How do I work less

[arnettda]

I have been in business for 5 yrs now and want to know do you ever get to work only 40 hrs a week being self employed and how?
I work very little on the weekends 4-6 hours early morning or sunday evenings in my office, meeting new customers. But during the week it is from when I get up till I go to sleep. I am on jobs or looking at jobs all day and in my office all night. And never seem to be cought up.
I have one JW employee- Do I get an apprentice so I do not need to be there to help him as much?
Any ways to help my self to learn to work less would be great.
I have a line on a maintenance posisition which would have lots of small construction projects but do I want to go back to that. What are your thoughts for those of you that have gone back to work for someone else?
Thanks

 

[charlietuna]

Stick it out---- you are on your own -- nothing worth while comes easy. I worked 7 days and averaged 12 hour days for four years before i could sit back and take a break. Just consider what it costs you to hire an extra employee?? You have to earn that -- get payed for that --- and sign up extra work enough to pay your salary..

 

[brantmacga]

hire qualified help and delegate responsibility. and you have to be willing to trust someone else to handle your affairs.

 

[CopperTone]

if your journeyman electrician is responsible enough to go out with an apprentice it will free up your time. It works for me. I am able to go out and do estimates, pick up stock, do office paperwork, emails, quickbooks, schedule work, and still work some too. I send them on the 2 man stuff and I go out and do the one man service calls. At first it will seem more hectic but when you trust other people to do things right and have an organized system, things will actually run better. You will always have paperwork - more guys, more work, - more paperwork.

The more organized you are the better it will be.

If you want to throw in the towel and get a day job - think before doing it - there are many pros and cons to either side - work for someone else - less headaches - more security in having a job, etc - work for yourself - well you know what that is like. Only you can decide what works best for you.

Some days I think it would be great to work for someone else - other days I'm pretty sure I wouldn't last through lunch working for someone else.

I never work weekends or major holidays.

 

[laketime]

Work on your business not in your business. If you are the type of guy that thinks he needs to be there to turn every screw you will never be free.

 

[cowboyjwc]

I have never quite understood becoming an EC and then quit working in the field. The people that called me, wanted me to work on their stuff, if they wanted someone else they would have called someone else.

I used to work 16 hour days 7 days a week, but that's the price of being wanted.

I would hire a good office person, before I hung up the tools, even though I've hung up the tools, but I also never work more than 40 hours a week now and have 400 hours of vacation time on the books.

As much as most guys will argue about this one, it's not always about the money.

 

[laketime]

I have never quite understood becoming an EC and then quit working in the field. The people that called me, wanted me to work on their stuff, if they wanted someone else they would have called someone else.

I used to work 16 hour days 7 days a week, but that's the price of being wanted.

I would hire a good office person, before I hung up the tools, even though I've hung up the tools, but I also never work more than 40 hours a week now and have 400 hours of vacation time on the books.

As much as most guys will argue about this one, it's not always about the money.

Yes true if you want to keep working in the field you do have that option. As a general business rule though it is tough to do both effectively. Sort of like the CEO of a company also sorting the mail in the mail room, it doesn't happen.

 

[cowboyjwc]

Yes true if you want to keep working in the field you do have that option. As a general business rule though it is tough to do both effectively. Sort of like the CEO of a company also sorting the mail in the mail room, it doesn't happen.

True, but you're also not going to let the guy in the mail room run the company. So why work all those years to gain the knowledge you need to become a top notch electrician and then sit in a chair all day while some kid you hired is out there working off of your reputation.

And from what I've seen of some EC's also spending half of your time chastising your guys because they didn't do it the way you always did it.

 

[ptonsparky]

Really tough decision as to when to delgate responsiblilty to someone else and accept the results.

Hire help, train them, then let go a bit. Good office help is really hard to find especially if all you want to pay is min wage.

Nothing better than being able to take a vacation and not really worry (much) about how things are going back home.

I hired help when I could not longer install a size 4 pump panel by myself without my back hurting for days after. I hate paper work so that was an easier decision.

Good luck.

 

[Benton]

You work for yourself! Think of it, if you went and worked for someone else, the person you are working for is doing what you were just doing-working for themself. I think what the other guys mentioned: delegation, trust, and organization are key. And I dissagree that by working for someone else you will have less headache, maybe a different kind, but not necessarily less. Working for yourself is not meant for everyone, but that's for you to decide.

 

[laketime]

I have two friends that are electrical contractors. Both have been in business for 17 years and both have been "successful". One is a true business man and the other is an electrician that owns his own company. Both started out as very good wireman. The true business man is financially successful and on pace to retire at 55 with a nice sum of money. He currently works 40 hours a week and has time and money for nice vacations with his family. The other one is still working 12 hrs a day 6 days a week and has no end in site. He feels he needs to tighten every connector on the job and then come home and estimate and do paperwork until 1 AM because he wont hire help. For me I am working on the first type of business. I feel if I get my business and myself financially stable I can always go run some pipe for fun :roll:. If I don't I will be running pipe because I have to at 70 years old.

