Busines DIY

For the past couple of months I’ve been growing another blog by the name Too Many Talents. It’s a blog for my many creative hobbies and interests. As part of that blog I’ve been doing a weekly segment called Business DIY. Sadly I am having trouble finding new craft projects associated with business for each week. Instead I’ve found myself posting business tips and practices, which would fit this blog better than the other blog. Therefore, I have decided to move such posts to this blog.

I will continue to do the Business DIY segment on my Too Many Talents blog, but I will change it from a weekly segment to an occasional segment depending on when/if I can find appropriate material.

To catch up with what I’ve written on my other blog, here are the posts:

- Get an Online Portfolio – Here I talk about a great website called DeviantArt.com that provides artists with an online portfolio. I too have an online portfolio at http://sindy-chan.deviantart.com/

- Extreme Business Cards! – Now this is what I was intending with the Business DIY segment – business associated projects like these awesome and useful business cards. There’s much less chance of the customer throwing these away.

- Conservative Halloween Costumes – Hehe. This one was fun. Every once in a while I might throw in something to do with office fashion since that is something I’m interested in.

- Recycled Magazine Business Card Holders – Another one of my favorites. I love recycling, and the idea of making something so useful and unique as a conference handout is great (if I do say so myself).

- Free Fonts! – I love fonts! They are so expressive. And free fonts are the best. I also talk about a program for making your own font.

- Selling Your Ideas – Now here’s where I get into the not-so-much-crafting ideas. How to sell your ideas is great, but it has little to do with a crafting or DIY hobby.

- If You [Present it Right], They Will Come – Okay, not the best word-play, but the basic idea is that you can have the best product in the world, but if you don’t present it right you’ll get very little or no business at all. And sadly there are too many business people who don’t understand this.

Finally, a conference I can afford.

A few weeks ago I finally found a conference I want to go to that I can afford. It’s called The Book Academy, a conference for writers & readers, here at UVU, and it only cost me $40! Plus it pays for breakfast & lunch! So many times I hear of a great conference that I would absolutely love to go to, but it costs upwards of $200 and more! I can’t believe what these people are charging. Are their costs really that high?

Anyway, this sounds like it will be a really great conference. Of course I wanted to go to about 3/4 of the available workshops, but obviously that’s not going to work. Luckily my boss is going to come too so we’re splitting up the list of workshops we want to go to and then exchanging notes afterwards. That way I can get the information from more workshops than I might otherwise. (I wish they’d sell or give the transcripts and presentations from all the workshops after the conference.)

Either way, this ought to be a great conference. I’m so glad I could go. I sure wish more conferences were affordable (okay, so the term affordable is subjective, but it takes much less to save up $40 compared to $200).

Changing Blog Name

Goodness. It’s been forever since I added anything here. I’ve been continueing to work on businesses, which are all just ideas right now.

I was in a class recently that suggested I start a blog talking about my business(es). I’ve been thinking about possible businesses I could start/work on, and I’ve concluded that the best ones I could do right now are 1. my comics (including VacancyComics.com and Fruit Salad Agency) and 2. Web Development freelance. Both of these I was thinking of putting under a larger company I’d call Sindy Web Studios that would include Web Development, artwork, and other artistic works.

In order to do anything with the Web Development freelance I would need to catch up on some latest technology, methods, designs, programming languages, etc. With that said, I will finish up the project I’m currently working on (which will take a while) and then take a break while I study.

In the meantime I’ll be working on VacancyComics.com. I’ll continue to develop Fruit Salad Agency, but most of my efforts should be on VacancyComics.com. I’ll be working on making it easy enough to keep up with it. That was one of the major reasons why I left it before is because it took so much time to create a new comic each week. Therefore, I’ll be working on making it easier to create. I’ll also be working on redoing the Web Site which will include a lot of research to make it the best I can. I’m hoping to make it good enough to include it in a Web Development portfolio to one day show potential clients.

Anyway, so I’ve changed the blog name in order to bring it closer to my actual business(es). Sadly, I cannot change the URL (one day I will), but at least the name itself has changed to Sindy Web Studios.

Thanks to all who have kept up with my little blog and been so patient with me.

Five Year Plan – Year 1 Breakdown

Let’s start breaking down the years:

Year 1: Planning & Learning – Decide what I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it.

There are a ton and a half of things to do this first year. And since this year has already begun I better get my hide going!

