As a student, it is sometimes attractive to set up your own company or work as a freelancer alongside your studies. Let’s face it, in the first place you do it to earn more. Maybe even because you want to get real hands-on experience. The list of advantages is endless. But also consider some of the disadvantages and challenges of being a self-employed student. Here is a list.
8 advantages as a self-employed student
- Flexibility: As a self-employed student, you enjoy enormous flexibility compared to students who work as a job student. You can decide your own workplace and time. You are your own boss.
- Practical experience: Setting up your own company allows you to gain experience in your box and entrepreneurship at an early age. You also build your own network. This can come in handy later when you search for a job after your studies or become self-employed in main occupation. Read more about your options after you graduate as a self-employed student in this article.
- Financial independence: As a self-employed student, you can earn a lot on the side. This way, you are not dependent on pocket money, holiday work, a scholarship or your savings. You learn to fend for yourself financially, and that’s worth a lot.
- Pursuing your dream: As a self-employed student, you can pursue your own ideas and dreams. You set up a business that is an extension of you as a person. This allows you to focus on your interests and passions.
- Experiencing entrepreneurship: As a student entrepreneur, you are responsible for your own company. You have to set up the company, find customers, do your accounting, and experience all other aspects of entrepreneurship. So you learn a huge amount.
- Self-development: Being an independent entrepreneur allows you to develop in many areas. You will come into contact with different industries such as communication, sales, marketing and finance. This can be a learning experience and can help you expand your skills and knowledge. You might even learn which aspects you enjoy and discover what you would rather not be involved with in the future.
- Personal growth: You will grow tremendously as a person, much faster than fellow students who have not (yet) swum the waters of entrepreneurship. You will face challenges and cultivate a sense of responsibility.
- Creativity: As a self-employed student, you will learn to think creatively. In all areas, for example to solve problems but also to find new customers or to tackle a process more efficiently. Creativity will become a scarce trait in a future with pervasive automation and applied artificial intelligence.
5 disadvantages as a self-employed student
- Balancing study and work: It can sometimes be difficult to balance study and work as a student-entrepreneur. You have to divide your time between your studies and your business. You need to learn to plan well to find a good balance.
- Financial security: As a self-employed student, it can sometimes be difficult to find enough work or to have financial security. After all, you depend on assignments or customers and have no fixed salary or other fixed sources of income. Unlike other students with student jobs, you are not sure you will be paid for your work provided. But that, of course, is exactly what makes it exciting.
- Risk: Like any other entrepreneur, as a self-employed student you take a risk. For example, if you face disappointing orders or dissatisfied customers, your company may be in trouble. But as long as your risks are calculated, risks make life worth living.
- Childhood loss: Are your sales and profits rising as a student entrepreneur? Then this means you are doing very good, congratulations. Just be aware that your parents can lose the child allowance from a certain ceiling. We wrote a whole article on self-employed student status and child allowance.
- Tax and administrative obligations: You are responsible for keeping track of your income and expenses and have to pay taxes on your profits. As if taxes alone were not enough, an accountant also costs a lot of money. Fortunately, Dexxter allows you to do your bookkeeping yourself inexpensively.
