Pondering and Planning

I sat in bed last night, clipboard in hand pondering and planning my business strategy for 2010. I am so excited right now. My sales have increased this holiday season, and after 18 months in business....I think I am finally starting to understand what I need to do and NOT do to make my business the success I want it to be. Okay....so I'm a little slow...what can I say?

I have some things I am going to do immediately...like opening a separate checking account with a debit card and a savings account for the business. It's so awful at the end of the year trying to separate personal and business expenses. I also think I spend money for the business when I shouldn't be, because there is money in our checking, and I also leave money I make in our personal account where it quickly gets spent.

Besides the fact that I love creating things, and FourDogDay has filled a tremendous creative void for me...there was another reason I started my business. Irv and I don't have a nice pension sitting there waiting for us when we retire...in fact, at times we wonder if we will ever be able to retire.

My thought was that if between now and retirement, I could build a successful craft business that would eventually bring in a nice little profit....that we could one day use that profit to supplement our social security. I now see that as a very real possibility.

In order to do that though, we need to know where our money is coming from and where it is going. We need to know what works and what doesn't work when creating and marketing my products. So, like I said....I sat with the clipboard in hand and started to map out my strategy...and let me tell you...I am excited!

We will start at the bank this weekend by opening those accounts. I will close up MyOtherShop as soon as I can, so that all of my attention and energy can be devoted to FourDogDay. I will clear out things I don't plan to make anymore to make room for the new things that I can't wait to start on....and we will carefully select some craft shows for spring and fall.

We are taking control of our business rather than allowing our business to take control of us!

How about you? Do you have business or personal plan in place for 2010? Have you ever done a personal or business financial makeover? If you own your own business, did it take you a while to really figure things out? Please share.....

What a Day!

We had the picnic at work today for our superintendent that is retiring. It went really well. He's such a great guy. I ate way too much, including a couple of pieces of cake and my stomach is still reminding me eight hours later! HAHA!

After work I zipped on over to the house that Michael and Bernadette are buying. They were having inspection, so we were able to go in and take a little tour. It is so cute and in such a nice area. I think they are going to be very happy there. Once they close on it, I'll share some pictures.

When I got home I watered the flowers on the deck. They were looking a bit thirsty. Then I got Irv to take some pictures of me modeling my two new aprons. I love these two. It was cute...when I was headed back in the house after he took the pictures of the black and white one, he commented that he really liked that one! :) I like them both and I can't decide which one to make next as I sit and look at the fabric I have left.

I had hoped to get these all done before vacation, but that sure isn't going to happen. We leave a week from Saturday and I have five more to do! Maybe I can get two or three done. I wanted to have them for the show I'm doing a week after I get back. Why do I always think I am Super Woman?

Well, I really have some other things I need to get done. Hope everyone is having an awesome day! Chat with you tomorrow....it's summer hours and I get off at NOON!!! Woo hoo!

Tick Tock...Tick Tock....

Time!

Have you ever wondered what life might be like without clocks? What if your body clock was the only clock you had to get you through your day and through your life?

Could you do it?

What if no one had clocks and you could just eat, sleep and work when you felt the time was right?

Would you freak out?

You would wake up when your body told you to wake up, eat your meals when your body told you that you were hungry, work when your brain was functioning at 100% and felt like working and go to bed when your body told you it was tired.

I kind of visualize retirement being a bit like that...although I know a lot of retired people that lead very structured lives.

I also know a lot of older people that live each day exactly like they lived the day before and any change to their routine causes tremendous frustration.

I am a very structured person with a lot of routines, but I think it's because I have to be. During the week, I have a full time job and my two etsy shops to manage, and on the weekends, I have all of those other things like cleaning the house, doing the laundry and shopping to contend with.

If I didn't have my full time job....would I unconsciously develop other routines and create schedules without realizing I was doing it...out of habit or need for consistency, or would I be able to just "live"? I really enjoy life and try to live it to the fullest. I think in my heart I am a free spirit that could live day by day without a schedule or plans. How about you? Could you? Would you? Do you?

Flying Without A Flight Plan....

That's how my personal life feels right now. I know where I want to go, but I have no clue how I am going to get there. That's really how Irv and I have done things our entire married lives. We just went with the flow and what happened...happened. Not always a bad way to live, except where finances are concerned.

So, now we find ourselves utterly tired of working....yearning for a glimpse at retirement....with no chance in hell of that happening any time soon.

Irv has had some nice jobs over the years, but none of them offered a decent pension plan. I was a SAHM (stay at home mom) until Matt was in high school except for selling Avon and cleaning houses. No pension plans there.

Most of our married lives we barely made enough money to pay the bills, so saving and investing weren't even in our vocabulary. Don't get me wrong, we had some great times living on what we made until things like birthdays, Christmas, medical emergencies, house disasters or any unexpected expense popped up, and then our survival mechanism was plastic and even today at times, it still is. We have a very large amount of credit card debt that we are trying to pay down.

Unless we sit down and take a serious look at where we are and where we eventually would like to be and figure out a way to get there...we will continue to flounder and retirement will forever be out of reach.

Getting out of debt is difficult when every penny you earn goes to pay bills. I know that we have two options...we either make more money, or we spend less money....or a combination of the two.

My plan is for us to write down how we spend our money...every penny of it. Once we see where our money is going, we will need to decide where we can cut our spending. Making more money will come through my etsy business down the road....neither of us would have the energy to work a second job right now, so etsy is our best option. It's something I love and I can see it being a big help at some point.

We don't spend a lot of money on clothes, jewelry, fancy dinners, movies, cars and "toys" so our cutting will mean sacrificing the little things that we enjoy and that isn't easy. You feel like you are working so hard, but yet you can't afford to spend $15 a week on Starbucks and that sucks...but it is what it is, and if giving that up will get a bill paid faster....I know I can do it.

It's all about accountability and responsibility and sacrifice AND how badly we want to reach that ultimate goal, which is a debt free retirement before we are too darn old to enjoy it! I am not upset about it so don't feel bad. We made choices along that way that made sense at the time. It doesn't matter now if they were the right choices or not. What matters is the present and how what we do today can help us in the future.

So, if you have any little money saving or expense cutting secrets.....I am all ears!!