Last week we had an article on U.S. Census data showing a big uptick in the number of Americans who are self-employed.
sIt's likely this increase is caused by people who have lost their jobs turning to self-employment.
Because of this, we found the recent MBO Partners' blog post How to Become a Consultant: 5 Steps to Starting Right to be very timely.
Their 5 steps are:
- Confirm that Self-Employment is Right for You
- Develop a Strong Network
- Use Social Media to Market Your Skills
- Hone Your Personal Brand
- Take a Look at Your Finances
They go into detail on each of the 5 steps and we certainly agree with their advice. So head over to their article to learn more.
Longer-term, we think the growth of full and part-time self-employment will continue even after the country recovers from the current recession.
One reason is companies of all sizes will increase their use of nonemployee labor to improve their business agility and flexibility. This is what happened as the country recovered from the two prior recessions.
Another reason is more people will choose to become self-employed, which they will do for a variety of reasons including: -
- to have more flexibility, autonomy and control over their lives and work
- to supplement their income
- self-employment is their best or only job option
Regardless of the reason for becoming self-employed, it's important that the growing numbers of the self-employed plan for their shift to independent work. And if they plan to become independent consultants, a good place to start is MBO's article.
Disclosure: MBO Partners is an Emergent Research client.
