Unlike others I miss nothing about the traditional workforce. Self employment is more fulfilling and you maximise every minute of every hour of every day.

Delta Goodrem might have recently released a song called Dear Life, but I want to start a blog called Dear Australia, or more importantly, it's called Dear Australian Business owners and staff members.

Here we go then.

Dear Australian Business Owners and Staff,

We have a problem that we need to talk about. It's a problem that nobody really seems to talk about, or if they do it's one you don't truly understand until you leave the corporate 9-5 world. What a way to make a livin', barely gettin' by, it's all takin' and no givin', had to include those lyrics in this blog as they sprung to mind and now I'm listening to Dolly Parton's song.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked, what we really need to talk about is the issue of productivity.

Now I'd been in the workforce for ten years prior to starting my own business, which was actually started completely by accident, or like most people, it was a planned accident. Until I started my own business I worked for employers who were so wasteful with resources.

I used to work an eight hour day and really only did about one or two hours of actual hardcore work.

Now that I'm self employed I work 16 hours, full on 16 hours, that's once you take into consideration a two hour break for the gym and a few hours for sleep, or as was the case tonight, a half hour sleep before getting stuck back into work.

Productivity is such a huge issue. People are so wasteful with their resources, and it's only when you start running your own business that you see this. People do not set their staff true targets. I'm not sure if the world is full of bad managers or if when you're an employee you simply don't care, and that the moment you become self employed you suddenly do.

The reason I'm blogging about the issue of productivity in the first place is I just read a blog written by Sydney copywriter Kate Toon. Her blog was about things she missed about the workforce and it got me thinking about productivity because she was talking about how she would often take extended breaks.

When you're self employed you simply can't do that. Every minute of every hour of every day is costing you money, and if you're not working that hour that minute then you're effectively losing money. How much money you lose will depend upon what you charge for your services or product, depending of course on the field that you are in.

When you're self employed you'll even be concerned about the time you spend on phone calls because although that has the potential to generate you an income, it generally won't. Generally phone calls will cost you money because of the lost productivity you have while you're on the phone. When you're on the phone you can't do the jobs you need to do which means you need to work longer hours later on.

You see, when you're self employed there is nobody to cover for you. You have to do it. If you get sick then you've got to work. If you're tired, you've got to work. Even if it's your birthday or Christmas Day that's right, you'll still have to work. When you are self employed it is much like the social media meme says, you work 70 hours a week so you don't have to work for someone else.

When you do work for someone else you will be pigeon holed. You're either position x or position y or a or b or c or d. You're not all of the above. You perform one business function and that is all. You don't have the choices you do when you're self employed.

Unlike Kate Toon, I don't miss being an employee. I love being in control. I love that I choose what I earn and what I charge. I love that I am in charge of my future. Like a lot of self employed people, I ended up setting up my own business after years of thinking about it but the real trigger was when I was made redundant in November 2015. It's not until you have no money, and no control of your future that you will make a decision to either continue letting people control and determine you're future, or you'll take back control yourself.

The only thing I do miss about the workforce is that I had a separate place to go to. Now my office is right next to my bed which means there is no escaping. If I have work to do and it's 3am then I am going to get out of bed (as I've done) and do it because I have the time and inspiration. There's no way a sane person would get out of bed and go to the office if they worked for an employer. They would leave it until tomorrow. When you're self employed if you want to succeed then there is no such thing as procrastinating. You will do as much as you possibly can in one day otherwise that's lost time you could be spending generating new business and extra work you have tomorrow.

I also miss not having business expenses. When you're self employed you will account for everything. If you had a pen while you were in an office you wouldn't care if you threw it out. When you work for yourself you won't even want to pay for printing let alone actual set up costs like equipment such as a computer or photographs (if you're a web developer or graphic designer and work with stock images).

Other than the financial cost I don't miss anything about the traditional workforce. Once you've tasted the freedom of being your own boss you can never go back.

