Want to run your own business? Get ready for some loooong hours my friend!

Yawn...

Here it is, 2:26 a.m. my time.

I'm blogging.

And I'm a "getting older" guy too, not a young, 20 something that night owl's all the time.

So, it's 2:27 now and yes, I'm still blogging.

I just finished a blog article on my other site talking about how Best Buy is entering the retail music business and will also start offering music lessons in their stores.

You can read that article here...

Anyway, the point of this post is the time you spend in and working on your business.

If you read my first post, you'll remember that I said something to the effect of not having had to work a day since I left at&t .... even when I was scrubbing the studio toilets.

This is a true statement. What I do, day in and day out, does not feel like work.

But I work more hours now than I ever did at at&t.

Most days at at&t were getting to work around 7:45 a.m., breaks and lunch hours and then off somewhere in the neighborhood of 5:00-5:30 p.m. (on good days). All in all, around 8 hours of work. Which, truth be told, condensed to around 4 hours or real work and 4 hours of wasted time, i.e. unnecessary conference calls, trying to clean out 50 email that came in during said conference call, daydreaming of the day when I could do something else :)

With my own business, I'm typically at the studio after I drop the kids off at school (one of the perks I didn't have at at&t, being able to take my kids to school). So, let's say 8:10 a.m. I do studio business from my arrival until I start teaching. Some days, I start teaching at 9:30 a.m., other days it is 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

After teaching, depending on whether it is one of my late nights, I'll either hang around the studio to clean/organize for the next day, check email, make calls (if not too late), talk with the other instructors about new programs and then head home.

Once home, and after I've spent some family time, it's either practicing guitar for student lessons, or like tonight, getting online to update my studio blog, blog.littlerockjams.com.

Today, for example, is a 18 hour day spent on the business. And I would say the norm, now heading into year three, is 12-16 hours.

Again, it doesn't feel like work because I love what I do and I work with some really great people who totally kick my ass on guitar. LOL

But, if your idea of going into business for yourself is so that you can kick back and not have to work as much ... well, you're setting yourself up for a rude awakening my friend.

As I mentioned, I am just now starting my third year in business. I can say that the time demands have diminished some. But overall, I am still putting in nearly double the hours I did at at&t. Who knows, maybe next year I can cut back to just a few hours a day. My crystal ball really doesn't tell me if that will be the case. ;)

So let me say this again ... If you plan to go into business for yourself, do so because you have a passion for what you are going to do, not just because you want to be the boss and get rich. Yes, being the boss and hopefully getting rich are nice things. But, if they're not to be for 5-10 years after starting your business, and after many thousands of hours of your time invested, can you honestly say that idea appeals to you?

Until next time...