Can you explain here? I've found the US govt to be very incentivizing to "small businesses", which includes self employment. I'm thinking of tax breaks, cheap/free loans, and other financial items. I will say the amount of red tape & paper work is ridiculous, especially if you plan to move or do business in more than one state.

> Buying a house is a pain. I make more than I ever made working for the man but few want to give me a loan.

Once you run a business for 2 years, this goes away. It is an incredible eye roll though when you first run into it if you're running a successful business.

> You get to do the fun stuff... But also the other stuff (payroll, marketing, ...)

You may be well aware of this, but for anyone else, hire this out as much as possible. That's one of the most important things I would tell anyone. Know what you enjoy & are good at. Hire everything else out. That can even be management/ceo/etc.. You don't need to run the business if you don't want to. "The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It" is a great book on this topic.

> Unless you have a saas, income can be variable.

This one is tough. It can be easy to increase business volume but then you need to hire more help often which brings it's own challenges & may require more business volume. Finding a good balance here is tricky for sure.