Does working for yourself mean working 7 days?

Nope. On and off 7 days a week but pretty much just work 2 days a week. Working toward 1.

Hey welcome to the forum!


For a good chunk of time at the beginning of any make money online journey I think


most people work even more than a normal five day week!


The key to success and more freedom is working smarter not harder, yes of course this takes


time to build up, but when you add outsourcing and task organisation I have found this to


really help me and my business! On the other hand some people like the extra work


is just up to you what you personally want!


Good thread

I thin it depends. You don't have to be working 7 days a week. you can allocate and organize your time. For instants be available to maybe work 6 days a week but make a point not to work 1 day not matter what. Because at the end of the day, people should understand that for instant a Sunday is not a work day.

I also think it depends. I tend to do at least a bit of work 7 days a week, but many of them are shorter days.

In the beginning of my Internet Marketing journey I simply worked every spare minute I had everyday and since I had most time on weekends I worked most then so yeah, 7 days a week. Now I cracked the code to making money so I can now work on setting up as much automation as I can so I can have more time off. The thing about making your own money and paying your own way through life is it is an awesome feeling and IM is fun too so even though I can set up automation. I still at least check my stats on things on my phone all day.

Yes it is. Working for yourself means, you can't follow any schedule and any leave days. If you are new, then it might even go to a 24x7 schedule.

Yes and no. If you condition your clients that you are available 24/7/365 - then you are.

Take a look at the 4 hour work week.

As long as you are comfortable. Its very inportant to have a working schedule and commitment to that, only then we can keep things on track and not over the deadline.

Sometimes if it is necessary. I do not work with clients though, I only work on my own business.

I have said this before regarding having clients. If you do not set the expectations, then your clients will set them for you.

al

When I decide to go ft online then I will be working what needs to be done. However my line of online wont necessary be the same as yours. You get work from people whereas I work for myself, for example cpa etc.

The work types are completely different and as such cannot be compared.

When you work for yourself, like I plan to do, I wont be hamstrung by the constraints of reporting to people, just myself, and I can choose to do 7 days work, or 3 days work, or 3 hours work.

The only question I have is how much money do I want to make. That will determine how long I work.

It basically depends upon your hunger for success and level of satisfaction. If you keep your satisfaction very low then you won't try to work a lot. You will be satisfied with little and will get free time, very often.

I've always wondered how so many people have time to go and watch baseball, football, basketball and others. Well our sport is Intenet marketing. I work 6 days a week full out. But as soon as I can financially, I will outsource anything I can pay someone else to do. Because time is the one commodity that will run out on you as some point and you can't afford to give it away for so cheap.

I agree totally with Al "I have said this before regarding having clients. If you do not set the expectations, then your clients will set them for you".
You need to set your rules.

Any client company will try to push you as far as they can until you say know to their deadlines. Usually, if they are late, someone else didn't do their work on time and want you to catch up for them.
If an employee had to work Saturdays or Sundays they would ask for financial compensation. Be ready to drop them and take a stand.
When they get resistance from the only person who can help them, usually all they have to do is re-think their deadlines and program.

Hope that helps


Andre

The only time you shouldnt be working is if you are satisfied with where you are, or if you've given up.

The whole movement behind things like the 4 hour work week are crutches for people who want to justify them doing nothing.

Work your ass off. Sacrafice today for a better tomorrow. Only hard work will get you there.

I don't work with Clients or have a Service so if I get the urge and the kids and wife are at G-mas and it's a rainy Saturday then yeah I will jump on the laptop and write a few Emails to my List or work on a new Product.


Robert Andrew

YES until you dont have recurring model in your Funnel...Your own or from some reputed creator...

Check out the 4 hour work week. Work hard to be lazy.

It depends on the type of business you are involved with and essentially your finances...

In theory, you could outsource whatever you are doing and do no work at all yourself. If you do freelancing/client work, then you have to adapt to certain deadlines, what a particular client wants, etc. That's totally normal and nothing to be surprised about. If you do silly 20% charges for working weekends or meeting early deadlines, then you could lose work, because let's face it, clients have a huge choice of freelancers to choose from.

Any business, whether it's online or offline, is not a day job. You don't start at 9 and go home at 5. In business, if you have to do 7 days a week to complete a project or whatever it is, then it has to be done, because this is not a job, where you can mess around during the day, wait until the end of the month and get paid on Friday no matter what happens.

