Establish Multiple Profit Centers

I put up four items in Teachers Pay Teachers!

One has a cost and three are free. I want people to see some of my stuff. Plus I have to clean up some of the charge-worthy stuff.

But it’s a start!!

I just ordered A Guide to Starting a Small Business in Minnesota.

http://www.positivelyminnesota.com/Business/Get_Help_from_Our_Experts/Small_Business_Assistance_Office/Business_Guidebooks.aspx

The first profit center seed has been planted!

The backstory: I go on the Simple Living Network forums a lot. I was lamenting my career unenthusiasm, and someone recommended Making a Living Without a Job by Barbara Winter. I was totally inspired, so I suggested it for Book Club, which is three of my girlfriends and myself. We are friends from college and a close group and very positive and supportive. Two of the other girls are SUPER into the book. We decided we are going to look at the five parts of the book over our next five meetings, and that we are going to be kind of a think-tank for ideas and support. Yippee!

So what we did decide was that we would do a Halloween Bazaar as a shared first project. We each have ideas for handmade items we can offer and other things, too. Right now the tentative location is in our yard, and we set the date.

It’s funny how some certainty can really start the wheels turning. I had been kind of thinking generally about ideas for this, but when we set a date, I realized I had no concrete ideas of specific projects. Now I went on the web and found some simple ideas so my brain has some things to latch on to. Since I’m a person who likes to re-use, I will be searching garage sales and ArtScraps for supplies.

Now we still have a lot to figure out, plus I think I personally need to set a crafting schedule, like doing one product per month leading up to the Bazaar or something like that. Maybe the girls want to get together to craft. We’ll see.

I just finished this book and my brain is on fire.

For the first time my thoughts about how I would go about starting a business are validated. This coincides with how my husband and I have been researching obtaining a rental property. Basically, we don’t want to rely entirely on our teaching careers to bring us financial security. The political climate is way too harsh right now. It’s time to think about something supplementary. Maybe that’s rental properties, but maybe it’s something else, or both.

I phrased this goal the way I did because before I had “start a business” and it felt too unattainable and too prescribed. I ended up dropping the goal. But a profit center can be big or small. My job is a profit center, so I already have one going. I have ideas for several others and want to start working on them. They can be big, or they can be small. Small is my speed right now :)

This is also why I moved GTD to the top of my list. If I’m going to make progress on things, I can’t just work on them on the weekends and spend every evening panicking about all the stuff I need to get done but don’t have time to do. I need a way to keep making forward progress in the evenings. I think GTD is the way to do that if I am diligent about it. But I guess that’s a separate entry about the GTD goal. :)

Not going to say too much about my ideas for profit centers. I want to see if I can get them developed first, and then I’d reveal them to my lovely subscribership. Luv you guys.