How many hours is too many

[jaygreenb]

There's some good advice here. Time, especially the younger you are, is your greatest asset. I'm a big proponent of having the end-goal, or some intermediary goal in sight, and always frame your work in the context of moving towards that purpose. If the work is just a means for getting a paycheck, that's alright for a while, because you need money to advance your position, but that's not going to work long term. You need to frame your goals and determine whether what your doing now is bringing you closer or further from them.

I also advocate for saving/responsibly investing as much as you reasonably can (and this means no crypto or risky meme stocks), I'm talking tax-advantaged index funds, etc. This is because you need to get yourself on the road to financial independence, and time in the market is the #1 key to this for most people.

Keep grinding it out and fighting the good fight, but make sure you have a viable exit strategy. I'm a CPA doing corporate accounting, I don't love what I do, but I tolerate it well enough (and it's a great gig for my age) because I know that not so far in the future if I grind it out and purposefully improve my craft over a period of years, I have the credentials and expertise to set my own working conditions.

I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I'd you aren't already to deep into your career, make a conscious decision to find something that is valuable to society, pays well, and you can become the go-to expert in. Work like hell at it for an extended period of time (but don't forget to enjoy life), and before you know it , you'll be on the path to prosperity. But the truth is, there are no shortcuts viable for most people

Accounting is a great background to have for all areas of business, get comfortable with the sales side and you will have a lot of options even if it is running your own firm.

 

[Bingo-Player]

Accounting is a great background to have for all areas of business, get comfortable with the sales side and you will have a lot of options even if it is running your own firm.

Worked in accounting for 6 years one of the most miserable experiences of my life

The people you will be working with won't be people they will be cyborgs processing numbers

Literally everything single thing they do even in their outside lives has to be numbers based

 

[jaygreenb]

Worked in accounting for 6 years one of the most miserable experiences of my life

The people you will be working with won't be people they will be cyborgs processing numbers

Literally everything single thing they do even in their outside lives has to be numbers based

I have a decent idea, my first job out of college was in fund accounting at one of the big investment banks. Basically compiling, and reporting all the info/market values/ trades etc daily for different funds. Might be a little different than a CPA firm but it was an entry level job for a finance/econ degree. It was a sweat shop and basically glorified data entry but learned a lot and developed skills I used down the road. I made some quality friendships there, a few of which I still talk to 20yrs later. A lot of people I worked with used it as a launch pad to later have pretty successful careers in the front office at big money managers. It was a large corporate environment and one of the reasons I decided to start my own business. I could neve go back to the corporate world.

 

[Murk]

Not sure what you do and if you can hire people, but in order to scale and eventually get a balanced lifestyle, you have to hire and delegate. If possible, hire to fill the roles or do the work you least like to do or are not great at. Might help with focus/enjoyment if you can delegate out those tedious duties. It can hurt your bottom line initially taking on the costs of employees but a lot of small business owners cap themselves because they do not want to eat the initial costs. Burn out and loss of focus eventually happens if you try to do everything yourself, that was an initial struggle for me. Might help if you determine what your long term goals are in terms of lifestyle/time commitment/revenue/income then reverse engineer on what steps that would take to get there. That is the great thing about being a business owner, can basically build out whatever suits your needs if you are capable.

May or may not apply to you but several cheaper options is using a bookkeeper or hire a virtual assistant abroad. I know several people who have had success with that with minimal costs compared to hiring in the West. They used a company in the Philippines since they all speak English.

Funny you mention the Phillippines, I employ 2 resourcers to basically fill my roles but the agency I use I found out take 85% of their earnings so productivity wasn't too high. I sacked one with a view to taking them on directly after 6 months (restrictive covenants of the contract), the second is doing well and I am paying him a direct 10% commission for any deals he makes. To find local people would cost 50k per year all in plus commission which I'm not in a place mentally to do.

Bookkeeping/accountancy I mainly do it myself, I also pay an accountant who I think is ****. My goal is to find a wife to turn into an accountant/HR manager, that's the dream.

I've had 2 invoices paid this week for an amount that was my previous annual salary. It's times like this after 5 months hard work I tend to switch off. but here I am Sunday night, working, sending emails, creating pipeline projects and lining up my week.

