How do you create "balance"?

[Bill Stearns]

Hi All -
I, at sixty-six, have yet to find "balance" in my life 'tween "work" and those things which, in the end, are vastly more important! Wondering if the majority of you have found, or have created "balance" for yourselves? And, if so - how? Do you simply shut things down at a certain time of day? No matter what? (The caveat being: I direly need the revenue. But, at what cost?) e.g. How often I have placed customers' lack of pre-planning, their last-minute needs, 'head of special times with family, or friends. (no amount of "rush fee" could ever substitute for the loss.) So, I watch as boats 'n trailers 'n campers drive past, while my Epilog hums away. All the while, the customer who imposed such stress is out enjoying his, or her, day! Would help me to hear how you all feel 'bout "balance" in your lives. (BTW: my avatar photo - me relaxing on a pontoon boat was taken 'bout 3 years 'go.)

Bill

[Scott Shepherd]

Oh Bill, if you ever want to get together and co author a book, let me know. We try really hard to accommodate customers needs and requests, even when that means working late or weekends. I, like you, have seen too many people out having a great time while I work on their mistakes and poor planning. It's really hard to say that because we are a service business and we are here to serve, but I think I'd like to know they are sharing a little bit of my pain. Two examples in the last 3 weeks for me. Customer said they needed something on Monday morning, first thing. This was Thursday and it was about 30 hours work. Shoot, okay. I worked all weekend, until 9:00 two nights, to FIT it in with the other work we had already promised. I think I did 105 hours that week. Came in Monday morning, packaged them all up, put them by the front door. No one came. I emailed and called and left a message. No one came. He came by to get them Tuesday afternoon. Glad I worked like a dog to get your items for Monday morning.

Second case, customer said they needed items no later than Saturday morning because the store they were renovating was closing for 2 days so they could rebrand it. It was about 40 hours worth of work. Didn't know they needed it on Saturday morning until Wednesday. Stopped what I was doing, worked on it half into the night again, had it all ready on Saturday morning. No call, no nothing. I left voicemail, emails, and got nothing. Monday afternoon they call and tell me it was all postponed. They picked them up about a week later.

It's one of the biggest frustrations I have. So much so that we're considering stopping doing that type of work.

I had a person email me about an order on a Friday. It was brushed stainless steel cut to a custom shape. She need 100 of them by Tuesday. I said "Sorry, I can't help you by that date, if you can move it to Friday, I can have it done". Nope, no way, no how, needed them on Tuesday. I said "Good luck because everyone else is going to have the same issue we do, that you can't order 100 custom sized pieces at 4:00 on Friday afternoon and have them here by Monday to start working on". I thanked her for the opportunity and wished her luck. I'm 99% positive she didn't get them by Tuesday.

[Gary Hair]

I have no problem keeping regular hours - 10:00am - 4:00pm to answer the phone and email, but I work from 8:00am to 5:00pm - Monday through Friday. I have enough business that I could work twice as much but I won't sacrifice my personal life for a bit of money - life's too short! Once in a while I'll work late or weekends, but not if I can avoid it. The last two weeks and the next two weeks are one of those times I'll work more, a lot more, but it's only because I'm remodeling to give me room for more equipment and also happen to be in the middle of a huge UV printing job - over 1,000 signs/labels from 1" x 3" up to 6" x 8". The only consequence to enforcing regular hours are that I "lose" a fair amount of retail business - they tend to wait until the last minute and don't want to pay for the work. Just yesterday I had someone call and leave a voicemail that they needed champagne flutes engraved for an anniversary party last night. It was a 50th anniversary so I guess the party caught everyone off guard... maybe they thought it wouldn't last...

[Ross Moshinsky]

Change industries. In the service based industry, it's pretty much always going to be like this. You're a slave to your customers and you have to do what's necessary to make a living.

With that said, you can apply various charges to make it worth your effort. "You need it for Friday? Really. Our normal turn around is X. I can do the job, but I'm going to have to have my employee put in some over-time to get the job done." Just add on the reasons why the price will be more. Then, at least you got paid for your time.

Now I deal with a company who "promises" a 3 week production after the order is processed. They constantly run over 3 weeks. We contact them and they've more than once told us "tough" essentially. They don't care. They print the promise but they constantly make up excuses why they don't have to stick to that production schedule. What do they do? They offer a rush charge which they "guarantee". So for $10 PER ITEM they will do your job in 15 days aka 3 weeks.

