Being self-employed has its own unique challenges so, if you’re thinking about becoming a sole trader or contractor, this is something to keep in mind. For most people, the main cause of stress when they’re self-employed is money. Your income is not as stable as when you’re employed, since you don’t always have the same amount of work, and this instability can impact people mentally. It’s also an unavoidable part of being a freelancer or contractor, so it’s crucial that you learn to manage it instead. For instance, you can work with several clients at once to have multiple sources of income, you can work on larger projects, and you can choose to raise your rates. Another source of stress is loneliness. As we mentioned above, being self-employed can be isolating, which can take a mental toll. To prevent this, you can plan more activities with your family and friends, work from a public space, go out for a hike, etc. Some freelancers and contractors also struggle with letting their clients know that they’re not available at all times. A huge benefit of being self-employed is the ability to set your own hours, so make sure that your clients know your working hours – this will help you to separate your personal from your professional life too. If you’re always on call, you’re going to burn out soon enough and may even start disliking self-employment. To further prevent this, don’t answer work calls outside of your usual hours and don’t check your emails when you’re not working. Not having enough work or having too much on can both be stressful as well. If you’re finding yourself with a lot of free time during your working hours, you may want to network more, check job boards, advertise your services on social media, and more. And, if you have too many ongoing projects, you can hit pause on accepting more work for a while, monitor how long it’s taking you to do certain tasks and make sure there are no distractions around you!