Individualization and the expansion of flexible work forms occur in the postmodern times. Self-employment is one of those work forms, and is becoming more widespread. This paper is based on a qualitative research of the population of self-employed young people, and the goal of the paper is to present the experience of self-employed young people in Zadar and Karlovac. To show this experience, the paper focuses on three aspects: motivation of young people for self-employment, flexibility of place and time of work as one of the main characteristics of self-employment, and on the role and importance of social contacts in selfemployment. The paper has shown that young people are mostly motivated by desire for independence. Most of the participants in the study consider that the flexibility of place and time of work makes planning and execution of work assignments. Likewise, most of the participants in the study think that social contacts have the role to help and increase the opportunity for a better management.