How to Make a Great Lifestyle from Self Employed Courier Jobs

If you’re accustomed to the 9-5 lifestyle, committing to a contractor’s work routine can be challenging – yet very rewarding. It is a common experience for people making the shift to independent work in the transportation industry. Regularity and security need not be redefined, however. The benefits of being self-employed are very attractive, but you need to be prepared to adjust.

Ups and Downs

Self-employed courier jobs offer a more fluctuating cash flow than regular full time work. Work can come thick and fast some months, and less so at other times. The key to getting through this challenge is understanding and seeing consistency in the long term. The quieter periods are often more than compensated for by those times of booming business. Being able to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to work wisely largely relies on understanding the long-term cash flow of your business, and not responding out of a sense of panic.

The Phases

Another significant challenge is to understand your business in terms of phases. Different stages often determine the consistency or inconsistency of your workload, and understanding them allows you to evaluate your business operations. Work in a nine to five, so called ‘traditional’ role has its own phases, but they do not match those of someone reliant on self employed courier jobs. The start-up phase may involve investment and patchy returns; the development phase may include a sudden boom as the market notices; the medium phase can involve settling into a routine and learning to face a drop in clients and a rise in attention from competition; and the mature phase involves both a statistical and intuitive understanding of the ebbs and flows in your business, which in turn can finally give shape to realistic projections and understanding of your sustainability.

The Division of Effort

Throughout all these phases you will notice a unique and vital division of your effort and attention. People who work as independent contractors often report that they need to invest more time than they anticipated in securing future work. Much like a larger company, when you're looking for self employed courier jobs you need to think about marketing, financial management, networking, asset maintenance and the like. This effort is not remunerated, so it can be easy to neglect, but since it is the basis of long-term sustainability and remuneration, it needs to be balanced with actual work for clients.

The Rewards

Ultimately, these adjustments lead to rewards. Those who choose take on self employed courier jobs understand the benefits in the transportation industry of taking one’s financial and work life into one’s own hands. You have a degree of freedom and choice that those who work for an employer do not have, regardless of their position and remuneration. You also have a level of responsibility that they cannot have, which, for many, is a great motivator.

Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading hub for same day self employed courier jobs in the express freight exchange industry. Over 4,000 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.

Writer and Online Marketing Manager in London.