Business Class #3 - Business Plan Guidelines

This class was a really good one!  It was an all day course and a lot of the people from the first class were there.  Clyde was the teacher again and he had some really great information.  He also sent us all home with a flash drive with some worksheets and templates.  I looked at them and they will be a good place to start when I start writing. 

I am a little intimidated by the amount of research that needs to be done.  One of the bits of advice that Clyde gave is to go sit in some comparable shops around town and see what it's like.  Mike wants me to expand on that and explore all the shops in the area and visit them all several times during the week.  I know that I need to know what that information looks like, but it's still intimidating!  LOL

Business Class #2 - Saving Money in Taxes

So today, I took a seminar about saving money in taxes with your business.  In the class last week, it seemed like the LLC was the way to go.  The guy that gave the seminar this week was definitely in favor of incorporating.  I took Mom with me and she really liked this guy and said she would think I should go with him as an accountant...I am not fully convinced but I did like what he had to say.  It sounds like an LLC is okay until you make a profit...so we'll see what happens...LLC, here I come!  :)

Business class #1 - Business Basics

Today, I took a business basics class at the SBDC and it was a lot of information to process!  The instructor was a great guy named Clyde who made a lot of information seem palatable.  I found out that along with the classes, the SBDC offers counseling and advisory services as well. I think I have found my new home.  :)

There is a lot to know about small business, but the main thing I got out of this class is to write a business plan.  That and form an LLC.  So, it looks like I will be doing that soon.

Goodbye to the old life...hello to the new...

So, here I am back after another two years and embarking on a new adventure.  A while ago, I had written that I was in a funk, and it turns out part of that was probably my job.  I loved my job when I started.  I felt safe there.  I was doing biology which truth be told, I am not very good at but I really enjoy.  My now husband used to laugh at me because I would come home all excited about something that happened with whatever bacteria I was working with.

I felt a bit of stagnation after a few years but my passion rekindled when I started on a big new project that allowed me to not only learn something new but to specialize in something.  This was great for a while...then I started having some interpersonal issues.  Probably things I should have seen coming and definitely should have handled better...but real issues nonetheless and issues that weren't all in my head.  They were confirmed by others who I highly respected and saw what was happening but were powerless to help.  Meanwhile I spiraled.  I came close to quitting a few times being incredibly unhappy and feeling like I had no other choice.

Then, I did have a choice.  And I decided that I wanted to be done with the corporate world and that job in particular, but I wanted to be done on my terms.  So with the blessing of super supportive hubby, I took the plunge and decided to go into business for myself. I am hoping this will be a good move and fun to boot.  I am seeing a long road ahead of me so far but It looks like it's pretty straight and well-lit.

I have been vindicated somewhat in that it seems I am missed at my old job.  I am perversely happy about this especially since I felt like I had no impact there at all.  I miss my friends terribly, but am making an effort to keep in touch with them.

A lot has happened.

So, two years ago, I wrote about my impending reunion.  It was actually quite nice.  I got to see a lot of people I wanted to.  More than I expected even.  One person that I always wondered about after High School was Sam.  We had a couple of mutual friends, and I heard the occasional update, but not many.  We ran in completely different circles and I was pretty oblivious in high school to a lot of goings on.  I am very glad I got to see him and catch up a little bit.
I was thrilled to see most of them and even still keep in touch with a few.  As I have said, hooray for Facebook...although I will say that I wish I was better about keeping up outside of FB because FB is very impersonal.  But that's another post...or at least another paragraph.  I guess I am mainly trying to say in regards to the reunion that it was nice to see almost everyone.  I thought it was really funny that some of the assholes are still assholes.  But really, if they are going to continue to be jerks and were jerks then, too bad.  I have no use for people like that in my life.  Some few people grew up (I managed not to...I still feel like a teenager sometimes...even at 41.)

Let's see what happens for 25 years...and even 30.

Well, this wasn't planned...

