The last few weeks have been a little rough as far as work goes. I had a class going out who pissed me off to no end by handing me their projects that they obviously pooped out on the last day. It was beneath them, and I haven’t been that mad at a class in awhile and since they had already left I had no one to verbally berate.
We changed one of the programs, so that I had to re-write several contracts, contact chefs, write letters and send out all in the course of a day. I have a new group of students that I need to ready; there is a load of paperwork for that, and a new class coming in as well that I teach that I needed to get ready for. I was told…. At the last minute that I would be working doubles not for just the next term, but for the next six months. To which I said, “I’ll do it if I have to, but don’t expect me to put on a happy face about it.” We’ll see what happens.
My class which was going away, isn’t, so all the paperwork and handouts and assignments I let run out I’m going to need to spend a day hogging the copy machine, that’s not going to make me popular.
During this little information meeting, my boss told me that he wanted me to think on the question of, “What do you want to be doing here, a year from now.” He told me things were moving around and there would be opportunities and I should think about it and be ready for a meeting.
I choked a little. Crap, I don’t have a plan to be here a year from now. I can’t lie to him and create a career path that I have no intention of fulfilling but we weren’t going to talk to our employers until we were sure we had the funding.
I immediately called my partner and told her that I was going to tell them, and if that completely freaked her out than she should call me and let me know. There are some differences between what it means for me to tell my boss and her telling her boss, I believed that I would be supportive, I have no idea how her employer would react, but if the situation was reversed I’d be more than a little nervous for her.
Well the President (my other boss, which I call by his first name, calling him Mr. President or even Mr. anything would be odd for this family like workplace) was on vacation last week, so I figured I had a few days to relax until that meeting happened. The meeting ended up being a sit down morning chat at my desk about additions to all the above hoo-ha.
I was multitasking while he was talking to me and when he said, “So?” and put the question to me, I stopped typing put my hands in my lap, turned to him and before I could freak out said, “I’m going to have my own business.”
I have to say that I’m probably one of the luckiest people in the world, and one of the reasons we are so primed right now to start this thing was exemplified in his reaction. He was like a little kid, “Really???! That’s awesome! What are you going to do?” I told him, he thought it was perfect, I explained we wouldn’t be in any direct competition, and he waived his hand as if to say, of course not. Then he told me how to be successful, which is fantastic, and he told me things we had already figured out, which validates what we had figured out, and he offered me resources and knowledge and even after he went back to his desk he kept coming over when he thought of new things.
I was ecstatic and relieved and excited all over again to have someone with far more knowledge and experience doing this kind of thing, tell me it was a great idea and that I would be awesome for it. Don’t get me wrong it was scary as all get out to tell the people you are employed with that you are going to be leaving, and you don’t know when, and you don’t know how they are going to react, it’s like asking a boy to move in with you. It’s a big step, and it makes it all the more real.
Tagged along with his blessings and advice was an okay for 135 emails with business contacts for one of the projects that is going to be our bread and butter. There are companies that work years to have a list like that. So, one of my projects this week is to complete a database from the gift of contacts so we can blitzkrieg Portland when we open our doors. WOOHOO! We are going to be everywhere.
We need that section of time between, when we get our location, to when we can open for business to be as short as possible. We are doing everything in our power to make sure that we are full to capacity as soon as we have capacity.
Sunday we finally got together, and spent the day making sure we were on the same page as far as our goals were concerned and hashing out a logo. We have a logo!!! Simple, recognizable, groovy and now we can get started on the webpage, personalize our twitter and Facebook accounts and order business cards! Hooray!
The crazy thing is, I went on the Facebook account and updated our profile picture and added some information, within an hour we had six fans and one of them, is a good friend of mine who had no idea it was my business. Ironic, there must be some kind of draw.
Wednesday we are looking at our first property. It’s huge, it’s too expensive, but it has equipment and a fantastic location, so it’ll be fun to just look at.
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