The world of self-employment, marred by a domestic economic downturn and recession,
A special memoir from an ordinary self-employed person who persevered through today!

“This is the worst recession ever.” Some may ask when life was ever easy for the self-employed, but they say there has never been a more difficult time than now.
It must be worse than the coronavirus pandemic.
"Self-Employed Survival Diary" is a book that unravels the records and diary of the author who started a business at the age of 27 during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
As a self-employed person, I struggle to survive in increasingly difficult circumstances, and sometimes I find great happiness in the smallest things.

Although there are 6 million self-employed people in South Korea, opportunities to hear the realities and lives of self-employed people are rare.
Readers who are not familiar with self-employment will have a new experience hearing the stories of a small shop through this book.

What I felt was a very difficult business, even if I only scratched the surface of it while watching my parents.
It was hard labor, requiring work until late at night with few days off a year.
My parents only had the day off for Lunar New Year and Chuseok.
Before starting his own business, my father used to wake up at dawn when he was working at a company, but after starting a meat restaurant, he didn't get out of bed until noon.
I could no longer see my mother waking up early in the morning to prepare breakfast.
--- p.13

Meanwhile, I took out a new loan.
Large sums of money, which I had never touched in my entire life, were disappearing by the millions of won every month.
In the end, I ended up taking on over 50 million won in debt from various banks and third-party financial institutions over the course of two years.
Even if you work at someone else's store for a day, you can earn 2.5 to 3 million won a month.
But I was tormented by the thought of what I was doing with my own hands.
I couldn't understand the absurd reality of maintaining a store with a bank loan.
Meanwhile, all I received from the government was a subsidy equivalent to a few months' rent as compensation for the restrictions on business operations.
--- p.68

As time passed and I worked with many part-time workers, at some point the hiring criteria I had created based on my own prejudices became meaningless.
The reasons why I chose the part-timers I've worked with so far are because they resembled a close friend from high school, because I felt bad when he lost in the student body president election, because I thought he would be strong because he was in the physical education department, because he seemed to work hard despite coming from the countryside, and because I felt bad when I heard he got fired because business wasn't going well in other places.
--- p.82

Baedal Minjok, Coupang Eats, and Yogiyo seem to have become the creators of the metaverse world.
In the real world we live in, locations are determined and rents are determined based on population and accessibility.
However, platform companies create virtual worlds and place stores that pay more for advertising prominently on their apps, while pushing stores that don't pay advertising fees to remote areas like the remote countryside in the mountains.
No matter how delicious the food is, if you open a store in a mountain valley, business will not be good, so if you want to do business, you must pay for advertising.
Platform companies, like the Creator, create a virtual metaverse world and repeatedly place and move countless stores here and there based on advertising costs.
--- p.132

Like most self-employed people, I spend every day the same way.
From Monday to Sunday, I open the store at the same time every day, repeat the same work for over 10 hours, and then close the store, continuing a repetitive life.
In the past, I was tired of the repetitive daily routine that didn't allow me to rest properly or have time to pursue hobbies.
But now, perhaps because I'm used to it, I've come to accept the days passing by as expected and as usual as a routine that passes by without any problems.
Unless you're going to close down right now, this is good for your mental health.
--- p.203

There is a saying, “A foolish question gives a wise answer.”
This is an idiom meaning to give a wise answer to a foolish question, but among public officials it is also used to mean, “The answer to our problems lies in the field.”
At the same time, articles are published every day about high-ranking officials and politicians actively calling for better administration and visiting the field to listen to complaints.
But I'm not sure if I actually heard the unvarnished voices from the field.
Perhaps the aides and staff were there according to a well-planned script.
Did they really tell it as it was on the scene?

--- p.220