I am wondering if anyone here is self employed?

I own a cleaning business, for the last six years.

I have just recently been diagnosed with ADD............one picture of my office and you'd all understand.

Being self employed provides some advantages to dealing with ADD, but also poses some additional challenges..........


What are your experiences?

I can't wait to get some sort of treatment plan underway...........

i do plan on it someday.not just yet.im trying to get good and experienced in what i do by first working for somebody else.i want to get all the brilliant ideas and expertise and supervision first from someone else. cleaning business huh? that must be real interesting magic man. seeing the various things that other people have.well one thing about being self-employed, you dont have to answer to anyone, but yourself. must be great.and you set your own hours....but you have to be self motivated and that's tough for people like us. and the whole structure thing....

I guess I have to say for me I am way too disorganized to ever think I could have pull off being totally self employed. I could definitely see myself having private clients or patients on the side...BUT total self-employment, I'm too insecure as well. I think I need the structure as well of someone telling me what to do....that's just me....what do others think? Any potential entrepreneurs here?

I am 42 years old and have been self employed most of my adult life. I am in the nightclub business which is an almost ideal setting for someone with ADD. I was diagnosed with ADD only 3 months ago but have spent alot of time reading information about Add. A nightclub is full of all the distractions that most ADD folks find stimulating. I have partners who have been there for me when I was mentally unable to carry my load. I have spent years being depressed and undiagnosed. Being self employed allows you to forgo the structure of a 9 to 5 setting and pretty much make your own schedule. It is rewarding and like anything else yopu get what you put into it.

musician/music teacher.. self employed

Built, owned (and sold) 2 successful businesses. Was self-employed consultant for a year as well.

Working toward becoming my own boss...need the flex hours and stuff....

Heard something on the radio yesterday: Whatever one does for a job, it should be challenging, meaningful to you, demand your excellence. Thought that was VERY powerful. :)

smooch: agree with that. challenging, meaningful and demand your excellence. yes very powerful whether one is self-employed or not.

It sound appealing but scary as well. I think at this time in my life it is better that I work for a company, benefits, steady paycheck etc. My wife is home schooling our children so I am the only one who works outside the home for pay. Maybe way in the future I would like to try out "consulting" for the telecom industry. But for now I am content to be an employee. :)

In order for it to work well, in my mind, for self employment is to possibly have a Non-ADD partner who would hadle the day to day boring stuff such as billing, maintaining things. Sort of like in Thom Hartman's ananolgy of Farmer(non-add) and Hunter (add) to be paired together and it could be a really good thing. In His Book, The Complete Guide to ADHD, he has a part the talks about Entrepreneurs and he said that many of them have ADD. I don't know what kind of study it was on this, or if it was just his observations. He said that he had spoken with over 10,000 people over the years regarding ADD. I could see the alure, all the thrill of starting something new and exciting, taking a risk in a positive way to make your life better, instead of thrill seeking in negative things such as Drugs, Alcohol, Sex, etc that can tend to have damaging consequences.

Anybody seen any research on entrepreneurs?

Yes, a good amount of self start up businesses fail before the first year....BUT for those that make it that first year, statistics say tend to do very well....:)