Joining the ‘Slashies’ to Stay Solvent – The Latest Self Employment Trend

In these modern times where business insolvency is never far from the news, the days of ‘a job for life’ are seemingly long gone. For young people entering the workforce, the ideas their parents and grandparents took for granted, like being able to earn enough for a home, car and decent quality of life from a modest income might seem as mythical and rare as a Unicorn. However, this has led to an increase in different sorts of working practices.

Where jobs are far less secure and far less permanent than they used to be, it’s being increasingly common for workers, especially in the Millennial generation to take the sound advice from the saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” and apply it to their worklife. These are ‘The Slashies’ and they’re growing in number.

 

What are ‘Slashies’ where does the name come from?

In the past, working a single, full time job was a safe prospect. You concentrated all you efforts at being really good at one thing, safe in the knowledge that your skill would lead to job security and all that came with it. With job security now being far less common, it makes less sense to specialise, or even to work in a single job and ‘Slashies’ are the people whose living is earned from diverse multiple sources.

The idea behind Slashies isn’t new. Having a side venture, or ‘side hustle’ to supplement the income from a day job is something that’s always been an option for many and a practice for a few. The name ‘Slashies’ used to describe those engaging in multiple occupations is,therefore, just the latest way to describe them.

The name Slashies, comes from the way one might respond when asked what they do for a living. “I’m a Manager/dance teacher/flower arranger” they might reply, listing their regular job, plus, the work they do in their spare time, or monetised hobbies they earn an income from. In that sentence the ‘/’ is spoken as ‘slash’ (Manager, slash dance teacher, slash flower arranger) leading to the moniker ‘Slashies’.

With the rise in freelancing over traditional full time employment, such freelancers are often able to manage their own time in a way that’s more convenient for them and make it far easier to work multiple jobs around one another and for some, is far more fulfilling than committing a full working week to a single endeavor.

 

The downside of being one of the Slashies

Whether joining the slashies is the only way to make ends meet in a climate where incomes are less able to meet living expenses, or as a genuine choice in pursuit of the freedom and diversity such practices provide, there are a number of pitfalls of being a parallel freelancer.

Self employed people often sacrifice a lot of their own time in favour of their business, working long hours in order to make their endeavours work. Slashies, by their very nature, have multiple occupations and as such are just as likely, if not more-so to spend more time working than is healthy, putting them at greater risk of stress and burnout.

Late payment culture hits small businesses the hardest and for the slashies, who when working for themselves, are the smallest of businesses. It’s easy for them to be pushed around financially and they’re least likely to have the time to spend on credit control.

As with all businesses, whether as a sole trader or a LTD company there’s a certain amount of official paperwork that comes with any means of earning an income and the more side ventures are engaged in, the more complicated keeping the books in order will be.

 

At Lines Henry, part of providing a service as Insolvency Practitioners, involves offering advice and solutions to companies in the midst of financial difficulty. This advice can be provided even if there’s no insolvency and helping businesses streamline their financial affairs, whether they be multinationals or micro-companies. Allowing them to spend more time doing what they do best and less time on the financial necessities. Why not contact us for a free consultation and see what Lines Henry can do for you?