to pay and inconsistent income can make even the most dedicated tradesperson want to throw in the tools.

However, 86% of tradespeople recommending self-employment did make us smile. It means that almost 9 out of 10 tradespeople would encourage the youth of today to work for themselves. We think this shows the entrepreneurial spirit is still going strong and that the hard work (and in some cases, the 80-hour weeks) are worth it in the end.

What Does it Take to Go Self-Employed?

Those who have struck out on their own are usually those who prefer to write their own rulebook and set their own pace. You have to be able to accept the tough days along with the good ones and be able to plan your cash flow and income according to the ebbs and flows of your business. You’ll need to have a lot of energy, too, or at least a bit of a caffeine habit.

However, going self-employed comes with risk. It would have been the same in the 15th century, and it’s the same today. A sudden injury, a bout of pestilence, or a bandit making off with your tools – the things that can go wrong for a modern tradesperson are as old as time.

Risks in the trades industry is an inconvenient truth, but it’s why Rhino exists. Under Rhino’s policy protection, self-employed tradespeople are shielded from the key risks they face as self-employed workers. From Personal Accident Insurance, Tools Insurance and of course, Public Liability Insurance, we are specialised and dedicated to providing self-employed tradespeople with comprehensive cover so they can do their own thing, without answering to a boss.

At Rhino, we think it takes a tough guy (or girl) to make the decision to go self-employed, but without risk there can be no true success.

Let Rhino take care of the risk for you. Call us on 0116 243 7904 today.

*-yes, we worked it out.