Remember the great overtime checks you used to get for working more than 40 hours a week? Kiss them goodbye. One of the downsides to owning your own business is the fact that your pay rate doesn’t change just because you’ve worked a lot this week. Sure, you may deserve more pay, but you can’t ask your clients to pay more because of your hectic schedule.
Rather than complaining about your lack of overtime pay, you can find ways to work more efficiently and avoid working more than necessary. Check out the tips below to adjust to your new pay rates.
If a project turns out to be more time consuming than expected, you may want to adjust your window cleaning pricing to make up for the extra time. This is a delicate process though. You don’t want to increase your rate too quickly and lose the client, but you also don’t want to do a lot of extra work for no extra money. Mention your concerns about timing to the client when you have established a good relationship with them. If you cannot get the client to pay more for your services, just make sure you adjust future pricing when you come across similar projects.
If you’re more productive at work, you may not have to work anymore than 40 hours a week. There are some simple ways business owners improve efficiency, like adjusting cleaning routes or listening to music. If you feel slow on the job, figure out what’s causing you to lost track of time. Then you can find creative solutions to accommodate for that.
If you know that one week or one day in particular is going to be long and exhausting, plan for it ahead of time. Maybe you take a day off right before so you can go into the job energized and level-headed. You may also plan to bring your lunch to work with you so you do not have to take time out to go to a restaurant. The more you plan, the easier it will be to stay positive in overtime.
At the end of the day, you’re probably making more money now than you ever did at your desk job. That’s the silver lining in this process. You don’t get overtime, but you get more money for your efforts across the board. This will ultimately add up to higher paychecks, even if you have to work extra hours to keep your clients happy.