Have you heard about the corporate form called business employment?

From Uppdragshuset.nu:

“With a business employment you work via a business employment company, Uppdragshuset. We are a flexible organisation, tailor-made for those who want the freedom of being self-employed without having to start their own company registered for corporation taxation. Uppdragshuset is simply a staffing company in reverse.”

From Statistics Sweden – SCB.se:

“* 56,9 per cent of the enterprises operate as private firms and 28.6 per cent as limited companies.
* About 10 per cent of the enterprises changed their address during the year 2007.
* 99.7 per cent of the enterprises are private.
* 2 622 Swedish enterprise groups have subsidiary companies abroad.
* 1 372 limited companies (total 270 086 limited companies) are owned by municipalities.

The Business Register in October 2008:

965 987 enterprises and 1 041 986 local units”

You know, I might agree about that “certain type” theory if it weren’t for the fact that there was a time in this history of our country when it was the norm to look to self-employment to sustain yourself, before there was such a thing as a ‘labor market’ as we understand that term. I think it only takes a certain type of person to be a small biz owner to the degree that we are all subject to societal norms and the expectations set by our education. If society were friendlier to self-employment and if we weren’t educated to be employees, it might be a different story.

@Martin

No, I haven’t but that would make an interesting study, wouldn’t it? Can you clue us in on what is going on there in Sweden?

The ramifications of these changes to the American working landscape are profound, to say nothing of the changes being wrought in our culture as a result of this Nonemployee Movement. When I launched my business in November of last year, I had voluntarily left a corporate establishment where rounds of layoffs, increased workloads, and general employee dissatisfaction finally inspired me to make “the move.” I agree with Bill in that “it takes a certain type of person to run their own biz,” but with our access to new tools and our growing awareness of job “insecurity,” this “certain type” is popping up in more and more industries, and with greater determination…

@ Steve

Love that data point, especially when juxtaposed against the 41% increase in nonemployer businesses over approximately the same period! Thanks for the link.

@ Anita

Preaching to the choir, my friend. You and I have both been lamenting the data and the prejudices of the data collectors for a long time now. Eventually, we’ll come to a point where nobody can ignore what’s happening anymore — not even the data wonks — but it seems to be a long time coming!

@ Bill

Truth to tell, I think there are two factors that have kept people from doing the self-employment thing. One is our school systems. Let’s face it, we were all educated to be employees, in ways both subtle and not-so-much. In addition, thanks to the way all our social safety nets are tied to employment, taking the wage-and-salary route is about security and not just because of the regular paycheck.

@Cleo

Hey, thanks for the Twitter love and I have a white paper you might find very interesting. It’s called The Microbusiness Way of Growth. You can access it here: http://www.microenterprisejournal.com/download/Micro.pdf

I’m so happy to see this article (thank you Twitter!).

You are so right. Self-employment is the solution to so many problems with corporate America, including quiet age discrimination. For years before this recession hit, real boom years, I would see this happening: A worker would get older, his or her salary would go up, and then an executive in the company would decide to push said worker out in favor of younger, cheaper labor. This was always done with a very clever “group lay-off” strategy to prevent a lawsuit. In one case, the woman brought a suit, but the company settled (no bad publicity). If I saw this practiced, others must have witnessed it, too.

Workers without unions must protect themselves these days by coming up with “surviving corporate America” plans. I am a self-employed professional writer who did have such a plan in place, and I’m floating instead of sinking because I laid the groundwork for the day my corporate job would be over.

Being self-employed is not easy, but it’s incredibly fulfilling (much more so than working for someone who tells you what to do and think — sometimes in direct contradiction to what you know from experience will actually work!). Self-employment also gives you real options – geography, flex-hours, even the choice of who you work for because you have clients not overseers. Sorry to be so harsh, but I still remember the days when companies were proud of their philosophies of taking care of employees like family. These days corporate America is driven by profits to the exclusion of all else (certainly loyalty and, in some cases, decency). If you’re not part of the picture, you’re cast overboard. If workers are smart, they’re building rafts in their off hours – like I did – a safe place to jump your career when you get pushed off deck.

~Cleo Coyle
Coffeehouse Mystery.com