A Radiant New Plan

Photo by SG

My second post on this blog was about writing a business plan. That is because my husband and I were considering buying a friend's dance studio and turning it into a theatre workshop space. I'll squelch any suspense you might be feeling by telling you right now that we recently decided not to do this.

We took an online course sponsored by New Jersey Small Business Development Centers and learned that, while our idea was good, our location might not have been, and that we had more local competitors than we thought we had. What really killed the deal, though, was numbers. Estimated costs, projected costs, projected earnings, expected costs, unexpected costs, number of customers, amounts of grants, amounts of loans, number of months to break even. Numbers upon numbers, and all of them associated with money.

I don't know which I dislike more: numbers or money. Oh! I do know! It's numbers associated with money! Numbers having to do with years of age are just fine, and numbers having to do with cookies  are even better, but numbers having to do with money win my "Least Liked" prize.

My husband does not particularly like numbers, either, although at least he can understand, manipulate, and manage them much, much, much better than I can. Still, neither of us wants to think about numbers and money every day, or, God forbid, attend meetings where we have to talk about numbers and money.

So, the business plan will remain unwritten. The "radiant words" I imagined for it can now become part of the Radiant New Plan. What plan? Well, less time spent thinking about business means more time to spend thinking about my memoir. Less time spent taking business classes means more time to spend writing down what my heart and my head want to say. More time to spend with my family. More stars in the sky with my hopes written on them. I'll keep you posted.