I have a post in my drafts that I was working on a couple of days ago and would probably have published tonite, but I got a bit of news today that sparked something and now, I have something else to get off my chest.

I have to start by saying: I am a good person. That is less to establish it for anyone else than it is a Stewart Smalley sort of self-affirmation. People have actually said this (to my face even), but I really need to tell it to myself right now. I have made mistakes in my life. Who hasn't? I will say that although some of them were less than becoming, none of them were truly hurtful in the grand scheme of things. The closest I came to that was about 11-ish years ago. The odd thing is, I know people who have done worse. And somehow, it seems to never back up on them. At least not that I can see...but then I wear no one's shoes but my own.

Let me pause to apologize for the cryptic nature of my writing. While specifics would be easier to write (it's surprisingly difficult talking about something without talking about it), it wouldn't make me feel better, and anyway, the specifics could potentially hurt someone. The purpose of this is for ME to write for myself and get things off my chest, not to cause anyone else harm.

I made a poor decision once. Followed my heart (and hormones) someplace I shouldn't have. At the time, I let myself believe (and be led to believe) that it wasn't so terrible. I now realize that I should have listened to the alarm bells that were going off and that finally got my attention, but not before I messed up...royally.

I KNOW I made a mistake. It's not really something one can apologize for...especially in light of the fact that I wasn't alone. But I do feel bad about it. But, it was 10 years ago and as if it was some sort of cosmic joke on me, it keeps coming back to haunt me. Not in a "I did something bad and now I feel guilty" way; although this and other incidents involve that too...but in a very real physical "gets thrown in my face every couple of years" kind of way.

I made peace with myself about it a long time ago, realizing my mistake, and through no effort of my own, wound up with some very understanding friends and family who supported me the first time the situation came back to bite me in the ass...about two years after the initial incident. I tried to make amends last year, and had it blow up in my face. Please understand that I don't exepct everyone to be happy about the situation no matter how many times I say I'm sorry. I just didn't expect THAT.

But what brings me to write this NOW and not last year at my previous encounter with this situation? Just when I thought that it had finally resolved (not in a way of my choosing, but resolved)...I find out that I will come face to face with it at my impending reunion. Yes, THAT is the cause of this frustration. As if I wasn't nervous enough to go to see a bunch of people who I haven't seen in 20 years and who all have accomplished amazing things, it now has the feeling of impending doom.

Ugh. Maybe a piano will fall on me before then.

Life has a Funny way of Happening

Today I am in a funk. Why? I have been on a roller-coaster ride of emotions for the past 6 years or so, so it's not an entirely unfamiliar feeling, but one that I can never seem to get my head around.

It started out when I found out I was prego and had an uncertain future with my significant other. That resolved itself...mostly...but then post-partum set in and all the minor brushes with depression I had experienced over the course of my life suddenly came to the forefront of my awareness in full living color. Then everything that I had come to count on in life seemed to be much more uncertain. And I no longer was the relatively happy person that a lot of friends considered, "just a really nice person". I made some pretty stupid mistakes in life (who hasn't?) some of which were relatively minor school age antics that I now look back on and cringe but I also realize did no lasting damage to anyone but maybe myself (sorry Anna). Others of which continue to haunt me to this day...and not in a figurative "in-my-painful-memories" sense but in a "still-affecting-my-current-existence" kind of way. However, that is all fodder for another post...maybe.

It all leads me here, wondering why I am in this funk. The gist doesn't change much. The seemingly unrelated content of the previous paragraph plays a HUGE part in it. I guess today, what got me going was thinking about friends past, present, and of course future. I signed up for facebook and as I mentioned in a previous post, found people I haven't talked to in years...people from high school and amazingly many from even before that. I lived back east for my pre-teens and early teens. I had some great friends that I had to leave when I moved back to CA. Some of which I kept in touch with, but many I didn't. Same with High School, Junior College, etc. That's all pretty normal...I know few people that didn't lose touch at one time or another with someone that they wish they hadn't.