Because you're new to IM, you have a great opportunity to choose your niche, choose your business model, choose the kind of income you want and the hours you will make available to take care of business.

Being an entrepreneur means you spend whatever time is required to take care of your business. It could be quite a lot of time early on while you're getting things set up and working for traction. But if you set up the right kind of business around the time you have available to do business, you should be able to eventually work the hours you want, make the kind of money you want, and have the time off you want.

It's all up to you going in. Be sure to set realistic business goals.

Steve

I've been in business for myself (Majority Offline) for most of my life and i can tell you that ive worked harder and longer hours than the ave Joe who has a "Boss"..

I laugh at these people who want us to believe they only work 1-2 days per week because they are full of BS..
I have yet to meet a successful entrepreneur/businessman who only works 2 days a week...

Personally, I probably work everyday. Definitely not 8 hours a day. Sometimes it's only 2 or 3 and others it's 16 or 18.

But honestly, I actually look forward to the "work" I do online. To me, it isn't work... It's fun and I enjoy it. I can see how someone who sells a service and kind of works for their customer and their deadlines could feel a lot like they have a job. But that's not the case for me as I have my own product based business.

It's like a wise man once said, do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life.

Nope, definitely not! And your experience with your client shows ya, it pays not to work LOL.

Example: even though I should do a better job following my advice to take off 1-2 days weekly I do take my foot off the pedal big time 1-2 days a week. I also do not tie myself to email, or social, nor promise response times within 24 hours or any of that stuff.

My freedom means too much to me.

My freeing, inspired lifestyle is goal/intent #1.

Then, I build my work sked around this lifestyle. So I can keep the freedom flowing, and help folks, and let people know that I don't have the posture of an earthworm LOL.

Ryan

yeah its means working 24/7

It beats going in to a 9-5 everyday. That work you do for your client for a Saturday, may mean you can sleep in on Monday. A lot of people work strange hours and make great money. They also get to enjoy hours off most people don't get.

Right now I'm working about three to four full days per week and I'm constantly in the process of whittling it down while sustaining output and turnover.

This is a skill in itself and will come to you as you continue on your internet marketing journey.

But like any enterprise you need to have all hands on deck during the initial expansion. During this time you will get a feel for running the business and will continually be able to strip down, outsource and cancel out different aspect of running your business until you find the sweet spot where you gain the biggest return for the shortest period of your time spent working on it.

It takes time to get to this point though, but keep the faith. I know some people who work only one day per week to check in. That's the dream.

Best of luck.

It means working 24/7 Am in online space for over 7 years

I think what might be more important than a "set schedule" is finding that self motivation. You won't have a boss telling you what to do and giving you deadlines.

Working for yourself means being extremely disciplined.

I agree with @oneyouki1984. Part of managing your clients is teaching your clients how to work with you. Your instinct to inform your client that there is a premium added to weekend work was right. Clients who react negatively to this condition are not someone you wish to work with for the long-term anyway. For freelance clients, I usually put a limit on weekend work, and if I ever work on Saturday or Sunday, it's for my own business.

When you work for yourself you're working 24/7/365. What you choose to do on any given day is up to you though, and that's what makes it all worth while.

Depends how much money you want to make.

You want to make 2 or 3 K per month? You can do that working less than one hour per day, easily.

I'm not really into that lifestyle though. I've tried it and it just isn't really my thing. I want to make A LOT of money. Anything under 25 k per month is poverty in my mind. To reach that level you will need to work a lot, but even more importantly, you will have to LEARN A LOT. I can assure you there are a lot of people out there making 25 k per month working one hour per day, but to reach that level they worked A LOT.

You basically want to learn an efficient system, work really hard at it and then at some point you will be able to have a lot of free time and the money will keep coming in.

Thanks to everyone who made a comment, it really is a greta platform and I have so many questions in my brain that I look forward to discussing and getting your input on.

Firstly, the 4 Hour Week book sounds like something I need to be reading, I’ll be getting onto this as soon as possible.

Next, I think I need to set my schedule a little more and be a little like I was in my corporate life. If I set my hours (to an extent) I think this might allow me to control the demands of clients a little better and possibly say ‘no, I am not available at that time but I can do XYZ’. I am still so green, that when I do get someone asking me to do some work, I literally jump at the chance and I think my eagerness might be an issue when I am trying to balance my workload and life.

