From FinancialSamurai,an article that reviews the advantages and disadvantages of being an employee and being an independent contractor. Sometimes, however, it is possible to be both. You can take some assignments as a freelancer and others as a contract employee. It is necessary to be black and white about the decision — you don’t have to choose one or the other; you can change back and forth depending on the assignment and benefits of each. This article does provide a good description of the pros and cons of each. It states:
HOW TO DETERMINE WHETHER TO CONTRACT OR WORK FULL-TIME
Go the full-time employee route if:
* You’re working for an amazing company you believe in that provides opportunities to grow.
* You enjoy more stability, even though no full-time job is safe anymore.
* You have a lot of dependents and really cherish your company’s benefits.
* You don’t have enough belief and skill to find clients on your own who will pay you a market rate.
* You want to live a more comfortable life, hiding out in a bigger organization which can’t readily pinpoint your deficiencies.
I know plenty of people in middle management who never want to leave because they don’t have to do much work (they just tell other people what to do), have great benefits, get OK pay, and just want to cruise. They are bored out of their minds, but because life is too comfortable, they just sit put.
Go the contracting route if:
* You tremendously value free-time over money.
* You strongly believe in your skills and abilities to provide value to your clients. There is nowhere to hide when you’re a solopreneur.
* You’re more of a risk-taker who thrives on constant new challenges.
* You have an “ace in the hole” that helps make you a great contractor e.g., relationships with powerful people, a company that has already gone where your client wants to go, a website you’ve built on your own.
* You’ve gone as far as you can go in a full-time roll.
* You’re bored out of your mind!
* You’re interested in testing new sectors/companies without fully committing. Too many people join a company they think is great, only to end up regretting their decision and leaving within a couple years.
* You’ve got an entrepreneurial spirit or an actual business that a full-time job would not allow.
FREELANCE YOUR WAY TO FREEDOM
With the creation of Universal Healthcare, fewer people should feel tethered to a job they dislike due to their benefits. Healthcare cost is still outrageously expensive here in the United States if you don’t fall in the income levels that receive a subsidy. But at least everybody can affordably get disaster health insurance. A silver plan for two will cost me $1,400 a month, for example.
There are plenty of opportunities for contractors to earn their way into a full-time role if they are so inclined. Plenty of companies want to hire great contractors full-time in order to lock down a maximum amount of their time. The irony is that a rockstar contractor will probably never want to be locked down because s/he is making way more than a full-time employee, with a lot more freedom. For a three month period when I had three clients, I was making 25% more than my base salary as a Director at an investment bank, for example.
I never thought I’d be a contractor. After building my online media properties into sustainable income generating vehicles, I got a little bored and longed for more inter-human activity again. Contracting is a wonderful experience that has synergistically helped my online business because I’ve been able to thoroughly understand the products I use and promote online.
You don’t have to be afraid of transitioning into a contracting role. If you’ve got a skill-set in high demand, there are plenty of opportunities for you to make a lot more money than in a day job with more freedom to boot. The emergence of the sharing economy has helped popularize contracting into a viable way of life.
Read the full story at Is It Better To Be A Full-time Employee Or Contractor (Freelancer)?
