The Good and Bad of Owning Your Own Business: Starting with The BAD!

Last week was very busy, and I only had time to get the two blogs done for this week. Then, Mondays are usually the days that I catch up after busy weekends. Today, I am working on several loads of laundry and I got up early to make a few suppers for the week ahead. Outside projects are calling my name today too.

Right now, it is writing time! I got a few posts finished up for Blog Mutt, and now it is time for my own writing pieces. I am hoping that the boys take a nap, so I can have my usual marathon writing sessions. However, on this cool morning, I am listening to the boys play while I decide what I want to blog about.

I know that I have a whole list of topics that I want to cover. However, I also enjoy my so-called rants. I want you, as my readers, to know that I am as human as everyone else. I don’t mind sharing the good and the bad. Maybe this week we can discuss both good and bad things about owning your own business.

Let’s get the bad things out of the way.

I have no true clients. Yes, I am a paid writer and I love that. But, I have yet to get a new client on my own. I have worked with one or two in the past, but nothing long term. I was also trying to get a few new clients, but none of them have panned out yet.

Time is my worst enemy. I wish there were more hours in the day. I also wish I could get by on less sleep. Imagine how much more I could do, if I didn’t spend so much time trying to get caught up on my sleep. Right now, my body needs more sleep. I get too many headaches without it.

I know nothing about websites and have been told this twice! The first time that I asked for advice was a few months ago. I had spent HOURS working on my website and, even though I knew it was not perfect, I did not expect to get it ripped apart. I asked a Facebook group for some help and their thoughts. One lady told me that she would NEVER hire me because of my website.

I made a few changes, including a new theme. However, I still want to have a professional website, so I hired someone to look over my website. I wanted to make sure that I had the correct plug-ins and widgets, since I really don’t know much. I also wanted to know some things that I could do to improve it. So, this time, I actually paid him to rip it apart. His suggestions were no help since I don’t really understand much about websites. So, now I have to pay him to make the changes that I don’t even understand!

I am not a stay-at-home mom. I am a work-from-home mom. When I am home, I am balancing working around my children. Most people do not understand that. My husband always jokes that I don’t do anything all day. He tells everyone this, and it is starting to drive me crazy. I work hard all day every day whether I leave the house or not. I don’t have tons of time to spend with my children because I am busy trying to get things done.

If I don’t make time to work, I don’t get paid. While I love Blogmutt for being flexible, a few days may go by before I sit at my computer to write. That week’s paycheck definitely shows that! I have to be motivated to make money. Some days are a pure challenge to sit at my computer.

Owning your own business and raising a family takes a lot of balance. Some days I feel that I am being torn majorly. Some days, I don’t get a thing crossed off of my to-do list, and that drives me crazy. When the kids are sick and not sleeping, neither am I.

Working from home has many challenges. However, as we will discuss later in the week, there is a lot of good to go with the bad. The bad can be downright ugly. There are times when you are not motivated, and you don’t make any money. Your family can suffer if you focus too much on your work. Balancing can be very challenging.