Agmccall’s comment about setting the expectations really resonated with me and I will definately be working on this quite i bit. I think I might need to also chat with some colleagues to see how they manage this as I can see this to be one of my main flaws.

The common theme from many is to love what you do and i think this is really the main take out from this. I LOVE what I am doing. I would do it for free and I am doing it with a smile on my face. I need to learn some balance, I need to work on managing people’s expectations and I need to learn about developing boundaries and taking some control so my clients don’t walk all over me.

I think the way I run my business will change as I grow and I really appreciate everyone’s comments about how they successfully do it. It’s a little lonely working for yourself and it’s great to know there is heaps of support out there.

Hi BlossMart,

It's your business, you get to decide when where and how much you work. You are responsible for you own business, and that responsibility is a 24/7 commitment. That responsibility never gets a day off, however that doesn't mean that you are required to work 24/7 as an individual. In fact, no person, as an individual, can work continuously without taking a break to eat, sleep, and take care of other vital responsibilities.

Likewise, your customers & clients are responsible and committed to their own businesses on a 24/7 basis. They can ask you to work for them as much or as little as they need, or want, and some want or need service availability on a 24/7 basis. But, let's face it, you need a team to provide a 24/7 commitment. so unless you have that team, and have negotiated a price to cover the expense of that team, there is no way to provide a 24/7 service on a sustained basis. Be honest with yourself, and your clients, they will appreciate your candor.

It's not unreasonable for a professional service provider to set normal office/business hours. However, don't be suprised if you find clients asking for work to be done outside those scheduled hours, especially if you have not clearly defined, or nor clearly published your business hours. When someone asks you to work on your day off, let them know that is your day off and you have other plans. Most reasonable clients will simply ask for the task to be done on your next regular shift. Or, if they absolutely need it sooner they may ask you to make an exception to help them with a task that they feel cannot wait.

If you think it is worth it to your business to make an exception, and work outside your normal business hours, I suggest you let you client know that you are doing that as a favor to them, or that you will happily work on your day off if he's willing to pay for the overtime. Often, you will discover that you client's needs don't really require you to work on your day off, they just asked for it then because it didn't cost them anything extra to get it done sooner.

Naturally, there are many potential clients that may need service availability on an expanded, or around the clock basis, if you have the resources to pay for a team and want to provide that level of service then do so, if not then just let your clients know, most will respect your business hours, and at the very least they will know that you are going above and beyond your usual service level to get a task done on your day off. I can see no harm in that.

I basically work whatever hours I want to at this point. As your own boss, you have to realize it's up to you to do what you want. When I first started, I would accept work for $8-10 per hour (freelance writer) and grind for hours and hours every week to make the bare minimum. I worked 7 hours a week and would stay up late with clients in Australia and around the world to communicate with them.

Today, I bill a minimum of $30 per hour for my work and I make the rules. If I don't have time for the project, I don't take it. If it's too much work or not enough money, I don't take it. If it's the weekend and I want to relax, I make sure I manage expectations with the client for a later delivery. At the end of the day, I don't have to take any work that I don't want .

Nobody is putting a gun to my head and forcing me to take inconvenient jobs, you know? When I'm doing work for a client, I want it to feel like a score. I want to work for like 3 hours and say "whoa, I just made almost $100" - not "Great, I made $24". Don't let the clients dictate your life - it's your business and you can run it how you want.

That being said, there could be consequences, right? Sometimes you can't say no because you need the business. Sometimes you can't say no because you need to be the go-to person for that client, and you know that if you say no they'll find someone else to do it and that person will become the go-to person. You have to fight for your clients but you have to make them want to hire you and only you, and you can only do that by providing the best product possible to them.

If your work is great, clients will work with you a lot more in order to get work from you. If your work is rushed or low quality, you're easier to replace. If you become an integral component to somebody else's success, you won't readily be replaced.

You manage it by getting employees and focus on reinvesting your capital and expanding

Hell no, I am not trying to work 7 days a week ever again for the remainder of the time I have left, be it a little or a lot.

Truth is, I am getting lazier by the minute... in a smart way, of course!

I am however cramming 50-60 hours (or more) into a 3-5 day work week regularly, whereas, I am juggling a new offline start-up, making part-time income catching fish, and still working and assembling the pieces to complete my 'virtual blueprint'.

