A 4 Day Work Week Is Possible

Madison Motors is the family car business that I have run for the last 8 years. The big car dealerships are open 6 days a week, until 8 pm during the week and on Saturdays. That is the “expectation.” My used car business is open 4 days a week, no late nights and no weekends. ***

How is that possible? Well……We create our lives and our reality.

Over the course of the last 8 years, I have tried every variation of operating hours. We have stayed open late during the week, open Saturdays, and closed Saturdays. One variation involved me taking off Mondays and working Saturdays. The plan was that my employee would cover Mondays alone. When this started, I found that my employee was calling off 1 out of every 4 Mondays which meant I still had to come to work with a last-minute notice to cover Monday, after having worked Saturday. I was not enjoying the freedom that I was trying to create.

I had a conversation with my employee, explaining that if I could not count on them to be at work every Monday we would be closed on Mondays, and they would be paid for 4 days a week. This was not an option they could agree to, so they stopped missing Mondays. My expectations of them had changed and they stepped up.

When I scaled back our hours to 10am to 4pm Monday through Friday, a few potential customers complained. My “fear” was that if we were not open late and on Saturdays, we would sell fewer cars. Once I wrapped my head around the possibility that this was not “the truth” and changed my expectations, I saw that customers were able to come in during the week. Our customers work 2nd or 3rd shift and had a day off during the week. It was working. We were selling just as many, if not more cars with this new mindset. How was this possible, my customers had not changed. What changed, was my perception of what it took to run a business.

We do get to create the business and life that we want. This can be a hard concept to grasp, but we do create our lives with our thoughts and our expectations.

Apply this shift to anything that you want, or wish to be different, in your life. Then sit back and watch the changes happen around you.

***At the time of writing this we are in the process of winding down the business over a 2-3 year period.