Welcome back to Self Employed Mum. Thanks for visiting!

The other day I totted up my working hours and discovered that I could probably put a Junior Doctor to shame!

Running my businesses has become literally a 14 hour day – with six hours each on Saturday and Sunday. And that’s just to keep still. All my development work is happening at night with the lap top and a very forgiving husband.

But tomorrow, I’m playing hooky from the Office!

I’m attending an internet marketing seminar – it’s actually Friday-Sunday. As this takes out time I’d be working in the office I’m determined to a) Get the best bang for my buck b) Use the time as efficiently as possible.

To get the most out of the day, I’ve already arranged to meet up with someone who I collaborate with on and off-line – I’ve loads of geeky stuff to chat with him about and it will be great to be able to have a face-to-face. I’ve also got a couple of others attending I’ve not met IRL and am looking forward to meeting.

I’ll make great use of my time by mind mapping some plans during my journey time (I’m traveling by train).

I think my best reason for escaping the office though has to be to bring back some new thinking and ideas. If you’re self-employed, it’s really easy to become bogged down with the day to day and when you’re working hard you can lose sight of the reasons why it’s a good idea to break up your working life and get out and about. It’s also nice to meet people in the flesh rather than just online

Do any of you also play hooky from the office environment, and if so, how do you spend your time? Do you attend courses or training events? Or do you belong to networking groups? What are your tips for getting the most out of playing Office hooky?

photo credit: _sarchi

When you’re first starting out as self employed, a big shocker is the slow realisation that you have to do everything yourself. For me, one of the worst jobs has to be the finance side. No nipping off for a “word with Accounts” – I *am* Accounts!

Unless you’re a natural numbers whizz, then taking care of the money side is one of those crucial jobs you literally can’t afford to ignore and one you have to learn to love with the same amount of interest (if not more) than you have for all those other roles the self employed have to do.

I can hear some of you murmuring about paying for a book keeper/accountant? Well, by all means once you’re established you can outsource (and if you’re a Limited Company you *have* to have the services of an Accountant for various jobs). But when you’re starting up, it’s a very good idea to be close to your finances by organising them yourself. That way you know where you are at any point in time, and any cashflow problems can be nipped firmly in the bud.

But, as I have learnt myself, running your finances properly is not easy (particularly if you have had a rather “casual” relationship with your personal finances). My top tip is to discover a way of working with money that you find easy.

Some people choose to work with a home made spreadsheet, keeping things simple. Others (like myself) use one of those fairly idiot-proof software packages. If you are looking to go down the software route then unless you do have financial skills, make sure you choose one that’s aimed at small business owners rather than accountants!

I’ll be reviewing the software I use in a future post, so if you’re struggling to keep on top of your pennies, stay tuned…

photo credit: psd

Things I wish I’d known before I started …

1. That getting 10 p knocked off each cardboard box if you buy 500, does not make it a bargain, if you haven’t got the space for 50 cardboard boxes, let alone 500.
2. You don’t need to have business stationary until your business is actually up and running.
3. You’ll only get advertising calls after lunch on Fridays.
4. Customers can be far stranger than you ever thought possible – is it reasonable to complain an item hasn’t arrived when you placed an order at 11.00 pm the night before?
5. Paying double the price for prototype samples is worth it as you then won’t be up all night worrying what the 1000 actual items will look like “in real life” when they are due to turn up the next day on the back of a TNT lorry the size of your house.
6. Better to have something out there that isn’t exactly right than nothing at all – try telling yourself it’s in a “Beta” phase if it makes you feel better.
7. It’s best to double check when you are packing more than one box for a stockist. That way you won’t have to rearrange the deliveries again the next day, when a stockist calls to say she’s received Acme Inc’s delivery and Acme have hers !
8. That magazine advertising doesn’t work for everything and I would have been better off relying just on PR.
9. That everything is negotiable. Apart from tax deadlines.
10. That years later, I would still be loving my job (most of the time!)

photo credit: emdot