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‘I entered the self-employed life when a self-employed job for two days a week came my way via Facebook. I seized that opportunity, with the idea of remaining in paid employment for the other half of the time. But after I posted about this on LinkedIn, my calendar filled with introductory meetings.
“Now I have three positions on an interim basis. One in the field of human resources, one as a payroll administrator and one as a financial administrator. By working as a self-employed person, I can now carry out all three at the same time, which I like. It gives me much more energy.
„Since I started as a freelancer a year ago, I have had more than enough work. I’m really proud of that. Gradually I get more and more an idea of the form I want to go to. I find contact with colleagues important, but I am also looking for more freedom to organize my own time. I would prefer that fifty-fifty allocate: an interim job for two or three days a week, and spend the rest of the time on individual assignments.
“Financial administration lends itself well to that, which is why I am expanding it. I just got a certificate, which allows me to work with software from Moneybird, an accounting program for freelancers and small businesses. With this job, it doesn’t matter whether I do the administration in the evening or at the weekend, at home or in a hut on the heath, as long as it’s finished for the quarterly tax return. From October I only have two interim jobs, then I will continue to work towards the form with half fixed days and half jobs where I can organize my own time.”
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‘How much I earn each month fluctuates a lot. I pay myself 3,500 euros every month. I want to have a fixed salary and build up a buffer of the other income, in case things go wrong.
“I am very neat in my administration, I always know what is on my account and when something is debited. Of course that has to do with my work, but maybe it’s also because I had to turn every dime for years. As a single mother I was employed for three days at the time. With a child and a dog, that was a struggle. That has not been a problem at all, but then you are critical of what you can and cannot spend.
“I try to pass on that awareness to the self-employed for whom I do the administration. A lot of people have no idea what goes on in their company or what a certain invoice is for. They hire me to ease the administration, but I am also a kind of coach: I always give feedback. For example, I try to educate self-employed people a bit and to familiarize themselves with their finances. But not too much of course, I still have to work on it.”