June 23, 2004

Things I Have

Well, I now have:

  • A business name
  • A service to provide
  • A number of markets to provide it to
  • The beginnings of a plan for growth

I now have to write a business plan to pull all these things together and show it to people like the bank, Business Link and a few people I can trust to not steal my fantastic idea and leave me a bitter, jaded husk of a man. Well, okay, I have to show it to people who won't relentlessly mock me if it doesn't work out and I end up asking people if they want fries with that eight months from now.

Knowing that you're taking a risk with your livelihood is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time - if the truth be told, it's mostly terrifying. That said, deciding to take a step like this is strangely liberating. I don't quite have a calendar on the wall counting down the days until July 31st, but that's only because I can work the number of days out in my head.

As well as the business plan and a bunch of documentation I have to do before leaving work I have a chapter for someone's book to write at some point, so at the moment I'm spending most of my working hours in front of a monitor either laying down LaTeX or banging my head on my desk and making cups of tea in a vain attempt to attract inspiration.

(yes, I'm writing the business plan in LaTeX. It's not actually a legal requirement for everything to be written in Word, you know.)

Posted by mpk at June 23, 2004 9:16 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Of course you're writing it in LaTeX. Anything else would demolish your geek cred, and that would never do at the outset of a geek consultancy.

Posted by: Tara at June 23, 2004 10:59 PM

I have to admit that only my second thought was, "I wonder which \documentclass and packages he's using."

My first thought was, "I wonder what that business idea is."

I blame the way you write, and the fact that when I read your post the last two paragraphs were "below the fold," as they say.

Anyway, which class and styles are you using, and what's that idea of yours?

Posted by: Gabe at June 24, 2004 8:50 AM

I am so tragic, I can't believe I perked up because I saw your link to Business Link, but... Can I just say, we wrote that site! We wrote it! Us! My company! I did bits! Me me me!

Sorry. Aaanyway, our whole raison d'etre is to write material aimed at helping small businesses, or people setting up in business, so I can point you in the direction of lots more useful information, if you'd like it.

Posted by: Kat at June 24, 2004 10:51 AM

Having done the whole "write a business plan/talk to Business Link/register a company/develop an ulcer when it fell apart into tiny pieces" thing a couple of years ago; I'd be happy to help out with advice/horror stories/reading a draft of the business plan if you like...

Posted by: Janice at June 30, 2004 9:48 PM
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