My Life After Retail

One of the most difficult things for entrepreneurs to do is take time off.  If you own a business you know the value and importance of growth.  It is also likely that you constantly have new ideas running through your head as to how you can continue to grow your company.  Most of the entrepreneurs and business owners I know have a very hard time not only taking time off but enjoying it.

A few days ago I wrote an article about my happiness list.  This list has helped me to enjoy the finer things in life; it has also allowed me to take the necessary time off and let my thoughts and ideas freshen up.  Getting burnt out at a young age is not an enjoyable feeling.  This happened to me at my previous job working in retail.  I am reminded of this with Black Friday coming up this week.  I truly hope all of you in retail keep your sanity over the next month because I know how hard it can be.

I can say, without a doubt, that my hard work and dedication to my previous employer caused me to burn out very soon.  I feel as if I had been rewarded in some way that things would have been different but I never even got so much as a thank you.  Two and a half years of retail was the worst two and a half years of my life but it taught me many things.  One of the most important things it taught me is that everyone needs to take time off no matter how important their job is.

By simply taking some time off you will be very surprised at how anxious you are to get back to work.  One thing I always make sure to do is to extricate myself from my blog as much as possible while taking time off.  If I start to look at analytics or adsense there is no doubt that I will start thinking of how to grow the website.  I can do this at anytime so there is no need to do it during my time off.

With the holiday season coming up I urge all of you to take some time off.  If your boss complains or you feel you owe it to your company take a step back and look at the big picture.  Will things continue to run fine without you?  Most likely!  Will the entire business model break down with you taking a few extra hours or days off?  I seriously doubt it!  When looking back on my days in retail I wish I had taken many more days off; it would have made me a more enjoyable person to be around and would have allowed me to refresh my mind and entrepreneurial spirit much more.

Get out your happiness list and enjoy some of the activities that make you happy.  There is nothing wrong with taking some time off; you will be surprised at how much people will gravitate to you when you have a smile on your face and are at mental peace.

A few months ago I wrote an article about wasting time.  At that point I was still adapting to my new occupation and it took me a significant amount of time to complete the necessary steps to make my website profitable each day.  In all reality, I had to work between 8 and 12 hours a day to get my “work” done.  To be completely honest I was a little bit stressed out and felt I HAD to put that much work in to make the money I was making.

Today things are much different as I have successfully reduced the amount of time it takes me to do my “job” by at least one third.  I will give you an example with some fictitious numbers.  Prior to November it took me about 8 to 12 hours to make $100 a day (once again, fictitious numbers!).  If you do the math you can figure out that I was making about $10 an hour for my efforts.  This did not bother me at all as I had no boss and I could blog from anywhere I wanted in shorts and a t-shirt.

As I better understood how things operate my productivity greatly jumped.  With the help of some new software and a few friends I saw the time it took me to complete the necessary work greatly decrease.  Today it takes me approximately three hours a day to complete the same amount of work it took me ten hours a few months ago.  Instead of making about $10 an hour I am now up to about $30 an hour.

Making $30 an hour working from home is something many people would absolutely love.  Do not get me wrong, it is a wonderful opportunity and I am learning to cherish it greatly.  Only working three hours a day allows me to do many of the “fun” things I have always wanted to do.  Recently I decided to increase that workload to see if the revenue would increase as well.  If three hours a day makes me $100 a day surely six hours would net me $200 right?  Wrong!

After about two weeks of working very hard and, once again, being a little bit stressed out I found that working six hours a day only increased my revenue to about $115 to $120 a day.  This means that instead of $30 an hour I would be making $20 an hour.  After thinking about this and realizing how my stress level increased the decision to scale back my work was very easy.  In January or February I might consider increasing an hour or two a day but at this point it is just not worth it to me.

Working three hours a day from any location I desire is something that I must learn to cherish and accept.  Even though we would all like to increase our salary we must step back and look at the big picture.  I make a significant amount of money; more than enough to cover all my expenses and still invest a large amount each month.  I know that working for my own business means that I do not have a 401(k) or any type of retirement so I put away a large percentage of my paycheck in the investments of my choice (I have been quite successful picking investments!).

