The Modern Cottage Company

s n e e k   p e e k s 

&

a   l o o k   a t   m y  w o r k   w e e k 

I have been away for the weekend celebrating my daughter's birthday and my mom is in town to help us celebrate.  Planning, cleaning, and packing took up the majority of my week last week. Plus, I worked at the store Thursday and Saturday. I am taking the rest of this week to play catch up with my work.

I am halfway through some projects at my own home so I thought I would give you a tease of what I have been working on for my own home.

Since I didn't have a whole lot of inspiration pictures to show you today I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about how I organize my work week. I get a ton of emails a day asking me questions about how I work {if they are interested in getting in to this field} or basic questions if they are a customer about inventory and custom work.  

This is a very rough draft of a typical week. Throw in a sick child or two and it kind of knocks off my schedule {but this is why I am my own boss}.

-Monday-

*Kids off to school 9am*

*9-10am* Answer emails, plan out my week of projects, accounting.

*10-2pm* Buying for the store. This means running around to my favorite spots {my secret} and buying furniture I know will sell for the store. I try to stick to a strict budget. I have also only been trying to do shop buying one afternoon a week. If I don't find what I need I wait until the next week. Running around buying things for the shop everyday is a big time waster for me. I then have to haul and organize them into what is going into storage and what I am going to paint that week

*2-3pm* I go for a run {my lunch break} and then shower finally for the day

*330pm-7pm* Store, homework, soccer, swimming, ahh!!! 

*7pm I check my email but don't work for the rest of the day, I do check in via FB with the other shop girls around this time*

-Tuesday, Wednesday-

*9am* Kids off to school

*9-10am* Supply buying for the week. All the paint supplies I would need, fabric, tags, knobs, any staging items I need for blog posts. I try to stick to my list and a budget

*10am-2pm* Painting for the store {only 8 hours a week so I am super focused, organized and work on about 6 big projects at once and 6-8 small projects}

*2pm-3pm* run, lunch, shower

*Pick up the kids from school and do the whole sports routine again. 

*Tuesday nights from 8pm-1030pm I have a store meeting with the other girls

-Thursdays-

*9am* Kids off to school

*9-10am* load car up with all the furniture I finished the week and haul it down to the store {by myself}.

*10-11am* Unload at the store, price, pictures and get the store ready to open.

*11am-3pm* work at the store

*3-7pm*  I try to sneak in some painting when the kids are home since we don't have sports this night

-Fridays-

My day off to clean, grocery shop. I work all day Saturday so Fridays are my weekends. I try not to answer work emails or do anything MCC related this day. I do sometimes paint and decorate for my own home this day. 

-Saturday-

Get kids up, fed, and ready for soccer.

I work at the store this day so my husband is shuffling the kids around to activities {thank goodness for a supportive husband}.

630pm get home from work. If I have a good at the shop we go out to dinner.

-Sundays-

I don't work this day. It is my one day with my family. I even try not to look at my work email.

So you can see I don't do custom work anymore, or do any shopping for specific items clients ask for. I just simply don't have time {even though I would really love to}. I need to be super organized to get anything done. I love that I have the flexibility of this job, but I do know if I want to meet my sales goals I have to be very dedicated to this schedule. Did you notice I didn't have the blog on my schedule? This has been a hard one for me. I really enjoy the blog but it can take hours to stage photos, write and edit posts. I am struggling to fit this in, but I know it is important and it is my favorite part of my job. I have several people ask if they could do my social media and I always turn them down. I feel like this is my company so the voice of it should be me, even though it would be nice to have the help.

I know that my schedule isn't so outrageous. I have worked a full time desk job with kids for years and I know that it is crazy too. I also don't work late at night. Once my work day is done, I spend it with my family. I have learned with my own business that it is 24/7 and I have to learn to turn off my phone, email, put down my paint brush and enjoy my family.

I hope this gives some insight into my job, especially for those who are interested in pursuing the same work.