Is working for yourself (solo business) basically 24/7 work indeifnetly?

[orangetabbycat]

@juliussneezer The former, attempting the latter.

 

[juliussneezer]

@orangetabbycat So working solo, roughly how many hours a week would you say you averaged? Including all the time you spend on marketing, customer complaints, estimating etc?

And would you say you make average wage for your area? Or below/above average? Do you feel you are paid well for the work you do?

 

[orangetabbycat]

@juliussneezer I work with my sister so it's not a solo thing, she deals with most of the finance stuff, sending invoices, doing the tax return etc.. I deal with customer complaints, marketing, we both visit the buildings and decide on quotes and do customer service. I probably put about 40 hours a week in.

I would say I make a decent-average wage right now. I could be making more, we've recently raised our prices and it hasn't caused people to jump ship so that's good.

 

[josbe]

@juliussneezer You can always become a handyman. Do that for a few years, and then you may be ready to learn a trade... or not.

Just make sure you learn how to handle your money. As well, you may want to learn about buying back your time.

Good luck.

Remember, if you spend a year doing this and fail, you will still have learned alot.

 

[613jono]

@josbe 2nd this. Right now I’m a full time maintenance worker.. but I dabble in small handyman jobs when they arise.

The money is pretty good. And yes, every job you learn a little something. Whether it be how to price, handle customers, or do the task a little better/new way.

 

[gksmith]

@juliussneezer I am an independent contractor for several global manufacturers.

I do a better job than their direct employee versions of me.

I will come up with my own solutions, buy tools they won't, work weekends, etc.

I offer and do what they do not have.

I work a lot in hours and days and I love it.

My son worked with me for two years and is now running on his own.

As I told him, if you are tired or have something important, just don't book that week.

He can make 10k a month for two weeks/10 days a month, or he can go harder. Up to him.

I made myself essential over the years by always being available.

 

[lordismyshepard]

@gksmith And what is that you do?

 

[louy51]

@juliussneezer You should check out the "wealthy plumber" and " the million dollar plumber" the advice is relates to plumbing but is also about running and growing a small business. Teaching how to figure out your price, add value to the customer, and create systems and processes so that you can higher more people to do the work. There may be other people for your specific field but this will be a good start.

 

[lishanaidoo]

@juliussneezer @sigh1995 did you ever start your own company?

 

[fictrainingsock]

@juliussneezer Generally in life everything you’re not an expert at needs to be 24/7 until you become one and figure out how to get more efficient and what to leverage and focus on. Especially working for yourself though.

The way to make the most money is typically to leverage people and/or computer code to do stuff for you. But you can’t do that effectively unless you understand how to do everything yourself first.

 

[gypsyjill88]

@juliussneezer Very yes until barely yes.

 

[juliussneezer]

@gypsyjill88 So what do you have to do to get to “barely yes” and on average how long would you say it takes to get there?

 

[gypsyjill88]

@juliussneezer At first, you will have to be your own worker, accountant, marketer, and salesman. Sales will first be hard because your reputation sucks, but as your reputation and sales skill grows, you won’t need to try so hard to sell. Working as the technician makes you more efficient so you suck less and become faster. You learn to hire other people to do accounting, technician skills, sell, etc.

If you are a strong businessman, it should take about 3-5 years. If you’re weak and your business plan sucks, then you will either quit in less than two years (like the stats say), or continue to work hard forever.

 

[eddie17]

@juliussneezer I've worked for myself for 16 years now.

Just depends on expectations and boundaries. If you have any opportunity to work from home solo or even with a team. You just set boundaries with clients and expectations that you have certain hours you can work on projects, if its solo with yourself you "sign" that contract with yourself. You have a separate "work" phone and a separate "work" only laptop or computer. It also helps if you can have a separate work only room, and only be in that room to work. Give yourself your working hours and stick to it.

 

[juliussneezer]

@eddie17 Yeah I think if I knew I could set my own hours without it affecting my business too badly I wouldn’t have too much trouble keeping work out of my personal life. I guess what I’m wondering is it’s realistic to only work 8-10 hours a day and still get everything done and make a profit? I have to have time to do the service, market, deal with customer complaints, make estimates, answer phone calls, deal with people not paying? Can you really do all that solo in just 8 hours a day 5 days a week?

 

[eberzas]

@juliussneezer I manage to work a pretty normal 9-5 schedule and my clients respect that most of the time. It doesn't what you do for work, occasionally something is going to pop up that has to be handled off hours. Unless it's an emergency I rarely answer emails after 5pm or on weekends.

That said, I am constantly THINKING about work stuff and stressing over things and keeping an eye on my email. It becomes more manageable with time, but during your slow season it's easy to be stressed out because it feels like the sky is falling and in your busy season you'll be stressed out because you're so busy. My calendar is pretty predictable and I plan vacations around the slow season, but it's still stressful every time.

 

[priscyblink]

@juliussneezer That depends. Are you a good business owner in a profitable area? If yes, you can scale yourself out of the day-to-day. Many small businesses are run by people who never successfully delegate for a plethora of reasons

 

[bartbreen]

@juliussneezer 24/7 is a recipe for burnout. I found 6-12’s to be much more sustainable, and gives me a life outside of work.

You never stop thinking about it, even if you give yourself downtime.

 

[juliussneezer]

@bartbreen 6 12’s still sounds exhausting. Do you work solo? What all are you doing during those 12 hours?

What is it that you are always thinking about in your downtime?

 

[bartbreen]

@juliussneezer I have done both solo and team enterprises. The team efforts tended to do better (easier to scale).

My days would usually be split with a half day of providing services, combined with a half day of doing all the things that made that possible, as well as selling future services.

You will constantly worry about the Market, your place in it, and whether or not your business is expanding or contracting. And if something is going to come along to wipe-out all your hard built effort.

Past Performance is Not Indicative of Future Results. The reason we study past results is that they are the only real indicator as to whether or not your business is viable.

Six 12’s was the goal. I did plenty of 14-16 hour days as well at crunch time.