Todays topic on Flaming Hot! is “how much time does it take to run your business?” My answer: too much time! However, I wouldn’t trade it in. Well, maybe some days I dream of walking the beaches in far away lands and think I am going to scream if I have to edit one more picture, but then I come back to reality and tell myself how great my job is. Really, it is so much better than working for the man. I don’t think I could do it…or at least I wouldn’t be happy about it.
So the gory details. Here is my typical week.
Sunday through Friday:
Get up,
check emails.
Blog maybe (I should do this more often)
String freshly cleaned beads (Greg cleans them)
Edit photos of at least four new things, a set. a few marbles, a daily special, a focal bead. (Greg takes the photos). There are at least three pictures of each thing and can be up to twelve depending on the item. Crop, balance, resize, etc.
Upload pictures to internet.
Load four auctions on ebay, one to Justbeads, add an item to etsy and change the daily special. Load a daily special to the website.
On Mondays, Wednedays, and Fridays I add:
Shipping. Package up all items to be shipped, print labels and take them to the po.
Sunday through Wednesday:
I torch for about 5 hours usually starting at about 4 pm and finishing at about 9pm.
Thursday:
I get to the torch as early as possible, usually by 1pm and work until about 9 pm.
Friday:
My so called day off. I only load actions and do shipping this day. (Great day off right? :-)) I am usually done by 12 noon.
Saturday:
Off totally. I usually don’t even answer emails this day. Consider yourself lucky or important if I do.
Added to this list is posting on forums and etsy treasuries for marketing purposes. I don’t have this scheduled, so it just happens when it happens.
How much time, well if I add up the hours I am gonna say at the very least 24 hours a week goes into extra stuff besides creating. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say I work at least a 50 hour work week. But who’s counting?