Reflections on Labour Day & Why We Do What We Do

Labour Day got me thinking about how many hours entrepreneurs actually work

As an entrepreneur for almost 30 years 🤪, I’ve looked at Labour Day (and most holiday Mondays for that matter), as a day to take it easy… but still an opportunity to “catch up”.

In our last census, 23.8% of our Business Sisters admitted working 41-60 hours per week, with another 9.9% reporting they work 61+ hours a week. That’s a THIRD of us working more than 40 hours a week.

And that doesn't include all the other caregiving and household tasks that need to be done, never mind the accompanying mental load.

None of us set out to work that many hours a week when we started. I, for one, originally thought I’d have more time for myself!

But it’s a funny thing being your own boss. There’s always one more email. One more quote. One more post. One more thing that would just be easier to finish yourself…

Here’s a fact that made me spit out my coffee this past Monday morning

‍I was reading about the origins of Labour Day in Canada. Back in 1869, Toronto printers were working 60+ hours a week. They asked their employers to limit that to 58, but they were denied. They eventually went on strike, and that movement helped give rise to the Labour Day tradition we celebrate today.

But more than 150 years later, women entrepreneurs are still working some of the hours labour activists were fighting against. Isn’t that wild?

The need to create more sustainable businesses is one of the main reasons why we have created Business Sisters, and its Annual Conference. And when I say sustainable, I don’t mean some lofty business-school concept, or just a reference to ecology. I mean making a decent living. Doing work you enjoy. Working a reasonable number of hours to do it. PLUS of course not harming the environment!

Our Conference Program offers short, actionable workshops built around one idea: running a better business doesn’t have to mean doing MORE.

We spend a lot of time and effort identifying the topics that are both timely and necessary. This year, among many things, our lineup will help you figure out which clients are actually worth pursuing, create systems that save you time, and focus your marketing on what works for you (and ignore the rest!). Yes, we’re going to talk about AI, but also about HI – Human Intelligence – because the right way to run your business depends a whole lot on the human who is running it.

Have a look at the program and see if it speaks to where you are in your business right now.

Of everything we do at Business Sisters, I believe this is the event that can make the biggest difference in how you run your business. Not by giving you MORE things to do, but by helping you decide what’s worth doing, what isn’t, and how to build a business that leaves room for the rest of your life.

We’ve also worked hard to keep it affordable: $299 for a full day of programming, meals, breaks and a wine & cheese. I dare you to find that kind of value anywhere else in Eastern Ontario. 😉

I really hope you’ll join us in Cornwall on November 9.