VirtualVocations

How I Became Tougher Than Any Boss I Ever Had!

A couple of years ago I found myself retired from a job I had worked at for over 20 years. I considered myself a competent and hard working employee over that time and looked forward towards my retirement. I spent the first 2 years of retirement doing the things that I thought retired people did, you know; I played golf, fished, and stayed up late and slept in even later.

But after a couple of years of this, I found that I actually missed working, so I decided to go into business for myself and work from home. Having worked as a civil engineer for the state I decided to become a consultant. I figured that with over 20 years of experience and contacts, all I had to do was to mention my new job to a couple of people and the offers would start rolling in…my first mistake.

In many respects a work at home business is just like any other in that there are certain rules that you must adhere to. You must remember that you are not the only one offering your product or services, that it takes time for the customers to find you. Any business, whether traditional or work at home, must get the word out about what it is they are offering and at what price.

I soon discovered that what I thought my services were worth and what the market said they were worth, were two different things. I realized that I had to adjust my thinking and my pricing structure if I was going to get any serious offers. When I finally received my first legitimate offer, I was thrilled and immediately got to work. I had set up my den as a work space and made sure that I had all the necessary supplies. What I didn’t set up was a work schedule.

When I worked for the state, the working schedule was determined by their guidelines. When I began my work at home job, it was I that governed the work schedule and, at first, it was fairly lax. I would take whatever breaks I wanted, whenever I chose. Everything seemed to be working until there was an unexpected change in the due date. As a state employee I was used to such changes but they were not my problem. As the boss of my own job, it was now my responsibility to make sure that this difficulty was quickly addressed and resolved. This meant that I now had to spend several work hours doing something that, if I had promptly taken in hand earlier, would have been done.

On my next job I went too far in the opposite direction: I worked long hours at a stretch to make sure that there was no repeat of my previous mistake. This caused another problem. I was getting fatigued and began making simple mistakes that I normally would never make. This caused me to have to go back over work I had previously done, wasting more time.

Now after a year of working at home I have finally developed a working schedule that incorporates both sufficient work hours and adequate break time, but since I also now have to do the books for the work at home job, I find that I am working harder for myself than I did for my former employers!

Posted:Tuesday, November 06, 2007