Do you work on Saturday or Sunday?

[David Hammond]

As a general rule no. Similarly I don’t work evenings.

I might stay behind late, or do a weekend to catch up and make my life easier for the next day or week. I might catch up on accounts of emails from home too.

I get the old “its my only day off” excuse, well surprisingly its mine too.

Yes you can charge a premium for weekends, but to be perfectly honest I’d much rather have my weekends to myself and a break from work. If you cannot earn a decent living working 5 days a week, there’s a problem – I understand some people work alternative hours to suit childcare etc, but to be working like a dog every hour god sends for peanuts, you may aswell get a job stacking shelves.

[Kevin Mahoney]

Hi Leslie. Rarely do weekends anymore, I find that if I do, I don’t feel great during the following week, I need that couple of days of not thinking to have any chance of relaxing & feel fresh for the next shift. If the client can’t do Monday to Friday it’s usually because they’re unwilling to give up work time & want you to give up your weekend so they don’t lose money. If you want our weekend, it doesn’t come cheap. Saturday is expensive, Sunday is daylight robbery & not available to anyone not willing to pay for my skiing holiday

[Leslie Anderson]

Thank you both for the replies!

David,
I do not have kids, so i am good in that respect. 🙂
I already hang back after 5.30pm and i do not mind doing that but i draw the line at 6.30pm.

I never really thought about charging more for the Saturday, just that because its a busy day for many businesses, should i add the sixth day or at least the morning of the sixth day to catch that type of customer?
Or potentially lose business because i wont bend to the customer requesting the job being done on a saturday. 🤨

Kevin,
I am the same. i want my weekends to break my week up and give me something to look forward to planning each week. i also like to have a glass of wine at 4.30 on a Friday afternoon and i will pour one to begin my wind down process. however, that glass has gone onto a bottle sometimes and i am still working listening to music and i can’t think of anything worse than to have to worry about opening up the next morning tired or hungover. 🤣

having read what you both have to say. maybe i should do a Saturday morning and charge more for it and call it my holiday funding day! 🍹🤣

[Jeff]

I cant really add to what Kev and David has said. like them, i don’t work weekends but i have done the occasional Saturday morning to get a job done that has run late from the day before.

[Martyn Heath]

Totally agree with what the guys have said. However i think it also depends where you are at in your business. If you are a young/new business i think everyone will agree that we went that little extra to make sure we got the job and make the customer happy. I know i did for many years, saturday was considered just a normal day with no extra charges and probably did 2 in a month. However now im more established i probably do half a dozen a year but thats more me trying to catch up during my busy periods. I have a lorry to do this saturday actually but like others have said charge a little extra for some beer/wine money that evening.

Sunday is a no no. Church takes priority over everything

[David Hammond]

I don’t have kids either. I know a guy who works some bizarre hours, but he’s working around his wife who works shifts, and looking after their children. Which I understand and it works for them… in fact it probably works to their advantage.

On the other hand, I know another company who seem to work Monday-Friday, and will happily have you drop your van off on an evening, and pick it up next day, or bring it on Saturday/Sunday.

Not for me I’m afraid. I’d rather charge a fair price, and work ‘normal’ hours. If I wanted to work stupid hours, I’d have stayed in the Navy, but I quite like deciding every thing is done, and head home early 🤣

[Steff Davison]

I have been in business for 8 years, I used to work 7 days a week, sometimes I still do, not because I have to but because I have staff working 7 days and I will come in and do a few hours to let them know I can do what I ask them to do (they have 5 day work weeks, which include a weekend day once every two weeks.
When I started out, I worked the weekends because I wanted the money and I paid rent for the week so wanted my money’s worth. I still work hard, but in a different way to how I used to, I have 10 people to pay so I have obligations to make sure the company pays its way. Overworking IMO is a bad long term startedgy, but for a relatively short period of time its no big deal.
As an aside, I used to go in on xmas day for 3 hours just because I knew my competition was sat at home “slacking” I dont do this anymore as I appreciate the importance of quality relaxation time and 3 hours on xmas day was just being silly, (but I would do it again if I thought I was starting to take too much for granted.)

