Source:
https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-mnksu-1599abd

Today we’re talking about the challenges we face as self-employed professionals in a world where certain sectors of the business world and governmental policies just don’t get us, favoring traditional employment over independent work. From pricing of tools and products to respecting the value solos bring to the table, it’s time to give solo PR pros our respect.
 
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Transcript
Michelle Kane (00:02):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane of VoiceMatters. And my ever steady co-host, Karen Swim with Solo PR Pro. Hey Karen, how are you today?
Karen Swim, APR (00:19):
Hey, Michelle. I forgot how to turn on the recording and use my mic and all those things and it hasn't been that long. Just my brain's all over the place today. Other than that, I'm great. How are you?
Michelle Kane (00:32):
Yeah, if I'm going to be honest, it's a little bit of a discombobulating day. I don't know. I didn't, some days are just like that, right? You make sure you read the email two or three times before you send, just to make sure
Karen Swim, APR (00:46):
I'm telling you. I mean, February is the shortest month, but it is really like it's gotten Napoleon syndrome this year. It's like, yes, I'm short, but I'm the big guy around here. I mean, it's really been shoving us around and showing us who's boss.
Michelle Kane (01:03):
I'm going to show you what's up. You're going to rue the day you talked crap about me.
Karen Swim, APR (01:09):
Yeah, call me the shortest month.
Michelle Kane (01:12):
Yeah, I'll show you. I'm going to stick around for a while. Oh my goodness. Yeah, for real, for real. And I think everyone is feeling it. It's always one of the most difficult months to just get through.
Karen Swim, APR (01:26):
Yeah, and it's short, but boy has it been jam packed and
Michelle Kane (01:31):
Yes, it's a lot.
Karen Swim, APR (01:36):
Yes, I'm ready for a spring break or something. Yeah,
Michelle Kane (01:40):
Well, and of course it has to be rude and be a leap year this year, so it's like I'm even going to add a day. Yeah, take that.
Karen Swim, APR (01:49):
Well,
Michelle Kane (01:52):
How can I flip this? Speaking of Napoleon complexes? No,
(01:56):
No. Maybe a little David and Goliath. Anyway, what we're going to talk about today or attempt to is just how, I don't think economy's the right word, but how our business world is set up really to favor the employed as opposed to the self-employed. We saw that with the pandemic where for the first time ever self-employed people, even though if you're a corporation of someone who is self-employed, you still pay unemployment tax. And yet what for the first time, oh, we could file for unemployment. Oh, well, gee, thank you very much. We too contribute to the economy, whatever. But we see it a lot as solos in the tools we use, and we've talked about that, touched on that before of course, but just how, oh, the enterprise version of this is only $12,000 a month. Well, thanks.
Karen Swim, APR (02:57):
Yeah. So it feels like this is one of the areas of discrimination that we never ever talk about, and it really is discriminatory because it's not just in the pricing, it's really the recognition and respect that many of us choose to be self-employed, and we're going to tackle that whole issue with the Department of Labor very, very soon with an expert. But to put it into context of where we're going with this is from the government. The US government does not like people that are self-employed. They don't understand people who are self-employed. When you say independent contractor, which is a big broad category and definition, the government thinks about Uber drivers and now technicians and other people, they do not think about strategic consultants like us who have really chosen to build a business of one who are very happy working on our own until we aren't, because some people go back and forth, and that is okay too.
(04:07):
So they don't understand, I'm going to say the flavors of independent work, and there's no good definition that takes into account the people who are truly independent and want to be, and the people who might be forced into being contractors because we know that there are a lot of companies out there that quite frankly just don't want to pay people as employees. Nail technicians are a great example, and they're one of the industries that is under target because your nail technicians show up at the same place every day. They have work hours, they're not working for other people, they're not marketing themselves to other people, and yet they are considered contractors. Constr