Courtesty of Rachel Wells
Rachel Wells, 24, is fairly new to being fully self-employed after a contract job got cut short and a tough job search.
Wells, who lives in the UK, was already job searching a few months before her project manager job was supposed to end in the spring of 2023. She told Business Insider when the job ended a couple of weeks earlier than anticipated, she panicked more "because now I've got less money than what I would've expected to last me a bit longer."
Wells decided to be fully self-employed in the summer of 2023. She said this career pivot "wasn't a willful decision."
"I remember my mom said to me, 'Maybe you're not supposed to get a job. Maybe you're just supposed to go out on your own,'" Wells said. "And for me, that sounded uncomfortable because I like the structure of having an employer and being in a team and an office, and I didn't think I was ready."
But now, Wells said she's grateful she ultimately didn't get a job offer, considering that she can happily pursue her calling and considering how much she earns.
"We're able to move house and things like that because of what I'm earning now," she said.
Wells is a career coach under her business, Rachel Wells Coaching, and writes articles as a Forbes contributor, among other self-employed income streams. She said her client work has been with people from around the world, although her client base is largely in the US now, and she has worked with people of different job levels. She said she doesn't do career coaching as often now and is working on building her presence "as a YouTube influencer, teaching others how to launch side hustles and thrive in their careers and finances."
According to the UK government website, 13.3% of UK workers were self-employed in 2021. Wells doesn't see herself leaving behind being fully self-employed, partly because of the freedom it provides.
"I can't imagine myself back in the constrictions of working for an employer again," Wells said. "Because I just love being a leader and being able to express myself and share my thoughts and to be able to use my creative ideas to just, 'Hey, let me just try this new angle for the business without getting approval for it.'"
Wells finds it important to diversify income sources regardless of who employs you — whether working for yourself or an employer. She finds one benefit of this is you have another source of income if one ends up tapering out. Wells also finds your income streams can be in the same type of work.
Take digital marketing work. If that's your expertise, Wells said you could consult while also running client campaigns, create a bot that helps people with marketing, or write a blog focused on marketing strategies that has affiliate links within posts to help make some passive income.
"Through one main idea, through one side hustle, it kind of branches out into different diversified sources of income," she said. "And that's kind of what I'm doing inadvertently without realizing it. I have this one main passion, which is about leadership and career development. But through that, I'm doing different things. I'm doing freelance writing. I'm consulting. I'm public speaking. I'm coaching."
Wells said her career coaching work, which she started as a teenager, has "definitely evolved, especially being in the actual world of work, in the corporate world and working as a manager."
Wells said it's important to work on your professional development and personal brand, as well as to identify what you have a passion for and where your expertise lies. She finds prioritizing building a network and working on your expertise and brand helpful in case of a layoff or quitting a role because then you have something to fall back on.
"Never be so comfortable and cushy within your role that you don't seek to develop yourself outside of the job," Wells said.
