How do I include self-employment on my resume?

A common question these days, and a good one to ask. In general, we would say yes, you should include self-employment on your resume. With a couple of caveats of course.

1. Does it "threaten" the job(s) you're applying for? Assuming the self-employment is something you are currently doing, would prospective employers look at what you're doing as a positive or a potential conflict of interest? If the latter, best to omit.
2. Is it impressive / does it help showcase your skills? If you've put in significant time & effort into your self-employment/side hustle and/or have results to show for it, go for it. If it's just a little thing and there's not much "meat" to talk about, best to omit. Ask yourself - would I want to talk about this in an interview? If yes, put it on the resume. If no, leave it off.
3. Is it relevant? Typically if your self-employment passes #2 above it is likely relevant in some way. Even if not directly relevant, a successful side hustle / self-employment can often showcase positive qualities about you (running something yourself is hard!). Sales, client/customer service, managing/executing something are likely all part of self-employment and are good to show! That said, if you're applying for a role as a software engineer and have a small side hustle walking dogs, you probably want to use your limited resume space on more directly relevant experiences. There's a balance between impressiveness/relevance/resume space and this has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

So, assuming you've decided that yes I should include self-employment on my resume, the next question is how do I include self-employment on my resume.

If you want to give your self-employment top billing (if it is/was your main source of income, if very impressive, if you are early career and have a limited professional background, etc.) you should include your self-employment in your main Work Experience section, just like you would for a "normal" employment role.

If it's just you operating as yourself without a company/brand/LLC, you can do something like this:

If you have a company/brand (whether it's incorporated as a company is less important), you can do something like this:

If you want to include your self-employment on your resume but don't necessarily want to give it top billing / take away primary real estate from other more relevant/impactful experiences, you could create an Other Experience section below your Work Experience section and include it there in the same style/format. This way you can still highlight the experience on the resume but clearly visually separate/de-emphasize it with respect to your "main" work experience.