This is apparent from research by TNO and Statistics Netherlands (CBS) that was conducted at the beginning of 2021 among approximately 8,000 independent entrepreneurs. 81 percent are satisfied with their work as a self-employed person. This is comparable to 2019.
TNO researcher Wouter van der Torre: “The self-employed particularly appreciate the autonomy in their work. A very large part of the respondents has therefore voluntarily chosen a life as a self-employed person and did not start doing it because of job loss.”
Only self-employed persons who meet the hour standard set by the tax authorities (1225 hours) and who file a profit declaration for income tax were surveyed. “Deliverers from Deliveroo, for example, are not included. These are often people who do it as a side job for a few hours a week and would indeed sometimes prefer to deliver as an employee.”
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Passionate
Self-employed people enjoy their work, even more than two years earlier. 73 percent say they are completely absorbed in their work, feel fit and strong and are enthusiastic, which indicates great enthusiasm.
The freedom that a self-employed person has also has caveats. They have to keep their own pants up, although they could appeal to the Tozo scheme during the corona crisis. More than half of the self-employed say that the demand for their products and services has decreased during the corona crisis.
Financial buffer
That had an impact on the wallet. The percentage of respondents who rate the company’s financial situation as very good has fallen from 53 percent to 40 since early 2019 when the previous survey was conducted.
Van den Torre: “This also shows that the satisfaction, which has remained the same, is not related to the earnings.”
Income
It is striking that despite the lesser financial situation at the beginning of 2021, approximately as many self-employed people (20 percent) as two years earlier expected that their household would not be able to manage financially for more than three months if the income from their company were to disappear completely.
“Possible explanations are that self-employed people can fall back on a partner’s income, adjust their spending pattern, or make use of support measures such as Tozo,” says Van den Torre.
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Hairdressers and cooks
More than half (51 percent) of self-employed entrepreneurs without staff were faced with declining demand for their services or products due to the corona crisis. The hardest hit were those in service professions, such as hairdressers, beauticians and cooks.
Eighty percent of them say demand has declined. In the creative and linguistic professions this was over 73 percent. This concerns, for example, artists, graphic designers and linguists. Demand was also declining in the transport and logistics professions. Taxi drivers, for example, fall into this occupational class.
Other revenue model
Many self-employed people have survived the corona crisis through creativity. They have started to offer other products or services. “For example, a restaurant that has also started to provide delivery meals or a trainer or teacher who has also started to give online training courses. Many self-employed people want to continue to do this in the future, some have discovered an extra revenue model due to corona,” says Van den Torre.
For a very small group of self-employed people, about ten percent, the demand for their services or products increased. This mainly concerns technical professions such as construction workers and commercial professions such as shopkeepers. “That’s also because there is more online shopping.”
Self-employed persons in care and welfare professions (14 percent), for example doctors and psychologists, and ICT professions (12 percent) also faced increased demand for their services.
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