Today was the day: December 11, 2008!
Today was the day I figured out I can no longer be scared of my own failures. Today was the day I figured out that I have to give myself a chance to be the person that I want to be. Today was the day I figured out that I am ready to risk it all for what I want. So what do I want? Of course, like every other hungry and driven individual, I want it all. But, specifically I want to own a livelihood business. The word, livelihood, takes that statement to a whole other level. The level that dictates whether you will eat at the end of the day. The level where your monthly bills doesn’t scare the living daylights out of you.
At this moment, I currently own two businesses – yes, two non-livelihood businesses. The first one, I started immediately upon graduating college in 2004. I called it, Weblifts (www.lindsayeaustin.com) due to the fact I focused on re-designing websites and essentially giving them a face lift. It was and still is my legal and taxable umbrella for all of my freelance design income. The second business I started was with a couple of friends, called CampRoster (www.CampRoster.com). CampRoster was designed to take the administrative burden off sports camp directors. Typically, the sports camp registration process is manual, so we developed an application to allow participants to register and pay online. The process my business partners and I took to start and maintain this idea was impressive. Working with these individuals proved that it was possible for me to run something where revenue hit the five figure mark and included a requirement for an intellectual property attorney and a tax accountant (with scary invoices). Our approach, execution and dynamic was near perfect. The only problem was our business model. We couldn’t afford our business model! Regardless of the two years we filled with weekend meetings, long nights and bootstrapping, it would require double the time and work to grow our venture.
At the end of 2007, my business partners bowed out, understandably, yet I still continued the business and finished out the year of 2008. The idea and potential of CampRoster is still solid. My only obstacle now is maintaining and expading the online application that manages the sport camp registrations. Progromatically, I have a Kia Rio that gets the job done and supports three camps a year, but I would like a Volvo S40, durable and can support 12 camps a year. Of course, with a Volvo, it requires more money up front but would last me for awhile. During my restart and loner year of 2008, I did develop a business plan and pitched it to two banks and one organization. I was offered an amount that would not support the growth I wanted for CampRoster so I declined. Optimistically, 2009 brings the promise of 2 new camps.
In conclusion, lesson learned! The lesson that my realistic boundaries of owning, maintaining and growing a livelihood business needs to have an affordable business model. I pitched for $60,000 about a year ago and was shut down. I can’t imagine with the credit market suffering that a business loan is even a mere thought at this moment.
Regardless of the economic blues the country faces and the personal restraints I discovered the hard way, I still have hope that I can start my business that can be my livelihood, almost immediately. An idea has been brewing in my head for the last 6 months that meets the affordable business model criteria. This idea has also led me to buy and read 9 books about the subject, complete about 35% of the business plan and place a few calls to get property estimates. I named this idea, Cargo Metro. Today is the day where I will pursue Cargo Metro 100%, regardless of the threats, external or internal.