I hate their policy. I think it's terrible but their pros outweigh their cons so we stick with them. One thing I do admire about them is their uncompromising stance. They aren't hungry for business so much that they want to put themselves out. It's a tricky stance to take in this world but it's not the wrong stance. Do the right thing, put out a nice product, but you don't necessarily have to bend over backwards for the customer. If people can't get their act together, why should I suffer? It's a reasonable approach in many ways.

[David Somers]

Bill,

Maybe I am reading your situation wrong, but it almost sounds like you are at the point where in order to make more you need some staff to do it? A matter of scale if you will? Or would a second unit help get you there by increasing your capacity as a one man shop? That or you need to rethink the focus of your business and adjust it to something more lucrative? Get away from the trophy's and similar jobs and turn more to contract/industrial work?

On the first thought, Can family help you at all? Perhaps they could pitch in some, 1/4 time or half time, and boost your revenue enough without actually hiring staff. The benefit being you get out earlier to spend time with them. Plus you spend time with them there at the shop as well? Of course that might not be possible at all given their schedules and interests and goals. Or it may be that would not be a good mix? Just because you love someone dearly doesn't mean you would work well together in that environment. All just musings on my part.

On the second thought, I think you had a thread going earlier on this topic where we all discussed ways you might increase your income/business? Has anything from that helped at all?

A third thought, is perhaps you are attacking this from the wrong side, or only from the business side? If you like what you are doing a great deal but aren't getting what you need to maintain your life style perhaps it is time to look at your life style? I don't mean that the way it sounds. What I am trying to say is sometimes we have things in our lives that really aren't needed for our happiness. You may be doing things with the idea that everyone loves it, but in reality they are doing it cause they think you love it? Might be time for a frank discussion about things you are doing that carry a cost? Make sure you are all on the same sheet of music so to speak?

Have you sat down with a financial adviser at all to REALLY look at your finances? Do you track everything and see where your money is really going? Sometimes doing that can highlight things that really surprise you, highlighting things that you had been making assumptions about? Or, an examination of everything may point out something you are doing that just isn't realistic but you have been denying it mentally until you see it in context with all your other finances written down on paper.

To give you an example. (story warning...skip to the end if needed <grin>) About 20 years ago my wife was looking to go to UW for a degree. We lived a good 3 hours and a ferry ride away from the University so she needed to look at an apartment over there, but they were wicked expensive unless you didn't mind hitting it with a 4" firehouse and some lysol before moving in. We had been thinking of buying a boat at the time. We lived on Puget Sound after all. Long story short we ended up buying a old live aboard trawler in Canada when the exchange rate was wayyyy in our favor. She lived on that very cheaply for 2 years and then we started using it for trips in the Pacific Northwest waters. I spent lots of time working and playing on her and she was in tip top shape. We got her paid off ASAP and moorage was as cheap as you could find in WA. Then I got transferred to Hawaii for 12 years and we decided to keep the boat. Moorage was as cheap as it got and my office brought me to the mainland often enough that I could take time on each trip to maintain her. So we did that for the 12 years. Then I got moved to Seattle while my wife wanted to stay in HI with our house and her job. Another long story in itself, but the plan was for me to do that for 3 to 5 years and then retire and move back to our house in HI. I opted to live on the boat and that made the finances of maintaining two households work out. And I loved living aboard her as well. And then budget issues in the Hawaii office made Casey move to the mainland for work and we ended up selling the house in HI. We purchased here in Seattle and finally Casey was able to move up here, partly due to a long term eye problem that kept her from returning to work (repeated retina detachments). The house we bought in Seattle had a mortgage on it unfortunately which is NOT what I wanted to take on shortly before retiring. So now I am having to look hard as to whether it makes sense in any way to keep the boat. The boat was paid for long ago, but moorage and insurance equals our mortgage so selling her puts us where I hoped to be financially when I retired. I sort of knew all this in the back of my mind, but until I sat down and looked at literally everything we were doing on paper did I see how little sense it makes to keep her. (the boat, not Casey <grin>) There were lots of other things in that examination that had us saying...."that is costing us how much each year, and we are only getting this much use out of it?" and really making some changes in how and what we did. Obviously this is something any family should do periodically, if not before they actually retire. Just thinking about it is not nearly as effective at putting things into perspective as writing it all down on paper does. Try to look at an entires year's expenses, and track your cash and credit card/debit expenses for several months at least as well. Count it ALL to really get a look at what you are doing.

