Wrt. 2
Currently, self-employment is preferable choice than working for someone to many people. There are some reasons for it like your own schedule, incomes that depend on you and many opportunities, most of which don't presence in working for someone. However, you can face with problems like not having stability and lack of knowledge that you need.
If we talk about advantages, we can see that all that you need is you and your desirement. Firstly, you can put your own schedule. Nobody would blame you for getting late for work, not fully done work, and so on. For example, if I want to relax for a couple of days, I will take a mini-holiday for me, since I am confident with my incomes. Another considerable reason is your incomes depend on how much you put efforts on your work. If you hard-working man, you will get rewarded eventually. Imagine you have been worked for a couple of weeks every day for , let's say, 10 hours with income about 30 dollars for an hour. Simple math will show us 4200 dollars per a couple of week, whereas average worker in USA gets about 1000 dollars per a week. Finally, the last one is about opportunities that you could have. For instance, If you had worked for someone, you would have been encountered with problems like,boss don't want to listen your advices ext., whilst self-employer wouldn't be faced with that kind of problems.
On the other hand, there are some problems for beginners in this sphere of working. Firstly, your incomes in the start would be very low ,or worse, you might be in debt. For example, if somebody can't handle financial problems, he will be soon in debts, without any money, whilst stability, which is provided by "normal" work,won't give you such kind of problems.
The other disadvantage is that in the start you wouldn't have all knowledge that you might need. For example, John have been working for somebody and he decided to open his own business, but he don't know anything. In this case, it will be very hard to succeed.
In conclusion, you can start your business, but you have to know that you might have problems with knowledge and stability. On the other hand, it could be a start for your new, better life. Take a chance if you like, since it is your life to live.