Hace justo un año que me hice autónomo. El tiempo vuela y más aún cuando se está extremadamente ocupado por todos los frentes. De hecho, este año me ha servido para admirar mucho a todos aquellos que compatibilizan toda su vida estudiantil con un trabajo a tiempo parcial (algo que yo he estado haciendo los últimos años).
For those who are thinking about taking this path, I think I could take away several tips. The first is that looking for a part-time job is not the same as becoming self-employed. A part-time job is the option I recommend to those who want to study and work at the same time: your work is finished as soon as you leave work and you don’t have to go around eating your brain. Being self-employed, you set your schedule and in most cases it is practically a 24x7 dedication to which you also have to add all the time you invest in billing and paperwork with the Treasury.
After having been working in both ways, I will say that in the end it is much more comfortable to work as an employee if what you have in mind is to combine your studies and you doubt if you will have enough fear for both things.
Another recommendation, if you want to become self-employed, is to have someone to help you (or completely handle) tax issues. It will cost you money, yes, but it will also save you a lot of headaches and you will have someone to advise you, which in the long run is something that is appreciated.
In the aspect of keeping the “company” accounts and regardless of whether someone helps us, a good accounting program is still essential and after a year using Billage, I can say that it has completely met my needs. Although the use I have given it has been limited to controlling income and expenses and especially billing, they have been improving the application a lot over the last year (and for €9 a month, it is worth it).
My last piece of advice is perhaps the most complicated of all: be clear about what time you will be able to dedicate to studies and what time you will be able to dedicate to work. Perhaps it is the main mistake that I made at the time and perhaps I should have started classes earlier and then made the decision to become self-employed because being self-employed is expensive! and at a minimum (if you are under 30, it is the first time you register, etc.) it will cost you an average of €100/month for the first year.
In Spain it is difficult to work and study at the same time and being self-employed is not the ideal formula for this, but it can be done with a little effort, so I hope this is useful to those who decide to go that route.