For some reason at this point in time there are thousands of people looking to work for themselves over the Internet, whether they consider themselves designers, developers, entrepreneurs or enthusiasts. These people strive to work for themselves or in small teams in an environment where work is not a chore, but somewhere you look forward to spending most of your life.

It sounds great, but it’s going to become a lot less stable.

With the economy looking terrible at the moment running your own business on the Internet could become a bigger risk than it is now. For design studios that cover corporate clients this could be lethal, as clients will no longer be able to afford the premium rates they were paying for top-quality work. The worst-case scenario would obviously be an entire industry crashing, leaving those that do business with them to suffer as well.

The Internet population is still growing, and it’ll only take a nation like China or India to become completely immersed in online life to change the online business market for good. A lot of Web Designers/Developers already suffer at the hands of underpricing from different regions. What if the higher-end industries decided to lower their standards and choose a cheaper freelancer/company to do business with?

Don’t get me wrong, there are loads of people making a name for themselves online today, and you only have to do a simple search on Google to find websites created by famed under-30 entrepreneurs, and just a little bit harder to find sites by those just getting out of school.

My point is that if we all hit a recession then jobs are going to go for everyone, and the Internet is a hard place to run a business from already.

This is one of the reasons I do not wish to be a full-time Web Designer/Developer or create web businesses all my life. I’ve known many people have to leave their careers due to hard times and find employment elsewhere. Two members of my family have suffered this fate, attended university and got good jobs as teachers, all whilst supporting full families during these hard times. If you’re working solely from the Internet and you have no backup plan then I recommend the same thing to you, get a degree!

There are already hundreds more people that have tried to get a piece of the earnings that can be made over the Internet, and most of them fail. You’re never too far away from a story of someone putting their trust into the Internet, only for their small business to crash and burn, leaving them to move back with their parents or to seek full-time employment at retail outlets or supermarkets to pay the bills. The Internet is not an open safe that you can take money from whenever you need it! There’s a complicated code to that safe, and you’ll spend longer hours trying to figure that code out than you would if you were in a secure full-time job.

We’ve reached a time when Higher Education has become easier and easier to obtain, even part-time during one full day of the week! The prospects a degree from any university can provide to you are great, and you’ll find things at university that you’ll never find working in a small web business, things like long-term business partners and vast opportunities in industry. More importantly than that, you can discover your true passion. Everyone has had niggling doubts about where their lives have led them, and if there was ever a time to find your true calling it’s now. Of course if you complete a degree and still feel you want to run your business then that’s also fine! At least with a degree and your own business you’ll be miles ahead of most graduates!

I love Web Design and Development. It’s something I really enjoy to do and creating things that others use fills me with joy. However, I am taking a Computer Science degree for my long-term future and to fulfil my desire to excel. I also love Software Development, Human Computer Interaction, and occasionally I love working out theoretical problems behind what I do. My thirst for knowledge in the subjects I love will eventually lead me to post-graduate work in the future and from then who knows? Even though I have almost already decided my future is outside of the Internet it won’t stop me from what I’m doing right now. Even if my websites were to take off and I became a millionaire I would stick with university and would definitely pursue a PhD.

Hopefully this has made you think about your own careers and where you want your future to lead. Injuries and layoffs can happen to anyone so you MUST be prepared for what lies ahead. Go out there and get a degree! It’s the best way to safeguard your future, and those that you care about.