Lost summer job, tips for students looking for work.
Demand for summer jobs is soaring, and applying for them requires vigilance from the start of the year. Competition is particularly fierce and sometimes young people are disappointed to find that the summer jobs they want are already taken. This can leave them without a summer job and the chance to earn money.
But this should not be the end of students' and young people's summer work plans, and fortunately there are other alternatives to summer work, such as light entrepreneurship. In many cases, students have built up a lot of knowledge in their own field as their studies have progressed, and the idea of their own future has begun to take shape. Some students have plans to start their own business and to be self-employed in the future. As a light entrepreneur, it is easy, simple and cost-effective to try being an entrepreneur without having to set up your own business name or limited company and without having to take care of all the legal obligations of running a business yourself.
In practice, light entrepreneurship means that you employ yourself and invoice for the work you do through a billing service company. Through the invoicing company, you send invoices to your clients for the work done, the service provider takes care of the legal obligations on your behalf (paying taxes, YEL insurance, etc.) and pays you a salary when your clients have paid the invoices sent. In addition, the service provider will take care of the accounting of your activities. You will be responsible for marketing your skills and services and agreeing the price with your client.
Many people think that starting their own business is always the most profitable and best option when it comes to entrepreneurship and selling their skills and services. However, in some situations, it is definitely more profitable for a new and inexperienced entrepreneur to start as a light entrepreneur than to set up his/her own company for business.
Antti Kiiske's story from a few years ago is a good example.
"In the summer of 2019, my friend and I got the idea to start doing yard work under our own company. We had no experience in entrepreneurship at all, so we looked primarily into light entrepreneurial services. We went to seminars of the big light contractor service providers, and were excited about the service until we looked more closely at their pricing. The large percentage of our own work to pay for the service was not motivating."
We decided to set up our own business names, one for each of us, but suddenly we were swamped with all sorts of unexpected costs. On those evenings when I had to start doing the accounts on the way home from a ten-hour gardening session, I wondered if it would have made more sense to use an invoicing company to take care of things.
If we had had a service like Truster from the start, which allowed us to know exactly how much we were spending on our finances each month, we would have saved ourselves a lot of stressful nights and bushels of accounting fees."
There are several billing service companies on the market and comparing them is challenging. Service fees are typically linked to the amount billed, some include accident insurance in their pricing, some do not and some services are mobile, some computer-only and some both.
"Many new light entrepreneurs choose our fixed pricing package, where the service fee is a fixed 49 euros per month. In this option, costs are not surprised as billing increases and this option is more profitable as soon as the monthly bill rises above €750. The fixed service fee includes accident insurance, our own online shop for selling services and know-how, and our customer service, which is almost always available.
We are happy to advise our customers on all service-related issues, choosing service packages and setting up an online shop. By the way, switching between different service packages is free of charge for us, which means that you can choose a cheaper option if your business changes," says Jasu Salonen, CEO of Truster Ltd.
Truster currently employs light entrepreneurs from a wide range of sectors, including musicians, photographers, consultants, graphic designers, translators, builders, house cleaners, security guards, etc., and the age range of users ranges from students to pensioners. It's almost only your imagination what kind of work you can do as a light entrepreneur these days. Many companies and individuals would rather agree to work with a light contractor than hire a person to do the job.
Light entrepreneurship and self-employment for summer jobs is certainly also a good thing for a student's future career path. In the eyes of a future employer, a student's summer job as a light entrepreneur during their studies will certainly look very good and impressive compared to not having been employed at the time because they have not managed to get a summer job. The fact that you have employed yourself as a light entrepreneur shows your attitude and gives a very clear picture of your motivation to work.
At Truster, we are happy to help young people, students and everyone in general with employment and light entrepreneurship issues. Feel free to call us to find out more about light entrepreneurship. We wish you good luck in your search for summer jobs and good luck in finding work for yourself this summer.
Juho Kuutio, Truster's Business Director