The funny thing is; fishing and building a virtual business do not feel like work to me, and while I didn't always like the steep learning curve online, I am starting to enjoy doing SEO, web design, and creating content more and more.

I think the idea of 'work' fades when you become so enthusiastic to create something new, and your confidence builds up as your knowledge grows... and you can collectively begin visualizing & believing in the constructs of helping others succeed... then, entire mindset and 'process' no longer feels like work, it becomes fun, like Childs play!

In a way freelance work is still NOT WORKING FOR YOURSELF. Freelance work has flexibility but it does not give total freedom. Running your own business wherein after creating a system you can outsource parts of the work would give you more freedom, and you work 7 days a week because you want to--not because you are forced to. As a freelancer don't be afraid to act like a professional and not like a slave and charge extra for weekend work if you choose to accept it!

When I started working online (I own an SEO company) I used to do everything myself. This translates to long 7 or 8 hour days.

I quickly realized that I could outsource most of the process to people in Pakistan, India etc. and that was the key to bringing my "being busy" down to 1-2 hours a day.

So it all depends.

I have come full circle. In the beginning I worked my online business and applied myself as much as possible to try and make a go of it full time...all with the goal of making more money and working much less.

I achieved that for the most part but now I'm at a point where I am craving some normalcy in my life, and to do that I am structuring my work week around a Monday to Friday 7:30 to 5:00 lifestyle.

Working for yourself means you do ANYTHING you have to do today so that you can continue to grow and prosper in the future. At times that means working 7-days a week, at times that means extreme pressure, and at times that means working well outside your comfort zone...that's what makes it so exciting!

Now, let me also say that if you are in the RIGHT business you are so motivated that you WANT to work 7-days a week. It's not like you are in a job you hate or working for someone else, instead you are excited by the market, enthralled with your products and can't wait to get it into the hands of as many people as you can. That's where the desire to work 7-days comes in.

Finally, remember that you can structure your day as you wish - for most of us entrepreneurs, that means fitting in some exercise, some family time, some enjoyment - but you quickly figure out when you are at your best to work on your business and put the time in. I know personally that my best time is between 8 AM and 2PM - I can get more done than almost anyone by making SURE I focus on this time period while many others waste this time by doing other things.

Find a way to take what you are passionate about, turn that into a commercial opportunity, have a BIG goal and you won't ever think about how many days or hours you work again

I don't know why you would even consider delivering a client project on Saturday (if) your work week does not include the specified day.

If you do then you should certainly charge a premium. To do otherwise suggests to your client that you work "for them", at their convenience and for whatever they feel your time is worth.

If a client hires you to do something you are not working for yourself, there is something wrong here.

Working for yourself is working for you, you seem to be just a freelancer. It's kind of the same but isn't.

If you are working as a freelancer, there is no way you can't charge more for working on weekends (maybe not if you already made a contract on sites like Upwork, they don't give a **** about weekends).

If the client wants you to work at the weekend, just ask for money. You are willing to work when you are supposed to rest, unless you are desperate for clients you should do that.

When you work for your own business you basically love that so isn't "work" at all, but should be something you love, some people "have their own business" but they hate it.

Here is my take after 25 years of business that now covers four countries in Latam. The first ten years required 70-80 hour weeks. Yes, that included many Sundays and many late nighters. But there after, and once you have competent managers, teams and efficient systems in place, I discovered that there was " less to do" but more to think about.

Strategic thinking becomes essential, delagation more so, and leading others to deliver results to build sustainability and provide jobs for your people that betters their quality of life becomes as important as the balance sheet.

This is the recipe that has worked for me. Perhaps you as well. Good luck.

I could do more in the 5 days by taking two days off.


Daniel

IMO it means giving you the option (and responsibility) of being able to choose.

The whole idea of starting your own business is to be in control and give options IMO.

Sure some weeks will require 7 days but if all are then you might be doing something wrong.

I myself work 7 days and sometimes I fall back 4 days. There is only so much you can do. This shows me you are consistent and reliable.

Sometimes working yourself means spoiling yourself, yes. Sometimes you reward yourself for achievements or for surviving a rough patch, whether by taking a long, scented bath or a trip to Hawaii.

Sometimes no one else will spoil you, so you spoil yourself. You order the double-chocoate dessert, and enjoy it immensely. You buy the outfit you've had your eye on for weeks, but couldn't justify the expense.

