The best industries for working for yourself

In the current job market it can really pay to start working for yourself, but not every industry is friendly for those who choose to go it alone. Many roles which wouldn’t see you earning above £30k in a company could see you sitting pretty on double this salary by venturing out on your own.

Here are some of the best industries to go into:

Private medical practice

If you’re a qualified medical professional working for the NHS then you could be missing out on over £50,000 a year! Starting up your own private practice is a great way to go, especially with the recent changes in the NHS forcing more and more people to consider using a private doctor. Not at this level of training? Not a problem, registered nurses have the opportunity to rake in more than £1,000 a week by setting up a ‘telehealth’ service where they advise patients with medical concerns over the phone.

IT

Since the launch of the technology era IT has always been a great industry to get into, and in terms of working for yourself this is the place to be. There is a constant demand for IT services, which will help to keep you nicely in pocket! If you offer unique services like software development, network engineering or system administration then you could have a huge salary in no time – work together with some IT friends and set up a company and you could be worth millions!

Financial services 

The way finances are being dealt with are constantly changing, edging away from banks and heading towards building societies and private lenders. If you have a good history in the financial world then you could offer services like being a financial manager or you could become an invoice factoring broker, using your connections to help support your new venture.

Private tuition

Offering tuition to children who need special attention or additional time to help with their learning can be very rewarding. Not only do you have the benefit of knowing that you are helping kids to reach their full potential but you can also charge upwards of £25 per hour! This is a popular option for teachers who have had enough with oversized classes and the politics of schools.

Graphic designers

Ironically, with all these businesses popping up there is lots of call for graphic designers to put together logos, websites, banners and business cards for them! If you have the skills, then there is a huge market that you can exploit to earn some major cash. You will have to compete with large agencies, however you can easily undercut them without losing out, thanks to your smaller overheads!

Virtual assistant

Had enough of being a minimum wage secretary? Why not step up the game and become a virtual assistant? Many of these start-up businesses can’t afford a full time secretary but need people to answer phones, reply to emails and help with the admin – which is where virtual assistants come in. You can generally take on several clients at once and charge between £15-100 an hour for your services – if you have four clients that you’re juggling at one time that’s at least £60 an hour!