My Weekly Schedule as a Business Owner

Our business has been up and running in some capacity since 2020. We started an antique booth, then added fairs and shows, and had added a brick and mortar shop.

Recently, if you’ve been reading, you’ll know that I have quit my job to work full-time as an employee of our business.

As I start this endeavor I have tried to be really intentional about balancing work and home life, especially because most of my work will be done at home. I don’t want work to take over my whole life, but I also don’t want to get really lazy and not doing anything for work.

To quell these possibilities from happening (I’m sure that sometimes they will happen, who are we kidding!), I have decided to make myself a schedule. In my weird neurotic way I have actually constructed a 7 day schedule with every day planned out in half-hour increments.

While I will not bore you with that business, I did think it might be helpful to explain how I intend to split up my week and a little about what I plan to do each day to ensure that everything will get done, there’s time to get everything done, and I am not forgetting anything.

Here is how I am planning to spend my week:

Mondays:

I’ll start with Mondays because I am a “the week starts with Monday” kind of girl. Do you consider Mondays or Sundays the start of the week? Anyway, Mondays are going to basically be my Saturday. My day off from the business, this will be a day for cleaning, errands, and grocery shopping. I am hoping to have times on Mondays to garden, bake, and really live my best homesteading, Laura Ingalls life.

Tuesdays:

Tuesdays the shop is not open but this will for sure be a business day. This day will be when we do most of our thrift shopping and sourcing. I am planning to spend an hour at our second location, a spot at a local antique mall, resetting and adding inventory. From there I will move to some different areas to source through the afternoon. Some days I will skip the resetting and leave early for a big town to do some sourcing. Tuesday nights I am planning to wash all of the clothes I have sourced, take photos, and get everything packed in the truck to take the the shop the next day.

Wednesdays:

This is the first day of the week that the shop is open for the week. This day will include bringing the new inventory to the shop where I will get it listed online and then tag it before putting it on the shop floor to be sold.

Thursdays:

Thursdays are a shop day. Lots of tagging inventory, searching for inventory in online auctions. Thursdays will also be when I host classes. I would love to start hosting watercolor classes, preschool crafts, and other events through the day. In the evenings each week will be when we have our What Not sales.

Fridays:

Fridays the shop is open. Fridays are a good time to take inventory and work on new orders of merchandise in between ringing up customers.

Saturdays:

This is the last day the shop is open each week. It is always busy and so much fun to see everyone who comes in. It’s when we do things like a deep clean for the upcoming week, take out the trash, and get inventory ready for our next What Not sale. Most Saturdays Nick and I work together but sometimes just I’ll work or just Nick will work in order to do other activities like picking up inventory from an auction, moving furniture, etc.

Sundays:

This is our sabbath and a complete day of rest. We have nothing planned except a nap in the afternoon and a big family meal. I am really looking forward to having a day to tinker in the garden barefoot and putter around the house. Having a day to recharge makes working really hard all week feel really worth it.

This is how I plan to structure each day . Each day also has times built in. Every evening I will be making dinner at 5:30 and we will eat at 6 to get back to a schedule that is routine and planned. I have a half hour each night before bed to take a bubble bath and read. I have my schedule planned to be in bed by 10.

Every morning I plan to wake up at 6 followed by times for coffee, watching tv, and then laundry, devotions, and working out. I have time set aside for breakfast and walking the dog. A regular routine with time to get everything done.

Scheduled meals, bible time, exercise, chores, work. These are all items that I have worked to structure into each day to make up a full week. I have divided up time for things like writing articles, online postings, shipping items, filming you tube content, and other business tasks during shop hours and around our home life.

Making a structured schedule helps me to ensure that there is enough time each week to get everything done. It also gives me the freedom to not have to drop everything and fix every issue that arises. If a customer writes me wanting to ask something about an ebay item, I can get to it during the appropriate “Ebay” time. And while it is great to have a rhythm to the day, I also have the ability to have a fluidity built into the day. If something takes longer than anticipated I can move things around in the schedule. I can tweak and rework the schedule to work for our needs as they arise. I can give myself time and grace to get into a good flow.

While I just quit my job I am really looking forward to getting into this new schedule and routine. I want to have a definite structure to my day even though I now get to be my own boss and build our business and my days as I want to do.

If you have any tips or pointers for me as I create a schedule and walk out this new routine, I would love to know!