I haven’t planned everything I’m going to do this year (mostly because as I move one and learn then this list will constantly grow and change). But here are some of the things on my list so far:

• Business Planning & Research
  • Decide on which business
  • Conduct market research
  • Develop a business plan
  • Research costs
  • Research SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
  • Research shopping carts and merchant accounts
• Things to learn in general
  • Take classes at local community college (part-time only) – I’m currently taking Principle of Marketing, and later I plan to take Drawing I (whether it applies to the business or not), and Business Law
  • Learn about taxes
  • Learn more about business practices and setting up a business
  • Learn bookkeeping (and find a good software application – does anyone know a good one?)
• Additional actions
  • Invest at least a little money (this will require more research)
  • Initiate networking
  • Find a good accountant, attorney, etc. (anyone know some good ones?)
  • Save money for copyrighting (if necessary), and other initial business costs

As I said, this list is far from complete. I will need to get it into a more finalized condition. Plus I will need to break it down even more into what I need to do/learn for each item, and then into specific checklists and smaller, bite-sized, goals. And then it might be a good idea to set up an overall completion chart to chart my progress and perhaps even give myself a reward system, but then again I might be giving myself too much to do that has little to do with getting this year’s goal(s) done. (i.e. don’t give yourself too much to do or it won’t get done.)

The Five Year Plan!

Okay, now that we’ve determined that we are going to do this, we are going to do this right! I’m starting by planning. Yes, that ever so popular word for those who are more organized than a filing cabinet. I’ve never been good at planning or organizing (just look at my bedroom), but if I’m going to do this right, then I’m going to have to do this right or not do it at all!

Let’s start with a five year plan. I’ve often heard it in my business classes, but never really thought about creating my own.

Most the time, when someone mentions a five year plan, they also include the idea of selling their business, as if that is part and parcel to the whole five year plan concept. But what if I don’t want to sell my business (at least not until I’m ready to do so – and not at a predetermined time)? Simple – 1) replace that notion with some other goal (like grossing 1 million), or 2) forget about some big something at the end of those five years. The point is get a five year plan, no matter what you put at the end of those five years (of course it works best if you do have a big goal, at least put some big reward like a cruise or something and what goal(s) you want to achieve during those years like keep the house clean).

So, what about my five year plan? My goal at the end of these five years is to build my Mom’s dream house. Why my Mother’s and not mine? Simple: 1) I love her (duh), and 2) she’s better at planning and building houses than I am and she wants to make this really cool envelope style house that will virtually eliminate utility bills and uncomfortable summers and winters (I’ll have to tell you more about it as things progress) that I might like to build for myself one day too.

Note: I keep saying five year plan, but it doesn’t have to be five years. That’s just a good number that most people use (plus it’s my favorite number). I’m just using it because my Mom will then be over 60 and she fears that if she doesn’t have her dream house by then, she never will.

Next step: break down the five years into steps towards your main goal. Since we need to raise a whole bunch of money in order to do this (to pay off their current mortgage and to pay for the new house – without taking out another loan) I’ve decided that perhaps the best way is to start a business (or work with what I have).

So here’s what I have so far:
Year 1: Planning & Learning – decide what I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it. Yes this will take a whole year simply because there are so many things I need to learn and decide.
Year 2: Implementation – start the business (or work with what I have). Of course this will include beginning to grow the business and save up money for the house.
Year 3: Grow – here I’ll be growing my business. This will help the revenue come in faster.
Year 4: Saving – I’m just going to be saving up my pennies here. There won’t be much growth in the business.
Year 5: Preparation – yes, another preparation year. This is for preparing for the house. Basically preparing the lot, finishing the building plans, getting permits, etc.
Finished: Building the House! – and my Mom will get her dream house.

Next time… Breaking down the years.

VacancyComics.com Turns One Year Old!

Okay, so this is a little late (see my post about business requires a lot of writing). I have my excuses, but they are pathetic.

Anyway, yes VacancyComics.com turned one in early October. To celebrate I posted the very first comic that I ever drew (the one with the psychologists). I also posted some interesting facts about VacancyComics.com including I started drawing comics over three years ago. When I started drawing them I thought I’d run out of jokes quickly, but now I have other 500 comics and even more ideas.

As for business goals achieved – zilch. I was kind of hoping to get out of the red, or even better make enough profit to have to file taxes (in Utah I heard it’s something like $200), but no such luck. I did sell one shirt this year. It was a commissioned piece with an LDS theme (if anyone is interested I can easily make another one . Well, better luck this year.

I hope to do a lot on the site this upcoming year including a new site design, some SEO, and perhaps even some advertising. We’ll have to see, but in the meantime I’m handing out even more business cards than ever and traffic to my site is slowly rising (very incredibly slowly, but still rising).