What is the difference between self-employed and freelancers?
Self-employed or a freelancer? How do you define your employment status when you do not work for a company on a typical nine-to-five shift? People use these terms as if it is the same thing. It is not! For starters, let us clarify these terms by answering these questions.
What are you building?
Self-employed are more inclined towards the business side rather than freelancers who are more ‘gig-oriented.’ Freelancers are commonly thought of as less focused than the self-employed. Freelancers are searching for their goal, trying new things, not defined or tied into one field, whereas the self-employed have found their Niche and are building up a business within that niche.
Who do you work with?
The self-employed could have or could want employees to work for them which makes them different from freelancers who tend to work alone.
Who are you working for?
There is more autonomy in being self-employed because freelancers can also be seen working for a client, especially if they are working for continuous hours on a project. Both freelancers and the self-employed choose who they work for, but freelancers generally take on smaller projects, or multiple projects at the same time.
UK Freelance Industry Statistics of 2020 shows that there are currently over 2 million Freelancers while over 5 million self-employed were recorded at the end of 2019. With two different career paths, we could imagine how devastating it is for these people to work under the threat of COVID-19. Moreover, there are other programs of the UK government that offer help to the self-employed who are getting less work or no work at all because of the pandemic:
- Online application for Universal Credit
- New Style Employment and Support Allowance if you have a disability or health condition that affects how much you can work.
- Government Self-Employed Income Support Scheme which is open to those who earn under £50,000 a year.
Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic is a big hurdle for everyone, not just for freelancers or the self-employed but even to regular full time employed individuals too. In this trying time, there are a lot of adjustments companies made to survive the pandemic which includes cutting off employees and deducting salaries of their employees.
