Being Your Own Boss – 2 Years Since Becoming Self-Employed

My official last day at my day job was October 11, 2013. I honestly cannot believe that it’s already been two years since I last sat at my old desk. Becoming self-employed has honestly been one of the best things to ever happen to me. I highly recommend being your own boss as well! I have what…

Written By:

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Last Updated: May 24, 2023

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My official last day at my day job was October 11, 2013.

I honestly cannot believe that it’s already been two years since I last sat at my old desk.

Becoming self-employed has honestly been one of the best things to ever happen to me. I highly recommend being your own boss as well!

I have what I believe to be a successful business, I’m having the time of my life, I’m in control of my future, I’m able to travel whenever and wherever I want to, and more.

If that’s not awesome, then I don’t know what is.

In case you are new here, I used to work as an analyst at an investment banking and valuation firm. I chugged along working the 8-5 Monday through Friday and didn’t see myself having a fun future there. I had a stressful job filled with lots of deadlines and responsibilities that just didn’t interest me.

Here are some related articles that will fill you in or help you out if you are new here:

I say this month after month in my monthly income reports, but it’s true – Life is GREAT now! I love everything about self-employment and blogging. I am still extremely happy that I decided to make the leap and I can’t imagine life being any other way.

Call me spoiled, call me happy, I don’t care. Life is good and I think many others can do the same. In fact, I know of many readers who have taken a similar path to mine and hopefully some of them will chime in below 🙂

Below is my update since becoming self-employed two years ago.

I enjoy being in control and being my own boss.

I love being in complete control of what I do and becoming self-employed may allow you to feel that way as well. I enjoy deciding what I will do each day, creating my own schedule, determining my business goals, handling everything behind the scenes, and more.

In fact, I have a rule in my life/business where I don’t do anything I don’t want to do. I’m still saying yes to many amazing opportunities, but I also am not doing anything that feels like a total drag or against my beliefs. This has really helped improve my work-life balance, which is great. Being able to choose how you earn a living is a great thing!

Related: If you are wanting to leave your current job to pursue something else, I have the book for you. I highly recommend the book How To Engineer Your Layoff: Make A Small Fortune By Saying Goodbye. It includes 150 pages of information on how to negotiate a severance from a job you no longer like, profiles of people from different demographics and income levels who’ve successfully engineered their layoffs, and how they did it, and more.

I love my business.

I love each and every service I provide. This is yet another reason for why I’m happy that I’m self-employed. There’s not a single thing I do not enjoy.

I enjoy writing online, promoting everything, networking, interacting with readers, and more.

Running an online business (and being your own boss) may not be for everyone and it may not be understood by everyone, but it’s something I enjoy.

If you are interested in starting your own blog, I created a tutorial that will help you start a blog of your own for cheap, starting at only $3.49 per month (this low price is only through my link) for blog hosting. In addition to the low pricing, you will receive a free blog domain (a $15 value) through my Bluehost link if you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting.

Being able to just wake up and work from home is great.

One great thing about working from home is that I don’t have a commute. I can just wake up in the morning and start working. This provides a lot more time for me to be able to enjoy my life and to work as well.

Also, since I enjoy what I do as well, waking up in the morning is no longer a problem like it was at my old day job. I enjoy waking up each morning to work and it’s often very hard to even break away from my laptop.

Having endless access to my fridge isn’t a problem.

I have gained a little bit of weight since switching to self-employment, but it’s something I am working on. However, it’s not as bad as I originally thought.

I originally thought that I would just sit at home and eat all day. Yes, that happens every now and then (haha, I am human!), but I control myself on most days.

Becoming self-employed to me means a flexible schedule.

One of the best things about working for yourself and being a blogger is that you can have a flexible schedule.

I can work ahead as far as I want to, I can create my own work schedule, and more.

I love being able to work for a few hours in the morning, then do something that I want to during the day (such as a hike or a lunch with friends), and then do more work later at night when I have nothing planned. I can also schedule appointments during the day and it’s really no big deal.

I can work at night, in the morning, on the weekends – I can work whenever.

Location independence allows me to work from wherever.

Being location independent over the past two years has been great. I love that my online business allows me to work from wherever. I am actually typing this while in my RV and enjoying the beautiful scenery around me.

It’s great to be able to work from wherever. All I need is an internet connection and my laptop. Can’t beat that!

The only problem with being location independent is that for many it can be hard to separate work from your life. You often find yourself working from everywhere and while that may seem great, being able to take a true vacation is something that I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to do.

However, I’m not going to complain because the work-life balance that I’m rocking right now is still great.

I have a better social life.

When I first told everyone that I would be leaving my job and becoming self-employed, many would often ask what I would do so that I could still get some socialization in my life. It’s also one of the top questions I receive from others who are thinking about leaving their day job.

This area of my life has actually improved since I left my day job. At my old day job, I was one of the only females in the industry and everyone was at least 20 to 30 years older than me. That doesn’t make much room for friendships right there so I often spent most of my time in my office without speaking a word all day long, unless I was speaking to a client.

Now, I talk to multiple people throughout the day and my social life is much better. I have Wes working alongside me each and every day, I see and talk to people when I do activities outdoors each day, I talk to my friends and blogging buddies every day, and more.

Do you have any questions for me about self-employment? Are you interested in becoming self-employed and being your own boss? Why or why not?

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Author: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Hey! I’m Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and I am the founder of Making Sense of Cents. I’m passionate about all things personal finance, side hustles, making extra money, and online businesses. I have been featured in major publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Time, and Business Insider. Learn more here.

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