A Day in the Life of a Business Owner

Clara published her "Day in the Life of an Editor" and I thought it was about time I did my own. The only difference is, a Day in the life of an Editor-in-Chief just wouldn't be an adequate title. As a business owner, I wear nearly every hat there is! So, my entry will be "A Day in the Life of a Business Owner." I'm sure every business owner, regardless of the business, can relate.



I try to actually be "in" the office for a full day on Mondays and Wednesdays. (In case anyone ever needs to reach me...that is the best time.) That said, I can be difficult to reach in the afternoons on those days as I am often required to do this or that for my two school-aged children.



I am out of the office running errands, going to our warehouse, etc. on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.



Our offices are closed on Fridays. Well....sort of. As the business owner, I work roughly six days a week, sometimes seven. On Fridays I do not answer the phone or check email in order to help me give undivided time to other things that must be done.



I'm actually going to give you the run-down on two of my recent days.



Friday (supposed to be a full-day to work on the July/August print issue)



I got up at 5:30 AM. I got myself and my oldest daughter ready for the day.

6:45-8:00 AM: Worked on the finishing touches of e-magazine issue 4. Also worked on the downloadable version of the mini-idea book that would be available to those purchasing the back issue "Undersea Fantasy" collection.

8:00: Woke my youngest daughter and realized that an arm injury that we had been "watching" since she hurt it at school on Tuesday would probably need to be checked by the doctor.

8-8:30: Got my daughter ready for school.

8:30: Called the Doctor. Had to leave for the bus before the appointment was made...handed the phone to my husband to finish.

8:45: Hubby heads to the bus just as it left to tell me that the Doctor's appt. is at 9:40.

9:00 - 9:15: Finished getting ready...copied files from one computer to another so I could get some work done while waiting at the Doctor's office.

9:15: Went to pick up my daughter and take her to the appointment.

10:30: We were required to get X-rays....went to the clinic.

11:30: Had lunch and returned my daughter to school.

12:00-1:30: Spent time going over schedules and other daily life details with my husband who I had not seen for about a week. (I was in Maryland and then he left to go to Chicago the day I got back.)

1:30-3:30: I had a splitting headache. (No reflection on dear hubby.) I input magazine subscriptions into our database and pulled product for shipment.

3:30: My splitting heading required me to lay down. I wound up sleeping for two hours!

5:30: My husband was off carting our children back and forth from their various extra-curriculars. I put on my jammies and had dinner by myself. (TMI?)

6:30: I had every intention on continuing work on the July/August print issue....but just didn't feel like it.

7:00-10:00: My children came home and we vegged out on the sofa.



*Somewhere in there I managed to send emails to a couple of advertisers from whom I was awaiting last-minute ads.



Saturday:



6:00 AM: Got up and ate breakfast.

6:30 AM: Worked on the electronic version of the mini-idea book. It was giving me trouble...so I quit and began to work on getting issue 4 of the e-magazine ready to post.

8:00 AM: Uploaded the e-magazine and began testing it.

8:30-9:30: Finshed up the shipping for this week.

9:30: Continued testing the e-magazine...also figured out how to fix the issues with the mini-idea book.

11:30: Uploaded the mini idea book to the shopping cart and added it as a product. NOTE: please do NOT "buy" this mini idea book. I gave it a really high "price" to try and dissuade you. It is actually free with the purchase of one of the Undersea Fantasy back issue kits. Only our club members who get the kit by mail as part of their regular shipment get the printed/bound version.

12:00: Lunch

12:30: Got my youngest daughter bathed and ready to go to a family graduation. I was unable to attend because I had too much work to do.

1:00-1:30: Added the Memorial Day sale promotion to the shopping cart.

1:30-2:00: Updated some product listings on the shopping cart.

2:00-3:00: Created the email "newsletter" announcing the e-magazine and tested it.

3:00-4:00: Cleaned off my kitchen table. (This was actually a bigger chore than I would like to admit.)

4:00-5:00: Unloaded my dishwasher and loaded it again. Wiped down my kitchen table.

5:00-5:30: Sent the e-magazine notification emails. Simultaneously began preparing dinner. (I'm going to see if I can post the recipe somewhere...it is easy and low cal!)

5:30-6:00: Finshed preparing dinner. Spent time adding the coupon code to orders that came through for the emagazine without it. Worked on this blog entry!

6:00-7:00 PM: Dinner

7:00-9:30 PM: Work on the July/August print issue.



*This day was also supposed to be spent working entirely on the print issue. So, that means I will have to spend tomorrow working so that I can have Memorial Day off.



I LOVE what I do! I could have never imagined myself doing what I do, nor could I have created a job description that would have given me as much satisfaction as this job does. It is certainly a lot of work, and more often that not, a struggle. But, thanks to all of you, I am able to have this wonderful job. Thank you so much for being part of this adventure.