Why do women complain about wages when they could all become self-employed and determine their own future?
Being self employed is a lot harder than it sounds. For one thing, you have to be able to provide a service that is in demand and that can be tricky. Also, you have to determine your competition and how much of it is there. You have to learn about taxes and local regulations. Then you have to work long hours with no benefits. You also have to deal with clients who won’t pay for the services offered or are constantly late in paying them. Most small businesses fail within the first five years and for those that do fail, it means the owner is even deeper in debt than before. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t do it or even consider the idea but they should know what exactly they are getting into before they try it. The best way to become self employed is to work at a regular job that pays all the bills until the new business becomes profitable and then become self employed full time.
I looked into self-employment and the risks are high for making a small business work-50% of them close in less than 5 years. Even so, between 1997-2002, about 20% of new businesses were formed by women, who were willing to take the risk. The three things holding women back from self-employment are getting capital, credit and having equity: http://www.score.org/small_biz_stats.htm… I realized you have to pay for your private health benefits, which are sky high when you’re self-employed, plus you have to try to save for your retirement while paying off debt and overhead costs. As I didn’t have a house for equity, but did have good credit, I could have gotten capital, but it would have taken years to break even. As I was already in my 40’s, I didn’t want to take so many chances at that point. But other women with equity could get more capital, and could pay off debts faster and make a profit more quickly. So that’s wh