Of course you don't spoil yourself endlessly, or you would never work, never fit into your clothes, and never have two pennies to rub together. Spoiling yourself occasionally just means you have self-respect, self-awareness, and yes, a healthy amount of self-love.

I worked from home for a year before joining the Warrior Forum team.

The hardest thing was to "switch off". I often found myself thinking about business at all times, talking about it, stressing about it.

I often looked at weekends as normal days and would work the same amount of hours than any other day of the week, if not more.

It was brutal and soon enough found myself a little bit burned out. I was working more than ever before and still falling short of my goals.

I took three weeks of vacation and came back with a different attitude: I would work less than ever before, no more than 1 hour per day on weekends to solve pressing issues and no work on Wednesday morning, which I would use for chores and shopping.

I also incorporated exercise during the day, changed my diet, took long walks after lunch to simply think and read more than ever.

Probably ended up working 20% of the previous time. I found myself more motivated and energized than ever, had great success in achievements and my business grew a lot.

Sometimes focus is all you need. Put all your energy into the 20%. Set your expectations in advance and make a few exceptions when necessary, not the other way around.

If you are a Freelancer or have clients of some sorts, focus on the 20% of your clients. If the other 80% are messing with that group, drop them altogether.

With your apps - productivity, messaging, todos, etc - focus on the 20%. Drop the rest. You don't need Whatsapp, Messenger, Hangouts, HipChat, Email, Slack and all the other endless apps. Focus on the 20% than 80% of your clients or friends use.

Apply this rule throughout life.

Modern geniuses have understood that the hack is not in complexity, but rather in simplicity.

Cheers
Dan

First, let me get this out of the way: Working Online is Not Supposed to Be Easy...

There, I said it. I have seen too many people trying to join in the hype without wanting to put in any of the hard work.

You have to figure out if this is what you really want to do - not because it is convenient but because you are passionate about it. Passion should fuel you to the point that your work doesn't feel like work anymore. You learn to enjoy it.

I'll tell you this right now. Even if the Internet have so many automated tools, how you earn will depend on how much effort you put in. Always focus on quality. You reap what you sow.

Also, don't over-count. Even if you get a client that asks you to pay overtime, you'll find out soon enough that you'll get other rewards if you nurture the relationship (that is with the assumption that you are working with a decent client). It is okay to work without pay sometimes. You'll find out why as you move along in this journey.

Have been fully self-employed for 13 years now and I will never go back to full time employment for someone else again. I have worked part-time positions over the years because I wanted to (teaching at the University) than because I had to.

Regarding my workload it has varied for me over the years. This year it is really busy with 5 days per week being normal and some weekend work. However at other times it was closer 2-3 days per week. It just depends on projects, deadlines, work loads.

I have done a reasonable job building up a team to help with work and that has both grown the business and given me more time off. I try to use the work smarter not longer philosophy, but clearly it is a work in progress.

However because of the freedom I would not trade this gig in for all the tea in China. I often say to other self-employed friends I hope the secret doesn't get out about how awesome this is so a bunch of people don't rush in and ruin it for the rest of us

three days a week for about 6 hours a week..

its good...

-Ike Paz

well working whole week will made you sick and after that you can not work, and when i say sick i mean it in every way . So taking a day or 2 off is just a part of work .
Ask yourself one question why are you working? to earn? what will you do after you earn alot? keep it in fridge ? lol you need to enjoy life.

In order to succeed at anything you have to be willing to put in the time at first. Work smarter not harder. The forethought is working for yourself does give you the time and freedom. Time managment and getting the most important task done first thing before going to facebook or your email...

i myself am in the same vote as you. but im a new website designer with first website designed on my own without any help at all. im just about to ready to go into live pre-launch i have a set schedule designed to work my own hours. yes im working 7 days a week because i choose to do the work. the hard work you put in at the end of each day you can say to yourself a well done job. if you put the effort in make the money its a good out come sticking with the same schedule will get you where you want to go.

It's all about balance, what I find it that when people are starting out they are time rich and cash poor but when they become more successful these circumstances change, I suggest you make the time now for your client, this will reflect well on you and lead to more clients and so on...

Best of luck and most of all enjoy

It means 24/7 trust me

It takes dedication and hard work to build but on the flip side you do need rest or else you will get burned out. Laslty assemble a team start with 1 task at a time.

