bradleyelectric said:
most do. 80% of all new contractors fail in the first year. 80% of the remainder fail before they are 5 years old. A lot of the small 1's that stay in business are retired and collecting a pension with benefits from a previous employment, have a working spouse that provides financial support and benefit package, or work somewhere else to provide benefits. If the business can't provide support for its principles than you can't really call it a profitable business unless by profitable you mean it provides the owner the ability to fish on a regular basis while the wife actually supports the habit. Your an engineer right?
I don't know if 80% of new contractors fail within a year, but I have heard statistics from reputable sources that indicate new businesses in general tend to fail at about that rate. Nothing special about a contracting business that would make me think they are likely to do any better.
I am not self employed, and really have no desire to be.
Most small business owners really don't do all that well for themselves, even those that manage to stick it out for any length of time. They often do it simply because they prefer working for themselves rather than someone else.
As for benefits, its not all that unusual for a spouse to take a job to provide health care insurance for both of them just because it is so hard to find reasonably priced health insurance coverage for one person. But really, a few thousand dollars one way or the other on health insurance is not that huge in the big scheme of things.
I know of a fair number of self employed veterans who use their VA medical benefits in lieu of buying health insurance. is there something inherent evil about that?
I know quite a few self employed people and I would bet the majority of them could make more money working for someone else.