And that's what being in business is about. It's about being extremely motivated and driven to succeed. It's about making the most of every opportunity. Being in business gives you a thrill that being an employee never did, and never will do. When you're your own boss it's exciting and thrilling. It's like being on a constant buzz not knowing what tomorrow's going to bring.

Some people of course aren't cut out for business ownership, but those who are should enjoy it otherwise they should get out of it. That buzz isn't just about the big things like bringing in big deals. It's also the little things like getting business cards, or as was the case with me earlier this week, setting up my proper official business email and the bigger momentous activity, like planning for your first staff member.

Business ownership isn't for the faint hearted but those who are right for it will have a lot of fun. It's like nothing else.

What nobody tells you about running a small business

There are some things people don't tell you about running your own business. You only discover them when you establish a business yourself.

TIME: So you thought you had it tough when you were an employee. You thought eight hours a day was demanding? Eight hours a day is nothing compared to the 16 hours a day most small business owners work. That 16 hours of course isn't in one block. But all the work you do amounts to 16 hours every day.

As a small business owner it is imperative you manage your time effectively. If you've never been the type of person to make to do lists you suddenly will be and nothing will ever be done. The list will forever grow.

FREEDOM: Nobody will tell you to get back from your extended lunch break or gym break. You choose when you work, so you can start as late or as early as you want. In fact, as I type this blog I am cycling at the gym. That said, your customers will expect you to be available 24/7 and if you're a demanding customer like I am, if you're not available they will go to your competitor. 

CUSTOMER SERVICE: When you're a small business owner you can't afford to have even one unhappy customer. One unhappy customer has the potential to destroy your reputation. You will find yourself bending over backwards to get jobs done. That will mean taking calls from customers at midnight. Another case, and this happened to me this weekend, I had a customer who required a design job to be completed by tomorrow. Now I've been using a lap top and needed to upgrade. I ended up upgrading yesterday. Friends looked at me like I was crazy to upgrade a few days prior to what I'd planned. Customers expect it and if you don't deliver they will go elsewhere for their services. You never know when a one off customer could become a regular client, and the more regular clients you have, the better.

Sometimes of course there is no pleasing customers and you have to know when to cut your losses and let the customer go.

MONEY CHASING: Everyone hates debt collectors, well my fellow readers, if you run your own business you will constantly be chasing payments and waiting for money to come in. You will negotiate rates and payment terms. These are things that are essential and the bottom line is you must be paid for your work. Some people of course don't value people's work and will try to get out of paying. There are customers who don't comprehend that you're running a business and that you're not a charity.

STAFF: People frequently talk about how people don't hire staff easily and that wages are too low. Until you run your own business you don't realise the reason for that. Most small businesses are run by people who don't have a huge amount of money to spare. The money simply isn't there to pay higher wages. This is one reason why more and more business owners, myself included, use independent contractors. As soon as you start a business you will have people lining up to work for you. That's another thing. You must treat your staff well with open communication. Make expectations very clear from the start. You will find yourself being very picky about who you hire because your neck and your money is on the line.

PRODUCTIVITY: That brings me to my next point about productivity. In the early stages of a business it isn't productive to hire staff full time. You will hire people based on projects. You will pay them for the work they do, not to sit there for 40 hours a week.  You will want to make sure something productive comes out of every minute of every hour. You will find yourself scheduling phone calls and multi tasking a lot more as a small business owner.

When you're an employee, you just care about your job but the moment you become an SBO you will start requiring reports of profit increases, expenses and the general direction of your business. You will start caring about the numbers and the bottom line.

That said, numbers matter but in some cases you have to spend money to make money.

LEARNING AND JOB CAPABILITIES: All too frequently when you work for someone else they will only give you jobs based on what they think your capabilities are. When you're a small business owner you choose the work you take on and that means one day you're designing a website, the next day you're writing content or managing a marketing campaign. You're not pigeon holed.

BYE BYE HOLIDAYS: I was made redundant in November so took a holiday. It was fantastic so I booked another. Then a short time after getting a new job I set up my own business (a planned accident) and had to cancel my holiday. When you run a small business, especially if you're a sole trader there is no such thing as holidays. Nobody can replace you and you don't want your clients to go down the road to your competitor.

