Tips for the Self-Employed
I was reading over at Steve's blog (yes I LOVE his blog! His blog is so helpful) his take on 10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed. I had to chuckle because of course I made many of these mistakes back in the day as well as in the present. Anyway I felt inspired to write my own list, then remembered I wrote something up about this on hipmama a few years ago:
The number one thing you have to remember, in my opinion, is to take time for you. A business can consume all of your time if you let it, and because you are working for yourself you may not realize how much time you are spending on your business. For example I often work 12 hour days but because my time is broken up it doesn't seem like that much.
I may get up at 5am, work for 2 hours till the kids get up, get them ready and off to school by 830, go for my morning run, do some housework, hit my favorite message boards, work for 3 hours, do some more housework, work an hour or 2 by going out for a biz lunch or meeting or selling or whatever, return home, do some more housework, take a nap, kids home, hubby home, family time till bedtime, work 3 hours, do some reading/relaxing, work 2 more hours, then go to bed.
Money is an issue. Even huge corporations have cash flow problems. That's not much of a consoling thought when your income is slow and you have kids to feed, bills to pay. You have to learn how to budget your business money. This was hard for me because I didn't even know how to budget my personal money. I am sorta getting it all together but it does involve taking charge of my finances and being aware of my money, what's coming in, what's going out, etc. If you are afraid of money or have other money issues I would definitely recommend dealing with that before starting a business. I wish I had, I feel my business would be further along right now.
Many people will say you can't work your business and work an outside job but this varies from person to person. I am not averse to working an outside part-time job to help with my cash flow, but I would caution you not to work a full-time job and a full-time business. You'll get burnt out and take huge chunks of time away from your family.
If you can, get help! Ask your friends and family to help you. I am in a labor tight spot right now because I can't do everything myself, but I don't have the resources to pay other people. I, have, however, several friends and extended family who help me out for free and I also ask my husband and kids for help.
This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting MSPmedia: Indie Publishing & Production!
The number one thing you have to remember, in my opinion, is to take time for you. A business can consume all of your time if you let it, and because you are working for yourself you may not realize how much time you are spending on your business. For example I often work 12 hour days but because my time is broken up it doesn't seem like that much.
I may get up at 5am, work for 2 hours till the kids get up, get them ready and off to school by 830, go for my morning run, do some housework, hit my favorite message boards, work for 3 hours, do some more housework, work an hour or 2 by going out for a biz lunch or meeting or selling or whatever, return home, do some more housework, take a nap, kids home, hubby home, family time till bedtime, work 3 hours, do some reading/relaxing, work 2 more hours, then go to bed.
Money is an issue. Even huge corporations have cash flow problems. That's not much of a consoling thought when your income is slow and you have kids to feed, bills to pay. You have to learn how to budget your business money. This was hard for me because I didn't even know how to budget my personal money. I am sorta getting it all together but it does involve taking charge of my finances and being aware of my money, what's coming in, what's going out, etc. If you are afraid of money or have other money issues I would definitely recommend dealing with that before starting a business. I wish I had, I feel my business would be further along right now.
Many people will say you can't work your business and work an outside job but this varies from person to person. I am not averse to working an outside part-time job to help with my cash flow, but I would caution you not to work a full-time job and a full-time business. You'll get burnt out and take huge chunks of time away from your family.
If you can, get help! Ask your friends and family to help you. I am in a labor tight spot right now because I can't do everything myself, but I don't have the resources to pay other people. I, have, however, several friends and extended family who help me out for free and I also ask my husband and kids for help.
This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting MSPmedia: Indie Publishing & Production!
Labels: business money, business stuff on other sites, time issues
posted by Trula at
1:41 PM
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