Now that I have realized that three hours of work a day is what it takes me to be happy I would urge you to step back and determine what amount of work makes you happy.  I know many of you do not have the opportunity to just tell your boss that you can get your job done in four hours.  What you can do is sit back and do some analysis.  Maybe you deserve a long lunch each day because you can complete your “job” in an hour less than you are scheduled.  Maybe you should reward your hard work with some conversation with other employees, if your boss allows it!

Being able to adjust the amount I work is one of the main reasons I decided to quit retail and create my own business.  I know that the amount of work I put in is a direct correlation to my compensation.  There are very few other occupations that can claim that.  Now it is time for me to get back to my happiness list as I have 13 free hours today to do as I please.

As an Internet entrepreneur I truly see the value of time.  Each and every day of my life I have to make decisions as to what I will do with my precious time.  Owning my own company allows me to do whatever I want.  If I want to take a day off and hang out with friends I can.  If I want to research for 16 hours a day I can.  If I want to get in my car and drive five hours to go fly fishing I can.  With that in mind I realize that the more valuable time I put into my business the more I will get out of it.

Living in Raleigh, NC, near three major universities, I have access to the ultimate group of individuals who know how to waste time – college students.  We all loved college because we went to class for 15 hours a week and the rest of the time we found entertainment.  I continue to have many friends in college and I could easily waste my days away much as they do; playing Wii or PS3, checking every profile known to man on Facebook and Twitter, drinking the nights and weekends away, or playing the dating scene with every college girl.

I am not going to lie, it greatly frustrates me to see my friends waste away the time that they do, especially my college friends.  I know I am wired a little bit differently but how can you spend hour upon hour without doing anything productive.  I guess we all define being productive in different ways but I refuse to believe that checking Facebook for five hours a day is being productive.  I have always made the statement, “if you would spend as much time monetizing something as you do wasting time you could be a millionaire.”

I truly believe this to be the case and I will continue to believe it as I am living proof.  I am, by no means, a millionaire but I assure you that I am very successful and that will continue because I make very good use of my time.  Some people might call me obsessive/compulsive but I would call myself an entrepreneur.  Colin Cowherd, ESPN radio host, makes reference to those who have created wealth for themselves and how their minds are always going 100 mph.  I think my mind is not only going 100 mph, it is going that fast in four different directions.

This is a blessing and a curse all wrapped up in one.  I will be the first to admit that very few females in my life can handle my entrepreneurial spirit.  No matter where I go or what I do I always see the value in the things around me.  I truly believe that I could find a way to monetize shower curtains (let females put their favorite company’s symbols on it and sell it for $25; a Coach, Target, Juicy Couture and Dulce & Gabanna shower curtain, tell me that wouldn’t sell?!?).  These are the ideas I think of each and every minute of the day. For some reason most females want attention rather than me pointing out that advertising on umbrellas could make a killing.

I have learned that I am who I am and no matter what that is not going to change.  I will always believe that time wasted is money lost.  When you are sitting around on a weeknight watching television couldn’t you be thinking of the next great business model?  Do not get me wrong, I believe there is a time and place to spend with friends and family.  This does not mean that I will take every single week night to watch reruns of Friends and Sex and the City.  In all reality, the only show I consistently watch is one that makes me think the whole time (Lost), go figure!

I am not suggesting that you should take every minute of your day to figure out the next Ipod but I would suggest that you consider how much time you truly waste.  Was it worth it to check Facebook for two hours?  Was it worth it to watch the same Sopranos episode you have seen three times?  The next time you are sitting around thinking of something to do, think about what you absolutely love to do and consider ways to monetize it.  You never know, you might be able to make that your living.

Please return to My Life After Retail to get daily inspirational stories as well as historical accounts of the success of Subprime Blogger.