I've been self-employed since 2005.  

Having studied Accounting and Computing at University, I joined an organisation to do youth work, and after 3 years, I wanted to continue, but the salary was ending.  I switched to a self-employed fundraising model to be able to continue running that youth work program.   After that,  my family continued as self-employed, and we spent 11 years working with an NGO in West Africa.   Since returning to the UK,  we have continued as self-employed and also started 2 other side hustles apart from bookkeeping.  Being self-employed requires you to be constantly navigating the financial rules and tax system.