In another early retirement forum, there was a thread along the lines of "What won't you miss when you retire from your job?" They would say things like, "no long commutes," "no boring meetings," "no office politics." The list went on and on, and I realized it was describing my life already.
Self-employment is minus so much of the crud that makes regular-jobbed people miserable.
That's my favorite thing! The other day, I was talking to one of my friends about a client of mine who is uber-picky and borderline unprofessional, but who keeps giving me contracts and referring other clients to me, as well. I was mid-bitch about him and I suddenly thought, "Hang on a minute. I'm the boss. I don't have to keep working with him!" AWESOME moment.
So, the following day, when he emailed me with another project, I just said, "I would love to work with you more, but my schedule is so tight that I'm having to raise my prices." And then I proceeded to quote him a price that was 50% higher than what he was paying before. He (grudgingly) accepted the price raise. My point of view is, I'll take him on for more money (which will make it worthwhile for me) or he'll decide that he doesn't want to pay the extra money, at which point I'll be free of him and his shenanigans. Either way, I'm satisfied.
I am both self employed and employed by another person. I own my own business and pretty much run the business that I work for as well. Its complicated. I am just really tired and really stressed all of the time. Not only that but since my husband travels for most of the week I am essentially a single parent most of the time as well. I am stretched very thin....
I am working towards growing my own business and branching out completely on my own but I want to pay off all if not most of our debt first.
That's SUCH a tough position to be in. I'm sorry that you're going through that. I remember my last six months of employment/self-employment combined and how exhausted I felt, and I don't have any kids, so I can only imagine what you're going through!
Take heart, though, that it DOES get better. And when you do pay off your debt and branch out into being fully self-employed, you'll appreciate it so much, since you've gone through this time. In the meantime, just keep reminding yourself that it will happen eventually. And if you need any proof or encouragement that you'll get there, stop by in here and we'll all tell you about our days when we were where you are now, and how much better it gets.