What do you do if you want to choose between being a self-employed trainer or working for a training company?

It depends what you value the most. The relative financial security of a job or the freedom to work to your own schedule, take your own decisions and implement your own ideas. The freedom to work the hours you want when you have family commitments is priceless!

Having a financial buffer is important. Many freelance trainers have private clients and also rely on work from other training companies to bolster their income. Marketing your services all the time is so important to help with stability.

A good trainer will be turning away work, you can build a buffer quickly. I would recommend insurance just in case anything happened to you, but financially you're better off on your own, (with a reputation built). Depending on your geographic location there are also significant tax and pension benefits to being a Company Director. You may need to have a certain turnover before this happens, but in general you are better off. Consult a tax/financial planner for start up advice, they don't have to be expensive.

These are written off against depreciation. Wouldn't worry about it. If you paid for it after personal income tax the real cost would be a lot higher.

Finding your tribe is one of THE actions I recommend in year one of going freelance....whether you work for a training company, be one an associate OR run your own training business. Having your own community to support you, cheer you on, share ideas makes the world of difference. Come checkout School of Facilitation!!

Actually, the opposite of this is true- when you work for training providers as an associate, they (mostly) keep trainers away from each other and certainly discourage relationships with customers, in case you leave them and try to take their business with you. This is usually heavily covered in your contract with a provider. As a solopreneur, sure, you need to proactively network and "find your tribe", as you'll need customers AND colleagues to make it work! I'd thoroughly recommend The Trainers Training Company run by Sharon Gaskin for a ready made network, with virtual and in-person events and fantastic programmes and speakers.

Having the right support around you, people who 'get it' and understand the challenges you're experiencing is not just fluff. It's an essential. It can be the difference between thriving and surviving. And one of the reasons why I created the Trainer Talk community many years ago. Why struggle on your own?

This is really important and an advantage of working with a Company. When your reputation builds you can go independent, but much easier to establish personal trust with a good company at the start

Niching is crucial in the very crowded freelance trainer market. If you have too many training courses that you say you can deliver it's going to be really difficult for people to find you (when they're looking for someone specific to solve their problem) and for others to tell other people about you ( as they won't remember what it is that you do). Once you become a 'Go To' marketing is going to be a lot easier. ??

I agree with "finding your tribe"in a crowded freelance trainer market. I used to be a teacher and whilst I do Excel training with lots of different clients, I've decided to create and deliver courses to help upskill teachers to hopefully making monitoring and tracking easier for them. Associate Training contracts takes away the roller-coaster feeling and gives some sense of stability, but it's not the same as finding your own clients.

The million dollar question is "what gives you energy". Do you enjoy working alone or on a team? Do you enjoy a small, startup environment or large organization? Do you want to be in charge or do you like to follow the leadership of someone else? We are all different people, in different stages of life who enjoy different things. It is a highly personal decision but I also start and end by asking people what gives them energy.