FYI - I reduced my caffeine intake to 3 cups and nothing after 12pm.

 

[jaygreenb]

Funny you mention the Phillippines, I employ 2 resourcers to basically fill my roles but the agency I use I found out take 85% of their earnings so productivity wasn't too high. I sacked one with a view to taking them on directly after 6 months (restrictive covenants of the contract), the second is doing well and I am paying him a direct 10% commission for any deals he makes. To find local people would cost 50k per year all in plus commission which I'm not in a place mentally to do.

Bookkeeping/accountancy I mainly do it myself, I also pay an accountant who I think is ****. My goal is to find a wife to turn into an accountant/HR manager, that's the dream.

I've had 2 invoices paid this week for an amount that was my previous annual salary. It's times like this after 5 months hard work I tend to switch off. but here I am Sunday night, working, sending emails, creating pipeline projects and lining up my week.

FYI - I reduced my caffeine intake to 3 cups and nothing after 12pm.

Yeah, I'm sure you got to be careful on how you go about finding what firm to use. Imagine if it is managed in the states they are basically sub contracting out the work and taking a large cut. Funny you mention that though because there is a guy I have known for 20yrs, a little slimey and just hops from industry to industry on whatever the new hot wave is. I saw an ad of him promoting his business in this area around a month ago.

I hear you on the dollar increases, you get accustomed to the larger numbers as you move up. Then in a few years you look back and see how far you have come. Sounds like you are on the right track, wish you much success.

 

[BeExcellent]

Funny you mention the Phillippines, I employ 2 resourcers to basically fill my roles but the agency I use I found out take 85% of their earnings so productivity wasn't too high. I sacked one with a view to taking them on directly after 6 months (restrictive covenants of the contract), the second is doing well and I am paying him a direct 10% commission for any deals he makes. To find local people would cost 50k per year all in plus commission which I'm not in a place mentally to do.

Bookkeeping/accountancy I mainly do it myself, I also pay an accountant who I think is ****. My goal is to find a wife to turn into an accountant/HR manager, that's the dream.

I've had 2 invoices paid this week for an amount that was my previous annual salary. It's times like this after 5 months hard work I tend to switch off. but here I am Sunday night, working, sending emails, creating pipeline projects and lining up my week.

FYI - I reduced my caffeine intake to 3 cups and nothing after 12pm.

You do realize you are going to need to find a woman who is particularly smart, loyal, levelheaded and pragmatic as well as numbers and business savvy. All that in addition to her passing the boner test.

Just bear in mind that your accountant/bookkeeper is never going to run the books as tight as you will. You *might* find a woman who could, but you'll need to really screen her. The convenience of paying someone else to do your books comes at an efficiency cost.

I see the same thing with property managers. They are never as efficient as I am. They are also never as invested.

 

[Murk]

You do realize you are going to need to find a woman who is particularly smart, loyal, levelheaded and pragmatic as well as numbers and business savvy. All that in addition to her passing the boner test.

Just bear in mind that your accountant/bookkeeper is never going to run the books as tight as you will. You *might* find a woman who could, but you'll need to really screen her. The convenience of paying someone else to do your books comes at an efficiency cost.

I see the same thing with property managers. They are never as efficient as I am. They are also never as invested.

I mainly need her to be the HR manager as I will always pay for an accountant to oversee any bookkeeping.

 

[jaygreenb]

I mainly need her to be the HR manager as I will always pay for an accountant to oversee any bookkeeping.

Would be careful counting on that without even having the a person in mind yet. Trying to force that too early could cause some issues if relationship didn't work out.

 

[Murk]

Would be careful counting on that without even having the a person in mind yet. Trying to force that too early could cause some issues if relationship didn't work out.

It’s just an option, I’m not seeking a woman to have any part of my business. When I eventually breed a girl I’ll want her looking after the kids but putting her on the payroll and making her HR manager makes sense.

 

[jaygreenb]

It’s just an option, I’m not seeking a woman to have any part of my business. When I eventually breed a girl I’ll want her looking after the kids but putting her on the payroll and making her HR manager makes sense.

You can do all sorts of stuff like that, my dad had me on his payroll since I was very young. Not exactly sure how it was structured but there were a lot of tax benefits and money did not go directly to me