Nursing & Running a Business
One of the big struggles I am faced with right now is helping run a fee-only RIA, alongside working 3 12-hour shifts as a nurse to pay the bills and provide for the family. Nurses can make extremely good business owners if in the right business and connected with the right people. The challenge is the time management, and social life aspects of doing both. If you work as a nurse, most likely you will have some type of holiday, or weekend commitment. I currently work every other weekend. I also had to work Thanksgiving, and New Years Day this past year.
BUT with working holidays, and days that many businesses do not have to work on (Saturdays & Sundays) it can leave a lot of room to work on the business during the off days. This is when it can really start to bleed into personal and social lives more, and more.
To give you context of my week-to-week. I work every Monday, twelve-hour shift, and a combination of every other Thursday/Friday. So, some 7-day period, I work Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, all 12-hour shifts (I actually will sometimes stay to make it a 16-hour shift). This leaves me Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday to, work on the business, see my kids, go to any events, do productive things around the house, etc. etc. I would not suggest going this route to anybody as it is a grueling grind. We are blessed to have a lot of support and an amazing wife that can hold s*** down with three kids at home.
Where am I going with this? It takes a lot, and I mean A LOT of help and planning.
For the business, I have two amazing partners that are 100% focused on the business and can handle the day-to-day if I get tied up during my shift. I am a very responsive person at heart, but I could not imagine a scenario of trying to respond to all clients in a business for myself. It also is way more fun being in business with others, than it is solo (in my opinion).
For the family, we have our schedules planned weeks in advance, and my wife and I’s schedule is booked out 6 weeks in advance often times. With having in-laws down the street, and neighbors that are godsends, it has really helped with drop off and pick up times.
Without much of the above, I am not sure I would have afforded being able to go into business on our own and still have the lifestyle we live today. Yes, I do miss some time with the kids while they are young, and many weekend/dinners with my family. It is a difficult thing some days waking up to a house that isn’t up yet and getting home to a house that is asleep.
Like any parent, we just try to do the best we can for our kids, and their futures. Selfishly I know it will lead to a better future for myself as well.
For anyone looking to start a business, and slowly drop hours as a nurse, understand not only the financial/emotional impact it may have, but understand the time aspect as well.
Finances and emotions can be built back up, time, unfortunately, cannot.