OK...like usual, I babble. But you get the idea. Look at everything if what is happening in terms of work isn't covering it....what you are doing with work, how you do it, the scale you are doing it at, your life style and expenses...etc. Examine everything closely to eliminate assumptions and .... well.... self delusion if you will? You might be surprised.

Ultimately an old saw comes to mind. No one ever lay on their death bed saying "gee, I wish I had spent more time working!" Get really creative in with everything in your life with that in mind.

Cheers to you Bill

Dave

[Scott Shepherd]

I spent lots of time working and playing on her and she was in tip top shape.

Dave

Were we still talking about the boat here......?

[David Somers]

Nooooo comment Mr Shepherd! Nooooo comment! <silly grin>

[Bert Kemp]

Oh Bill, if you ever want to get together and co author a book, let me know. We try really hard to accommodate customers needs and requests, even when that means working late or weekends. I, like you, have seen too many people out having a great time while I work on their mistakes and poor planning. It's really hard to say that because we are a service business and we are here to serve, but I think I'd like to know they are sharing a little bit of my pain. Two examples in the last 3 weeks for me. Customer said they needed something on Monday morning, first thing. This was Thursday and it was about 30 hours work. Shoot, okay. I worked all weekend, until 9:00 two nights, to FIT it in with the other work we had already promised. I think I did 105 hours that week. Came in Monday morning, packaged them all up, put them by the front door. No one came. I emailed and called and left a message. No one came. He came by to get them Tuesday afternoon. Glad I worked like a dog to get your items for Monday morning.

Second case, customer said they needed items no later than Saturday morning because the store they were renovating was closing for 2 days so they could rebrand it. It was about 40 hours worth of work. Didn't know they needed it on Saturday morning until Wednesday. Stopped what I was doing, worked on it half into the night again, had it all ready on Saturday morning. No call, no nothing. I left voicemail, emails, and got nothing. Monday afternoon they call and tell me it was all postponed. They picked them up about a week later.

It's one of the biggest frustrations I have. So much so that we're considering stopping doing that type of work.

I had a person email me about an order on a Friday. It was brushed stainless steel cut to a custom shape. She need 100 of them by Tuesday. I said "Sorry, I can't help you by that date, if you can move it to Friday, I can have it done". Nope, no way, no how, needed them on Tuesday. I said "Good luck because everyone else is going to have the same issue we do, that you can't order 100 custom sized pieces at 4:00 on Friday afternoon and have them here by Monday to start working on". I thanked her for the opportunity and wished her luck. I'm 99% positive she didn't get them by Tuesday.

One Of my Favorite Signs for the shop LOL
poor planing.jpeg

[Dan Hintz]

A couple of weeks back I worked an 85-hour week for my "day" job... worked right through Mother's Day, much to my wife's chagrin. It's a quick-reaction type of position, so I knew going in what it would be like from time to time. It can be long hours, but the client also pays dearly for it... you pay one fee for regular turn time, you pay a much larger fee if you want it in a hurry. I make a conscious decision to give up some free time for fat cash. If you're unwilling to make that trade-off, then you get the regular level of cash. But to accept regular cash for quick-reaction projects is silly.

[Joe Pelonio]

What comes to mind is what someone told me years ago: "Who wants to be the richest person in the cemetery?"

I was never able to get to the point of real balance while running the business. I did find time to spend with the kids, including coaching soccer teams and other activities, but only when I had good employees to handle the work when I was gone. Now the kids are grown, but we have a grandson that's almost 3 and like to spend time with him, as well as my many other hobbies such as bonsai. My daytime job is really only 8 hours plus the commute time, and the business I still do with the laser and other signs can easily be worked in on a few evenings and weekend day or two most of the time. I got a couple of jobs last week, but luckily with the 3 day weekend, I am finishing up now and had yesterday and Monday free. More helpful too is having paid vacation, and I can warn my laser customers when I'll be gone. We have taken a week road trip already in April, have a week scheduled at Lake Tahoe in July, and hopefully a trip to Maui in the winter for our 40th anniversary. The shop does help a lot with vacation expenses and I still find the work fun.

[Mike Null]

Bill, my situation is a bit different than yours. Mine is a home based operation that I typically operate on a M-F 9 to 5 basis as far as my customers are concerned. I work at my leisure as much as possible which means you may find me in the shop on weekends or late at night. That's not usually because I'm so busy but because it suits my personal schedule better.

