I was pretty miserable when the alarm went off yesterday morning; one of the things I hate doing for our business is the payroll year-end return and, as I like to get it out of the way as soon as possible after the 5th of April, yesterday was earmarked for getting it done and dusted. We only have a few employees, so administering the payroll isn’t really that big a deal, but I always dread doing the annual return in case it throws up any mistakes I’ve made. Thankfully, it usually all goes swimmingly, turns out to be not such a big deal after all and is over and done with before I know it! Yesterday was no different and it felt great, at the end of the day, to hit the ‘submit’ button on the Inland Revenue website. All over for another year – and that really did make me feel good!
I’m always amused when folk say things like:
(a) “It must be really hard to motivate yourself when you work from home”. No it isn’t; if the work doesn’t get done the mortgage doesn’t get paid. Pretty straightforward really.
And:
(b) “It must be great when you work for yourself; you can just take the day off whenever you feel like it”. Not quite! Certainly not whenever you feel like it – see (a) for clarification – but sometimes it is possible to take the day off on a whim, and that definitely is one of the perks of being your own boss.
Today was one of those days – I treated myself to a day off doing any work work as a pat-on-the-back for finishing the payroll return and submitting it successfully. It was also a bit of a celebration as it was the last time I have to deal with any paperwork concerning our ‘thorn-in-the-side’ ex-employee! (See this and this for further clarification!) I didn’t do anything wildly exciting; halved the ironing pile (which means it’s back to being a stable structure!), caught up with some personal banking stuff that I’d been putting off for ages, read for a wee while, did a bit of supermarket shopping (oh what an exciting life I lead...!) and had a nice lunch out with Gemma. To top it off, we had a barbeque tonight – first of the year - as it was such a lovely evening. A perfect end to a busy, but really good, working week.
Roll on the weekend!
(p.s. although this post is dated Saturday, it's really still Friday night - just so happens that it's after midnight)
Love it, nothing like the end of a year to reflect briefly on the down side of our life but then fill you with renewed enthusiasm when you realize you can draw a line under that and look forward to what this year will bring x your anon pal
ReplyDeleteHehe, I love both of those comments about working for yourself! It's probably best that both types of people are not working from home! I've been my own boss before & really loved it - I actually felt more motivated to work when I was my own boss, & I'd really love to do it that way again - I'm currently trying to build a freelance business, so maybe in a year or so I'll have a chance to see if it might be feasible!
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