My 9 to 5 Escape Story

Back in 2010 I was at a crossroads in my life. At the time, I had been working at a large non-profit medical office for almost 10 years. I was doing what I was supposed to - going to college, trying to earn a degree while working full time. On weekends I would tweak my resume and check job boards. I was on my way to a great life-long career. 

But secretly, I was miserable. I hated my job, hated being stuck in an office all day long only to go home and work for hours online trying to learn how to be a better office drone. I didn’t even like the medical field. But I was just doing what the world said was the ‘responsible’ thing to do. 

Deep down, I wanted to start my own business, be the one in charge of my schedule and daily events. I had ideas and needed an outlet for my creativity. 

Only problem was that I had no savings, no real skills, and no idea how to start a business. I mean, the world says such things are too risky, too expensive, and basically out of reach for the likes of 9-to-5-ers like me. I had a mortgage, car insurance, credit card bills, and kids to feed. Responsible people don’t quit their jobs and start working for themselves. That’s just craziness!

So I pushed my feels down and pretended like I loved my job and everything would be okay. But it just made things worse. I was starting to crack. I would cry every morning before work, and I would be depressed when I came home. My school work was suffering and my family could see I was going down fast. 

Finally, in late summer 2010, I decided one morning that I couldn’t do it anymore. I had to be true to myself and stop denying who I was. I walked into my boss’s office first thing that morning and submitted my notice. 

Wow! What a rush! What a relief! I’m finally done with this place! Now I can get on with bigger and better things, right? Wrong.

Funny thing about working for yourself – its not all fun and games. In fact, it’s downright the most difficult thing I’ve ever done before. Ever.  It doesn't fall in your lap either. You have to go out each day and bust your tail, you have to constantly be learning and putting it all into practice. You can't just show up and expect to get a check at the end of the week. It is a real change in how I look at my life and how I judge my successes. Some days, success is getting a big check and taking it to the bank. Other days its managing to get dressed and comb my hair.

But, each day, I get a little better at this new lifestyle. I learn new things, more than I ever learned in any college course. And the best part is that I’m happy. I mean I go to bed at night knowing that even though my bank account is sadly usually empty, my work has meaning and I’m on the right track. 

So what am I up to these days? Well, I've started my own ecommerce store, I run a lawn care business, and now I'm starting this blog. Plus I'm a mom of two beautiful kids, wife to a great husband, and the proud caretaker of a lazy but loveable dog and 8 chickens. And if that's not enough, I have more business plans in the future.

Have you ever had to make a major life-changing decision? Are you glad you did or do you have regrets? I’d love to read your comments!

Balancing Work and Family: 3 Tips for the Newly Self-Employed

“How do you have time for all that?” The question I hear most often. I just laugh and smile. What they don’t know is that, honestly, I really DON’T have time for all that I want to do.

When you work for yourself, you quickly find that there aren’t enough hours in the day to get all your tasks done. And even when you do ‘punch out’ physically, mentally you are still working. I’m always thinking about what I’m going to write, or what emails I need to send, or people I need to call. It never ends. And unfortunately, family members are always the first to suffer from my constantly working mind. 

So what’s a girl to do? Well I have learned a few tips (the hard way) that have helped me tremendously over the last few years to lessen the stress and overload that sometimes creeps its way into my life. 

You Can’t Schedule Your Day Like a 9-to-5 Anymore

One of the first so-called ‘brilliant’ strategies I had when I first started working for myself was to schedule my days like a regular work week. I thought ‘well I know how to keep from being overloaded with work! I’ll just work Monday through Friday 8 to 5 and then just shut down my computer and go do what I want.’ Yeah that lasted all but about 30 minutes. 

When you work for yourself, especially starting out a new business, you really need to put a lot of time into your projects. And it’s difficult to sit down and physically work for large chunks of time.

I find that working in smaller chunks of time, say 30 minutes, and then taking a 5 to 10 minute break is productive for me. We all have a varied attention span, so see what works best for you, but don’t deprive yourself of breaks.

Also, we each have times of the day that are more or less productive for us. I’m an early bird. I like to get up early before my kids and start working while the house is quiet and peaceful. I’m the type of person that needs quiet time to write and concentrate. But, by late afternoon, my energy is drained and the house is usually messy, so I tend to work on less important tasks during this time. 

You don’t have to follow the company rules anymore, so schedule your day when you are at your best mental capacity and then when things get stressful, take a break. 

“Hi, My Name is Shanna, and I’m a Recovering Perfectionist”

I don’t like chaos. I think the world should be organized into perfect little boxes with neat tags and coordinating colors. And if I just change this over here and this over there, everything will finally be perfect. Okay, back to reality….

I have a tendency to procrastinate. A lot. I worked for 10 years at a job I hated because I thought that someday I would get it right and be able to start my own business. But I thought I didn’t have enough money, or know the right people, or have all the tools I needed to start. But what I was really doing was letting my perfectionism take over and keep me from doing what I really wanted. 

If we aren’t careful, perfectionism can rob us of our goals and creative ideas coming to fruition. We tend to think that unless its perfect, it’s not good enough. Well I’m here to tell you that ‘good enough’ is my new motto. Sure it might not be stellar, perfect, or ‘the greatest ever’ but if its good enough, then start with that. 

When I started building the website for my store, I used to stay up really late at night trying to get the colors just right, and the wording just right. I would spend hours on tedious and useless improvements, and it kept me from spending time on important tasks. If I would have just made it ‘good enough’ I could have had my store online weeks earlier. I probably lost money trying to make my store perfect instead of starting out with ‘good enough.’ Sure my store isn’t as great looking as some of my competitors, but that’s ok. I’m working on it. 

Don’t let your perfectionism steal your potential. Get it ‘good enough’ and get started! 

Unplugged and Unavailable

It’s easy to get sucked into all the things you have to get done when you’re a solopreneur. I know I do it all the time. But it does a mind good to unplug and make yourself unavailable from time to time.

Currently, my office is in the dungeon, oops, I mean basement. But I use this to my advantage. In the evenings, I charge in my cell, computer, kindle, etc in my office and I walk away. That’s right, I just turn the ringer off and walk away. It forces me to focus on things other than work. I go upstairs and start dinner, or see what the kids are doing. I read my snail mail, I pick up the house, or I go outside and visit my chickens. It really clears my mind and, well honestly, its good to actually come back down to earth and be just a mom and a wife again. 

Force yourself to step away occasionally. We all need to be devoted to work, but not at the expense of our sanity and our families. 

What do you think about my strategies? Agree or disagree? Do you have any time management strategies that work for you?