If I had a dollar for every time I heard this, I wouldn’t have to work at all. It’s true that before I started my freelance writing business I had this grand idea that “working for myself” meant utter autonomy, lots of mid-day walks to the beach, leisurely breakfasts until noon, and the freedom to live completely at the whim of my natural sleep cycle. Anyone I knew who already owned a business would laugh despondently when I would say this. And they were right.
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Since I started my own freelance writing business, Outside Eye Consulting, two years ago, I can count on one hand the number of entire weekends I’ve had off. I average 50-75 hours of work a week spread out, generally, over all seven days. Because I deal with a lot of fledgling small businesses and startups that are in the same position as me, it’s expected that I will be available on weekends and evenings. Recently I had a client email me at 9pm on a Friday to make sure I was going to have time to work on something for him that night.
When you work for yourself, you have to be a strict boss. Freelancing from your home isn’t for everyone, but if you’re a fairly self-motivated misanthrope, it can be a liberating way to make money without feeling like a cog in the wheel .
Owning your own business does give you certain freedoms. For instance, I regularly work all day in my pajamas and rarely shower before 5pm, and then only if I have to be somewhere that requires me to look (and smell) like a responsible adult. And, not having a boss to report to is pretty fantastic. I save lots on makeup and shampoo, and I am able to graze all day long from my own fridge without having to plan ahead for meals or put my blood sugar in dire peril.
But the truth is, when you work for yourself, you have to be your own boss, and that boss needs to run a tight ship.
My “boss” holds me to a fairly strict schedule of working normal business hours. I have experimented with working only when I “feel like it” — which is usually between the hours of 4:30 and 6pm — but unfortunately I found that I couldn’t exactly make a living on a hyperactive hour and a half of work a day. Nor can I successfully take off in the middle of the day to run personal errands or see a matinee without ending up in a panic spiral later on about my lack of productivity.
My “boss” is also constantly on me about tracking my time spent and reporting my goals, milestones, and measurables. These tedious (and unbillable) left-brained activities are the only way I can keep myself on target to run a financially solvent, responsible business. I know plenty of small business owners who don’t bother tracking their numbers as diligently as I do, and sometimes I think they have less panic attacks. But in the end, having all that information at my disposal helps me make informed choices about my business.
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By far the most challenging aspect of being my own boss has been the practice of saying NO. As in, “No, I can’t have coffee right now — 2p.m. on a Wednesday. Because I’m working.”
“But you work for yourself?”
That’s right, and I am a ruthless boss.
I feel your pain Mama! But it’s worth it….most days.
LOL! I have worked for myself for the past 20 years and I can truly say I am the only one I know who doesn’t seem to ever get a vacation! I run 3 online businesses and a life coach training business and I rarely work less than 80 hours per week. Because of my jewelry business, September through Christmas is one big blur… all I can say is I hear ya sister!
i hear ya… but i wouldn’t have it any other way! 🙂 cheers….. i’m so busy i can’t even plan a trip to your place — less than 1 mile away — to bring back your dishes! Loser! soon, i promise.
This is so timely for me! Having just started freelancing from home, I’ve started a list of revelations from the “word harlot” as I’ve come to think of my work identity (I don’t yet have the courage to actually name a business such). They are things like “You will learn the basis for your self-esteem and come to deem it vapid.” I, too, wouldn’t trade it for anything else!