I've been self employed since 1998 and have never wanted to go back to working for an employer. Some weeks I may need to put in more hours, but I decide which hours I work and when I have time off. As I get older, I frequently wake up very early, so some days I'm using my computer for work before 6am. I don't work late at night and I always have breaks during the day, when I go out for some fresh air and exercise, do some cooking and get other things done. The only downside to working from home is that you need to convince your family and friends that you are not always available for a chat and there at times when you should not be disturbed. You also have to pay your tax when your total annual income is above a certain level. Do you work for yourself or are you thinking about being your own boss?
I work at home for my self also. I like being my own boss for the same reasons as you do. It is good to know I am not the only one that is on the computer before 6am in the morning. Some weeks I may not do anything constructive for days then work day and night for several days to get what ever I need to get done completed. My family think I am doing nothing all day long because I am home and may not go out of the house for days and now that it is freezing out there, it has to be a good reason for me to leave my warm home, my family think I should be cooking, cleaning and doing laundry while working because I am home. I need an outside office, a quiet place to go to a few days a wek.
I was self-employed for about 5 years, and while I enjoyed it immensely there were some draw-backs. If the business had a bad week - no paycheck. I couldn't call in sick when I needed a "sanity" day - the boss always knew I wasn't really sick. There was no "going home for the day" - home was work, work was home. Seriously, I think the hardest part was other peoples perception of running a successful business. They assumed that I was "rich" because I was the boss. They assumed that I could come and go whenever I wanted to, or that I could just take off whenever the fancy struck me.
I suppose it depends on what you do, and how much of a cushion you have built in. When I invested in an ambulance company, I was self employed in the sense that I owned the company and was paying myself a salary, along with several other people. Our employees could always depend on having a paycheck on Friday but there were several times when we could barely make payroll, and were unable to pay ourselves. Of course, it went the other way too, during times when we could have the company pick up unexpected expenses. Currently, my wife and I aren't fully self employed, in that we do have one 30 hour a week job but, since our employer is in Canada, we calculate and pay our taxes on our end, and it's not the kind of job that would involve unemployment insurance or a pension. When I have time, I can edit for another web directory and be paid by the edit. We do contract work on a number of jobs, some long-term, but most are not. At times, a good job comes along, such as a six-month contract on a $1,600/month SEO job that ended only a month ago. We do web sites for local businesses. We have money coming in from AdSense and Amazon.com but, like most everything else, the amount differs from month to month while our monthly expenses remain largely the same. There is a level of uncertainty that wasn't there when I worked for a set wage. Of course, in today's job market, I'm not sure that regular jobs are a whole lot more stable.
I was self employed for a couple of years doing word processing. Back then there was no email so work was either dropped off or mailed to my home. I truly enjoyed it but had to entered back into the workforce for personal reasons. Things have changed so much since then that if I wanted to get back into that I'd have to know someone and trust them as well.
I like to think I am self employed in as much as I only stay making a living at the places I chose to. In 2005 I had my own company, I liked it, I would work usually onsite at a clients business. You would think being self employed means you have all these freedoms. That's a half truth. Of the self employe people that I know, many of them work far more hours then if they were on the clock for someone else. I decided to go back into corporate work because of the high cost of health insurance, it was literally killing me financially as a sole proprietor. Little did I suspect what would happen, because had I had an inkling I would have stayed as a sole proprietor. I think about this a lot now, in reality I work directly for a small business and get paid a salary. It isn't so different then working contractually. The main difference is they would be the ones that got sued, not me. Saves on liability insurance but I still carry my own anyway. In this day and age you almost have too. I go to work everyday and then some, I guess this will last as long as they have contracts, pretty much the same thing as any freelance job. The one plus is I get to network very extensively thru them, this is proverbial gold. I hate some days though, there can be quite a bit of stress. Financially I have not felt secure ever, it is a roller coaster no matter how you make a living don't let anyone kid you about that.
I love the idea of being self employed. It does take a large amount of motivation to do though. At a normal job you have the pressure of impressing someone and doing a good job so don't get fired. If you work for yourself there is nobody to impress and you have to rely on only yourself to get the job done. I see the main benefits of being your own boss as you get to choose your own hours and you usually get to do something that you actually enjoy.
My husband had a taste of being his own boss sometime in the 1990s. He put up a retailing business for computer supplies. With his dedication, the business grew until his staff reached 4 who handle the sales. It was really a good business until his partner did something nasty to him - putting up his own and stealing his big clients. But that's another part of the story. During those years of his business, he was always cheerful because he makes the decision. Although we are not entrepreneurs, I guess that kind of business is a good one provided you know the ins and outs.