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Brits Love Being in Charge: Top Perks of Being the Boss

Businessman on Grass
From endless Instagram posts informing us about the perks of entrepreneurship to the “graft hard now so you can reap the benefits later” memes littered around the Internet, the British social media scene is rife with work-related advice for the modern millennial. But what is it really like taking the reigns and jumping into self employment? We found out.

The property letting agent City Breaks in Newcastle asked 1,000 business owners in Britain about precisely what makes them tick in their role. The results observed have added interest in that they are in line with the desired perks we see as a recruitment agency from job seekers too.

Flexibility Wins Out 

Flexible working tops the list of the best benefits to business ownership along with autonomy. This is something we see echoed in the world of employment too and seems to cap many a survey of wanted perks and work place benefits; in this particular survey 89% of those surveyed cited flexible working hours as the ultimate advantage of being in charge.

Power Play

Brits love a bit of power around the office too. For 75% of respondents the thing they enjoyed most about self employment was self employment itself – being the boss. 

Less Important Benefits

Further down the list of business ownership benefits came salary which was surprising but not out of sorts with what we’ve observed in our work as an agency. Individuals seem to feel the pull of a strong work/life balance more now, with remuneration packages fading into the background somewhat in comparison. Only 16% of survey respondents in this instance cited salary benefits as their favourite perk.

Flexible decision making and business trips also scored lower down the list. Other choices in the survey included being able to pick your own team and having the final say.

Employment Benefits

We’ve discussed the research around owning a business, but on the flip side of the coin are the benefits of having an employer too – particularly a boss, team and company you love working with. Some of these benefits, garnered from our own experience include;
  • Social Interaction: Self employment can be lonely and isolating, the social aspect of employment can be a draw
  • Guaranteed Income: Although redundancy and loss of income is possible, employment is generally more stable than self employment which can cause colossal amounts of stress to entrepreneurs
  • Personal and Professional Growth: Running your own outfit will almost certainly result in growth, but company-sponsored training schemes and climbing the career ladder internally can result in tremendous growth too – along with a big increase in salary

Conclusion

One in seven Brits would like to be self employed, and the perks of this are substantial. Whatever your choice in regard to employment or self employment, we’re glad that the UK is such a prosperous and promising place in which to nurture our careers.