I knew when I had 4 kids I wasn’t going to be in the workforce for a good few years so I decided to work for myself. Simple, right?
Most of the time it suits as you can work around picking up kids and dropping off kids, cooking dinner and cleaning the house. I mean lets face it, those of us that do housework on a regular basis, be it men or women know that you could do housework 24 hours a day and still find something to do around the house. So you really need to prioritize when you work for yourself so you fit in enough time to get the work done.
I like to divide my work time between making quilts, cushions, bags etc and working on my longarm. The extra bit of time in the evening I get goes into blogging and trying to sell my work on my etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/MadeInIrelandQuilts?ref=hdr_shop_menu I really need to put more time into SEO (search engine optimization) but really I would love to pay someone to do this for me as I don’t like sitting in front of the computer for long as I get restless. My guess is most creative types are a bit like this. Another reality is I am not very good at taking photos of my wares but I am getting better all the time (well I think I am anyway)
The tricky part for me anyway is doing the work you don’t want to do and sometimes even trickier is doing the work you do want to do! Let me explain. If you were in the workforce you would have a workload and certain times to do said work and either a boss or a team around you pushing you to meet the expected targets or work. When you work for yourself you can’t give yourself the kick up the arse you sometimes need to get your arse in gear.
Another downside to working on your own is not being able to bitch and moan about said work. I am working on a piece for a customer at the moment and it is so frustrating I could scream! All I can do is give out to myself which really isn’t the same now is it? When you work with other people and you complain about a certain job you have to do, they give you sympathy or better yet even help you get the job done. The first thing I would do if I won the lotto is hire a personal assistant! I’m sure some people also feel a little bit lonely when they work for themselves. I on the other hand don’t get the time to feel lonely but maybe if I am still working for myself and the kids are all older and leaving the nest, maybe then is when I will re-join the workforce but I imagine that is really tough after being away from it for years.
The other thing I really wasn’t prepared for was the amount of extra work you have to do to work for yourself and it sometimes feels like you are crazy to even be doing this. When I worked for companies in the past I got paid for the hours of work I did but that is not the case now.
Having said all that I wouldn’t have it any other way (well actually I would like to give myself a good raise, ha!) I get to stay at home with the kids and that is what is important to me at the moment. Sometimes I worry about the future of my work but then what is the point. I keep having to tell myself to just put the head down and also one of my favorite quotes which is from Finding Nemo when Dory said – Just keep swimming, just keep swimming
