How long does it take to become a Self-Employed?

It takes 5 years of professional experience to become a self-employed. That is the time it takes to learn specific self-employed skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education. If you include the normal education requirements to complete a college degree, then it takes 8 to 10 years years to become a self-employed.

How To Become A Self-Employed: What It Is and Career Path

What is a self-employed and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Self-employed people are entrepreneurs of one kind or another who are their own bosses and work for different clients on a project basis, or are working on creating a product or service that brings them revenue.

Being self-employed is an arrangement that may work in a number of different sectors. Contractors and tradesmen, web and app designers, software developers, social media managers, YouTubers, business owners, illustrators, writersâ€¦ The list is not exhaustive, by far. Their common denominator is that they arrange every aspect of their operation themselves. They find clients, carry out the job, maintain their own equipment, and submit their tax returns. Okay, sometimes they hire help for some of the tasks.

You will manage your working hours yourself, which will probably mean they end up being all over the place. But this is a small price to pay for being able to do something you really love, to see the results of the energy you put in and watch yourself become better, stronger and more independent and empowered every day.

ScoreSelf-EmployedUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $34,734

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.0

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.63%

Asian 7.30%

Black or African American 9.94%

Hispanic or Latino 17.07%

Unknown 5.26%

White 59.81%

Gender

female 39.23%

male 60.77%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.0

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a self-employed

Explore self-employed education requirements

Most common self-employed degrees

Bachelor's

37.9 %

High School Diploma

22.0 %

Associate

21.6 %

Start to develop specific self-employed skills

Skills	Percentages
Windows	15.23%
Mowing	14.42%
Customer Service	13.16%
Financial Statements	12.88%
Payroll	8.47%

Complete relevant self-employed training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New self-employeds learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a self-employed based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real self-employed resumes.

Research self-employed duties and responsibilities

Develop and manage the in-store informational PowerPoint presentations that run on multiple televisions to answer questions and provide information to customers.
Generate monthly, quarterly and yearly sales reports, correspondence, & PowerPoint presentations.
Complete jobs (lawn mowing, lawn cleaning, edging, trimmings bushes and trees) any aspect of lawn care.
Work with traditional video cameras and DSLR cameras.

Prepare your self-employed resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your self-employed resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a self-employed resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable self-employed resume templates

Build a professional self-employed resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your self-employed resume.