What's it Really Like to Run Your Business From Home

My week is not like most people's weeks are. My schedule is quite unusual. I work odd hours. I often work more hours than people realize. And I make less than a lot of people probably think I do. Let's start with my typical week...

Every day for me usually begins at 7am. On Sundays (first day of the week for me) I often finish my morning routine by 8:30. I take it a little easier this day, as I sometimes stay up late on Saturday night. I'll start my morning doing my week's plan. This consists of what things I want to complete this week - project tasks, marketing, and personal goals. It's here that I plan out each hour of the week and try to be as accurate as I can in this. I've yet to get it completely right, as I have never estimated the time correctly that many tasks take, so I'm always behind. Maybe this is why I always feel like I'm rushed.

My planning usually takes less than an hour. And so I spend the rest of the morning working on whatever task is most important for the week. This is usually a project that I wanted to get done the previous week, whether it's artwork, accounting, or marketing. I plan out when, but not what, I am going to do my marketing for each week, as well as my production time. I've noticed that, at this point, I still have to spend at least half of my tie in administration and marketing. I do hope that I will start to bring in enough money that I can subcontract some of this out or hire a part-time employee to take care of a lot of it.

I plan every hour of my week, including time with my family and friends. So, if someone hasn't booked with me by Sunday, chances are that they won't get me until the next week. Ha ha!

My Sunday's vary as to what I do, but the really consistent things are that all morning is spent working, and often the afternoon until at least 5pm, sometimes later. This is a regular work day for me, and I tell all of my friends and family that. They still seem to get upset that I don't just drop everything and spend time with them. Sunday evenings are my me time, and I play some games with friends every week.

My Mondays are also a work day. Typically this is a production day. I work from 8 o'clock in the morning until I go to bed at night, with breaks only for meals, etc. Once a month I take the time to teach a short martial arts workshop. It's not really profitable, but I love doing it! And so I keep it up. And about once a month I will take the evening off to spend with someone close. :-)

Tuesdays are similar to Mondays - they are also work days. I again start by 8 am. And I work until 6pm. At that time I grab a really quick supper and head off to my martial arts class that I teach until 9:30 that night. This is every Tuesday! Some weeks it's the only exercise I get on the day my kids aren't with me.

Wednesdays are like Tuesdays. I start work by 8am and work until 4:30 pm, though. This is because I go pick up my kids from their mom's and bring them home. Wednesday evenings are often spent with my kids, doing little else except visiting them and perhaps catching up on housework. It's always a tough evening, as they try to push and get away with as much as they can. My daughter is often extra whiny and pushes really hard to get her way, including staying up late. If I manage to get the kids in bed on time (8pm for Ariana, 8:30 for Daveed), I can spend another hour working in my office doing marketing or administration or I can work on some drawings. If you can figure it out, by Wednesday I have worked my 40 hours already, sometimes more.

Ariana showing off the cloak I made her

Thursdays are sometimes a complete write-off for work. My daughter isn't in school at all that day, so she wants my attention at all times. As the weather improves, however, she will spend more time outside with her friends in the afternoon and evening. This means I can get 3 or 4 hours of work in when the weather is nice, including the little evening time that my kids want to play with their friends. I can't really do any noisy work, because I monitor them mostly by ear. I work in my office, keeping the door open (it has an outside door), so I can hear them all the time.

Friday mornings, as soon as I drop Ariana off at school, I spend working on whatever drawing project I have going at the time. This is actually how I have completed all of the illustrations, thus far, for the forthcoming "Secret Places" children's book. So, this is another 3 hours of work I manage to get in! Sometimes in the afternoon I can get another hour or two in if Ariana is playing with her friend Izzy, who lives a couple of doors down. But other times I spend it with her. We will bake or play games or read, usually. She likes it when we make cakes, but bread is beyond her patience, because she doesn't like waiting for it to rise.

