What is the context of this? Is the person an IT consultant doing daily rate or is it something else?
Working for yourself brings its own rewards but it is rarely financial in the first number of years. If they are looking at it in a purely financial sense, in the vast majority of cases, make more money as an employee for a number of years. If the self employed person has got their business established, they should earn more.
If it's daily rate work you are talking about, they will get paid more from the outset. There is huge demand for IT contractors at the moment and there is a lot of money to be made. The longest contract I've heard of is 2 years at which stage they have to become an employee. They will almost certainly have to set up a limited company too.
Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)