Today Was My First Day Off in Five Months!

Today was my first day off since April 26th!

OK, so that sounds overly dramatic... but it certainly has elements of truth.

As many of you know, we have a small art gallery/gift shop here in our town, and since this is quite a tourist venue, we have been on "summer hours" since the beginning of May.

And summer hours means we're open seven days a week... which also means yours truly has been "on deck" every single day since then (with the exception of a break for my birthday!).

October 1st marks the return to "winter hours" which means we are now closed on Wednesdays. So I had a day off!

Self-Employment and "Days Off"

Of course, I am not writing these words as a "woe is me story," but more as a segue into the whole concept of being self-employed and how the idea of "time off" often works, in that context.

I've been full-time self-employed since the late 1990s, and Mrs. Denmarkguy left her job as a broker at Bank of America in 2007 to join the ranks of the self-employed.

The thing I have always noticed most about self-employed is that you effectively end up working more than you did when you had an employer but you no longer have a fixed schedule. And that often means that it's difficult to count on things, time wise. 

My particular type of work means keeping a shop, running two eBay accounts, writing and working on my art... which means I can sometimes have weeks where I work all seven days for 14 hours a day (yes, really!) and I can have weeks where my work simply consists of showing up at the gallery at 11:00 and going home at 5:00. Before we had the gallery (two years ago) the variations were even greater.

Meanwhile, my wife is a life coach and serves on the Board of a non-profit organization, as well as helping out at the shop... which means her schedule is all over the map, as well. 

Planning Can be Difficult!

I am sometimes asked what the most challenging part of being self-employed is... and surprisingly it's not "money" (although we sometimes have to live on very little besides good faith...), but the difficulty in planning anything.

Granted, our situation is a little more convoluted than most people's since we're involved in a multitude of projects, simultaneously.

Today was a good example-- we were hoping to spend some time doing "very little" since it was my first block of free time in many months... but Mrs. Denmarkguy got two late bookings from the web and ended up seeing clients from noon till 3:00, and again from 5:00 till 8:00.

Similarly, I will make doctors' (and other) appointments and often have to reschedule 3-4 times before the actual date rolls around.

The "Feast or Famine" Syndrome

Now you might be asking yourself why we don't just say "no" to certain offers, and place a higher value on our "off" and private time.

Which brings up another challenge many self-employed people face-- and especially those like us who are in more "opportunistic" than "stable" businesses. 

Because we don't have a consistent pattern to our business/income flow... we're left with the feeling that we pretty much have to say yes and embrace the $2000 weeks because we could be trying to live on $200 a week for the next three weeks. We just don't know. 

All That Said...

I did really enjoy my day "off"-- we had a marvelous clear and sunny fall day, and I spent a little time photographing brightly colored fall leaves. 

I resisted the temptation to work on "other stuff" and actually just sat and "did very little" for most of the day.

And that was a good thing!

How about YOU? Are you self-employed? If yes, do you find it difficult to take time off? Is your type of work stable or more erratic, in terms of income? If you are NOT self-employed, does it sound like something you'd like to try? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

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Created at 171004 20:47 PDT