Evolving Business Plan for my Studio

I like to try to be available to listened to the Kitchen Table Talk show on the Pulse Network on Tuesday afternoons with Joe Sorge and Chris Brogan and if I miss it, take some time to listen to it at a later time in the Pulse Network archives… Over the last few weeks they have been talking about business start-ups and yesterday they interviewed Tim Berry, who spoke about Business Plans in the real world and the need to make them changeable… There was/is some great info to hear and think about shared on the show, which you can check out here: http://thepulsenetwork.com/technology/kitchen-table-talks/

Over the last year, I’ve been working on my reopening my studio, ArtWorks of Candor and have been using what I call an “Evolving Business Plan”… Now most people do a business plan to obtain funding or a loan, but I do a smaller one- 3-6 month practical plan and a year goal oriented plan…

Business plans are just estimated number projections with a overview of the “plan”, without many of the details and so much can change in just a few months, let alone three years… From new taxes, gas prices to the basic cost of business with adding in new products and services you might use, create and offer…

So a 3-6 month business plan filled in with working capital is what I and many of my friends use in Business… An Evolving Business Plan is one that can grow and be able to handle the unforeseen bumps or change in directions in the road of business better for me… It also allows for smaller, more affordable steps and allows for change for the future…

To help support this concept in an unforeseen way was Chris Brogan, at the end of the show announcing he was writing a new book with a 6-week deadline on “How to use Google”… Now Chris Brogan is a busy fellow and the Google + Project has only been out for barely 2 months now… He also did a seminar on how to use Google Plus 2-3 weeks ago, which must have taken him lots of time just learning this new Social service, let alone create a presentation to help others with using it effectively… There is no way you can tell me Chris had this in his business plan 6 months ago…

And by the way, Yes, I will be buying one of Chris’s books about Google when it comes out…

How does this relate to my reopening my studio with an evolving business plan? I was gearing up to teach some Social Media Workshops and I’ve chosen to wait while the Google+ Project grows a little more- after they have opened it up fully to the general public and have added Business Pages… I’ve lesson plans outlined already for the Facebook & Twitter workshops, still needing to tie them together a bit with images, visuals and create a hand out booklet… I now want to be able to add Using Google+ to the class… I know this will be truly valuable in this area that seems so challenged in adding and using Social Media effectively for their online presents… I am also enlarging the idea, to teach it in VA near where my Mom is, so as to be able to spend some time down there…

Having the “Evolving Business Plan” also allowed me to instead of just adding the Giclee Fine Art Printer to sell my own limited edition prints to creating a 2nd business to offer Giclee Fine Art Printing Service to other Artists and Photographers online and in the local area… So keeping a changeable, flexible, evolving business plan with ideas in mind really helped with several new concepts and services I am working on for reopening my studio…

Even though I’ve had two bank Vice Presidents in the past tell me I had created one of the best business plans they had seen in their 20-25+ years of their being in banking, I’ve also set aside time for a workshop webinar Thursday about Business Plan development he will be offering- “Plan-as-you-go business planning methodology”… You can read more about it on Tim Berry’s website:
http://timberry.bplans.com/2011/08/please-join-me-online-live-this-thursday-aug-18.html I believe you can never know enough and there is always something new you can learn…

So having a Real World Business Plan that is changeable to the times is key and being a little flexible can pay off…

Winding up this year of 2010

The times of change from one year to the next is upon us, like the shifting of sand underfoot bringing a new year, new challenges and a refreshing new life to start over… A new year is coming- 2011, like a morning sunrise full of color that fills your soul full of expectations and the pursuit of happiness…

I sit here on the couch, sick with a deep chest cold with my cat near purring his enjoyment of warmth of the woodstove, thinking of this past year, the ups and the downs, and where I am in my life, where I am heading… This year has not only given me a 2^nd chance to live, but also redefined many of my views on my own life and on people too…

It wasn’t very long ago earlier this year in February, I was in the ER, my kidney’s starting to fail and my heart swollen from a Thyroid problem that also prevented oxygen from getting into my system… You can read about it here: An Unnecessarily Long Journey Back to Health: http://bit.ly/dgOHN6. The closest to death I hope to ever experience till it is truly my time to go…

I am slowly getting back on my feet, a lot slower then I had originally hoped to but getting there… Now it is my immunity and endurance that is still falling short of my expectations… This I found out as I sawed and split my firewood and in a few other things where endurance is needed… One of the things I am glad to have back is clear thinking, as the lack of oxygen to my brain made me slow thinking and also effected my speech… So my thoughts I use to love of images in color and 3D became flat, black & white and I had the hardest time solving the simplest of problems… This was the hardest part, as I no longer was able to think in color, was mentally blind in a way… I’ve no words to truly describe how hard this was for me… But now my thought process is back in full color and I can think to many concepts and ideas again at any given point…

