Left early today for work (6am) and managed to get to work ON TIME (8am)! What is wrong with this picture? A job in Van Nuys is the problem. I am pretty ambivalent about it though. I just love the people and the work I do. I’m learning a lot and enjoy the atmosphere. It’s by far the smallest company I’ve ever worked for -and the smartest bunch of people I’ve even learned from. They are even working with me to learn some of their more complicated programs so that some of their main design work can be offloaded from their primary foreman (and give him some well-deserved off time). I know it would be an investment for the company to put the time into me, and I have stated fairly clearly that my intention is to start my own business eventually so I will not be with them forever -or even that long. So it’s not like they are unaware of my plans, but I still feel bad knowing that I’ll be leaving in the future. Then again, I am providing a service while I’m here, I am bringing value and profit to the company with the work that I do. That isn’t a disservice!
I met with the owner of a landscaping company last night in person with my wife and we talked about his business and his needs. I indicated that I’m currently taken for the week with other work but would be able to start testing the waters next week. By using my own software and equipment, I would be charging $40/hr for the work and he thought that was a fair price. What’s amazing is that no one has actually seen samples of my work! I guess I can talk a good talk. This work looks like it would be a good addition to my client base as there is definitely not 40 hours of solid work here but it could grow in the next couple of years as he has plans to expand their services to pools and room additions. Candi has also told me that she is interested in learning how to draft with AutoCAD so I’m going to be installing it on her own computer so I can slowly teach her the basics and then get her started as well. We’re thinking of the name “Night Owl Drafting”…
I’ve got to start working more on my business plan here as it looks like things are getting started and moving along faster than I had expected so I need to make sure I’m making the right decisions.