Good morning and welcome to another episode of always up to date. I’m Denise and this is [inaudible] and we are the coal owners of always bookkeeping. Uh, so how are you doing Yoni? Good. I mean, we never really had a summer, but no, no, there was a lot of rain. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s almost over just a few more days and yeah. Yeah. Um, so today on always up to date, we’re looking again at the entrepreneurial myths. Um, this one we’re gonna look at is when to work. And our quote today is from Michael Gerber, who’s the author of the book called the E myth. Um, and his quote is, the work we do is a reflection of who we are. If we’re sloppy at it, it’s because we’re sloppy inside. If we’re late at it, it’s because we’re late inside. If we’re bored by it, it’s because we’re bored inside with ourselves, not with the work.

The most menial work can be a piece of art when done by an artist. So the job here is not outside of ourselves, but inside of ourselves. How we do our work becomes a mirror of how we are inside. And the quote that we have is from industry Canada and it says that 15% of businesses fail in year one, 30% fail by year two and 50% fail by year five. So we all, we um, we know a lot of business owners that, you know, they’ve started their business, they may have been an employee for a while and now they’re started their business and uh, they’re excited because they get to set their own hours and they can work from wherever they want to work. Um, and your own body, you get to be your own boss. That’s right. Yeah. Um, and so this is one of the entrepreneurial myths that we’re going to talk about today of um, you know, just because you’re a business owner doesn’t mean you get to just Slack off and work whenever you want to work with Edmonton Bookkeeping.

Yeah, absolutely. So when you’re in a small business owner, can you do work only when you are motivate? He did. I wish we were talking about this before we turned on the video, when he decided that it only works when we were motivated. You probably would never get anything done. Right. Most people, um, I mean, yeah, you could work when you’re only when, only when you’re motivated, but you really aren’t going to get much done. There’s lots of times that you have to do things that you don’t like doing, um, that are hard, but you still need to push through them and get them done. You might not be motivated to do them, but they need to be done. And as a small business owner or sometimes you’re the only one and so you’re the one that gets to do it. Yeah. And I mean, moving from a, especially for people who started as an employee, um, it takes a lot of discipline, more discipline to become your own boss than to then when you used to be an employee, because now you have to be aware of what you have to do and your business depends heavily on you without Edmonton Bookkeeping.

So, um, it’s not like when you’re an employee where you can, uh, you know, you can Slack off a bit, but other people will be able to pick it up. Um, most of the small business owners are stuck starting the business just by themselves or even just with their spouse. So they have to rely on each other’s discipline too, to make sure that they have, you know, um, the, the means that they can, uh, use to be able to survive using their, just their business profits and stuff. So that’s right. Yeah. Yep. Um, can you do work only four or six hours a week and build the business again? Um, you, you could take a really long time to do it. I don’t know any business owners that can get everything done that needs to be done for their business in four to six hours a week. Yeah.

Like, and say, I haven’t met anybody that can do it. So, um, I would say the answer is no. You can’t build a good business on four to six hours a week. Yeah. And actually you’re probably as a business owner, you’re going to be working more than you did when you were an employee. Um, you know, it’s not going to be 40 hours a week. It’s probably going to be more like 60 or 80 hours a week. Um, especially for the first few years until you get a, um, you know, a customer base and you might start in, uh, getting employees and stuff. Again, like I said before, it’s you, you’re the one that’s running your business and, and only you can control how your business goal was based on how much you put into it. And people might not realize that when, when we say work, it’s not just the work or the actual service or misses you or product or service that you provide your customers work, meaning, uh, you know, you have to improve on your marketing to get your other client, your phone calls, your emails to your other, um, to your potential clients for top Edmonton Bookkeeping.