After school on Fridays I always check my son's homework and make sure that he is aware of what has to be done, and he agrees on what he's going to do for the week. A lot of times it means agreeing to do things at his mom's, then me checking his progress on Wednesday evening when he's back home. The kids like to play with their friends when the weather is nice, so I allow it and spend the time when they're outside marketing, writing, or doing administration. Right now I make very little from my writing. I do have a couple of projects on the go that I am hoping will pay some reasonable amounts once they're published. Time will tell. Friday evenings starts Shabbos. Once the candles are lit it means kids are inside and there are no computers allowed to be on. This includes any handheld games and the Wii. This is our family time! From here until sundown on Saturday our time is not for work, but only for family and G-d. We often stay up late together on Friday nights. The kids are allowed to stay up as late as they want. This usually means that Ariana is asleep by 9pm and Daveed within and hour of that. It is rare that either of them goes to sleep before nine or stays awake past ten. They just get tired! And so do I. If I'm really tired, they end up going to bed, because they don't want to stay up alone. I'm sure that will change in a few years, though. ;-)

Saturdays we have a nice family routine. The mornings are always a special breakfast, and we often don't get out of bed before 8am. My daughter dances, for now, so we go to her class each morning. While she's in class Daveed and I read. Up until a couple of weeks ago I would either read to him or he to me, but he started reading silently to himself and only asking for my input when he can't figure out a word. We sit close together and cuddle while reading, which I really like. It won't last for too much longer, as he's already seven. The rest of Saturday is spent together doing whatever we can find that is fun! Often we go out for the afternoon to the playground or a park or something else special. Most Saturday evenings their mom comes and picks them up, but about once or twice a month they spend the night with me and don't go home until late Saturday morning. They're good about this and tend to let me work, often going outside to play with their friends as soon as there's noise. It's pretty good that way!

And that my weekly routine. I try to take advantage of every minute I can to get some work in, and realise that I actually work at least 50 hours each week. It often seems like I don't get a lot done at the end of the week. There is only so much of my work that is billable, however. I'm probably spending 30 hours on non-billable work - things that keep my business going, such as administration, cleaning (artwork and armour are messy), accounting, marketing, and research. Then I spend the other 20 on payable work. This means that if I wanted to make $50,000 per year I'd have to charge $100 per hour on that "billable" time. I actually make less than that. No, I won't tell you what, but it's just enough to survive with me and my two kids.

Papa & Kids, Canada Day 2009

Working for yourself is often tough! You have to be disciplined. You will have to make sacrifices. There were weeks early on when I had a hard time pulling myself out of bed, or getting myself to work when I should have. I sometimes thought that I could multitask and either watch TV or listen to a book on CD while I was working. I couldn't. It slowed my production way too much. I ended up cancelling my cable, because I never watched TV any more, and neither did my kids. I had some great mentoring from Tyler at VisionCast that helped me motivate myself in my business. Now when we want to watch something, it's a move from the library. We go the library every other Thursday afternoon as part of our routine.

There are some nights when I will work until midnight (at least once a week). I've even worked until 3am and then got up at 6:30 to keep working, because I have deadlines on projects. This is really hard for me, since I have a sleep disorder that makes me sleepy almost all the time and demands more sleep than average (it's called idiopathic CNS hypersomnolence, possibly caused by fibromyalgia), as the medications for it either are ineffective or give me the shakes or palpitations. Can't have the shakes and be a good artist!

But working from home is worth it! If I need to run out and deal with something with my kids, I can. I can pick them up and drop them off from school every day. I can use Thursdays to spend time with them, since it's their short day at school. Yes, my social life is limited because I work and am a single parent. It wouldn't be an issue if I weren't a single parent. But my kids are worth it! Yes, I might have to deal with a work issue at 9pm. I have had clients call me at 10 at night. But I can be flexible enough to deal with it all. I work more hours than most people for less pay. But the flexibility and the pleasure in what I do make it worth it. I make less than half of what I did working full-time (I was an accountant). And I hope I never have to turn back to working for someone else again!

Calgary Comic Expo... On a Wing and a Prayer

It's been many years since I've sold at a Convention of any sort. I used to sell at SF and Fantasy conventions back in the 1990's. It was usually profitable. I sold only jewellery. But now I've expanded into selling prints of my artwork, and am hoping to take some orders for armour. We'll see about that happening. It's kind of scary!

For me this was a "last minute" kind of thing. I only heard about the convention a month ago and decided to see if I could get into it. And, much to my surprise, a spot came up and I got in! I would much prefer to have several original artworks available - and the prints for them - that are centred around the SF/Fantasy genre. A lot of my work isn't. I know that I really enjoy that kind of art, though. Yes, I'm the eclectic artist who does things in all manner of genres. But not everything is appropriate for all shows.

