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Despite all of the instability and lack of job security, self-employment has brought me many advantages that I'm not sure I could live without anymore. Although I am certainly a creature of habit in many respects I have never been one to stick to any set working hours for more than a week at a time without at least some adjustment. Sometimes this adjustment is something along the lines of working from 11 to 7 instead of 10 to 6. Sometimes, and more often when I was living in Chicago, these hours would adjust from working the standard nine-to-five one day to working from 3pm until 10pm the following day, and following that up with a thirty-hour work-a-thon one day and day of sleeping and watching Matlock reruns the next. The last really good work "adjustment" i undertook was the week before January and I got engaged. She had gone to Prague to visit Tasci and I was taking advantage of the freedom by locking myself in my office and working nonstop. I had taken on several big projects and committed to a few deadlines that were a bit unrealistic... but I had a plan. Not just a plan, but a plan with a name. It was The Four Hour Plan: work from 7am until 11am, grab a quick lunch and sleep from 11am until 3pm, get back to work until 7pm, spend a little time socializing from 7pm until 11pm, then hit the work again until 3am when I would crash on the mattress in the closet and get up at 7 and repeat the cycle. This schedule was the definition of insantity, but it did succeed in helping me accomplish two very important things; I managed to work more than 100 hours in a single week and meet all of my overly-ambitious deadlines. Additionally, the sleep-deprivation-induced insanity forced me to focus solely on work and sleep rather than the fact that my soon-to-be-fiance was halfway around the world wandering the streets of the Czech Republic without me. But I've gotten off topic a bit. What I wanted to get at was that another big advantage of self employment has been the chance to work alongside Phil and Nathan, two of my self-employed friends, in some office space we rent on OSU's campus. Nathan does the same sort of work I do, and it's been helpful to us both to have someone to bounce problems and ideas off of. Phil, on the other hand, is a salesman. And I put that in italics to indicate my disgust. Or maybe jealousy. I'm not quite sure. I sit one office over from him and hear him, on a daily basis, convince people of things. What these things are depends on who he is selling for that day; maybe it's the criminal defense lawyer with a lot of experience helping people accused of DUI or GSI (as an aside, try to spend as little time as possible in Licking County -- trust me, that's where all the crazies are) or maybe it's the photography company who will take pictures of your kids and sell you packages of pictures. Up until now the bulk of these jobs has involved waiting for potential clients to contact him, whilst passing the time playing solitaire or watching Battlestar Galactica. Recently, however... this has changed. Phil has stepped up his salesman abilities into the dreaded area of cold calls. It is because of this, and the fact that the door between our offices isn't quite soundproof, that I know the following. There has been a lot of change. Law-type changes. Especially laws about 401(k) and HSA's. But it's OK, because.... I know this guy. Brendan McGuire Brendan knows about these laws. Not only does he know about these laws, but he is going to be in your area soon and he would love to set up an appointment with you to show you how your organization can stay current with said laws. Now, when would be a good time for Brendan to meet with you? Hello?
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