I mean, this is part of your work. So, even though you, even though you’re doing it outside of what you consider work is, it’s still takes, um, your time out of your personal life. Do, do these admin or marketing, um, work just to keep your, um, your business steady and keep it going. Yeah. Yeah. Um, as a small business owner, should you make a schedule? Yeah, absolutely. You should make a schedule. Um, that’s how you’re going to get those hours in that you need and you’re going to get this stuff done. Uh, if you just make a to do list, it’s gonna get put aside and, um, you’re going to get distracted and not really get anything done. Not motivated. That’s right. But if you have a schedule, and I think too, I don’t know if we talk about this very much, but schedules, I think help too.

If you’re not motivated, you know, sometimes you can push through, okay, I can do this for an hour. You know what? I can get this done in an hour. I have it on my schedule, then it’s done. Might not have been very motivated to do it, but now it’s done. Yeah, absolutely. Um, can you change your schedule whenever you feel like it? Yeah, you can’t really, um, if you have a schedule that’s working for you, um, you should have in that schedule. Um, you know, seeing customers when you’re going to see customers, when you’re going to do quotes or estimates, um, you know, things like that when you’re going to do your, your Edmonton Bookkeeping, even if you don’t have a bookkeeper, um, when are you going to do the admin time? And if you change your schedule, everything’s gonna get messed up. If you just change your schedule at the last minute, then you’re going to have to contact your customers and reschedule them.

Or, um, you know, if you don’t decide not to show up on them again, you’re, you’re not going to be very incredible in your business. You’re not going to get stuff done and your business isn’t going to grow. And the problem is scaling your business. If you want to be the only person working for you in a business for your entire life, then fine. Okay. Do it the way you want it to. But if you’re trying to scale your business and, and you’re trying to hire an employee, it’s going to be hard to translate that to the other employee because they’re not, they’re going to have to rely on you a lot based on when you’re available, um, when you decide to be available and it’s going to be hard to schedule you for meetings or even scheduled the time to put in to talk to you because they don’t know what I like, where you are or yeah your Edmonton Bookkeeping.

When you’re going to be available because that schedule keeps changing. That’s right. So, um, that’s another thing that you might want to think about. If you’re trying to grow your business, sometimes you might need to change your schedule, you know, and maybe that schedule is not working for you. Try it for a month or two and see how it goes. If it’s not working for sure. Change your schedule. Like tweak it a little bits and everything. Yeah. The key is repeatable. Yeah. Calendar. Yeah. That’s great. Um, we’ll, things that don’t appear in your schedule get done in your free time. I don’t think so. Um, I dunno about you, but I value my free time and I don’t want to be doing work stuff in my free time when I know it should been on my schedule. Um, and I, again, it goes back to not having a schedule at all without Edmonton Bookkeeping.

That stuff never gets done. It just gets put off and put off. So put it in your schedule and get it done in your schedule. And, um, it’s amazing when you have that schedule, how much your free time is actually your free time. You can spend time with your family or doing your hobbies or um, you know, whatever. Cause it doesn’t have to be work related. It can be something that you, um, enjoy doing besides work. Yeah. You can definitely separate your personal and your, yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. Um, can you sleep in and simply work later again? You can, you can. You have to remember who you’re selling to, who your customers are, who your suppliers are. Um, you know, maybe you have some employees that are worksite and they’re waiting for supplies from you, but you’ve slept in. So now you’ve had these employees sitting at your white worksite and you’ve been paying them for doing nothing because they don’t have the product that they need because you are supposed to be up and getting that done. Um, you know, lots of people, their schedules are from eight til five. Um, if you’re working later than five, you might not be able to get ahold of them. Um, you know, your suppliers, absolutely. You’re not going to be able to get ahold of the master five o’clock at night. Um, so we would suggest not sleeping in. We would suggest, you know, getting up and working. Um, I mean, yeah, when you’re sleeping, your competitor’s probably working. Yeah. [inaudible]

sound thing to keep in mind. Yeah. Saturday’s not a regular Workday. Right. Um, well for us, Saturday is a regular Workday. Uh, we work off and on Saturdays, um, again, like you always said, and your competitors on Saturday, they’re taking the day off. If you’re working, you got an edge on them, you’re getting things done. Again, lots of your customers work from nine till five, Monday to Friday. They only have Saturdays and Sundays off. So I’m, you know, maybe Saturday is a great day to be able to do some sales and, uh, to get things out there to those people that are working and can’t actually meet with you or whatever until Saturday. And yeah, it’s a great way to do your admin work or, yeah. Um, your accounting and that’s right. Yeah. Or anything else. And this, this doesn’t have to be, um, forever that could use Edmonton Bookkeeping.

