Many self-employed people are still struggling to rebuild their business to where it was pre-pandemic, with one in four (23%) saying that conditions are so bad that they are considering stopping self-employment altogether. Other insights from latest research by Aldermore Bank are:
- Over half (51%) of self-employed people think their financial situation has become worse over the past year;
- Two in five (41%) anticipate they will not get back to their pre-pandemic earnings anytime soon;
- One quarter of self employed home owners requesting a mortgage holiday period during the past 12 months to get by.
More positively, nearly half (46%) of the self employed in the UK saying they have adapted their business to help them stay afloat, whilst over one in ten (13%) have utilised this time to completely change their business model.
This was particularly true of the younger generation (18 to 35 year olds) with nearly a quarter (23%) of this age group completely changing their business model. Furthermore, within this age group, a third (34%) were more confident about the future of their business and one in four (23%) said they were personally financially better off than a year ago.
So it is a mixed bag of sentiments from the self-employed workforce which is not surprising given the wide variety of sectors and disciplines where people are working for themselves. The diversity of self-employment is to be celebrated, as is the economic importance of this way of working as the UK’s army of independent workers will drive our post-pandemic recovery. Let’s hope that the entrepreneurial spirit of the self-employed wins through and that the 25% considering leaving will instead adapt their business to the new world we find ourselves in.