RELATIONSHIPS: Business relationships are so essential, especially in the early stages of your business, the more mutual relationships you can start, the better it will be for your business and your reputation. 

Of course there are many more things I could discuss about running a small business but these are a few thoughts I have had, that I just haven't had time to put down on paper because I'm busy helping everyone else with their businesses.

Self employment doesn't feel like work, more people should do it

As I type this email I'm sitting at a cafe on Sydney's George Street, yesterday I spent the afternoon at a cafe in King's Cross. Monday and Tuesday it was Bondi Beach.

You may be wondering, but don't you have an office to go to? Don't you need to go to work? The answer is no as I am self employed. I work for myself so I can choose where I work and the hours I work.

So there may be a question in your mind, what prompted you to become self employed? Was it so hard to find a job that you had to work for yourself? The answer, and it's not a simple one, is that I was in the full time workforce until November and that employment relationship ended.

Now, anyone who knows anything about me knows that I've been talking about starting my own business since I was 18, so 12 years now but it was never the right time and getting that elusive first client always proves difficult.

Anyway, after that employment relationship ended I started to get more determined about starting my own business, but again, I didn't really know how to go about it. It is one of those decisions that can't be taken lightly and there is so much to consider.

For starters, starting your own business is a huge risk and a huge unknown.

I didn't leave the full time workforce after that job in November though. I actually worked casually for a couple of months before getting another full time job. It was that full time job that gave me the skills necessary to start my own business.

You see, how it really came about was that there was an Immigration Policy Change in Australia for NZ citizens so I decided to join an online platform to get some extra money because I was going to be under the required threshold to qualify. Little did I know that within a couple of weeks I'd be bringing in more money from the online platform than my day job, and that it would end up being a full time job on top of my day job.

I planned an exit strategy from the workforce but that isn't a decision to be taken lightly. When you work for someone else you have the security of holiday and sick pay. When you work for yourself you're it, you're in control of everything. But that also means if you get sick or want to take a holiday you can't because nobody else can do what you do.

Most people are afraid of self employment because of the responsibility involved. In reality you could work for 8 hours a day for someone else, or you could work 12 hours a day for yourself and make significantly more money and have the freedom.

Employers have a mindset that you must work 9-5 in an office, but as The Drum and other media organisations report, technology is suggesting that the 9-5 workforce is on the way out, and that people will have multiple little jobs. These could be casual jobs, or they could be people working for themselves with the plan to grow their business substantially.

9-5 is rigid and technology has meant that jobs which previously would have taken 40 hours in a week no longer do, they can be done in five hours. Before you get scared, technology is also creating jobs so it balances out.

There actually comes a moment in any self employed person's life when they decide they can no longer work for other people. For me, it was that moment in November when my employment ended and without exaggeration, it nearly left me homeless (had it not been for good friends and family money I would have been). It was that moment that it became more of a risk to work for someone else, and most entrepreneurs will tell you the same thing. Just look at Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey or others like Donald Trump who have lost all their money and had to start from scratch all over again.

Self employment gives you a freedom that the paid workforce never will. You are free to take on any role. As a self employed person you're responsible for doing the job, in my case writing, copywriting, marketing and you're also responsible for managing client relationships. When you work for someone else you are pigeonholed into a particular category and you are limited in what you can earn.

Self employment, doesn't even feel like work. It's week one and already I strongly recommend it. With technology constantly evolving I can't see the 9-5 workforce being around for much longer, and I think we need to get out of this mindset that you must work 9-5 in an office to be productive at a job. If we stepped away from this and people took more responsibility for their careers we might see unemployment drop because people would be gaining skills they could transfer to other employment. As it happened my 12 years of working awful jobs gave me all the tools to set up my business.

Everyone is different and not everyone works well from 9-5. Personally my work day starts at 12pm and ends at 1-2am the next day. It's hard work but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

It's not for the faint hearted though. Back to work now but I really wanted to share just how awesome self employment is compared to working for someone else.