Yeah...original title.
Anyway, Mark and I were talking about this for the first time today, then I come here and see a couple of posts where people said the economy is really affecting their sales.
Here's the deal...I have all the free time in the world, but I need Mark in sooooo many aspects of our business. We're partners, and both of us bring different strengths to our business.
I reluctantly brought this subject up with him today, thinking that he would shoot it down right away, but he was actually thinking the same thing!
Mark has a full-time job. He's worked over 60 hours a week for the last couple of weeks. This leaves him tired and cranky, and leaves almost no time for our business.
I see what this cruddy job is doing to him, and I told him today that I believe it's time for him to think about quitting his day job and concentrating on our business full-time.
We only have one car, and he takes that to work. I'd take him to work and back everyday the way I used to, but with gas prices the way they are, that would be just too expensive.
So that limits what I can do to drum up more business. I can't go on sales calls, and I can't even go to the post office without having to call my parents or brother.
We're sort of in a catch 22 right now. If he stays working where he's working, we have VERY limited time and have a VERY limited ability to gain more clients. If he quits and works on our business, we lose that regular paycheck. It wouldn't take all that much to make up for the loss of his income, but there's no guarantee, especially in today's economy.
Is it time to take the plunge, or is the economy so bad right now that people aren't getting shirts, signs, and graphics work for their businesses?
It's a scary prospect in the best of times. Now is even worse. But we can't grow our business without him quitting his 40(+)-hour job.
Any advice for how we should prepare, or if we should even try right now? We'd be concentrating on business-to-business jobs until we can afford a retail space and shop.