There are a lot of perks of being my own boss. For instance, if I don't want to wear makeup one day, I don't have to (unless, of course I have a meeting. In which case, I grab the concealer and mascara...a girl has to keep her dignity...)
Here are some of the perks I anticipated when I started my own gig several years ago:
- Wearing my pjs while talking to people
- Wearing my pjs while answering emails
- Wearing my pjs while making paint selections
- Driving with the windows down all the time, because I wouldn't have to worry about my hair because I'd being working from home...and who was gonna say something?
- Not having to wear makeup
- If I didn't want to check an email until noon, I didn't have to worry about that
- I wouldn't have to worry about being nice to "that" person in the office...
- Wearing my pjs while brushing my teeth at noon while checking my email (no, I'm kidding about this one. I'm up and showered pretty early...)
My point for the above list is that I knew I was going to be working hard. I knew I would bust my butt, but I also anticipated doing most of the "busting" in my pjs (after all, that's a major perk of working from home, right?) Well, over the past few years I've learned a little something about those pjs. The day you decide its okay to stay in them past the 8 o'clock news, you're screwed. A client will call and need you at the job site NOW or something will happen and you need to leave the house five minutes ago...I've learned that you just wake up when the alarm goes off on the other side of the room and take the shower and stumble around the bathroom, hoping to not poke out your eye with the mascara wand.
One of the best perks I never thought of was vacations. Case in point, back in April we decide to take a cruise with some of our college friends for a week. At most jobs, you get a week off all year, so I start putting this together in my head, I'll let all my contractors and clients know, I will be gone for a week.
And then I realized that I was also gone for a week back in June when I was running the summer camp program for the SPCA. (So, if I worked for an office, and asked for another week off, they'd look at me like I was a nut-bag)...And then I thought back a little further to that week vacation we took back in February...
I start adding all these dates up and realize, if I weren't my own boss....I might think I was a slacker. (Until I'm laying in front of my computer at midnight working on a proposal...or coordinating selections with an empty stomach because the meeting was only supposed to take an hour and five hours later...)
Imagine my surprise while talking to my family about our upcoming cruise and my dad says he just booked a three bedroom suite at one of our favorite Disney hotels. Uhm....
This is when I realized the BIGGEST perk of being my own boss. I made the executive decision that it was more cost effective and more heart effective (meaning, it would do my heart good) to just stay in Florida after our week cruise to spend more time with my family and then go to Disney.
I mean, I was thinking of the environment too. Why waste all that gas and exert all that energy flying me and Lil' Man allllllllll the way back to Cleveland, just to shoot us back down to Florida the week after? So, I did something I've never done before, I packed the giant suitcase and Lil' Man and I piggy backed our vacations.
We did the week long cruise to the Caribbean with our college friends, then spent the most wonderful quality time with my dad and got to watch Lil' Man enjoy the company of his Pop Pop, then got to spend time with my sister, brother and both of their families. Was this the most selfish vacation ever? Probably. But when I think of the fact that I was able to watch my son and dad bond, I wouldn't trade that for any amount of company stock available.
Would I have traded watching my son and his big cousins going down the slide over (and over, and over and over) to sit in a chair and look at a computer screen? No way, Jose.
And I'm beyond thankful for this gift that was given to me. To us. To my family.I'm so blessed to have a husband who doesn't resent that I played for an extra week, while he went to work each day. To have a son who, although his naptime and bedtime was disrupted for two weeks only broke down once....
So, while the working in the pjs is a huge perk, the biggest perk I've found so far is being able to keep my family front and center. Right where they should be. And where they will be forever :)
