Greetings! Ok so the last time you read anything going with me was back at the beginning of January, I have been slacking, really. Big things are (almost) happening here. I am successfully unemployed (seasonal job, blah blah) but am looking to move on to a more lucrative career, maybe even one that pays. That is the small stuff. The next I blame on my dearest, my sunshine of my life, my wife who some of you may know around these parts as Gypsie over there at thewanderinggypsie. Maybe not directly, but I blame her for planting the seed for this. While discussing future careers the question was put to me "what would you love to do, what would you want to get out of bed every day excited about doing?" There is something that I have wanted to do since about 4th grade or so (no I am NOT saying how long ago that was). I made a couple phone calls, asked (too) many questions and discovered that career opportunities for this just plain do not exist here in our little corner of Downeast heaven. Dismayed, but not giving up, I thought, why not hire myself, be my own boss, and not work for someone else, but for myself. Well fast forward about a month or so to today. We met with a great guy named Ed at S.C.O.R.E. [Service Corps Of Retired Executives] with our first draft of a business plan. Yep, that is what the first steps are for starting your own business, the idea, some basic info, then a business plan. Scary? YES! We have never done one of these, there seems to be no end of "how to" advice on-line for these, so what did I do? I took a basic outline given to me of what one should be and went from there. It was most certainly flawed, missing key pieces of info, too much info in the wrong place, but over all, not all that bad. Time for Business Plan 2.0. With a little less info where it is, and more info where there isn't any, but that will take some digging and "market research" for what we want to do. Oh, I also had a job interview today too, that went well, but the better news there was it was at the same place that we plan to work with as a business. The general manager was extremely excited about my proposal and even sent me to another facility that they partner with to suggest the same. The result there may not have been as exuberant but still a positive reception to the proposal. So a very productive day today. Frankly, our plans are HUGE, I mean, for a small business, these are really REALLY big. There is a disgustingly large amount of capital needed just to open the doors, but with a bit of luck and begging, and lots of smiles and hand shakes and talk it up, I think we can get it and get this thing going. We have so much to learn about this but it will be as fun as it is hard too. I am not really going to say too much about what exactly it is, as of right now, (and if you know don't say it please) but I will put this out there; 2 areas of business, the first will be seasonal for the tourism season, the other will be somewhat tourist and somewhat professional, but year-round. Also, I have nominated, seconded, and voted unanimously that my dearest, the sunshine of my life, my wife, be the owner, not because I don't want the headache, but for a myriad of other reasons and a few "because she is better at it" reasons too. I will be the work horse of the business until we "promote from with-in." This is a family owned and operated business that can (no, WILL) grow with our family.
We are off to a good start, a good solid plan and each other for support, what more do we need? Oh, right, investors, yeah, they would be great, we need them.
So here is to doing what you love, being your own boss and working your ass off to live a dream, and with that, I am off to bury myself in research for writing Business Plan 2.0.
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