A Day in the Life of a Small Business Owner

Hi, guys. Welcome to a day in my life as an ice cream shop owner in Hawaii. My name is Ridge, and I'm gonna share with you some advice that I wish I knew earlier before starting my small business. But first, let's get ready for work. If you're watching this, I'm sure you're an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or maybe you're just interested in this type of career.

I mean, being able to make your own schedule sounds amazing. Right? Or just the fact that you are your own boss and not having to report to anyone. There are so many perks to this career, but the problem is if you're a workaholic and you feel like you need control over everything, well, that's a different story. Some tasks that I face daily go from administration, like doing taxes and payroll to working the register and interacting with customers, counting inventory to make sure we have enough ingredients to serve hundreds of people a day, and the hardest, marketing.

Taking content daily and staying fun and relevant to attract new customers. You see, for me, I tend to like to do things my way. I want things orderly and perfect, especially when it comes to my work. This means I like to do everything myself because I know it'll get done properly and to my standards. This is fine and all, but if you have this mentality year after year, you will experience burnout.

Honestly, sometimes all you need is to snap back into reality and really ask yourself, do I need help? Can I really do this all on my own? And am I happy? But my mindset changed once I discovered Upwork. I realized hiring freelancers with specialized skills for help could actually be a good thing.

And maybe delegating tasks and responsibilities to professionals in the industry could definitely help with my burnout. You see, I realized that there are so many tasks that take up so much of my time, like graphic designing and marketing. And y'all, editing graphics and designing logos is not my strong suit. So for me, it takes hours and sometimes even days to finish projects. But on Upwork, you can find top talent that specializes in things like graphic design that you could technically and most definitely outsource your work to.

And at the end of the day, time is money. And that time that you're spending editing a logo for, for example, for me, ten hours could be done by someone else in a matter of probably a few hours. And that's time that I could have used to develop a new product, a new idea. Because I work at an ice cream shop, I love coming up with new flavors, new products, and that would allow me more time to focus on that. Okay.

Let me show you how easy it is to find independent contractors on Upwork. For me, specifically, what I'm looking for right now is to upgrade my marketing newsletters. Let me give you a quick rundown. So first, I'll log in to upwork.com, and I'll check the home page for any of the latest updates. And I'll scroll down to the part where it shows you browse talent by category.

I like to read through all of the categories to see which one relates the most to the project that I'm working on. But if you're on the navigation bar, you can just simply click find talent at the very top, and it will drop down a list of the most common categories, like all of these ones on the right. So I think that for me, it's gonna be under design and creative because I'm trying to design and create a marketing newsletter. On this page, it shows you subcategories that are more detailed. And if you want an even more detailed list, all you have to do is scroll down again.

And the thing that I love about this site is that it has so many categories, so you'll definitely find what you're looking for. So after looking through all of the categories, I think that graphic designer would be someone that would be able to help me with my email marketing. But just in case, I also wanna try and check out sales and marketing, and I know that marketing falls under email marketing. So here is something that's more relative. It's email marketers, and they specialize in that.

So So I'm gonna go ahead and join as a client because I'm hiring and outsourcing freelance talent for this project. And then I'm gonna sign into my account, and it's as simple as that. Honestly, guys, that was so easy, and I wish I knew about Upwork sooner. And, guys, I've been operating my own ice cream shop a little over five years, and I'm so proud that I'm still in business. But the thing is, I really regret not making time for myself to do the things that I love, like traveling, hanging out with friends, and my ultimate passion of being a content creator and just filming my life.

I wish I could have spent more time creating content for me videos and memories, but instead, I was consumed in work, work, work. With the help of Upwork, I'm now able to have more free time to do the things that I didn't have time for before. I can go out to karaoke till 3AM and sing my heart out with friends. All of the things I put aside because I was so busy with working. But guys, learn from my mistakes.

Get help when you need it, and don't think you have to do everything yourself. Trust me. There are so many talented people on Upwork that are professionals in their industry. Alright, guys. I'm finally off of work, and it's time for me to wind down with my pup.

And I hope that you guys had fun spending the day with me today. And don't forget to subscribe for more tips for your business on Upwork, and I hope that this video inspired you to never put your passion on hold. Bye, guys.