 

[ptonsparky]

I have two friends that are electrical contractors. Both have been in business for 17 years and both have been "successful". One is a true business man and the other is an electrician that owns his own company. Both started out as very good wireman. The true business man is financially successful and on pace to retire at 55 with a nice sum of money. He currently works 40 hours a week and has time and money for nice vacations with his family. The other one is still working 12 hrs a day 6 days a week and has no end in site. He feels he needs to tighten every connector on the job and then come home and estimate and do paperwork until 1 AM because he wont hire help. For me I am working on the first type of business. I feel if I get my business and myself financially stable I can always go run some pipe for fun :roll:. If I don't I will be running pipe because I have to at 70 years old.

Exactly. I started the same time as another. He was the businessman with a plan. He sold out to a national company a few years ago for millions. I am still working with an altered but late approach to the business side. You don't have to sell out but make your plans for the future now. It comes all to fast.

 

[gadfly56]

Who Are You?

Who Are You?

The theme from CSI keeps playing in my head while thinking about your question. I once read an analysis regarding the moribund state of the railroad industry a couple or three decades ago. The thesis was that the railroads got into trouble because they thought of themselves as being in the railroad business rather than the "move-things-and-people-from-point-A-to-point-B" business. Are you in the business of pulling wire, or are you in business to make money by offering electrical contracting services to the general public?

You've already discovered that no matter how hard you work it just takes time to get things done. Get as efficient as you can, you still can't drive the time down to zero. Time to delegate, as some have already pointed out. The real question is what to delegate? Admin functions, or installation functions? I doubt that you can afford a full-time bookeeper or accountant, but you might be surprised how much someone could get done for you coming in for half a day on Tuesday and Thursday, for example. Payroll, invoicing, A/R followups, printing checks for your signature, bank deposits, data entry into Peachtree, Intuit, or Quicken, and any number of other things that are simply time vampires for you. Do you put off contacting someone because it's 9:00 at night by the time you remember you need to get a hold of them? Three days straight? That's something your part-timer could do during normal business hours.

Once you get the Admin monkey off your back and can concentrate on field work you can better evaluate the need for an apprentice. That's a lot bigger investment in time, money, and training than a girl/guy Friday. He's probably going to be looking for a full 40 hours per week and you don't want to be trying to shave his hours when things get slow. For some reason people get surly when they can't eat on a regular basis , where your part-time admin help isn't likely to be in the same financial expectations boat.

 

[billsnuff]

With unemployment still running 9%+ it shouldn't be hard to find a parttime bookkeeper, gal friday, etc. Network with others who use someone or put an ad in the paper. Contact the local college or junior college and hire a student part time and show 'em the ropes. Find someone who runs a seasonal tax business.

Just some suggestions......good luck

 

[macmikeman]

If you buy yourself a surfboard you will be amazed at how your work ethic will go to pot real fast......

 

[jaylectricity]

If you find yourself working too much, your prices are too low. Sure, when you raise them you might lose a few customers, but you won't lose them all. Then you'll be free to work a little less while still making the same amount of money.

I remember an exercise in algebra we had to do where we figured out how many customers we would lose if we raised the price of an item. Then you do the math and find out just how high you can raise the price and lose customers while maximizing your sales. I think it was called a quadratic equation or something like that.

 

[busman]

If you find yourself working too much, your prices are too low. Sure, when you raise them you might lose a few customers, but you won't lose them all. Then you'll be free to work a little less while still making the same amount of money.

I remember an exercise in algebra we had to do where we figured out how many customers we would lose if we raised the price of an item. Then you do the math and find out just how high you can raise the price and lose customers while maximizing your sales. I think it was called a quadratic equation or something like that.

You're getting close to Calculus. A similar problem is shown with taxes. A 0% and a 100% tax rate both generate no revenue. There is a maximum somewhere in between. The trick is to find the maximum. The R & D's love to fight over raising/lowering marginal tax rates. What happens to revenue depends on which side of the maximum you are when you do one or the other. NO POLITICAL POINT OF VIEW. JUST A FACT OF MATH.

 

[ike5547]

You're getting close to Calculus. A similar problem is shown with taxes. A 0% and a 100% tax rate both generate no revenue. There is a maximum somewhere in between.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve

 

[busman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve

Thanks for the info. I had NO idea this was an recognized concept. It just occurred to me about 10 years ago and seemed rather obvious.

Learn something new every day.

Mark

 

[brian john]

I have been in business for 5 yrs now and want to know do you ever get to work only 40 hrs a week being self employed and how?
I work very little on the weekends 4-6 hours early morning or sunday evenings in my office, meeting new customers. But during the week it is from when I get up till I go to sleep. I am on jobs or looking at jobs all day and in my office all night. And never seem to be cought up.
I have one JW employee- Do I get an apprentice so I do not need to be there to help him as much?
Any ways to help my self to learn to work less would be great.
I have a line on a maintenance posisition which would have lots of small construction projects but do I want to go back to that. What are your thoughts for those of you that have gone back to work for someone else?
Thanks

I have been in business 25 years, working 60-80 hours a week, 3 years ago after my first heart attack I hired an assistant, I got busier (because I searched out more work) and hired a 2nd assistant. Second heart attack I just cut back working to 40-50 hours a week now with some weekend work.

In my end of the business OT is mandatory and I still fell I need to be on certain jobs.