When I ran Catalina island race I had a steady desk job with 3 weeks payed vacation. I hated it and had no where to move up, no hope for advancement... but it was stable, easy, I was good at it, I got free beer & tickets to concerts/sporting events, payed vacation, when I went home the rest of the day was mine, work stayed at work, the stress level at work was low, and it did not effect my home life. It was depressing that it was a dead end and not challenging, but I think thats one of the reasons I picked up ultra running - for the challenge that was lacking elsewhere...
In May 2014 I no longer had said office job. I spend on week looking for work before I decided to get my realtor license and start getting business for my husbands fathers painting business Fenske Painting. Fenske painting had been around for 2 generations, starting with my husbands grandfather I believe who went to Moose Heart in Aurora because his parents died from small pox in MN. He, and some of his siblings I believe choose the profession "painting & decorating" My father in-law learned the trade & shared the business with his twin brother. in December of 2012 his twin brother passed away. My father in law continued on, but his twin was the partner in the business that worked on the business side of things as well as painting - he got jobs, worked on taxes, handled payments & things like that more than my father in law. So in May of 2014 as I was searching Craigs list, I had an idea to post an add for painting in the service section. I didn't think much of it, but that night I got a call from a guy that wanted us to paint a whole house. It was a forclosure in Sandwich, needed drywall repair, and to have all the walls and ceilings painted the same color. SO that's what we did. I didn't know painting was so hard - starting out with a house that was same color ceiling and walls was a good place to start - much more easy than anything else.
We did more houses after that - quoted a lot of them. I got better, and we got better (my husband, sister in law, father in law) working together.
We had some things to figure out - the company we were working for needed us to get workers comp. insurance, so we had to form a LLC - Limited Liability Company. Fenske Painting And Decorating LLC - so that our personal assets were protected & we could separate the income that was made from the painting jobs.
This all took a lot of reading and was actually really stressful. Sure I could have used legal zoom and have them charge me $600 extra just to set it up for me, but after reading a lot, and doing some research I found out it was pretty easy to do myself. All I had to do was check the name to make sure it was not already taken, then file an online, pay a fee and boom, LLC. Then goto another site to get a Tax ID number. The only problem is I didn't understand everything at that time, so now I need to fix things. If we are taxed as a LLC every thing is split evenly between owners (my husband and myself) If we change to be taxed as an S Corp, we can pay ourselves what ever we decide to out of the company and only be taxed for that. THEN, I can ad my father in law to the company, and be able to pay him with out paying the workers comp premium (thats 18% OUCH)
And about this workers comp insurance deal. It's a pain. So we pay $1000 + for it then we can opt out of it and not have to pay the 18% but still pay the $1000. SO, if we pay anyone that does not have the insurance, and list them as a subcontractor (lots of rules about this too) then we have to pay the premium, however if I add them to the company and they opt out of it after the company has been changed to an S Corp then we avoid the fees. Another thing - once you choose to be taxed as a LLC (partnership) you have to wait till the next tax year to change... So eventually we will have it the way we want it.
Tax year will be interesting.
Anyway with painting full time - a very active job, finding new business, quoting jobs, and trying to start a career as a retailer my running habits have changed. I do not have to run quite as much I find to stay conditioned because of all time I spend on my feet, and climbing up and down ladders, but I also find it harder to be motivated to get out in the morning, knowing that i'll be painting all day, then maybe cleaning up quickly and showing houses in the evening. This is a new chapter in life, and I know it will be a great adventure, and even though it's not as comfortable as my last job, the opportunity, flexibility and much higher earning potential will be well worth the extra effort and the initial discomfort of change. I'm learning to adapt and overcome these new obstacles and adjust my life to my new jobs so I can learn, suceed and also have a personal life with friends and hobbies to enjoy. Its not an easy balancing act.
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