Being the boss and being your own boss: is it always better when looking after yourself and others?

Like anyone who wants to do well, you’ll always start a new job with a smile and willing to do well. Once you’ve become a manager, you may even want to be your own boss, either by owning your own business with multiple employees or becoming a sole-trader.

Of course, with greater responsibility within the workplace comes a greater salary, and you may even reach the point where you’re deciding how much salary you earn yourself. Getting to that point takes hard work a dedication, but is it always worth it? By becoming a manager, or your own boss, are you always getting the best out of yourself and others, while remaining competitive in the workplace?

As a leadership development specialist, Impact International has taken care of these difficult questions, and checked the finer details in some of the world’s leading industries.

Becoming a bar manager, or owning your own

Students up and down the country tend to work in bars to earn them sociable pocket money while studying, or this could be done by someone looking to gain experience in the workplace. As these type of workers don’t work full time hours, they will usually earn £14,665 per year.

However, if you work hard and become a bar manager, then you could see yourself earning £24,000 annually; just for showing willing, you’ll earn £9,335 more than you previously were, which is a reasonable pay rise for an unskilled job that only requires GCSEs.

To become a manager, you’ll need The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders, which can be acquired from the British Institute of Innkeepers. You will have a ‘Personal License’ if you receive this, however this is only subject to a background and criminal record check. Depending on your studies, this may incur riding costs; the licensing fee costs £37, and it costs £25 for a CRB check.

If you’d like to take this managerial role to the next level, and own your own bar, then it takes serious financial investment. Realistically, you’ll need to absorb an initial starting cost in excess of £20,000 to pay for premises, stock, and wages. These costs will increase depending on the size of the organisation and the amount of stock and staff you require; if you don’t want this responsibility on your shoulders, then perhaps staying a bar manager is the right move for you.

Becoming a recruitment consultant

Working in recruitment can be a great choice for graduates, as the starting salary is £25,000 and rises depending on the amount of commission workers receive.

After a couple of years in the industry, you may be promoted to a recruitment manager, and then you’ll see your basic earnings rise to £42,500 on average, an increase of £17,500. Depending on your academic skillset, working in recruitment may be more a challenge to get into. A candidate needs five GCSEs at A* to C, three A-levels and a degree. Candidates who don’t have these academic qualifications will need to demonstrate common sense skills and a high level of working experience.

Working for yourself as a personal trainer

Depending on the amount of clients they’re able to acquire, personal trainers tend to have a unique job opportunity where they can manage their own clients and time. Generally, this career offers its own opportunities as trainers can make up their own rules as they go. With a starting salary of £25,000 requiring a level 3 personal training certificate, you can gain more money and greater prospects depending on the type of clients you train. What needs to be considered is whether you’re willing to pay a gym to train clients within their facility.

Sales

Selling over the telephone, in a business to business capacity, or face to face with the public, can procure generous earning potentials. One benefit of this type of work is that you don’t need to be highly qualified and commission rates are usually high. If you don’t have a degree, you don’t need to worry about it in this type of role; however, if you wish to progress to management level then you’ll probably need to be qualified to a higher standard.

If you’re in sales, the wage can be reasonable, and usually starts at around £27,000; however, the real money is in management. A regional sales manager can earn anything starting from £37,500, an increase of £10,500! Even better than this, you’re able to gain great commission rates depending upon how much you sell. However, you’ll probably not be able to be your own boss in most cases in this industry, because you’re usually selling on behalf of a company, although, if you’ve got the entrepreneurial spirit then you never know where sales may take you.

Working in IT Development

IT developers are part of a thriving business framework that is spreading fast and growing more and more. By working for a wide variety of clients, these developers can spread their opportunities by programming websites and working on apps and games for many different websites and other types of businesses. These workers can start on £37,500 per year. Degrees in computer science are desirable, but if not you’ll need to know your code and be self-educated to a larger extent.

If your digital skillset takes you far enough, then you could earn up to £47,500 with a salary increase of £10,000 per year. However, this could be the perfect venture for any digital sole trader. If you’re able to work from home you can limit your overheads, and gain greater profit margins at a lower cost from the revenue streams you’ll acquire through digital creations for clients.

Becoming a nurse

Due to nurses working in the public sector, salaries and pay scales are separated into bands. Nurses in a high band such as band six, can earn between £21,909 and £28,462. However, if you want to go further than this and become a nurse team manager, then you could receiver a pay rise of up to £12,911 – earning between £31,383 and £41,373.

Marketing

Marketing is an exciting and challenging environment where you could earn very good money if you’re working in the right firm. You’ll usually receive a salary of £27,000, whether this is in an agency or a more in-house environment within a business.

Managers within marketing firms generally tend to earn £37,500. If you’re an energised individual, always coming up with new ideas and can work under pressure, then management in this sector will be perfect for you. There are also many opportunities to run your own business within this sector. SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is a business model with low overheads and high profits for the services that you provide. If this is an industry that interests you, Google is always the best place to start!

Human Resources

As well as other technical administrative tasks, HR is often a difficult line of work because employees are responsible for the employing and firing of many individuals on a daily basis. Usually, you’ll begin as a HR assistant, which will gain you a respectable starting salary of £23,000. However, managers can earn an extra £9,500 annually depending on working circumstances.

But that’s not all

In a fast paced, modern working environment, careers don’t last forever and nothing is certain. There is always an opportunity for change in your life, and becoming a manager or being your own boss may be the change you need! The only certainty is that it is certainly a better idea to attempt to move into management.

Salary figures taken from Totaljobs.com