I mean, if you, if you want to keep on going with it. Absolutely. I mean, our demos, limited resources, we have this time, so, um, why not use it to, you know, grow your business system as much as you can. So that’s great. Um, can I get more? Oh, can I get more done if I multitask? Um, you may feel like you’re getting more done, but you’re really not. You’re, um, and the big thing is that you’re not getting anything done. Well, um, it’s, it’s kind of a myth that people can multitask. Um, people like to say they multitask, but really they’re not doing a good job of it. Um, there’s a, a study that shows that it takes, uh, 23 to get back to a project if you get interrupted. So if you’re multitasking, you’re, you’re switching to different projects, uh, and it’s taking, it’ll take you 23 minutes to get back into the project that you originally started with.

Um, so there you are wasting 23 minutes when you could just do that one project, get it done, get it off your plate, move onto the next one. Yeah. And especially if you’re using your brain a lot on these projects, it takes 23 minutes to get to that level where you were before you got interrupted. Yeah. That’s going to be really hard to get back to. Yeah. Um, well I get more vacation time if I work longer hours. Um, so yeah, you, you will, um, again, it’s going to take you a few years to get to that point. Um, if you’re the only one, if you’re the owner of your business and you don’t have any employees yet, or you have employees that you can’t really leave alone at your business yet, they’re not quite at the point where, um, you know, they could run the ship while you’re gone sort of thing without Edmonton Bookkeeping.

Um, it may take you a little bit longer to get there, but eventually you’re gonna get that vacation time and, um, just think of how nice it would be to be able to take a week off and not have to worry about your business, that you can just take that week off and spend it with your family and, uh, just maybe enjoy a trip somewhere or get your, your policies in place, you know, get your, uh, really use those longer hours to, uh, get a set of, uh, processes and checklists. And so that if, when you do take the vacation time that you really earned, your employees wouldn’t be left in the dark. That’s right. You already have, um, a strong set of, um, processes, that thing. That’s right. Yeah. Um, can I work from the beach? Arestaurant. So again, that kinda goes back to our four, six hour a week, uh, business.

We don’t recommend it. I mean, lots of people, again, when they start their own business, they think they can just work from wherever they want to and, um, you know, put in the hours whenever they want. And maybe your business is, is a, it works that way, but the majority of the businesses do not. I mean, I can tell you if I’m sitting on the beach, last thing I want to do is open my computer and start working. You know, it sounds enticing, but really that’s not what I want to do on a beach. Um, I would rather be in an office working and then when I get my week vacation, go to a beach and sit and enjoy the beach. Yeah. Um, same as with the restaurant. Again, there’s so many distractions. Um, you know, there’s people around, there’s so much noise. Yeah. We don’t recommend it.

It’s probably not the best place to work. Um, you know, it’s kind of the same as, um, I think it’s Mary Kay that talks about how you sell things better when you’re dressed up. Like, it’s the same thing. Like you don’t want to work in your pajamas if you’re selling products. The person that you’re selling to may never see you, but you just feel better if you’re in a suit tour in a, um, you know, business dress or whatever it is. I think it’s the same thing when you’re on the beach. You’re kind of more relaxed and, um, you’re not focusing 100% on your business. It’s the mindset that’s right. That that gives you, yeah. Yeah. All right, well I think that’s all the questions we have. Um, I hope you guys liked this video. Give us a thumbs up if you like it or subscribe to our channel and we’ll see you guys next time on our next always UpToDate episode.