LOL at you, LL!!! Man, you can get your dander up! Nobody complains about my husband but ME!!! Tee hee.
LL, sounds to me like you DO have a general sense of when things will slow down for your H. And I TOTALLY get the concept of being part of your business. As a psychologist, I could have made more $$ if I hired other therapists and took a percentage of what they earned, etc. etc. In a few years, that is. But I wanted to be a THERAPIST. Not a "business owner" (as you said, you call Smith's such and such and someone Smith hired works with you and you never actually meet or even see Smith). I could have written my notes during the session and booked people closer togehter. limited my sessions to 45min. (the least amt billable to ins. companies for a full session), or done 2 half-hour sessions instead of one 50-60 min. session each hour. The insurance companies are pushing many therapists into a financial situation where they fell they have to do that. I wasn't going to treat my clients like cash cows and herd them through just so I could bill the hours.
Anyway, that's a little of my soap box. Good for your H for keeping his sight on what he really wants to be doing. BUT, I'm almost positive he could have someone doing practically ALL the paperwork for him and save $$$. Or atleast gain time with you, for very little extra cost to the business.
If he hasn't had a course in running his own business, please encourage him to take one (next winter!!). I know our Chamber of Commerce in our city has one for not too much money ($100?) that lasts for 8 weeks one evening a week. Had a friend who is running his own computer animation/graphics business who took it and highly encouraged me to do so. I didn't, because I had kids and didn't feel I needed help running the business aspect of my practice. But I bet your H would be able to eliminate a lot of the stress he has - feeling like there are not enough hours in the day. Not a good way to live. We all have THE SAME NUMBER OF HOURS in our day! It's all about how you use them.
Even a course by Stephen Covey about time management (well, there's a good example of Mr. Smith farming out all the work - isn't there a huge conglomeration of "Covey seminars" and he's probably not at 10% of them??? Anyway, more suggestions for H, who is working hard and God bless him, wants to do well for himself, his family, and his customers.
Give him a big hug!
and here's one for you, too.....(((((((((LL)))))))))))
Oh, and back to my original point - don't lose sight of the seasonal aspect of his work! That is SO tough...knowing you have to earn AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE NOW because when the drought hits, or the winter months, or whatever, there could be NOTHING coming in. Go back and read that post where you were complaining about not knowing when H's schedule would let up. Sounds like maybe his frustration/fatigue was getting you down at that point. Try to be aware of that, and don't go there with him. Remind him how it will let up soon, and that you'll be so glad when you can spend more time with him!
Glad you love your H so much - he's lucky! And, well, so are you
