Move above Del Boy – we’re all entrepreneurs now
As our leaders herald the self-employed army, freelance to “entrepreneur” feels like a phase up the social ladder for a single author 
Photo: BBC
Am I an entrepreneur? Do I start off up modest firms and turn them into huge organizations? Have energy breakfasts with bankers? Appear at Lord Sugar and Sir Richard Branson and truly feel like I am portion of the exact same demographic?
Until this week, I would have laughed my head off at the really concept. I am a freelance author, have been for twenty years, and when describing my occupation, always come to feel rather sheepish about it.
“What do I do? Effectively, I, er… write… and, er…” And out the f-word pops, and the other individual appears at me as if I am pond life, and seems above my shoulder for someone more fascinating to speak to. It has occurred at far more parties than I care to remember.
“Freelance”, in our standing-conscious world, equals employed hand, equals zero-hrs contracts, equals no paid holidays or occupational pensions. It really is about as close to the bottom of the economic pile as you can get without having truly being unemployed.
There are compensations in the freelance lifestyle. My assignments as a journalist have taken me all in excess of the world and brought me into get in touch with with people I would never have met otherwise. I have eaten in the best restaurants, stayed in the best hotels. In reality, I once came out with a memorable Freudian slip, when asked if it was a monetary struggle being a freelancer. “Not at all,” I said. “The daily life of a freeloader can be a lot of fun.”
But freelancing has by no means been remotely glamorous – until finally this week, when the Bank of England suddenly pointed out that one of the most striking factors of the economic recovery is the way it has been underpinned by the modest army of self-employed individuals in Britain, four.five million and counting.
As the advantages cuts have started to bite, far more and much more folks are discovering part-time function – and currently being their personal bosses. In fact, of the new jobs designed because the Coalition came to energy in 2010, much more than a third are in the self-employed sector.
From freelance to self-employed currently feels like a phase up the social ladder. In truth, it sounds positively grown-up.
If I am self-employed, I can presumably give myself a pay out rise, perform efficiency appraisals with myself, even award myself yearly bonuses, like individuals greedy bankers. Subject to meeting my financial targets, naturally, and notifying the London Stock Exchange.
Now Iain Duncan Smith, the Operate and Pensions Secretary, has upgraded me even further, suggesting that I am no longer a humble freelancer, or self-employed, but an entrepreneur, Bill Gates Mk II. How amazing is that?
“We must welcome this sign that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and effectively in the Uk,” says Duncan Smith. “This nation has a excellent historical past of entrepreneurship, and modest organizations are in numerous techniques the backbone of its economic system.”
He is not incorrect. From Shakespeare to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Florence Nightingale to Andrew Lloyd Webber, the guys and girls have who created Britain wonderful have been overwhelmingly entrepreneurial in outlook. They were not content to do 9-to-5 jobs: they took dangers, did their very own issue and left their very own indelible mark on their instances.
One issue is confident. Becoming promoted from a freelancer to an entrepreneur, on the say-so of a government minister, is a huge emotional fillip. It has created come to feel good about myself and what I do. It has reminded me of the modest but significant contribution I make to the Uk economic system. All I wonder now is: how prolonged just before I am promoted from an entrepreneur to an oligarch and have my own box at Stamford Bridge?