How much work do you really do ???

[tophopper]

I try really hard to bid between 9-4 M-F. If I get behind I'll stretch it out. I find it harder and harder to be on the job all day with everything else there is to do. Yesterday I had 6 voice mails at 4 PM. I do all the PHC so squeeze that in between everything else

When I ran my own gig, I worked 3-5 days per week, doing 1-3 estimates most evenings after work and all day Saturday (usually). I probably wrote 15-25 estimates per week.


what I hated the most was, working after work.....like working a brutal job all day and then coming home to 8 or 10 new voicemails that had to be handled. That sun up to sun down crap will catch up to ya sooner or later. Life is too short to be working every moment of every day IMO.

 

[Burnham]

I'm with you, John. Although the benefit package is a draw now, I couldn't have cared less about that when I started with the FS...it was the regular hours and freedom from constraints of having to chase jobs that really appealed to me. Time off work is more rewarding to me than running my own business could ever be.

 

[brendonv]

Mon-Wends 7:00- 4:00 at the part time gig. I'll do the occasional bid after work if I'm feeling like it.

Thrus-Fri 6:30- whenever on my own jobs. Occasional saturday or sunday job, or estimates EARLY morning. I tinker with my equipment throughout the week just because I enjoy to I guess.

My down fall is doing bids, hate finding the time for it.

 

[Greenhorn]

I try really hard to bid between 9-4 M-F. If I get behind I'll stretch it out. I find it harder and harder to be on the job all day with everything else there is to do. Yesterday I had 6 voice mails at 4 PM. I do all the PHC so squeeze that in between everything else

So your lead dude holds down the fort while you go bid and such?

I need to advertise a bit more as competition is fierce around here, just not looking foward to more bids after work and especially the new folks that are getting multiple bids and make sure to let you know! I guess I got spoiled after running off repeats and referrals for so long.

 

[maggies dad]

I worked 24hr yesterday at the fire station then was on a tree removal this morning at 8:00 got home at 8:00 this evening. Have to start at 8:00 in the morning to get a bunch of pruning done, go to a birthday part by 3:00, see the wife and kids after that, then get up at 5:00 on sun to be back at the fire station by 7:00 for duty. I'm not doing anything monday except playing with the kids and visiting with the wife, I think I will take her out for a late Mothers Day. I need a foreman to just do all the leg work and bids so I dont die by the time I am 40.

 

[sotc]

So your lead dude holds down the fort while you go bid and such?

I need to advertise a bit more as competition is fierce around here, just not looking foward to more bids after work and especially the new folks that are getting multiple bids and make sure to let you know! I guess I got spoiled after running off repeats and referrals for so long.

Cody can do most of the day to day stuff. Big removals or awkward stuff I either do or run ropes if I think it is within his abilities

 

[sawinredneck]

All i know is i answer the phone about 7 hours a day- it farking sux - but its making me cheddar.
Also as i rolled the 850 pound quad on to me -my back has been killing me so im not worth much of anything else .Its crazy to wake up and stay in your house 5 days at a time answering the phone - its getting depressing .
Ill go bid a few jobs here or there instead of the salesman and i feel like im going out for a night on the town .
3 years ago i drove around myself all day long that was worse though .
Been thinking - once we get the crane - if that ever happens , maybe an office with a secratary and ill just start rock climbing again - Dreams

Sorry Jer, I get it, I can relate, been living it the last seven months or so. Good times for sure! But I don't get to make the cheddar!

 

[Al Smith]

There are pros and cons of being self employed .I looked into going into the electrical contracting business perhaps 25 years ago .The cons outweighed the pros .

I was in a shakey marriage. I didn't want to work for peanuts until I got it off the ground and I hate dealing with non paying people who bitch and nit pick over nothing .

So as it turned out instead of having to deal with it seven and 24 at the end of the day what's left of that day belongs to me .

 

[flushcut]

I like saying when you own a business you work 23 1/2 hours a day eight days a week. When asked about the half hour i reply you need some time to eat, sleep, poop, and pee.

 

[Ridgey]

Get a bit done,Average about 60m3 of woodchip a day.

Winching 95% of the material in.Truck holds 17m3

 

[FJR]

There is just always a list of something to do, and I am not sure if always having this mental checklist is a negative drain on the mind or if it is an tool to keep mentally sharp. All the hours spent doing the little things that most others don't have to do in their 9-5 job can be a pain in the ass, but it also can be gratifying at the same time.

 

[flushcut]

I feel your pain. I find myself forgetting some of the stuff that needs doing because there is so much at times. The times that I enjoy the most being a SBO is when the job is over the HO/PO is happy and is going to tell all of their friends about us and there is minimal stuff to attend to afterwards.

 

[NeTree]

There are pros and cons of being self employed .I looked into going into the electrical contracting business perhaps 25 years ago .The cons outweighed the pros .

I can relate; but so far, so good.

 

[woodworkingboy]

If I had chosen not to be self employed, I doubt that I would be as nearly as good as I am with a broom.

 

[squisher]

I'm seasonal here so I go steady right abouts now. I'm up early, like 4:30, out to the trucks by 5:30 usually and my employee will show up either 6:30 or 7:00 depending on the day/job location. Then right now we're usually pushing 10hrs round trip for the day and 3-5 days a week I'm doing quotes in the evening. I also work some weekends this time of year either production or just quotes. I'll work sunday, it doesn't mean nothing to my non-religious arse.

 

[darkstar]

Id be alot better off without continual BACK pain - its getting old

 

[squisher]

I'm eating Ibuprofens like candy by this time in the season for me. I'm not complaining though, I've chosen to work hard so that I can live large. It's a trade-off unless you're somehow independently wealthy.

 

[flushcut]

independently wealthy.

That seems very foreign to me. What is this madness of which you speak?

 

[squisher]

It's foreign to me too. No one ever in my forseeable future or past is going to be laying any coin my way. So I make it myself. If I had like a trustfund or big inheritance, I'd lay down the saw for sure. I'd ski all winter, and horseback ride all the rest of the year.

 

[flushcut]

I don't think I can give up cutting even if I hit the lottery. I want to keep going till i can't then I can rest.

 

[squisher]

My hands are telling me I've done enough time behind the saw, but I'll go another 30years probably.

 

[jefflovstrom@sb]

YUP.

I was a contract (free-lancer) for year's. (1977 - 2001). I made great money and I just wanted to climb and make money all over the the place. I grew my hair past my my butt. Then I met a lady and started having baby's. I was on my way to Vegas to climb palms for $25 buck's an hour and stopped to see her and broke my down truck in front of her house. Well that was n 1994, now it is 2011 and I am Operation's manager with 3 very happy and lovely girl's! Me and Christie are still not married in the legal sense, but have been together for 19 year's.
Anyway, I get up at 4am and put on coffee and get home around 4pm.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Then I met a lady and started having baby's.

You say that like it's a good thing.

 

[SkwerI]

Jeff, your personal writing rule of adding an apostrophe to every single word that ends in s is quite distracting. Could you please try to stop doing that?

 

[woodworkingboy]

"It's okay to head to wonderful, but on your way to wonderful you will have to pass through alright, and when you get to alright, take a good look around and get used to it because that may be as far as you gonna go" --- Bill Withers.