IN THE EARLY SEVENTIES when my last two children were small, I started a sewing business from my home. I specialized in clothing, bed coverings, and miscellaneous accessories created out of colorful, machine-washable patchwork I had designed and constructed, working primarily from the bedroom I shared with my husband.
I chose this work to provide supplemental income for the family in a way that would enable me to remain close to the children and their needs as well as to satisfy my own creative urges. In those beginning days my entire schedule of “work” revolved around my husband’s job, the older children’s school, nursery school, and the housework/meals/laundry routine. I cut and sewed while watching TV or talking with the children or my husband, I bought fabric on family outings, and often we combined selling at craft shows with a family camping trip or music festival.
Not only did my work revolve around the family, it also involved the family. My toddlers rapidly learned how to use scissors and cut the thread separating the hundreds of squares I was sewing together, while the teenagers were indispensable when it came to setting up my display at area craft shows. My husband became chief presser of all those tiny seams I was stitching, and I relied on his candid opinions for final placement of particular fabrics.
Time for designing and creating was at a minimum, and my privacy for many years amounted to a few stolen moments in the bathroom. I adapted to my situation, devising methods of putting together a variety of fabrics and colors in a seemingly spontaneous way. This planning eventually helped me develop patterns and styles uniquely my own, thereby eliminating the need for long creative time periods.
After my husband’s death in l976 I continued my schooling and professional training in an area far from sewing. After the youngest child went out on his own in l987, I decided to return to working at home.
Once again I find myself in a home-based business publishing and selling self-help books and tapes, only now I have a separate office, upstairs from my general living quarters. Scheduling work time would appear to be a much simpler task than it was twenty years ago, for I have twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to choose from!
The inclination, of course, is to work too much, letting what needs to be done dictate what gets done, or to work too little, letting outside visitors, TV, or housework interfere with the business work that needs to be tended to.
In trying to come to some sort of balance between the needs of the business and my own personal needs (which admittedly sometimes conflict), I devised a way of scheduling work periods which has proven to be successful. In the beginning, for the first month or so of having a separate office, I slept, worked, and played entirely when I felt like it, in order to discover my own pattern of work habits.
Eventually I detected a rhythm in my scheduling, one that was comfortable for me as well as meeting the needs of the business (such as being able to talk with advertisers in different time zones). Often that meant rolling out of bed at ten, picking up my mail at the post office and going to the bank by noon, spending the afternoon upstairs in the office, tending to personal things during the late afternoon and early evening, and working upstairs again several evenings a week. Other evenings I carried work downstairs to do in front of the TV, sometimes until long after midnight.
Rarely did I do office work on the weekend, and Sunday I didn’t even answer the phone. Sometimes I would stay up till three or four in the morning if I were in the middle of a big project and didn’t want to quit. One week a month I had deadlines to meet, which translated into many extra hours, and one or two days each week I worked in a “manic” mode from the time I got up till the time I fell asleep, often threading laundry and cleaning chores into those fast-paced days.
I have now hired a receptionist who answers my phone from her home forty flexible hours a week, plus an office assistant who picks up the mail, does errands, and works in my home office fifteen to twenty (flexible) hours a week. This frees me to do the more creative, growth-oriented tasks related to my business. Though I sometimes work Friday evening or Saturday afternoon, I do insist on having some completely free time every weekend, plus the whole day Sundays. This gives me the needed time to relax enough to allow new ideas to enter my consciousness, while getting the bulk of the weekly tasks associated with the business finished by mid Friday afternoon.
I make it a point to empty the wastebaskets, clear off my desk, and straighten the computer center and mail table on Fridays, even though I might pop upstairs sometime over the weekend to dash off a letter or update some computer data. I also like to plan one long relaxing bath for late Friday or Saturday afternoon, finding this an ideal time to shed business concerns and worries and free my mind for less mundane efforts.
You might find my work timetable uncomfortable, but you can find one that is right for you. First of all, let go of any notions that you must adhere to an artificial nine-to-five routine. Experiment with different times, different schedules, or with no set schedule at all. Find what works best for you. Children love to be included in some way, whether it’s keeping your pencils sharp or accompanying you when you make deliveries, so don’t forget to include them.
Be definite yet flexible in your chosen work hours, and above all, do enjoy the freedom a home-based business affords you in terms of time.
About the author:
The Truth According to Sally Miller: Collected Essays by Sally Miller
The 65 short essays in this unusual collection are as progressive and practical as they were when first published twenty years ago. Drawing from her experience as a sexual counselor and a natural healer, Sally Miller treats us to two separate collections. In “Health and Wellness” Ms. Miller reveals her struggle with depression and her healing from cancer surgery without conventional medical treatment, as well as giving us instruction on time and stress management. In “Sexuality & Relationships” she exposes herself in a way few women have (Betty Dodson and Carol Queen come to mind) while offering advice to us all. Topics include psychological & spiritual growth, natural healing, family, relationships, sexual problems & solutions, and special sexual interests. The common thread through both parts is Ms. Miller’s refreshing honesty and her idealism. As well as being a thirteen-year ovarian cancer survivor, Sally Miller is a trained sex therapist; she holds the unique position to see her worlds up close and personal, to reflect on herself as well as to entertain and enlighten her readers.
The Truth According to Sally Miller: Collected Essays is available for $25 postage-paid through SynergyBookService website.
Articles by Sally on a variety of topics have been published in The Affiliate, The Rocky Mountain Oyster, The Women’s Newspaper of Princeton, EIDOS, Touchpoint, The Jersey Shore Holistic Magazine, Street News, Clean Sheets, and others. For details on her new book, The Truth According to Sally Miller: Collected Essays, see below. For more information, see the Synergy Book Service Web site.
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