As much as I'm enjoying my newfound success, I do have some worries. Mostly, am I going to have enough hours in the day to do every job as well as I'd like to? Today, for example, I was going through the transition of a client from their last bookkeeper to me. I saw her in action...and she's got a whole lot more knowledge of the benefits side of things than I do. I'm working to learn it all, but can I compare? Will I be good enough? I sure hope so.
Or, how 'bout this one? Will I have time to continue doing all the stuff with the kids that I've always done? It's a major reason to be in business for ourselves...but is it really realistic to think we can support ourselves and still do all those things? I've already traded off my 3 days per week with Tara. She's mostly with Joe those 3 days. I know that kids who are in daycare 5 days per week are just fine and she's only there 2 days. I know it's ok for her to be with her dad, even if that's more than she gets to be with me. He's a GREAT dad and it's good that he gets to spend this time with her. I know it doesn't make me a bad mom to do this. So why do I always feel like I'm shortchanging the kids? Even when it's obvious that I'm not? Crazy.
Friday, May 4, 2007
And so it begins....
Don't know if this is a great idea for me, but perhaps it will help to keep my thoughts organized. My life was going along just fine. DH had a good job...I worked part time and was mostly a mom. All was right with the world. For almost 10 years! Life was good.
Then BANG! Everything changed. Joe was put in a horrible position with his company. They decided to outsource his job to a company with NO ability to do business in our area (they are based 5 hours from here). They did it in a way that was bad. Unprofessional, unethical...just bad. So, even though he had a shot at a job with the new company, we KNEW he wasn't going to do it. I was so proud of how he handled it. That was in October. His last day of work was November 7, 2006.
He got a decent severance package. Basically, it gave us 6 months to figure out what to do. He looked around...didn't find anything he was excited about really. The jobs he thought he would like didn't have the kind of money or growth that he needed.
In the meantime, I filed a DBA and started looking for new accounting/bookkeeping clients. I became a Quickbooks Certified ProAdvisor. I did a payroll conversion/installation for a fairly large company because a friend was in need and I was able to offer them a solution. I did some consulting for another firm. Joe started toying with some website design, including creating a website for me. We sent out a few mailings introducing ourselves to local businesses.
Now, 7 months later, we've filed paperwork to become an S-Corp. We have fully committed to self employment. We have advertisements in the Saratoga Business Journal, have joined the Chamber of Commerce, and are trying to sort out all the details of a new business. There's an article coming out in the SBJ any minute now about me and my business.
We spent several weeks both getting a bit nervous that it wasn't going to work. But we also gave ourselves until August to make it happen. We have savings...we have ways to put food on the table and pay the mortgage. It couldn't get TOO horrible. Right? RIGHT??
Flash forward to the last 2 weeks or so. So far I've interviewed with 5 different businesses. I have 4 job commitments and 1 who's just not ready to sign on, but will do so with me (they say) when they are ready. Not to mention the 2 clients I already had. I have yet another interview on Monday. Crazy. Surely there's got to be someone who DOESN'T like me! I never set out to win every client I spoke with. Never. Never occurred to me it might happen. And I don't expect it to continue.
Then BANG! Everything changed. Joe was put in a horrible position with his company. They decided to outsource his job to a company with NO ability to do business in our area (they are based 5 hours from here). They did it in a way that was bad. Unprofessional, unethical...just bad. So, even though he had a shot at a job with the new company, we KNEW he wasn't going to do it. I was so proud of how he handled it. That was in October. His last day of work was November 7, 2006.
He got a decent severance package. Basically, it gave us 6 months to figure out what to do. He looked around...didn't find anything he was excited about really. The jobs he thought he would like didn't have the kind of money or growth that he needed.
In the meantime, I filed a DBA and started looking for new accounting/bookkeeping clients. I became a Quickbooks Certified ProAdvisor. I did a payroll conversion/installation for a fairly large company because a friend was in need and I was able to offer them a solution. I did some consulting for another firm. Joe started toying with some website design, including creating a website for me. We sent out a few mailings introducing ourselves to local businesses.
Now, 7 months later, we've filed paperwork to become an S-Corp. We have fully committed to self employment. We have advertisements in the Saratoga Business Journal, have joined the Chamber of Commerce, and are trying to sort out all the details of a new business. There's an article coming out in the SBJ any minute now about me and my business.
We spent several weeks both getting a bit nervous that it wasn't going to work. But we also gave ourselves until August to make it happen. We have savings...we have ways to put food on the table and pay the mortgage. It couldn't get TOO horrible. Right? RIGHT??
Flash forward to the last 2 weeks or so. So far I've interviewed with 5 different businesses. I have 4 job commitments and 1 who's just not ready to sign on, but will do so with me (they say) when they are ready. Not to mention the 2 clients I already had. I have yet another interview on Monday. Crazy. Surely there's got to be someone who DOESN'T like me! I never set out to win every client I spoke with. Never. Never occurred to me it might happen. And I don't expect it to continue.
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