Hey there, Dachia here.
Welcome back to Focus on your small business.
I’m not sure if I ever told you about my living environment. This would be better for a video, because I doubt you could really get the full impact of hat I’m going to try to describe. I’m currently living in a camper, while may house is being built… and the house is on hold because I wanted and needed to invest in the business. So, outside my window is the foundation for my little home. And inside the window… was me and 5 dogs and 2 cats in a 35 foot camper.
I literally had every foot of floor taken up with dog beds. There was floor showing just inside the door… but other than than I was walking across or standing on dog beds. And I was fine with that.
My office was the bed. I would sit on the bed for hours every day, on my laptop or reading an ebook on my iPad…
There was a bedroom area that I didn’t use for my bedroom because I had set it up as the cat room. Cat trees, toys, litter boxes and a door I could close to keep them safe when I had to leave.
I had been having more and more pain in my back and honestly I chalked it up to aging. I tried to get some exercise on my elliptical … which was also surrounded by dog beds… I’m not kidding about that… and even after just a few minutes, I would be sore. I thought about getting a massage… or a chiropractic adjustment.
And then I thought… huh… I wonder if 14 hours a day on this friggin bed is the problem.
I know… I know… but it’s kind of like the frog in the warm and then boiling water. I realized I had make some changes, because honestly I was not going to be able to money back out of this business till next year… and another year and a half … like this… I just couldn’t do it.
So, I had the idea to create a new and different cat house for the pups… or as I call them now, the flerken. If they were out of the camper, but still able to visit… I could move into the bedroom and use the table for work instead of piling clothes.
So… we moved over another butt-ugly camper, I tore out all its insides, the cabinets and tables and appliances, and I made a bigger cat room for them, And my nephew threw together an outside enclosure so they could be outside and safe… and there is a ramp from there up to a window on the original camper that the dogs and I are still in… so they can visit…
And I’m working on this podcast episode… from an actual seat at an actual table… and the floor is opened up and the dogs have space and I cannot tell you how wonderful this is.
And… my back doesn’t hurt.
I’m able to get more and more exercise and no real pain.
Now… My backyard has a butt ugly camper and chicken wire cat enclosure that I have to live with for a year and a half… and that’s ok.
It’s times like this where I channel some Gary Lee and know that this is barely a sacrifice.
The business is getting stronger day by day, the membership grows day by day… and in the meantime, the furkids and I are safe and warm and dry…
So… what I want to say… the takeaway I hope you get from this… is that sometimes the sacrifice you need to make is just a visual one. Live without a back yard… look at sometime butt-ugly for a while… keep investing your time and attention and money when necessary, in your business.
Keep you mind open to possibilities though… things that could somewhat easily and inexpensively be done to make your environment more conducive to work. A plus to taking some time to make a better working area is that you can work longer. Fewer backaches. Less time searching for your materials.
I’m just saying that for me… it was totally worth the few days I lost in moving campers around and getting a sledge hammer and ripping out the insides.
What can you do in your space to make it work better for you? Give it some thought… make it happen.
Keep in mind that if you are spending hours and hours in research mode online, learning what you need to do to build your business and then hours more figuring out how… you might want to check out the membership site. It can save you many hours every month in research and determining which resources are accurate and worth your attention.
You can find more information and a webinar that will walk you through whether or not this is the right path for you, on dachia.com/membership
Until next week. Make it a good one. It’s all up you… with a little bit of me.