working on Christmas?

[huggytree]

I got an emergency call Christmas morning for a basement flooding 10 minutes from my house.

i worked for 1.5 hours and made enough to pay for my family's whole Christmas. i hated to go to work on Christmas, but in a down economy it was a must!

I made tons of money and was the Hero to the customer for being the only plumber to return their phone call.

anyone else work?

[greenoak]

i helped entertained my partners...dh and son and family....if that counts...
thats great huggy..you really were a hero to that family........and we all hope our faithful service company would have done the same thing in a similar situation.........thats why i stick to my service people....and hope...

[Patrysha]

Nope...no work that would be counted.

There aren't many emergency calls for marketing and promotions geeks...but really wasn't all cooking & cleaning enough work for the day?

[Spider]

As you can imagine, Christmas is one of the two busiest periods for my wife's pet grooming and boarding business. We have 22 dogs staying with us, all of which have to be fed twice a day and let out into the yard, and supervised, several times during the day, starting at 6am and ending about 11pm. It can be amazingly tiring, but a whole lot of fun.

We have our "Christmas" mid-January!

[huggytree]

Spider,

do you charge a Christmas Premium?

i just charged my weekend rate...

[Spider]

Our rates stay the same throughout the year. The only point to bear in mind is that whenever my wife raises the rates (every two or three years) the new rates come into effect for Thanksgiving. (Her grooming rate changes occur annually, during January or February, usually.)

There is another difference from most other businesses that affect this - my wife has made friends with all her customers and she rarely takes a new customer during the Thanksgiving-Christmas period, for either grooming or boarding. Obviously, this is the busiest time of the year and it just doesn't feel right to accept a stranger and have to turn away a regular friend. This is another reason a Christmas premium would be inappropriate.

I think a Christmas premium would be understandable, in the case of a plumbing emergency. As you have a weekend rate, using that was appropriate, though, I think. Doing someone a favor like that can pay you back a hundred times in business, as well as feeling good from helping someone in need.

Good job, Dave.

[Steve B]

Nothing that I was able to collect any money for, but I got done an amazing amount of organizing and cleaning up in my office. I got through piles of stuff that was over two years old. I hooked up my new 1TB external hard drive that has been sitting around for several months waiting for me. I was able to free up a bunch of room on my original hard drive so I can finally do a defrag (it got down to 0% free space). I now have 15% free space - which is the min. recommended before it can do an effective defrad.

Hopefully, those low memory errors will go away now. At least the low memory errors from the computer.

[Evan]

I didn't work on Christmas... nobody needs financial statements that soon (compiled, reviewed, or audited!), and very few clients need tax returns this time of year.

Just sung some good old classic accounting Christmas songs, such as the 12 Days of Taxes...

On the first day of taxes upon my schedule C, I showed a small profit for me

On the second day of taxes, deductions claimed by me: 2 vacation homes and I showed a small profit for me

On the 3rd of taxes, deductions claimed by me: 3 legal fees 2 vacation homes and I showed a small profit for me

On the 4th of taxes, deductions claimed by me: 4 call girls, 3 legal fees, 2 vacation homes, and I showed a small profit for me

On the 5th of taxes, deductions claimed by me: 5 days in France, 4 call girls, 3 legal fees 2 vacation homes, and I showed a small profit for me

On the 6th day of taxes deductions claimed by me: 6 limos driving, 5 days in France, 4 call girls, 3 legal fees, 2 vacation homes, and I showed a small profit for me

On the 7th day of taxes deductions claimed by me: 7 jets for flying, 6 limos driving, 5 days in France, 4 call girls, 3 legal fees, 2 vacation homes and I showed a small profit for me

On the 8th day of taxes deductions claimed by me: 8 yachts for sailing, 7 jets for flying, 6 limos driving, 5 days in France, 4 call girls, 3 legal fees, 2 vacation homes and I showed a small profit for me

On the 9th day of taxes deductions claimed by me: 9 subcontractors, 8 yachts for sailing, 7 jets for flying, 6 limos driving, 5 days in France, 4 call girls, 3 legal fees, 2 vacation homes and I showed a small profit for me

On the 10th day of taxes deductions claimed by me: 10 business breakfasts, 9 subcontractors, 8 yachts for sailing, 7 jets for flying, 6 limos driving, 5 days in France, 4 call girls, 3 legal fees, 2 vacation homes and I showed a small profit for me

On the 11th day of taxes deductions claimed by me: 11 business dinners, 10 business breakfasts, 9 subcontractors, 8 yachts for sailing, 7 jets for flying, 6 limos driving, 5 days in France, 4 call girls, 3 legal fees, 2 vacation homes and I showed a small profit for me

On the 12th day of taxes deductions claimed by me: 12 business lunches, 11 business dinners, 10 business breakfasts, 9 subcontractors, 8 yachts for sailing, 7 jets for flying, 6 limos driving, 5 days in France, 4 call girls, 3 legal fees, 2 vacation homes and I showed a small profit for me

[KristineS]

Evan, I like your version of the 12 Days of Christmas. That's funny.

I busted my behind getting my house ready on Christmas Eve and getting food and stuff ready on Christmas Day because my family told me the Sunday before Christmas that our plans had to change and they had to come to my house. That was an interesting experience.

Guess you can't count that as paying work though.

[Patrysha]

I feel like charging my mother in law for all the work I did Christmas Eve only to have her bail two hours before we expected her. I get that she was feeling ill and all...but if she had picked up the phone to let me know in the morning I would not have cooked a turkey and a ham for just our family.

With her not coming, bil and family canceled since we'd just gotten together the day before at FIL's and it's a two hour drive to our place from his and he had to drive 6 hours on Boxing Day to get back to work.

I bought enough to feed 10 ppl with plenty of leftovers for everyone...so racing to find ways to use it all quickly. (Of course all the desserts are long gone but the meat goes on)

[Dan Furman]

Nope, no work.

I very, very rarely work a holiday / weekend. There just isn't anything important that needs doing. Nobody needs web copy (etc) on a Sunday.

I do make exceptions for some CEO's that I write occasional letters for - sometimes, they need something fast to react to an event, etc.