Need time off for health issue but self employed

[thesootherfairy]

Didn't know where to post this as it's health related, I've posted here.

I've a number of health issues going on and could do with time off or shorter hours.

If I was employed I could be signed off for a bit.

Problem is I'm self employed and the kind of self employed who employs other people. I run two businesses. They're not big and I don't have anyone who can take over my role. Couldn't realistically afford never mind find someone to take it on.

None of this is helped by the stupidly long hours I work to grown my businesses and get it all to hang together.

I have two DC, 11 and 9. Most days I do school run (he starts early at 08:00) for 8 with youngest. Oldest is senior school so takes bus now.
Then straight to work, my work is in a field where hours are mostly 07:30 to 4pm so I can finish just after 4, then drive to collect youngest.
Get home make dinner etc, put DC to bed and at 08:30/9pm start work again.
Most days I do this and I work evenings at the weekend too. I finish at 11 or midnight.

On the days I'm too exhausted and I've not done the extra hours, I end up running so far behind it causes issues.

I'm so tired. This last year my industry has been busy despite Covid and covid has meant extra paperwork and more time spent chasing stuff around (so more hours). On top of that arthritis issue which can flare and makes me feel exhausted and in pain and another health issue which needs attention and I'm trying to deal with - GP etc involved and trying to help.

I've not had much time off. Probably 5 days since December 2019. Normally the family holidays forces me to take time off. But without those, when I try to be off, phone keeps ringing etc.

So what do I do? I can't afford to have my businesses fail because I'm laying around in bed. I really can't.
I also mentally couldn't handle failure of the business as they're really important to me and I do love my work a lot.

I just don't know how to get a little time to myself. I'm scared of taking time off due to all the financial worries about businesses and the economy at the moment. Also need the money obvs.
There have been a lot of businesses that have gone under due to Covid impact and I find this terrifying. And that stress and worry isn't helping at all.

I find myself reading threads here on MN in health and mental health sections and how others get signed off work and can just take time. That isn't possible for me.

I just want to make it all work. I've tried to not work in the evenings but I fall too far behind.

I'm exhausted and at a loss. Any advice? Anyone been in a similar position?

Start training up one of your employees to manage parts of your role.

Hi @Finfintytint
Not that simple. Most employees perform construction and manufacturing roles and can't design joinery or provide quotes.
I have two in the office. Neither would be able to take on even 10% of what I do.

To hire two people to cover what I do isn't possible cost wise and it is nearly impossible to cover my skills that have been honed over the last 30 years. That's the problem I have.

You may not think that you can fford to take time off but, frankly, if you drop down in the street from exhaustion they'd have to work out how to manage.

You may not be able to get someone to cover all of the things you do, but you can allocate some of those things ti existing team members and /or bring on another member of staff to do a a chunk of it especially if it's all a particular type of thing eg marketing, compliance, whatever.

I’m self employed too but I take holidays and don’t work evenings. Your business model is unsustainable. You need to work out how to let go of some tasks, get admin support and/or train someone up.
You need to put your prices up if they don’t support this. Clearly you’re busy enough - charge more.
No business plan or model should rely on one person working themselves to death.

As the owner you will always shoulder the responsibility for the business there’s no way to “get signed off” from that. But, you should not plan to work more than 40h a week and you need to give yourself at least 3/4 weeks off a year.

If you are the design brain behind your business you may need to scale down the jobs you take on and let some people go in order to make it manageable for you health and stress wise.

“Your health is your wealth”.
Sage advice.

Have you got someone you can talk to in real life about this? It sounds tough and I bet you could do with some support to see the wood for the trees.

If you're critical to the business then it is all the more important to the business that yiu are protected.

If you weren't worried about the cost or knowledge/skill of extra staff what are all the things you would get them to do? What does that leave you with, is that manageable? (not manageable working 70 hours a week with no holiday, manageable working 40 with time off). Then how can you get to make that work - take on fewer jobs? Reduce other costs? Increase prices? As PP says the last one sounds obvious given you have the demand.

You used to take a holiday for a break so do that. Even if your holiday is just recuperating at home. Close the business for a week if it cannot operate without you.

You may be eligible for ESA (self employed sickness pay) for time off due to ill health.

I don't have anyone to talk to about this. That's part of the trouble.

In order to take time off and to take the next step of hiring someone to cover parts of my role I need to massively upscale one of the businesses. I am in the process of doing so.

I'm also suffering to recover a big loss at end of last year and legal fees involved.

I had an employee theft from one of the businesses. This was the person hired to perform a large part of my function one of the businesses and he stole fairly substantial amounts. Police and solicitors involved. To make matters worse that was the second time in a year this happened. The first time was horrendous and someone who had worked for me for 6 years. Those losses were recovered and sorted but it took 9 months of horrid stress.

Second time losses were not as bad. But it was the breach of trust. Again this was someone who had worked for me for 4 years. To be fair he suffered a breakdown, stole from me and his friends his wife and kids had left and he disintegrated.

So just hiring people to take on some of my work has not worked well. They seem to end up having the power go to their heads.

I don't have employee issues. Ever. The only two times in 10 years have been those two and in same circumstances which now makes me reluctant to try again.

It's just very hard and I feel so stuck.