We have a lot of people that are focusing on the actual time put into the business, but maybe not as much as on the benefits.

I have been slammed this entire year and I probably still have at least another month of really big push to wrap up several projects, but having said that the benefits of working for yourself are absolutely unmatched.

1. Flexibility of Schedule: I don't have to work 8 hours per day if I don't need to. There are days where I work 12 or 15 hours when I am under the gun, but there are other days, generally when it is sunny and 72 outside, where I don't work at all or leave early. The flexibility of WHEN to work is simply unmatched.

2. Control of Assets: Unlike a traditional job where the IRS takes their cut right off the top and keeps the money for an entire year until I file a tax return in my own business I have a lot more flexibility to decide when and how to pay taxes that people in traditional employment don't. Notice, I didn't say NOT pay taxes, simply how and when.

3. No Permission Required: In traditional employment you have a boss and a management team that you must ask for permission to execute on ideas and do things. You often have to have 20 meetings and countless committees and people to sign off on something. I have none of that. If I have an idea I just do it. If I fall flat on my face that belongs to me as well. If it is stellar success I also get to own that. I never ask anyone for permission. I just do. I am in total control.

4. Work How I Want: If I want to travel and work I can. I just need my laptop, Internet connection and phone. I am totally mobile and can go wherever I want and work anyway I want. One year I spent the part of the winter in Florida because I didn't want deal with anymore snow. My clients never even knew. I did all my work from a coffee shop in Florida. It was awesome. We hear of the digital nomads that travel the world and work wherever they want. I haven't gone that far, but I suppose I could.

5. Money: Let's not forget why we do this. Money. I can make as much as I want simply by working as much as I need to. I don't have to ask anyone for a raise and justify my value. The market does that for me. If my skills are behind the market will pay me as such. If they are good I will make more. I love knowing that there is no ceiling on what I can earn. The flip side of course is there is also no limit as to how little I can earn so you have to stay motivated.

6. No Politics or Crappy Co-Workers: How many people have ever worked a job where they had terrible office politics, gossip, backstabbing or crappy co-workers that didn't pull their weight. I have had all of these before I started my business 13 years ago and NONE after I started it. I have a virtual team I manage and otherwise work alone. I pull a team together for some projects based on what I need and who I think would be a good fit. I disband them once the project is over. If someone starts failing to perform I simply stop using them and find another. If I get embroiled in some company's politics I fire them and move on. Life is too short to have to deal with a caustic work environment.

For all of these benefits and more I will put up with the occasional 7 day work work or occasional high stress deadlines. Notice the keyword there was "occasional". In my opinion if this is the norm for you then you may want to get with a business coach or examine how you are doing things because it should NOT be like this all the time, at least it is not for me and the benefits far and away outweigh any negatives.

I love this question, because it gets at the heart of what I think makes this kind of work so compelling and challenging. In this field, you really have to develop an individual strategy for time management. You have to figure out what works for you.
Chances are, as you are just starting out, the work will be extremely time consuming. You will probably find your mind wandering, and tasks difficult to complete because of short attention. I think the best way to combat this is to schedule your time rigorously, to the T. This means not only scheduling your work, but scheduling your breaks and leisure time as well. If you can structure all of this in one schedule, then your work does not get as overwhelming.
Of course, even after you have been doing this for a while, and get a bit faster at working on these projects, they can still be immensely time consuming. That added to the fact that you want to make yourself readily available (I could totally relate to your feeling that you have slowly implied through your actions that you are available 24/7!). This can be a major problem as well, because at the end of the day, none of us want to work ALL the time. The whole reason we are working in the first place is to ensure some sort of lifestyle that we would ideally like to get back to after work! I think the best way to stop this from happening is to be direct and firm in setting boundaries with your clients from the outset. Let them know that you will be available to discuss their projects only at certain times, and that on weekends you are unavailable. Obviously you can tweak this when necessary, but generally I think this works as a good rule of thumb.
The last thing I will say is it sounds like you made the right decision. At the end of the day, all you can do is either accept or decline the request, and if you accept it, you should absolutely account for the added strain on your time, which I think you did by tacking on 20%. Thanks for the question!

I run my business like a business. 9-5 Monday through Friday. But if there is a need to do something at night or on the weekend I'll offer to do it for time and a half. Some with emergencies.

That's what your plumber would do.