Entrepreneurship Myth #621 - Choosing Your Own Hours
May 13th, 2006 by Matt InglotOverheard on a Monday morning: “I wish I had my own business. If I was my own boss I could take the morning off to go fishing and start work for myself at noon.”
That’s one of the entrepreneurial dreams isn’t it? Play first and work later. Sleep in a little. Have more time for the family. It’s quite the dream and like with most dreams reality is very different. There are at least two major flaws in this way of thinking, but the good news is they aren’t completely insurmountable.
Flexible Hours - You Get to Pick Which 12 You Work
Running a business, especially when starting up (at which time you are the business) is hard work. There is everything and anything to do, and if you have run out of work then you aren’t trying very hard. To an extent you can’t really avoid this and if you are starting a company because you want to be lazy then you are doing it for the wrong reasons.
Here’s a thought though. You can get a big leg up on the competition, improve the quality of your work life, and have your business grow faster towards that point where a little time off is OK. The secret is cliche and you are welcome to go read something with a fancier answer. If you want go home earlier then read on.
Let’s say that you have to dig a hole. Would you use a shovel or dig with your hands? I’m hoping you chose shovel. But what if to use a shovel you first have to go to the department store and buy one? Unless your store is very far away, the correct answer is almost always to buy the shovel. It will provide an insane amount of value by allowing you to dig many holes quickly and whenever you want. It will also last you a very long time. You are working smart and getting the most out of your time, but while this may be obvious for digging holes, people are using their hands instead of shovels in many more complex and non-obvious tasks.
Time management and efficiency really are your keys. Time management is a concept that isn’t taught in school to any real effect and yet it makes the ultimate difference between somebody that can use their time to create $100 in value and $1000 in value. It’s not as simple as wasting less time doing nothing (although this is a good start), it’s also about knowing how to choose the most abundantly fruitful tasks and accomplishing your work in the most effective way.
Digging a hole is a simple, but how do you extend the principle to “making a business succeed”, or even “getting the promotion I want in 6 months instead of a year”? It turns out that its a complex field, like many of the softer life success topics that are convienently ignored in favor of stuffing in more trig identities. I always recommend Getting Things Done
It’s Too Easy to Neglect the Work When No One Breathes Down Your Neck
I have a strong suspicion that saying “you are your own boss” doesn’t really ever sink in until you are actually in this situation. Furthermore it’s only half true. When you own the business it is just as accurate to say that you don’t have a boss. There are few external deadlines to keep you on track and no fear of losing your job to keep you going. Then you give yourself flextime and decide when you work. What happens? Procrastination!
I’ve been in this situation many times, where I kept putting off the start of my work or even worst - pausing it in the middle - to do something else. The day would tick by and in the end I would be exhausted and scrambling to fit in some marginal amount of work before hitting the sack. There really is something like too much freedom and if you allow yourself to get into the position of work getting the remainder of your time then you’ll have a great time and a lousy company.
Lately I’ve been leaning towards the theory that in a situation where you are your own boss it’s actually your discipline that is the boss. There’s no external force to drive you so you must seek an internal one, and that kind of self-discipline is something that must be nurtured and cultivated over years. I propose then that when you are first starting off as your own boss you do not have flexible working hours. You should be working on your business the same amount of time every day at the same time and sticking to it. As you learn to balance this new work and life you are able to shift time around and enjoy new-found flexibility only after you have earned it and internalized the proper discipline.
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May 13th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Entrepreneurship Myth #621 - Choosing Your Own Hours…
Explanation of why being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean that you can have absolute time freedom….
May 14th, 2006 at 5:11 am
Very good points. I’ve found for myself two things make a major difference in getting work done during the day when you’re your own boss:
- Making a list of things to get done that day (the absence of one almost guarentees procrastination)
- Having a minimum number of hours to work each day. For myself I set a minimum 8 hours a day with an extra few hours at the end of the day if I’m not too brain frazzled. What this means is that even though I might be tempted to sleep in or take a 2 hour lunch break I know that I have to make up that time by the end of the day and I’d much rather finish at my regular time if possible than be working into the night.
As you said, discipline is really the boss, you’ve got to crack the whip over your own head because no-one else is going to do it.
For myself it’s actually not even the flexible hours I love so much about running my own business, it’s the lack of usual work stresses like public transport, organising lunch and clothes the night before, being in a noisy office with a splitting headache when all you want to do is work quietly. I’ve found I’m perfectly happy to work longer hours in exchange for this reduction in stress, it’s more work but it’s better quality of life (imo).
May 14th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Agreed, office work can be very harsh at times and a commute is often a disastrous waste of time and money that all too often you aren’t compensated for. Of course many of these benefits are cut somewhat if your business has a commercial location (you still hopefully get an office though!).
On the flip side it’s much easier to stay on task in an office, particularly if you don’t make the mistake of intentionally introducing distractions like installing games or getting into the habit of reading news sites.
I also can’t stress your MAKE A LIST point enough. When you’re mind is in a doing mood you shouldn’t be wasting this by flipping into the processing tasks mode. David Allen’s system is great for this because it emphasizes the NEXT ACTION for getting something done. So instead of writing down what might actually be a project like “build deck”, you put down “buy wood at the hardware store” to give a concrete action you can just get up and do. When you have that list you can keep your momentum going for a long time.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:03 am
Business is needed to be done in a sure way. It should be planned well. You need not to do it as soon a you thought you want it. There ar many things to be considered in building a business. One is business registration wherein certifications and business permit it involved. You should budget your time and be sure that work is done in a sure way.