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Being self-employed comes with a certain measure of freedom at the expense of the security of a nine-to-five job with medical benefits. Because of this security, there was a massive shift away from self-employment (about 80% around 1900) to masses of people becoming corporate wage earners (about 90% around 2000). Now with the growing uncertainty of today's job market, with massive layoffs and strategic elimination of retirement benefits, and with the imminent collapse of the social security system, more people are looking back at self-employment as the more secure option.

If you are considering being self-employed, here are some general tips before breaking out of your corporate job.

1. Research

If you are planning to keep working in the same or a similar field that you are currently employed in, do your homework ahead of time. What is your department doing that is right, what is it doing that is wrong? Where could you eliminate waste or redundancy if you were in charge? When you break away, your current employer could easily become your first client, if you could continue doing the job you are doing now as an independent contractor at a lower cost than the department is costing the company currently.

Get counsel and advice from friends and associates that are self-employed. Even someone who works in an entirely different industry can offer advice on being an entrepreneur. Successful people that work their way up from nothing are not as hard to approach as people seem to think.

2. Set Goals

You should have an overall goal of why you are even going into business for yourself. Something like: "retiring at age 50 with $6 million dollars in assets earning 12% interest," is a fine goal. But don't just keep on working for the sake of working. If all it took to succeed was hard work then every ditch-digger in America would be a multi-millionaire. If you aim at nothing, you will hit it; And unfortunately most people in America spend more time planning their weekend barbecue than the rest of their financial future.

In addition to an overall goal, you should also have medium-range goals. Have a goal for your first year, and then some intermediate goals perhaps three to five years out. Take some time to evaluate your performance and see what areas need improvement.

Also, have short-term daily goals in place. Make a list each day of things that you need to get done. Arrange them in their order of importance, then work on them in that order. That way, even if you don't get everything done, you finish those tasks that are the most important. Avoid getting caught up in the busy-ness of being busy.

Goals will help keep you focused, which is important when you don't have a boss telling you what to do.

3. Take Action

Most people, when they pursue a big goal, handle it this way: "Ready! Aim! Aim! Aim! Aim! Aim!"

All the planning and preparation in the world is fine, just remember that there is never a perfect time to get started. Any time humans are involved in an activity, perfection is impossible. So once you have done your research and set a goal, GO!

Expect that you will run into problems, but deal with them as they arise. All forward progress meets resistance, but resistance will always make you stronger. If you are not meeting any challenges in your life then you are not going anywhere. All your trials, and difficulties, and challenges will be the memories that you cherish most in your later years. So greet them with the attitude that "adversity is a gift," and let action overcome your fear.

Learn more about this author, Matt Lau.
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