Hello and Happy Friday! I hope you’re taking a moment to check in on this lovely Friday afternoon, but as soon as you read this post, you will shut down your computer and go out and enjoy this incredible weather! I am waiting for some things to finish in the oven, then I need to make a quick delivery and then I am OUT OF HERE! With that introduction, you can see that ‘work’ for me is flexible, so I thought I would share 2 other awesome things about working for myself, and 3 things that I don’t like so much (in no particular order). If you are reading this and you work for yourself, leave a comment telling me your favorite and least favorite things about working for yourself, or if you don’t work for yourself, whether you like it or not.
The 3 Best Things About Working for Myself
1 // I am my own boss
This is an obvious one- no one tells me when to work, where to work, how to work, or what to do. I make my own schedule, work as much or as little as I want, and can take vacations, days off, hours off, etc whenever I see fit. I don’t need to justify anything to anyone, which is really nice! Sometimes I joke that I am retired because I will do things like call my Mom in the middle of the day, or go for a long walk in the afternoon. Like I said above, as soon as I finish up a couple of things, I am going to pack up for the day and head out to lunch with Luis, and then I plan to spend the day enjoying this weather.
2 // I am the first one to see my business grow
There is really no better feeling than seeing how much business has changed over the course of the year. It’s grown tremendously, and I feel proud of myself for turning Bruja’s Bakery into a real business (well, by my standards anyway). I get to see all of the behind-the-scenes numbers of how many people look at my website, interact with my site, visit my instagram, and of course- place orders. It’s exciting!
3 // My friends and family are very supportive
One might think that when you have a business where you bake things, that friends or family might ask for give-aways or ask for special treatment, but it’s the opposite! My friends always buy things from me and don’t take any discounts I offer, which makes me sound like a scrooge but really, I think it’s important that friends and family not only support a small business with their words, but also by treating you as if they don’t know you. Once, a friend sent something to me that said something like “don’t support your friends by asking for free things, support them by paying for what they have to offer.” I am lucky that my friends are so great, and well… my parents deserve free things 😉
The 3 Worst Things About Working for Myself
1 // If I don’t work, there is no money
The contrary to being able to take off whenever you want is that if you choose to “take off”, there is no money. I won’t lie- there are certainly days that I think “a 9-5 job with a steady paycheck would be so nice…..”. If someone asks for a cake on Saturday and I had plans, I have to choose between the money and the plans, and that’s a tough decision. I am getting better about saying no, though!
2 // Sometimes people don’t think I actually work
This one has been tough this year. When you don’t have a set schedule, or any boss telling you to be somewhere, friends can sometimes assume that I don’t actually work, or that I have all this free time to have lunch during the day, or go shopping all morning. Yes, I do have the flexibility to do those things if I want to, or if there is something important, but I actually work (as in, stand in the kitchen making things, working on Excel documents, taking photos, updating my website, coordinating pick ups, buying materials, baking, and more)…for more than 40 hours a week. I am 99% of the time, up by 7.30 and in the kitchen working by 7.50 am. I usually don’t finish working in the kitchen until about 1 and then I use the hours of 1-4 to work on the computer, make deliveries, or buy materials. Also, I often work for about an hour at night. Sometimes I think people assume I do a lot less than I do. I have also been better about saying ‘no’ to mid-week hangouts because they are usually more stressful than fun for me.
3 // Working for yourself is expensive
Wow-wee!!! Not only is it expensive to create a small business in terms of materials (ingredients, boxes, promotional materials, creating a website, etc), but it’s also expensive to be autonomo in Spain! You have to pay your social security and your taxes, and for me, I pay a gestor to help me with those things.
In all honesty, the negative list was easier to write than the positive one, but I can 100% say that I am SO happy with what I do and while there are hard days, they good days are much more frequent.
