Business Extravaganza: Part 1

The Way I See It I have been talking about making a change for a long time now and I am finally setting up my plan to put into action. I have always had a real desire to start my own business and be my own boss. I have always hated having to get up in the morning and it gets worse when you have to go to a job that may not be for you. Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely grateful to have a job especially in this economy. BUT there has always been something missing in teaching for me and it has never really been my passion, but something I happened to fall into that I was actually very good at. The money isn’t the best, but it could be much worse and the benefits are amazing. Summers and holidays off aren’t bad either ;) My mother always said don’t do something that you wake up hating everyday no matter how much money you make or how good the benefits are, it’s simply not worth it. I know I should heed this advice and so now I am taking steps to get me to where I want to be. I love working with animals and I love getting time to do things in my home like make home cooked meals, clean and organize and have time to myself to do what I need to get done. We want to start a family and if God blesses us with a child I want to be able to stay home and raise them too. So I have decided to start my own business. Maybe not in the traditional way, but in my way. I have decided to blog a bit about it because I need other people to hold me accountable to what I say/post and to keep me on track and provide me with necessary feedback. I really want to know what you think and please give advice as you see fit. Please note I will not always heed such advice but I will take everything you all say into consideration.

The plan…

…has many parts to it and some aren’t as thought out as others. Here goes nothing. I want to get back into the dog sitting world again. Chris and I did this when we lived in the other house and I absolutely loved it. Chris wasn’t as into it as I am but he still helped out a lot because teachers take home a lot of work and we don’t get out when the kids do, despite what you may think. So he helped but this is not his dream or passion, it is mine. So the plan is after this school year to stop teaching and do dog sitting as my career here in my home. I need to get rolling on the whole fence thing in order to make this a feasible business to do. I also want to do some other things like make doggy treats and hook up with local groomers/businesses to put some of my businesses goodies in their stores and then in return I will send business their way from my clients. I only want to do business with places I like and have checked out thoroughly before I send a client there. I also want to look into the world of organizing. For people who either hate to organize or don’t have the skills, time or patients to do so that is where I would come in and do it for a fee. Yup, three businesses in one and 1 out of 3 is from left field, I get this and I still want to look into doing them all. On top of all this by staying home I’ll be able to coupon more and save more money on top of everything, YAY!

The List…

1. Contact a land surveying company to survey our property. (No for some reason this wasn’t done when we closed on our house.)
2. Set a date and get the land plotted out.
3. Fill out the fence request to build form for our HOA.
4. Price fence materials to see if we can do it cheaper than the quotes we have.
5. Plot where we plan to put the fence and get rid of any obstacles that may be in the way. Ex.Trees, brush, who the heck know what else we live with woods outback ;)
6. Set up my business plan.
7. Look into making it a registered business with a name. May or may not be done.
8. Pick out a name for the business. (I really already have this I just like checking things off of my list, haha)
9. Make up a liability form for my clients to sign, you know so I can’t get sewed and lose everything if say a dog runs away or gets bit by another dog I’m watching. (Please pray none of those things ever happen here)
10. Set up rules that the clients must follow. Ex. All dogs must have all shots up to date and flea and tick meds.
11. Set up a filing system for said rules and dog files.
12. Save money for the fence and all materials.
13. Contact our old clients to see if they would be interested in using us again.
14. Print out a fence plot map for our HOA to approve with the form from #3.
15. Start making treat recipes and seeing how our dogs like them.
16. Find package material for the treats and labels
17. Work with local store owners to sell my treats in their stores or to use for advertising space.
18. Advertise in our community newspaper about the organizing and dog businesses.
19. Find out if I need a kennel license to run such a business since I only want to do this when people are out of town not like a doggy daycare runs things with dogs everyday being dropped off and picked up in the same day.

That is what I have so far. What am I missing? I know a lot of you have started your own businesses and I need your help. We are going to try to set this up without a lawyer, what is your advice on that? As always thank you for reading I hope you enjoy the ramblings of my life ;)