94: Week Three: The promises we make – spousal and business partner negotiations

Week Three

So what’s happened this week?

Well, it was Stampede so networking was the goal: http://connectionattheintersection.blog/2018/07/14/taking-off-the-boots-the-end-of-stampede-networking-for-another-year/

I was busy and ended up out and about more than I thought I would. I had to watch the costs more than before (including deciding the family could skip the rodeo and chuck wagons this year).

And now that I’m transitioning into being an entrepreneur and I’m focused on building this start up, I’ve got to manage cash flow in a new way besides just stampeding.

It’s a transition and one of the toughest barriers in making the leap into entrepreneurship (it possibly supports jumping early when you are not earning real $$ anyway).

So what did I promise to get J.D. (my husband) on board?

• no travel, except Kelowna and Sask, for three years or until stable and successful (besides the biggest trip of our life (Italy) which we pre-booked and paid for before this crazy decision)
• moved the house cleaners to every 3 weeks (vs 2)
• less costs for lunches, parking and other downtown spending by working at home some days a week
• less camps for the boys this summer with one or both of us working from home to supervise (also meant to give them less structure, a chance to be bored & more independent)
• largely pausing on wardrobe purchases

And what have I done for Jesse (my CFO):

• used 99 designs for logo and website which was about a third the price of local options. I highly recommend it. Great experience with 144+ submissions of which > 80 I’d have been super happy with
• used a graduating English student for copy-write review
• used Vistaprint design and business card services (design only $10 and  I “borrowed” an amazing one I received during a stampede event as inspiration)
• used Fiver (with my amazing logo and amazing business card + the logo colours as inspiration) for a 26 page PowerPoint redesign, a Masterview slide template, a Facebook business page and a banner for other social media (Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter)
• free trial version of my apps and/or accountant/advisor free accounts : Expensify (personal expenses), Harvest (time tracking), Xero, Plooto, Office365, Hootsuite
• shopping around carefully (patiently) for CRM, office space and any and all services and products and expenditures

The challenge to keep in mind: prepare and build like success is the only option (which requires investment) while being patient, phased and cost effective…. right? Oh… and we gotta pay the bills.

#rathergotokelownaanyway #costmanagement #startup #entrepreneur #startup #94blog