small biz gurl*

it's been difficult i think having family over this time. there were just a lot of issues that surfaced all at the same time triggered by holiday stress, winding down the year, health issues and not getting things done because of the holiday delay. we fought a lot. A LOT. obnoxiously a lot. it was frustrating and irritating. ack thinking about it make me cringe right now. >=<

anyway, what have i accomplished this week?

• out of 42 to-do's on my new favorite free tool my ta-da lists, i have successfully killed off 20. that's roughly 48%. not too shabby
• on my personal goals: i have been fairly consistent in posting on craig's list for the business, drink 1L of water, killing off things off my to do list, commenting on blogs every day. but i have consistently failed to practice yoga.
• constantly refraining myself to put things off any longer by hacking down my unread blog posts and emails
• living more healthy and eating actually resonable portions (largely due to i am living by myself again)

things i discovered:

• joe's goals (very cool free tool)
  
• my ta-da lists (awesome cool free tool)
• it's okay to ask for testmonials (AWESOME!!) => i was super shocked when i asked this client who just used our services. i asked because he referred me to others and i was like, hmm, maybe i should ask him to write a quote for the newsletter! and he really gave me a much better idea of what i am doing right.
  
• • although:
  • • he liked we do deposit then final bill when projects are done => i am just thinking about changing it actually to cod because it takes f&*^*&^#^%#^ forever to actually get the last payment on time!
    • • now considering taking credit card or electronic checks so i can just auto charge it mwah haha!
    • he thought the pricing was reasonable
    • • well, it's new year now and we have been in business for 1 year now, it's just time to raise the rates. also i have been investigating what my competitors charge, i under charge roughly $45 less per hour. now that's a lot on an average project of 10 hours! that's $450 i am cutting myself out of it. although i am not going to do a significant raise, i am at least going to raise $20 per hour
• similarily it's okay to ask what went wrong: i have this client who used me for couple times now but are not very good with corresponding with me so i alwasy feel like i am holding off this and that and putting other clients off because i was waiting to hear back on her confirmation. after couple times (which i notice is pretty similar as well with her team members), i notice that she just doesn't follow up with me because she is simply too busy. so i actually took the lead this time and asked why did the client not wanting to use our services? it wasn't painful really since it was purely they did not have the money to make up on the huge equity changes when they buy their next home. (however it was still annoying for me to drive 25 miles to san jose. because it's really 1 hour each way since there are traffic. they just really wanted to see how much it would cost. ack)
• i love conan obrien but i also need to rewire my sleep schedule. watching conan is causing me to be a night owl and don't actually wake up till 11am
• this blog is actually helping me thinking aloud and recently all these online tools have been helping me to be more organized and cutting down the bad habit of putting things off. it's a bit of brain dump really. but hey, whatever works works!

some behavioral changes this year so far:

• eating out less
• start to lose the desires to spending $$$ on crap i really don't need (i think all these money blogs i have been reading are really brainwashing me)
• more organized finances
• • i have set up seperate accounts & credit cards to seperate different business & personal money
  • call up my main credit cards (really my business ones since they are really all i use now) to increase my limits => success! i have doubled the limits on both of my business cards ($10,000 each. well now really all that much but it will help to not to get overlimit fees when i buy inventory) and now i have decreased my debt ratios. that's pretty great. hopefully this well push up my credit score eventually. this past year have been difficult to redevelope my credit. i feel so rejected whenever i ask for a higher limit because i just kept on buying inventory!
• actually eating what i bought at the grocery store. for example, i used to buy tons of things on sale.. and end up going crazy and forgot to look at expiration dates. and of course, how can i possibly eat 20 yogurts in 3 days?! so far i have been pretty good about it and i consume whatever is in the fridge before i go out and do more impulse buy
• i am slowly learning that it is okay to draw boundaries with clients, i don't have to be a people pleaser all the time. i have my own time & schedules (and more importantly, my issues) as well. i need my own time. and sometimes i just cannot accomadate everyone

things that need improvement:

• i am incredibly not good about delivering pricing proposals on time; THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE!!!
  
• still need to work on more ways to get clients.
• i should follow up with pricing proposals that i hand out and follow up with rave reviews as well. i should find out what works and what does not work.
  
• i should slowly try to do some physical activities and get back to practicing yoga. or it's really a waste of all the time to build up the practice and have it become rusty because of lack of practice!

i have been vegging and reading blogs lately and pretty much other than the usual "happy holidays" and "happy new year," lots of people are doing round up as well as planning for next year. hello, dollar! has an excellent post on setting financial goals.

mr. hello dollar have broken this down in steps which i find very helpful for me. (i am a step kind of gurl!):

Step 1: Identify major financial goals, with a time frame.
Step 2: Figure out how much money they'll cost.
Step 3: Develop a long-term plan to reach those goals.
Step 4: Develop a short-term plan with more specific steps to get started.
Step 5: Make the necessary changes to implement the plan.

i also like an english major's money's post on setting monetary goals:

With money goals, there are two easy ways to make your goals achievable:
1) Work with percentages, instead of absolute numbers. Instead of "I'm going to put $10,000 in my 401(k) this year," try, "I'm going to increase my contribution from 6% to 10%." This builds in the requirement that you pay attention to how much you can really afford to give, and it lets your contribution grow with your income.
2) Work in smaller time increments. Instead of "I'm going to save $5,000 for a house this year," try, "I'm going to put away $100 every week towards a down payment." Every week you get to meet your goal (especially if you automate the transfer!), and if you miss a week, you can be back on the horse the next week, succeeding again. This can help to circumvent the "all or nothing" mentality, where you slip up on a goal and then decide to chuck the whole thing entirely (I do this a fair amount myself).

