Editorial - Running the gauntlet of self-employment

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*The author of this text works as a freelance journalist herself.

"Become self-employed in Luxembourg – make your professional dreams come true" is the bold slogan on the Luxembourg government's website. Luxembourg, a country that encourages entrepreneurship, provides start-up grants for new businesses and promotes the S.à.r.l.-S (simplified limited liability company) as the "ideal option for young entrepreneurs" – or something like that. What's too bad: according to a survey by Eurostat, only 35 per cent of all self-employed people in Luxembourg were satisfied in 2017. By comparison, the EU average was 48 per cent. Entrepreneurial paradise in the Grand Duchy? Fiddlesticks.

"Self-employed means doing everything yourself and this constantly, " writes yoga teacher Véronique when asked about challenges for those affected on social media. It's not easy to wear seven different hats: "Sometimes you're an accountant, sometimes a marketing expert, sometimes this, sometimes that, " says the entrepreneur. As the term says: you do everything yourself, all the time. As a result, your own quality of life often suffers and the worries you have as a self-employed person are usually only understood by other entrepreneurs. The administrative jungle and the many social security contributions, which have to be paid from self-employed people's private accounts since January of this year thanks to a law that was amended on 26 July 2023 with retroactive effect until last summer, and can no longer be paid via your own company, represent a large chunk of these worries.