There are many benefits to short-term contract work that you may not have considered. When reading about these benefits it’s important to remember that a lot of the benefits of employment are really illusions – such as job security, for example.
* Maturity Will Be an Asset – There is no doubt that there is age discrimination on job hunts. But, if you’re a contractor your age will become an asset instead of a liability. People respect maturity and experience more when they hire contractors than when they hire employees.
* Tax Deductions – Everything you spend to run your business (including mileage, supplies, and even potentially your health insurance costs) are tax deductions and will reduce your tax liability more than when you have a normal job. You may even be able to take a home office deduction.
* You Won’t Get Sick of Anyone – Most contract work is short term, which means even if you end up working with someone who is a pain in the rear you won’t have to do it forever. You can learn from the experience to help you avoid accepting contracts from people that are too high maintenance.
* You’ll Make More Connections – Because you’re going to always be marketing your business, you’ll have a lot of connections. You’ll have proven your worth many times over so that if you ever did change your mind, you could likely easily get a job. Not that you’ll want to.
* Deliverables Matter Most – When you’re a contractor no one controls how you do your work. The only thing that really matters is the deliverable. For example, if you’ve been contracted to digitize files for a doctor’s office, you will do it your own way and they’ll only be concerned with the results.
* You Decide When to Work – While you do have deadlines, you can set everything up around your own life instead of the other way around. If you know you will take two weeks off at Christmas to be with family, you don’t have to schedule any work during that time.
* You Choose Which Projects to Accept – When you find projects to bid on, you don’t have to accept them just because they took your bid if you realize you have a problem or conflict. For example, you may not want to work with certain people once you meet them. That is okay when you’re a contractor.
* How You Dress Is Up to You – No one is going to tell you how to dress. You can have purple hair and tattoos without anyone judging you as long as you’ve picked the right business to be in. If you like wearing suits, that’s okay too.
* You Control Your Future – When you’re a contractor you truly do have a lot of control over your future. You can essentially get a raise whenever you want one by taking on more work, expanding your offerings, or just upping your rate of pay.
Your adventure into contract work will pay off if you have the right frame of mind and can look at the positives. The negatives are really not that many and several of them are imagined anyway. If you are self-motivated and ready to learn new skills, and even make more money than you do at a job, then contracting may be for you.