 

so here are my major finanical goals for the future (one of my new year's resolutions now is to write my goals down):

• long term goals: (9 years from now; before i am 35) (i know i know 9 years is more of a short term goal, but hey, life is short and my imagination is limited. really cannot imagine me being in my 30s, let along 60!)
• • buy a home in 5-9 years
  • buy an investment property (or warehouse for company) in 5-9 years
  • be able to afford to donate 5%+ of my salary to charities that are important to me
  • expand the business's revenue to $100,000 annually
• intermediate goals: (4 years from now; before i am 30)
  
• • increase profits 15%-25% annually
• short term goals: (2007!)
• • turn red to black by increasing 8x job volume (a bit ambitious but i will darn try!)
  • allocate my income properly with percentage to control my spending and savings
    
  • • we booked a total of 6 paying jobs (6 non-paid as "shadowing/" classroom trainings) this year (march through december), which was not bad for first year in business considering i had to take almost 2 month off due to family emergencies, as well as being gone for first half of the march for working vacation in europe
      
    • => so basically 1 job per week with a 4-week buffer

here are some steps to do to achieve the short term goals:

• to generate 8x job volume:
• • start marketing more aggressively for the business
  • hanging onto current clients and generate word of mouth
  • figure out my niche
  • get out of my fear box
  • expand and add team members
    
    
• allocate my income properly:
  
• understand how my $ flows: seperate all business (both businesses) & personal accounts
  
• break down income into little bits for different purposes:
• • personal expenses like groceries, etc. @ 15%
    
  • indulgence (reward for each job successfully booked & complete) (little bonuses if you will) @ 5%
  • putting it back to grow the company @ 80%
    
• be more organized in paperwork and tracking finances
• generate other income: look into multiple income producing streams: putting ads on blogs, selling things i no longer use, etc

intermeidate goals:

• retain customers for the long run. there are enough business for everyone even if the competition can be fierce. i need to develope that niche as well as happy customers to ensure a strong foundation. so to have a solid foundation in 2007 will be crucial (!)

• set aside "me" time: 1 date with myself every week; i am going to combine it with this one: get out more: visit 1 new place per week
• consistently learn new crafts and personal enrichment: at least 1 workshop per month for both of my fields
  
• give back to the community: bottom line is 1% of my income this year
• learn a new language: i wanna learn german ;)
• read a new book every month
• go back to yoga

i thought about my life living and traveling in europe when i first left school just now. suddenly i felt my heart beating again. i feel the tremor in the back of my heart when i think of the european cities i have visited and the carefree life i had. *SIGH*

sometimes when you are so engrossed with starting your small business, it became difficult to see other things. now i start to remember the feeling of lost when i first started. i felt my destiny is behind a piece of fuzzy glass. it seems like i can see it, to reach it but never feel it. now i feel the road ahead of me is limitless and i can spread my wings and fly. everything is possible. as long as i work for it. i cannot believe it's only been a year that flew by. a lot has changed since then. 

hello darling,

another successful case done today! whew!

unfortunately you have been slacking off on marketing and prospecting lately and when and where are we gonna find our next job?? remember tomorrow is work day. we are gonna to work on goal setting and all that good stuff to ensure us a productive year!

cheers,

smg*

hello darling

 this is yourself writing you a gentle reminder things to do before the new year (or before the end of first week of new year )

please remember to:

• set up the company fiance account for 2007
• • emergency funds
  • expenses funds
  • savings
    
• set up side business account for 2007
• set up marketing plan for 2007
  
• set your goal for 2007
• • personal
  • business
  • • sales
    • net
• make your own recreational times for 2007

so i plunked down the money yesterday and purchased an used cargo van (12 passenger van) for transporting inventory between jobs and my warehouse. it's very scary actually, handing 10+k over to a complete stranger not to mention the added-on financial responsibility that comes with that, such as dmv, licenses, liability, insurance payments. the grown up world is really getting more and more complex every day which makes my insecurities surface from times to time. sometimes i just want to hide under my blankets and ignore everything. but i know i cannot do that. i have to take charge and change my life because no one else will do that for me.

the business is almost a year now and it has grown. we have started to attract repeat customers and start building up our cilent list. that comes with more responsibilities. i will have a lot of challenges next year:

•   i will lose my strongest assistant next week. it will be VERY difficult to replace her.
  
• how to retain old customers
• how to attract new ones
• how to deal with increasing flow of business (i am feeling a bit overwhelmed!)
• storage of inventory. we barely have enough space right now
• find trustworthy people to work with