• Home
  • My Favorite Topics
    • Blogging
    • Business
    • Career
    • Cars
    • Consulting
    • Epic Life Quest
    • Iceland
    • Marketing
    • Presenting
    • Productivity
  • My Life Quest
    • Future Achievements
  • About Me
  • My Recent Photos

How I Handle Weekend and Holiday Work

6 years ago
business, consulting, rates, salary
9 Comments
Vegas, baby!
Vegas, baby!

When you’re independent, sooner or later, somebody’s gonna want you to work on the weekend or on a holiday.

Or, they may say something like, “Is there any way we could get into your calendar earlier, or get this done faster?”

Here’s how I handle that: any money I make on weekends or holidays goes directly to my wife as purely discretionary income.

This has an interesting effect on negotiations: it takes away all of my emotions from the negotiations process. Normally, when there’s money at stake, I’m interested in getting the deal signed, but since none of the money’s going into my pocket, I am totally chill about this whole thing. I can even be honest with my clients and say, “My wife and I have this agreement that she gets to keep the money I make on the weekends, so here’s the price that it takes to buy me out of family happenings.”

When I decided that, I went to my wife and said, “What’s a price number where you would be happy having me working on a weekend day? What’s the number of dollars that you’d want to have in your pocket where you’d be totally happy that I was working instead of hanging out with you?” She set a number, and now I’m able to just quote that anytime someone asks. I don’t have to ask her what we’re planning – at that price, she’s completely happy canceling anything we’ve got going on.

That was some expensive champagne
That was some expensive champagne

When deals are signed, everybody’s happy:

  • The client gets me faster (although at a significant cost)
  • Erika gets fun money to spend on stuff she’d never consider buying otherwise
  • I get the warm, fuzzy feeling of making everybody happy while doing what I love

To make it work and keep a good work-life balance, the price has to be high enough that Erika’s truly excited, and high enough that clients aren’t willing to fork it out every single weekend and holiday.

When I first got started, I thought I’d have to say yes to every client demand. “Work with us over the weekend and you’ll earn our business over time.” I learned that the kinds of clients who want me to work every weekend and holiday aren’t really the kinds of clients I want to work with long term.

business, consulting, rates, salary
Previous Post
The Tools and Services I Used to Build GroupBy.org
Next Post
THE Sales Question: “What Does Success Look Like to You?”

9 Comments. Leave new

  • stefflocke
    December 13, 2016 7:22 am

    Nice way of deciding the figure!

    Reply
    • Brent
      December 13, 2016 10:02 am

      Thanks ma’am!

      Reply
  • HBK
    December 13, 2016 8:25 am

    I guess it pays to be one of the best 🙂

    Reply
    • Brent
      December 13, 2016 10:02 am

      HBK – aww, shucks, but seriously, consultants at all levels get this same kind of request from clients. (Especially when corruption hits, sadly.)

      Reply
  • Adam Machanic
    December 13, 2016 9:38 am

    “When I decided that, I went to my wife and said, ‘What’s a price number where you would be happy having me working on a weekend day? What’s the number of dollars that you’d want to have in your pocket where you’d be totally happy that I was working instead of hanging out with you?'”

    Oh come on Brent, we all know her answer. ANY AMOUNT WHATSOEVER.

    Reply
    • Brent
      December 13, 2016 10:01 am

      Her first answer: “Wait, you mean they’re going to pay ME? I thought I would have to pay THEM to take you away on a weekend.”

      Reply
  • Brandon Tahedl
    January 3, 2018 4:07 pm

    That is a brilliant idea, I’m definitely going to propose this to my wife.

    Reply
    • Brent
      January 5, 2018 10:48 am

      Thanks!

      Reply
  • Angele
    October 20, 2019 7:29 am

    Sir,you just saved my marriage!
    #SaveTheDba

    Reply

Leave a Reply to stefflocke Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.

Hi. I’m Brent.

That's me, Brent.

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm on an epic life quest to have fun and make a difference.

I co-founded Brent Ozar Unlimited to help make your SQL Server go faster. I also maintain sp_Blitz® and the open source First Responder Kit repo.

My current car collection includes a 1986 Ferrari 328 GTS, a 1964 Porsche 356, a 1971 VW Type 3 Squareback, and more.

profile for Brent Ozar on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites

© 2021 Brent Ozar, all rights reserved. Privacy Policy

  • Home
  • My Favorite Topics
  • My Life Quest
  • About Me
  • My Recent Photos