Being self employed impossible or a necessity

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There is also the issue of the alternative, I think just these two posts from this morning spell it out.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5132050.html#5132050

Now, we don't know all of the history in these cases, but at some point you have to ask why someone appears to be technically proficient, and yet is forced out on a regular basis. There are more stories of this sort of thing than I care to think about at the moment.

At what point does someone ask if it's "Better to reign in (small business) than serve in (a wage job)".

I work in a government agency "cube farm" and it's a pretty good fit for me. I get a bunch of case files to do and I'm generally left alone. The only people I interract with any sort of regularity is the neighbor in the cube across from me and my direct supervisor. Both of whom I suspect are somewhere on the spectrum.

The biggest problem with self-employment, to me, is that you have to hustle for customers, and that's the biggest weakness of someone with AS. That requires a lot of soft skills.

How do the required soft skills compare to the soft skills requires to obtain and keep a "wage job"? Judging from the "work" sub-forum, they may be comparable.

Self-employement means more bosses, but less reliance on each one.

We might be attributing too many social skills to neurotypical persons. I mean, think how gut-wrenchingly personal is to for a writer or musician, whether on the spectrum or not, to personally sell their work, and stand there and wait while the other person decides whether they are going to buy it or not, whether they like it enough or. It would be hard not to take this decision personally. And I think this is why many artists have agents.

And I once heard the mystery writer Archer Mayor speak at a library, and he seems to have gotten on a roll where he wrote new stuff the first five months or so of the year, revised previous stuff in the summer months, and then promoted his books and did the business side during the later part of the year.

Now, here might be the difference for those of us on the spectrum and I'll use myself as an example: If I were to get into accounting and get my CPA, I probably pour my heart and soul into it, and probably take it just as personally.

I'd love to run a bookshop, I have more books then I know what to do with. But I have nowhere to sell them to those who might want to buy them.

First off I think your last point highlights why we need to work together as a group, as even your own statement sugguests, nt business will not sponser us in reaching our potential equity.

Furthermore, there are different ways to approach things, and this compounds to the concept of pooling resources and bridging support structures.

Lets pretend you like to weave baskets between 6-12 every morning without fail.

Off the bat you can assume that can't be done on the open market.

So lets pretend you came to "my house" and made 67 baskets every morning.

On average you'd only sell maybe 45 a day through a nt contact. What to do with the excess product. You don't wanna work any less because as you said you want to stick to a schedule, however you don't wanna sell them yourself as it would mean you'd have to work even more.

This is where the benefit of cross marketing and cross promotion, can come in handy.
If at "my house", there was an arts and craft person doing at home sales, they can purchase some of your product at a discount, and use it as an add ons for potential clients.

With any remaning product being donated to sister business, that would simply give the product out as a cross promotional tool. So a person selling home baked goods door to door, would be able to leave a sample of your product with potential customers.

Now of course this is a economy of favors as it were, for taxation and finacial reasons.
So you'd sell your product at a loss, or simply give it away.

Why would you do this? because it strengthens your brand or your community.

Your sister business's located at "my house", would be stronger, and as a brand could give you potential sales. This combined with the fact that you'd have no need to pursue sales yourself, no need for training, no need for overtime, no need for wharehouse space, etc, would mean a business with far more stability and security.

Documentary making is a perfect example of what could be done, given the right circumstances.

Typically to make any money at that type of thing, you need to network network network, as the box office for documentaries is microscopic.

However documentaries as a promotional tool, especially to the autistic community, could be a potentially lucrative way of marketing the product of a community.

The network to distribute documentaries is simular and partially overlaps the small book run and limited interest books markets. The documentary might not make money, but combine it with a book tour, well, your next few vacations are paid for.

Meanwhile, back in AspieBURG, people are working on the next documentary, making calls to small colleges and schools, printing your books, and maintaining the gift shop.

We know a simular market works, because there is one that works that way despite being in a sub-optimal location (Cordes Junction, AZ). They've been sellings tours, bells, books, and documentaries for 40 years now.

Imagine an Aspie version sitting in an urban area, and with more of an outreach plan, and you're doing pretty well.

I'm currently in the process of trying to go into business for myself.
On paper, the last job I had would have been ideal (spending all day in a room by myself with a computer and a tape machine, digitizing old audio tapes), but the place was severely mismanaged, some of my co-workers were obnoxious, and the commute was far, I was pretty beaten down after awhile doing that. Prior to that, I was a "Mac Genius" in an Apple store. I found out very quickly that I should not work in a mall, and I should never deal with soccer moms or teenagers.
I know all of the risks of being self-employed. But I have found that I can't handle micromanagement, I can't handle condescension, and I can't handle obnoxious people. All of these things are endemic in the workplace. I'm much happier when I can focus on the things I want to focus on, and do things the way I think they ought to be done. I am passionate about the things I want to do, and driven to succeed, so I feel like I owe it to myself to at least give it a try.
The only other job path I'm considering would be to attempt to get back into academia. I did enjoy teaching when I was a T.A. in grad school, and have made repeated attempts to find an academic position. No one thinks twice about an aloof, eccentric professor - in fact, it's sort of expected, and to be able to talk for hours on end about one's field of interest is basically the job description. The only issue is that teaching jobs in my discipline are very hard to come by these days. I've submitted application after application, and gotten nowhere.

Right now I'm getting into a freelance contract with a translation agency. They get the work, send it to me, I translate it, send it to them, at the end of each month I send them the bill (all of this online), they send the money to my bank account. This seems to me as ideal as it gets for an aspie/schizoid/not very social person, but of course you have to like it and have the skills for it.