Have you been dreading the return to work? You’re not alone. If you spent the end of the Christmas/New Year break dreading the return to work and feeling that ball of fear in the pit of your stomach, then you’re not alone. Taking time away from work, with family and at a different pace can highlight to women just how much they hate their 9-5 lives. Statista.com shows that Q4 vs Q1 resignation rates rose by 24.5% 2023 to 2024 which shows the impact that the festive break and the pressure of the ‘New Year, New You’ trend has on people’s choices at this time of year.
As women, we have so much going on in our lives – and our minds – that when we take a break it can highlight to us just how much nicer it is to have real time to think, to reflect and to rest. Not to mention spending time with our families or just doing things we enjoy.
Something has to give
A recent Ciphr workplace stress report shows that, on average, women experience stress more than men with the figures showing that women experience approximately 35% more stress on a monthly basis than men.
There is nothing wrong with wanting it all and in fact, you deserve to have it all, but it is becoming increasingly clear to women that working a consuming 9-5 role and having everything else you want can be a challenge and that’s when you start to consider change.
A lot of people immediately think of self-employment as a quick-win solution to getting out of the rat race and into a more flexible situation, as of September 2024 there were around 4.28 million self-employed workers in the UK, growing steadily, from a low of just 3.2 million in December 2000. Of these figures, approximately 36.68% are women.
So, if you are considering making a change from employed to self-employed, these are the top 5 things to consider before committing.
Pinpoint the Stress
It’s easy to leap to blaming your employed role as the source of your stress but it’s important that you spend some time thinking about exactly what is causing you to feel overwhelmed so that you’re making the right choice for you.
- If it’s the thought of spending all weekend cleaning because you’re so busy during the week then a cleaner might be your saving grace.
- If you’re unhappy because you don’t get home in time for the bedtime routine with your babies, then look at flexible and offsite working options with your employer.
- If you feel like you’re doing it all without help then start asking, most partners aren’t mind readers and will assume you’re happy doing it unless you speak up.
The point is that you might just be moving your stress and burnout to another situation if you don’t spend some time really understanding what it is that’s making you unhappy.
Visualise your future
A great way to understand what you want from your future is to imagine it.
Spend five minutes in a meditative state imagining your life in 5 years’ time – a perfect day in your ‘working’ week – where are you, what are you doing, what are you working on. What’s in the diary for the day and what time do you start or finish. Do you have breaks for lunch, are you taking lots of meetings, are you at home, running an office full of staff or walking and working.
Allowing your subconscious to guide you unlocks your true desires for your life. Try not to focus too much on expected norms – lounging on that yacht in the Caribbean or working from the beach five times a year – but find your happy place.
It will be as unique as you are, but it will fill you with serenity and joy.
That is the life you want to work towards.
Find your passions
There’s no easy route to self employed success, it’s as much, if not more, hard work as a ‘normal’ job but it can be incredibly fulfilling if you’re doing something you enjoy. There is a quote from Mark Twain that is very overused but partly true: ‘Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life’.
The truth is you will work, and you’ll work hard but you’ll enjoy doing it which is pretty good too.
So, before making any choices connect to your passions. Moving from an employed role doing x, y and z to a self-employed role doing the same is only going to exacerbate your stressors if the tasks themselves are what make you unhappy.
If you love your job but hate the toxic environment, then absolutely replicating your tasks as a freelance model might work for you. However, if that’s not the case you need to work out what you are passionate about, what you do enjoy to create a self-employed lifestyle that feeds your soul and brings joy rather than more stress.
Prepare your support
If you’ve decided that making the move is for you, you know what kind of business you want to build and how to find your joy and passion doing it then the next step is to prepare both your financial and your emotional support network.
It would be amazing – but incredibly unlikely- if you were to replicate your employed salary within a month of setting up your new business venture, even if you’ve been running it as a side hustle for a few years.
In which case, it’s important that you know how much money you need to live on and whether you can fund that from savings or a partner’s support as your business grows. Ultimately there is no cost associated to saving your mental wellbeing from stress and burnout but there are still the basics to pay for like the rent/mortgage and food.
Emotionally it can be a bit of a rollercoaster, a lot of women have their identity wrapped up in their careers – and the removal of a formal job title can trigger a grieving period as they struggle to have confidence in their new world.
Having a group around you to connect with and to get support from can be invaluable. Not only should you look to your close family or friendship network but also look online. There are so many forums and groups out there were you can find people at every stage of their business journey that you’ll be sure to find friends and mentors aplenty.
Research, research, research
Do not underestimate the power of research in understanding your next steps – the online forums and networks mentioned above are a great source of information and inspiration. In addition, a lot of local government bodies offer support to new startups – from training and advice to funding and are always worth leveraging.
The key to success with any new business venture is to understand the landscape you’ll be operating in:
- The competitors you’ll be aligned against.
- The potential clients you’ll be targeting.
- The tools and experience you’ll need to thrive.
By fully understanding everything you need to set up successfully you are more likely to hit the ground running with your new business.
Conclusion
If you’ve started January wanting a change and craving that feeling of calm you had, albeit briefly, over the festive break then a switch to self-employment might be for you. But it’s not the short cut to career-replicating income with minimal working hours and zero stress that most people imagine it to be (and that TikTok will promise it is).
Taking time to think through the real sources of your stress, to think about the future you want to have, to align that future with your passions and then to prepare and research is time well spent.
Your life can be whatever you want it to be, and you can have it all. Start building that end goal for yourself now.
