Being in business for oneself

[Sara]

I'm gonna toss my nickel into the fray. Lately in emails and conversation the phrase 'business plan' keeps popping up. I never thought I had one yet when a group of email friends sat down over morning coffee and talked I realized that yep I did write one down using the play sheets at the end of each chapter of Creating Money, Your Keys to Abundance by Sanaya Roman. . . back in the late 80s, book still in print and available on Amazon. Taught me a different way of looking at myself, my work, my life. Well worth reading as a companion to Dennis' unconventional ideas. All our idealistic goals are great yet bottom line to succeed we need to treat this as a REAL job. One of my biggest hurdles is to learn that something I've made IS good enough to sell to my galleries instead of putting in the 'seconds' box. . . and I'm working on this one.

Stream of consciousness this morning . . . What is your debt ratio? How much money (bare bones is fine) do you need per month to live on? to run a business? To continue research & development? Is you spouse or significant other supportive of this endeavor? Is your belief in yourself, your work and your pocketbook strong enough to withstand the ups and downs of today’s world? Where do you want to sell? craft shows? wholesale? retail? web? all these? What selling venue have you tried to date?

I think marketing is necessary, although not top priority. I couldn’t live here on the edge of nowhere without marketing and a strong customer group, which has taken years to grow . . . I travel to every show I do, so selecting the right ones for me is crucial and its taken a number of years of trial and error to find my place. Often the buyer doesn’t know who “I amâ€

[Firehouse Glass]

Falling down and skinning your pride is a given. Being accused of being a workaholic, be prepared to work 24/7 . . . hey focus is a most important key. You've gotta live glass. Having the balls to believe in yourself and go forward regardless. Ha Ha, my stream of consciousness is fizzled, guess the caffiend hasn’t kicked in yet.

It is a magic carpet ride, albeit bumpy at times . . . good luck,

Sara

Someone once said, "When you are self-employed you can work any 80 hours each week that you choose."

Tina

[ellen abbott]

80? Is that all?

E

[Phil Hoppes]

I agree with some of what Dennis says and disagree with other parts. Way too many business fail because they are underfunded. I guess that also depends on what your specific business goals are but this business is not unlike any other, dare I say, manufacturing business, where you can make some things without special equipment, but with it, it enables you to do more. I tried to make clean edges without a WBS. A zillion hours later and sore arms I went out an bought a quality manufacturing grade WBS. Again, it does depend upon your ambition but if you want those nice clean edges, you want to make roll-ups, you want to use sandblasting....guess what you are going to need equipment. Do you need to buy it all up front? No. But if you are at point A and you want to get to point B knowing how much its going to cost you is not a bad thing.

Business plans are just for accountants????? I don't think so. I worked in semiconductors for years and yes, the business plans we made were a joke. The only purpose they served is generating 800 pounds of paper to justify your existance. That being said, the opposite of a total lack of business planning is also, IMHO, a joke also. You should at least have an idea of what your expenses are going to be. What revenue is required to support those expensese so that you can operate profitably and how long and how much glass you are going to shlep to get you to that goal. There is a person here where I live that set up a stained glass shop at a local strip mall. It was very unfortunate but she went bust after one year. Just a little planning on her part would have told her that at the rent she was paying and the seasonal variation of retail in this area, she needed to be taking in $2500 AVERAGE per day for the 14 week selling season. This is not rocket science but total and complete lack of planning on her part was the reason for her bust. She had a great product. No planning killed her.

No marketing? Again....what are your business plans? If your happy with the trickel in theory of business, fine. Me, I know who my customers are, where to get them but without any marketing, my work is going to be a lot harder in getting them to my product. I would guess your doing marketing every day but you may not realize it or you chose to not call it that.

Phil