MOVING from full-time employment into self-employment is not an easy decision to make.

However, the latest statistics show that over the past year an extra 9,000 people chose to do just that in the North-East.

Over the past couple of weeks, there have been some reports published which would seem to suggest that the rise in self employment hasn’t been great for the North-East economy.

The inference is that going self-employed is somehow inferior to being employed and that what we all really crave is a full-time job with a guaranteed salary.

The contribution that those in self-employment make should not be under-estimated.

Across the North-East, these businesses employ 100,000 people which accounts for about 20 per cent of the total private sector workforce.

The economic contribution that this sector makes across the whole North-East region equates to £4.7bn: more than the many larger, and equally important firms employing between 50 and 99 people contribute to the North-East economy.

There’s no doubting that for some people the move into self-employment was driven by necessity rather than to pursue a business opportunity.

However, some of the research, for example the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, shows that five times more people chose to rather than had to go self-employed.

A number of our members will use their fellow local self-employed colleagues or freelancers.

This means the economic contribution they make stays in the North-East, an important factor when you consider that for every £1 spent with a local company 70p stays in the area, whereas only 20p if that firm is based outside the local area.

Of course not everything is easy and there will be some that point to the lower salary and longer hours as a reason to discourage more starting their own business.

Who would choose to risk it when there is no guaranteed work or you don’t know where the next opportunity is?

This assumes that all people care about is money and, while I couldn’t deny there may be some in that category, for most it’s more about the challenge, the sense of achievement and the chance of a better work life balance or tackling a societal problem and giving something back.

For me, self-employment was a natural progression rather than borne of necessity.

It’s given me greater freedom to tap into a variety of opportunities rather than be constrained in one role and allows me to spend more time with my son who’s just coming up to two.

It’s been a lot of hard work, late nights and early starts, sometimes one after the other, but I’ve never regretted the decision and can’t really imagine moving back into full-time employment.

Self-employment may not be an easy decision to make but we need to support those that do if we want to see our high street regenerated, more people in work and more apprentices taken on.