Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Virtues of a Business Plan

I've decided to do things 'by the book' as I start up my teaching ballroom business. This means I'm first compiling a solid business plan -- cash flow projections for the next 10 years included.

Gee golly it's helpful. Like beyond helpful. It's basically crucial if you want to drastically increase your chances of über success. It not only helps you flesh our your ideas, it spawns a plethora of even better ideas.

(GOSH DARN IT I HATE iTUNES'S* SHUFFLE... THE RANDOMIZING SEED IS THE SAME FOR EACH STARTING SONG -- IF I START WITH REGINA SPEKTOR'S 'FIDELITY' IT WILL ALWAYS GO TO WICKED'S AS LONG AS YOU'RE MINE -- DON'T GET ME WRONG; I LOVE BOTH SONGS, BUT TO ALWAYS HAVE THE LATTER FOLLOW WHEN STARTING WITH THE FORMER REALLY DRIVES ME CRAZY!!! IS THERE ANY WAY TO FIX THIS ANNOYINGNESS??! i'm about to burn something down)


~deep breath~

Anyway, as I've been working on my business plan, my ideas are really starting to look more fabulous than ever before. Likewise, I'm more excited than ever before.

I'm usually one to just wing whatever I do... but this is much, much more guaranteeing of success.

If you ever start your own business: start with a solid business plan. And ask for help. Luckily, one of my brothers has an MBA and has been an enormous help.

I do have more coherent thoughts on a business plan and its virtues... but that goddamn iTunes made me angry.

*Chedner's grammar lesson of the day: Many people think that, when turning a noun into a possessive noun (adjective), one never adds an " 's " to words ending with an " s " already. This is a common misunderstanding. When the noun is singular and ends with an " s " you still add an " ' s " (i.e. iTunes's -- iTunes being a singular name of a program -- Jesus's, Moses's, Sparticus's, his's -- okay, not the last one; ' his ' is already a possesive adjective) . It's only when a noun is plural and ends in an " s " that you only add an " ' ". Now you know.

4 comments:

  1. Chicago Book of Style would argue with you on your grammar point -- but the CBS can go burn itself.

    I like spelling words like cancellation, travelling and such with double L's -- call me a language snob.

    My personal quest is to retrain or linguistically kill everyone that thinks "it's" is a possessive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. awesome! I hope your plan translates well into reality, Andrew :D

    As for the damn grammar, I'm one of those who has developed a tick anytime I see "your" instead of "you're," that sort of thing.

    "It's" isn't a possessive? hahahaha. Yeah. I think that one confuses the hell out of people. It's backwards.

    Anyway. iTunes - methinks it's not so much a random shuffle if it's the same shuffle each time. Have you tried organizing your list by album/song/etc? That might help. If you know what I'm talking about, that is.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I always get confused using its/it's ... and generally try to opt for an alternative. I know it could be a stupid question / clarification (Kengo, please don't kill me)... "its" is the possessive and "it's" is the contraction (from "it is")?

    ... I just don't use iTunes. But, then again, I also don't have any sort of iPod-type device and can use any player I like. Generally I use Winamp because it is so simple and doesn't make the computer have to think too much.

    And way to go for planning ahead with your business!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for posting a post about grammar!

    It's/its bothers me, and your/you're, but one of the worst has to be they're/their/there.

    And... not strictly a grammatical thing, but we're talking pet peeves, right? Can I just say how much it annoys me when someone "could care less" about something? I mean, if you really could care less (that is, if you're caring somewhat more than your absolute minimum level of care) then fine, but I think what you really meant to say is that you couldn't care less--that you care as little as you possibly can.

    (Like how I slipped the example of proper your/you're usage in there?)

    What? This isn't a grammar post? ... business plan ... Oh! Yeah! Business plan. That's a good idea!

    ReplyDelete