Twelve or thirteen years ago I scrapped my AT&T land line, which was excessively expensive, for cell phone service. I saved a lot of money and got better service. Then came smart phones. Since most of my customers communicate by email I can go anywhere and do anything and still be in touch. Since I am not tied to a store front, my customers have no idea when I'm working on their job.

While I'm always interested in new business, I'm not so hungry that I'll make promises that I can't keep or have to sacrifice family time to accept. Like anything else, there may be exceptions.

I have an extremely competent helper who can bail me out of problem situations should they occur. He doesn't mind if I just need him for 3 hours And I can use him up to about 20 hours if needed. Like Gary, I do turn away work, especially what I call retail work.

In any given year from 25% to 50% of my total volume may be outsourced. (processes that I can't do in house)




Mike Null

[Bill Stearns]

What fascinating responses - thank you all!
Helps me to realize I'm not lone in weighing the need to earn an income 'gainst making time to enjoy life. A quandary I am finding becomes greater with age. Not feeling quite so guilty, now, in my doing as Ross said: " ... what's [ever] necessary to make a living". Helps finding I am not the only one who, sometimes, sacrifices weekends, even holidays, 'cause of customers' urgent needs. (In a better frame-of-mind: maybe, I should think of this as a "marketing advantage" over my competition, uh?) It does appear that being able to call the shots as to which jobs one may, or may not, take on has 'lot to do with how well one's business is going. Plus, whether or not there's a secondary stream of income. For me there's not; not yet. ROSS & DAN: Certainly sound advice that I charge more for my working late, working weekends, on certain jobs. Gonna start initiating this practice. Hopefully, the added revenue will help defray my aggravation over customers' short-sited planning. JOE: Thanks for sharing your story. Indeed: where we're at, at any given point, does have 'lot to do with the decisions we've made 'long the way. DAVE S: I am well-versed in the arithmetic of business; relentlessly reviewing how I spend money. Yes. I could've canceled out on visiting my 95 year old parents 'n Fla. for their 70th Anniversary. Could've not helped my kids get situated in their new home. (still digging out from both these expenses.) Nope! finding ways to make more money seems the route for me to take! GARY - You're right, of course, 'bout "life being too short." This in mind, I set 'side working yesterday - drove up to the lake to visit my grandkids. The world didn't stop spinning! Lastly - DAVE - you asked: Has that earlier advice, on earlier posts, helped? Absolutely! As SCOTT said: I could write a book! I'm just eager as heck to, at some point, let you all know that I'm doing really well with this business I enjoy so much ....

Bill

[Scott Shepherd]

Bill, I think you nailed it. It's easy to say "Blow them off", but when you are trying to establish yourself or grow your business when most everything relies on you, then that's not great advice. That'll get you no work and no opportunity to capture new customers when you are looking for new customers the most. I know if I brushed off all those rush jobs along the way, I would probably have gone out of business a long time ago. The nights and weekend jobs got my foot in the door with a lot of customers I couldn't get a crack at Monday-Friday because they were happy with their current suppliers. It did get me in front of them, it got me known for doing whatever it took to get their job to them, which resulted in a lot more work. Some of my biggest customers today were customers that I helped when they were in a pickle.

We're in a different place now and we're not really looking for that same type customer. When the phone rings every day with new customers, the ability to pick and chose what you want to do becomes much greater.

My hopes are that all the hard work will lay the foundation for much better things ahead, which will allow me much more free time to do the things you mentioned earlier. I might be sacrificing now, but hopefully that'll end fairly soon.

[Dan Hintz]

I should add to my previous post... despite working 85 hours in one week (and through Mother's Day, at that), I also get to bank 45 hours as PTO, which is half of the two-week cruise I promised SWMBO later this year. So, she (we?) may lose out on some fun at one time, but it's also countered by what benefits such a workload offers in the future. One more project like that to make up the balance of time I'll take off, and a third project to cash out on the time and pay for the trip itself. Overall, a nice "balance".

[Tim Bateson]

I built my business on "Next Day" service. However, as the business grew & grew, next day wasn't always possible. Currently I offer "next week" service, but more often than not have it done next day or within a couple days. What I do is leave room in my schedule for my big ($$$) repeat/commercial customers. They already pay a premium & since they are the bulk (financially) of my business, they will usually be placed ahead of a one-off order.

I won't go on & on about the "urgent" requests I get, but I am considering a "Rush" charge for those instances. They can take it or leave it, I'm plenty busy as it is.