Blue Butterfly - 3-1/2" x 2" ink drawing

The big thing about this show is that I will be using it primarily as a learning experience. It is certain that I will be going next year! From this year's show I will learn what kinds of things sell, and what I should prepare for next year. I will also learn the best ways to present myself at this particular venue. Plus it will help me for other shows that are upcoming. I have one at the end of May (it's really small, with the Knights of the Northern Realm), another in June, and another in July. That's one each month! The May show probably isn't going to be a great seller, but I do expect to learn from it, as well. I'm thinking that I will have to figure out a way to display my prints, perhaps some original drawings, and a good way to display my three-dimensional works. And by June I expect to have some print copies of my game, too.

Selling a role-playing game is likely to be a challenge, as well. I wanted to have the system completed by March 30, but have been unable to keep up with that schedule. This is partially my fault, as I haven't managed my time (in March) as well as I should have. I've learned from that, and am now working much more diligently! I've realised that I was spending too much time on my marketing efforts, which haven't been paying off. I have since learned that having an extensive portfolio is more important at this stage of the game. And so I will be doing more production. In fact, other than the couple of tax returns I have to get done this weekend, I will be spending all of my time preparing for this show.

I will be making a lot of prints of my work. Some of what I'll do is art card editions and originals (ACEOs). These are the small prints, about the size of a business card, which I will be selling. I can think of a lot of drawings I have that are suitable for this! Or at least a dozen or so. ;-) My miniatures, such as the butterfly series are well suited to such a size. The butterflies, however, were originally done with small writing cards in mind. I was thinking of printing these on some good card paper and then selling them as such. I know I'll do a lot of those. I just hope they'll sell!

I will also be doing several prints of my gestural drawings, some of my fantasy ink drawings, and taking stuff to see if I can get orders for my armour. There is so much to get done! As much as I'm looking forward to the show, however, I am going to miss my kids. I can't take them to the show, as they'd have to miss school on Friday, and their mom usually has them on Sundays, so that would also be an issue. So I will drop them off at school Friday morning and their mom will have them for the whole weekend. <sigh> I will miss them a lot! Maybe next year I can bring one of them with me. My son will be old enough to handle it. And there are some events he might enjoy...

So, if you're in Calgary next weekend, come by the Expo and check out my booth!

Martial Arts and Life Long Learning

Yesterday I participated in the annual Bushido Alberta Open, which is one of the larger open martial arts tournaments in our fair province. I fought in six events: longsword, double-stick, sword & dagger, dagger, single stick, and black belt (point) sparring. And my son, Daveed, sparred in the event for his age group (6 & 7-year-olds). I'm pretty proud of him for his participation! He did really well, when you look at it. Was that other kid actually seven? He's a giant!



Yes, martial arts is a big part of my life. I teach a class every Tuesday evening here in Edmonton. It concentrates mostly on weapons, and is a complete system (meaning that it includes all modes of self defence, from unarmed to using improvised weapons to specific training with a variety of weapons, historical and modern).

Back to yesterday... My kids were both with me, and they both said that they had a lot of fun! I, of course, enjoyed myself, too. I wouldn't do this if it wasn't fun. :-) I managed to take two medals, both silver (one doesn't look silver, because they ran out of bronze medals, so were using gold for silver, and silver for bronze... odd); one for the sword and dagger, the other for the black belt point sparring. I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I was surprised I managed to do that! The last fight was one of the better fights I've had in years, as the techniques were so clean and crisp against the other guy (and from him, of course), that it was a lot like poetry in motion. I wish I had been able to film it. Not just to see what it was from an outsider's view, but also to analyze my fighting to see how I could improve. Yes, I know for a fact that I can greatly improve my skills! But learning and improvement is a life-long endeavour, regardless of what skills one is referring to.

I know that the martial arts is something that I will do as long as my body is fit enough for me to move well enough. And even then I will continue to try and learn. One thing I learned is that I am sorely out of shape! I woke up this morning and could hardly move, my muscles were so full of lactic acid. Ouch! Even now raising my right arm is painful in the shoulder muscles. It gives me more resolve to get into better shape, though. I want to be one of those old men, when I'm in my sixties and seventies, who runs circles around guys in their thirties. Heh heh! But lots of work to do before that happens. I figure it'll take me a year to get into the kind of shape that I want to be, with working out on a regular basis (at least 3 times per week). I know what I'm doing at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning...