Review: Wrap-Up And Next Steps

Wrap-Up And Next Steps

Congratulations! You’ve completed 5 Steps to Self-Employment.

That was a lot of information, so let’s do a quick review to help you remember what’s involved in working for yourself.

And if you’re ready to jump in, there’s more free guidance from Work for Yourself@50+ that can help you put your best foot forward at the end of this section.

Exploring forms of self-employment

In lesson one you learned the first step to self-employment is understanding exactly what it means. Simply put, it’s where you work for yourself instead of someone else. In general, there are four different types of self-employment:

Side-hustle
Freelancer / Contractor
Micro business
Nonprofit / Social Enterprise

Pinpointing your areas of interest

In lesson two you learned that identifying your natural talents, likes, and dislikes can help you discover your self-employment focus. Hopefully, you were able to determine what opportunities for self-employment might make sense for you and sketch out your big idea.

How to write a business plan

In lesson three you learned how to look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to evaluate the likelihood of your business idea’s success, plus the essential elements to include in your business plan.

How to avoid job scams

In lesson four you learned what to watch out for when exploring self-employment opportunities, including the most common ways criminals try to steal your personal information, money, and identity.

Discovering support networks & services

In lesson five you learned where to turn for additional resources, the importance of building your professional network, and how to use social media to grow your business.