[David Hammond]

Hats off to you Steff 👏 I think if I had 10 my head would melt. I’ve had staff on and off in the past, it was enough to put me off wanting to work with anyone ever again 🤣

From memory you do a lot of personalised products? I’d imagine that quick turnarounds are expected and 7 days a week works for that. Our neighbour sells a lot through online market places and is constantly under pressure to meet delivery deadlines.

[Simon Worrall]

Yup. Sunday is my favourite day to work. Specially installing shop signs, when there is nobody about.

Mind you I am in the very fortunate position of having no kids.

This probably deserves its own thread!

[Phill Fenton]

When I first started my business back in 1996 I worked days, evenings and weekends all to get the business established. However, as time went on I came to realise that I was entitled to time off just like anyone else. I therefore stopped working weekends altogether (though will do so on occasion if it suits me to do so e.g. to fit a shop sign in a busy location – preferring to do this when it is quieter on a Sunday). I often get asked to do a van at the weekend as “this is the only time the van is available” – however, my response is usually no (how do they get the vehicle serviced or MOT’d if it can’t be taken off the road for a few hours?).

So in short – do so if it suits you. But don’t be bullied by unrealistic customer expectations.

[Steff Davison]

@ David Hammond. I couldnt do what I do without having people who help. Getting the right ones is the tough bit. I got to 18 staff but scaled back, I have different systems in place now, so steady growth should be fine. The business is only as good as the people within it, but having allied sign making skills has been a major bonus too, I just dont think that the bespoke signage business is for me, although I did consider it a few months ago, thought about buying an existing sign business during the covid shutdown but banged my head on a cupboard and snapped myself out of it.

[David Hammond]

I’ve scaled back massively, and it’s a great relief.

I don’t enjoy doing signs, I find it more trouble that it’s worth, and I just don’t have any enthusiasm for it. I enjoy working with vehicles and that’s what we concentrate on with the right customers.

I’ve number of trusted suppliers I work with who help out with some of the stuff we no longer produce in house, and I’m relatively stress free.

[Joe Killeen]

I will work any day that suits, the weekend gone was a bank holiday here and I worked every day not because I have to but it suited me and the customer, who paid extra to have the work done while things were quite. I will take days off mid week also if it suits me and I want to go to the Mountain bike trails as they are quite midweek. Balance things to suit your life customers come and go and life goes on. 30 years doing signs and still love it.

[RobertLambie]

I think when you are starting out, it is easy to fall into the trap of doing everything for everyone, at any time or day of the week. most of this is because of your desire to make your business work! and there is nothing wrong with that, as I believe you have to do whatever it takes to get where you want to be. Just not at any cost!

I have not done sign work on a weekend for many years now.
we work 9am – 5.30pm Monday to Friday. however, sometimes for installations of vans and signs, we sometimes start early or work late. this is just to get the jobs done and onto the next, but also to maintain we will NOT work any weekends. I just find it important to have that break in your week to do whatever and recharge for the next week.

Now to contradict myself…
I work online from I get home at night and will easily sit till 3am in the morning, often longer.
for example, It’s 1:54am as I type this now! 🙂 The difference is, I have no deadlines, no customers waiting on me. it’s my hours and if I do feel like having a beer, ill have a beer or if I’m tired I go to bed, if I am fed up, ill watch some youtube or a film on Amazon or whatever. but after 20 years of running this site, it’s pretty much in my bones now!

I think enjoying what you do plays a big part in how much you can tolerate week to week, month to month etc. I love every aspect of what I do and I never think of what I do “as work”. the only things I do not like are customers wanting everything for nothing and bad payers. I can handle the other pressures with ease…

I think if you enjoy your Friday afternoon glass of wine and Saturday mornings in bed, then do not change it or you will begin to resent giving it up and start hating what you do. But try and make sure your customers are well aware of your hours and your limits. Structuring your business and processes is very important because it’s very easy to lose your way as you get busy and everything will start to become overwhelming.