On the other days I stay home. I'm working on a couple of writing projects, and my original plan was to send out a book proposal in the fall and see if anyone nibbled, but I decided to hold off on that when the economy took a turn for the worse. I didn't want to have a publisher reject an idea that they might have embraced during better times. Instead, I'm continuing to work on these projects on my own, so I'll have a more finished product to shop around down the line.
So far the business has made almost enough to pay me these past few months and I have a little bit saved, certainly enough to tide me over until spring if things get bleak. Business at the storefront has been mostly slow, but the Ballard Market has been busy, and we'll start doing the University District market as well in a couple of weeks. I'd certainly make more money if I worked the store and the markets myself, but I figure my hands-on time is more valuable over the summer than over the winter.
My original vision when I started my my business was to create something that could mostly run itself, so that I could spend my time writing. It was naive of me to expect that to happen quickly, especially when I had no background in business and almost no capital. I've worked very hard the past twenty years. It hasn't been uncommon for me to work 60 hour weeks, and at one point I went for 4 months without a single day off.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy taking so much time off now, when conventional wisdom says I should be earning every possible penny. But I've been working for a long time to make this happen. I'm certainly taking a risk and I may regret it in a few months, but right now my gut feeling says that the most important thing I can do is to invest in myself.
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