While I have been facing my own hardships with my health, I found out my Mother is also facing health issues of her own, with having cancer, going through chemo and having lost her hair and re-grown it back… During this time, her husband had triple bypass, and is now back to good health and will be starting a new job in the beginning of the year… Health hardships can truly wear on one’s soul, but having a positive spirit and a will to achieve and go forward has ever been part of my family heritage and I am proud of it…

I look to this past year of my achievements… I got my Blog going very well, having a fair amount of viewers and readers…

Liz Strauss founder of SOBCon & Author of the popular Successful-Blog.com

Liz Strauss founder of SOBCon & Author of the popular Successful-Blog.com honored me with SOB badge for my Blog, which I value just as highly as my dual degree from Syracuse University… What some of you might not know is, I am dyslexic and have been working hard on my writing for many years and Blog writing since 2002 and also just my descriptive writing within e-mails to someone a world away during this time period… So to receive an award or badge about my writing is something very deeply touching and full of meaning to me…  I truly look forward to going to SOBCon in Chicago in April and be able to meet so many of my online friends in person, many of whom will be speaking at her event…

This time on my couch as I healed allowed me to set forth my goals and dreams into the steps and plans needed to achieve them… Though the economy and my health has not allowed me to get the old farm ready to sell and go forward with my ideas and plans of moving south, I have grown to except some of what life has laid in front of me…

I was also lucky in finding an old friend and have been dating her since April… Someone who not only is very smart, Tech Savvy but respects me for my views and isn’t materialistic, the best part is she makes me smile and makes me feel needed- and in many ways, I owe her my life just as much in my freely giving her my heart…

So I set out on some of the steps I have in reopening my studio, ArtWorks of Candor studio… Knowing that Social Media and Web 2.0 was going to be needed in my business, I set out to meet new friends online, and earn their respect as well as some earning mine… I have gone in just over 2 years on Twitter of having zero  to over 5390 followers and this next year I will be able to meet some of those great people at future Social Media Events through out the country…

I also would like to thank Debbie Morano-Mahler for helping me think to the entire possible network of people I have and haven’t been using… The idea was something I had been taught to stand on my own instead of using any network that I could have used with Family, friends, University and Business… She once told me, “Chuck, there are many that would give their teeth for such connections, I can’t believe you aren’t using them”…   So in a slow way, after I get my studio up and running, I will be using some of the heavy swingers I have connections to for a Social Media Event and also in Business…

I have also gotten to the point of being considered a Twitter Elite of the Ithaca, NY area- http://bit.ly/cfzSQb and will be joining very soon the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce and will be teaching some Social Media Classes for Business, as an intro to Social Media for Business, Twitter for Business, Facebook with a workshop to help people get their accounts set up… I’ve plans to teach this in Ithaca, Cortland, Syracuse, Binghamton and south in Chincoteague, VA…

Originally I had planned on getting these lesson plans and classes going, then buying a Giclee Fine Art Printer, but my plans shifted with finding a deal I couldn’t pass up… The advertisement was for a 44” wide printer, instead of the 24” wide one I had planned for, but it was advertised as a Refurbished model, and ended up their sending me a completely new printer, for only a couple hundred dollars more then the 24” one… Lets say, I saved a couple thousand dollars on this deal and in the end will allow for a larger amount of work and less paper waste…

The challenge of renovating my office is something I’ve been facing, finding some major electric problems in my house that I am slowly correcting… I’ve hopes of having the office up and running very soon and then put my mind to renovating the studio more so I can get back to painting and illustrating future signed limited edition artworks… How I miss the smell and touch of watercolor paints, inks, and paper and illustration boards… The images and sketches and photos I have taken over the past couple of years have such need of sharing and with this new Giclee Printer, will allow me to do limited edition prints that I will soon be selling in an Esty store and a few other Fine Art online shops, as well as within my studio site…

This is going to be a good year too, as with more work, means more working capital for further enlargements of my business services… I am hoping to be able to set up the beginning step of my Internet café, but will start with a Portable version of it first… To be able to do a weekend Art Festival with my being able to sell the many different kinds of Java and also possibly provide a Wi-Fi area, so customers could relax, sip some java and connect online with some soothing Jazz or classical music would be nice… This heading toward my opening an Internet Café in Chincoteague, VA…

So lots of ups and downs this year of 2010, with the steps and plans made ready for this new up coming year of 2011…  This evening, I will spend it with my Girlfriend, in a quiet night of enjoying a movie near the fire, both of us under covers as we both are fighting off this cold…  But next weekend, will go up to Syracuse to share the New Year with one of my best friends and his family…  How I look forward to this New Year!!!

What will you be doing this next year?