All That Business Talk (Long Entry) in Days of My Destiny

The business is going well. It’s been going well since we started around 8 weeks ago. There have been some weeks where L has ended up having a lot more work than he anticipated and this has been somewhat overwhelming for him.

I think that I’ve been happy that work has been coming in. I noticed he would tell me about a job and it almost felt like he was complaining that he had work! I kept saying to him, “Well, we’ve got work!! That’s amazing!!!” And he’d respond, “… yeah...... that’s right!” One morning he woke up early and was sighing and sighing away. I said to him, “You’re just not motivated today, are you?” He said, “I’m alright......” and nothing more.

I knew then that this was getting too much for him. You see, before we even started this business, my sister (who also runs a business with her husband) had given us some great pointers on how to get the best start. The best advice was all about support from my end of things, ie what I could do to best support my husband in our new venture. But whatever I mentioned to L, he didn’t seem too interested. He seemed to want to do this on his own. It’s tricky because initially, before this was even close to being a reality, he did ask me if I’d want to be a part of it - and I immediately said No, because I had just kick started my own career. I’d finally found a place where my job would align with my values and I wanted to take care of myself and my heart first. I was kind of over having to put everyone else first. He was happy with my response and I think that from there, he simply put the idea (of me being involved) away in his mind. When we moved back and actually started the business, we talked about things that I could do. I did clarify at some point that, while I didn’t want to be fully immersed in this business (because I have my own career happening now and I want things to stay that way for a while), I was happy to help out with anything, whenever the need arose.

So the first thing I helped out with was accompanying him to a job! I spent an entire day fetching things for him and going with him on errands and pulling cables through conduit and all sorts of fun things! I didn’t know how it would go because we’d never actually worked together but it went SO well. He was really happy with how quickly I was doing things and I think he was impressed with my general enthusiasm towards work (I wonder if he wandered about this beforehand, based on my general lack of enthusiasm towards HOUSE work!!!!). He kept praising me all day and giving me compliments and I knew he was impressed. On another couple of occasions I’ve had to pick up items for him from his suppliers. We had ordered a shirt for me to wear on the job. Unfortunately it is a much bigger fit than I had expected. L said this is actually a good thing when you’re on the job but personally, I am unhappy with the frumpy look it gives me. I want to order myself a decent, corporate-looking blouse for the occasions when I DO need to pick up items for him because that large shirt just won’t do. It will from his perspective but not from mine. Anyway so on these two occasions I didn’t have a corporate looking blouse of any kind but nevermind, it is what it is - for now.

Along the way, we have talked about how I can pick items up for him and that’s about it. At one point we started talking about how maybe I could oversee our facebook page - but none of it sounded serious. From my perspective, it sounded like he was just trying to please me, to keep me entertained, like he was going, “There, there, you can oversee the page - now run along, child.” And for me, running a facebook page doesn’t exactly sound like much. I didn’t feel like I was going to be DOING work that was worth a lot, and I didn’t feel like I was going to be contributing much to the business at all. We just kind of talked about it in an airy-fairy manner and that was that, nothing was actually accomplished from it and no real decision was made.

We’ve had a few differences of opinion. For example, because he’s had plenty of work already, he’s felt that it’s not as urgent to keep on advertising or door knocking. Whereas for me, I feel that it’s ALWAYS good to have your name out there! That way, there never IS a slow week! But I’ve taken his lead on whatever he thinks because well, he’s the main man! It’s not like we decided that I’d be the OFFICIAL admin lady or anything, because if anything, I’d decided against it a long time ago!!!! So in this sense, I guess the lines were a little blurred.

But then he became overwhelmed with the work and unenthused. I could see it in his spirit. The last two weeks started off real slow in terms of booked work, and then by the end of the week L was run off his feet! He was tired and grumpy and I think he felt a slight loss of control with how things were panning out. He was frustrated that he wasn’t really getting time to keep his ute organised or to stay on top of emails and the online accounting system. We went for dinner at T’s about two weeks ago and she gave us some pointers on how to run a business page on facebook. She looks at systems and finds ways to improve them - this is what she does for a living. So L was listening with a way more open ear. I found it frustrating because half of what she said were the same things I had suggested in some of our conversations but I’d been met with a half-hearted, “Oh yeah.....”

When we had our big argument on the weekend (the one where I put him in his spot because he’s always undermining my intelligence and lacks confidence in my ability to make sound financial decisions), one of the things that came up was how he just doesn’t seem to generally take my opinions seriously, like they’re not good enough when it comes to the business. I gave him the example above and I knew he realised that what I was saying was true. (That whole episode needs a whole other entry!) Since then I’ve noticed that he IS making more of an effort to validate what I say about anything and I find that already it is making some big changes!

So now I’m taking on a much more active role in the business. We decided that it will be my job to log into the service seeking website daily and to follow up on job leads. For now that means that I will respond to potential customers online, advising them of our hourly rate and then passing on their contact details to L so he can call them to truly follow up and book the job. Eventually, as I learn more and more about what is involved with his jobs, I might be able to call the customers myself in order to book them in, but for now, this is what we’ve got and we’re both happy with this. I also made sure that he got the Google Calendar app on his phone so that whoever books a job in (he’s happy for me to book his days in with the computer), will be able to see what the other has put in to the calendar. Yay!! I organised that last night. I light-heartedly used a stern tone to tell him that he REALLY needs to be using his diary - he bought himself a diary when all of this first started and he was so excited to use it, he looked so cute carrying it around with him, but it seems that the novelty had worn off! Lately I’d noticed that he was writing customer’s names and addresses down on random pieces of paper!!! What the!!!! So I told him he NEEDS to use his diary!!! He didn’t even know where it was!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!! He’s since found it though and proudly showed me what he’s been writing in it, lol.

My daily tasks will also include logging into our online accounting system to create any bills on there that we receive via email from our suppliers, as well as to do reconcile any items. I will also create any invoices for L if needed (for example the other day I created one for him that won’t be needed until next week - he actually asked me to do this) and I will check the facebook business page and update posts if necessary. I already have an idea to post every Friday and call it “Fun Fact Friday!” and add interesting little facts to do with electricity on there. That way, we will be posting at least once a week. This was an idea that T had and I really liked it.

My sister also gave me awesome ideas, such as using up free advertising opportunities wherever I can! I hadn’t thought of that!

Also, I will check our “inventory” on a weekly basis - how many business cards and magnets are left? Do we need more paper? And order where necessary.

These are all small things but they are things that add up. I imagine I will spend between 1 to 1.5 hours on my daily tasks and I’m okay with that! I find that L is a lot more calm and happy again. I think that with my involvement being a lot more official and having clearly defined tasks/roles for me, it gives him peace of mind. Not only this but it will actually cut down the time HE’S spending on all of these things! And let’s face it, his strength is NOT the paperwork side of things, he’s never gone for an office job because it simply would kill him! Whereas I have the skills. I can type a LOT faster than he can and I have much better spelling, so we’ve also decided that he will dictate emails to me. We tried this for the first time the night before last and he was absolutely gobsmacked at how soon an email was finished and sent off!!!! Lol.

I’m really glad that we are discovering what works and using our skills appropriately now. We are using our strengths to run this business well and we are communicating clearly and implementing changes as soon as we see they are needed. This is going to rock!

Last updated September 02, 2015