Re: The "Cost" of the matter

**D* G* <d*@kos.net>**

Jeff -  just in time to round out this conversation, :-)   here's a  
new tool for seeing how you're doing on a daily basis with meeting  
your goals and being productive.  But as somebody else (sorry lost the  
thread) pointed out,  unless you take your writing as a small  
business, then doing this kind of thing won't help anyway.

http://davidseah.com/blog/comments/concrete-goals-tracker-2008-updates/

I confess I haven't played with it yet but am intrigued enough to see  
if it will help with productivity.    I need all the help I can get to  
write like crazy in the next three months so I can then act like Freil  
and go boating all summer.  No, that's not quite right.   I don't boat  
like JF,   he works at paddling, I take a high- tech version and use  
the excess wind coming from US politicians to boost my boats across  
the water.  Thank goodness for election campaigns - here's to great  
sailing (and oh yeah, great writing)

Off to do some work and lurk again.  08 awaits.

Doug

Douglas Green
Online Garden Publishing
Blog:  http://blog.douggreensgarden.com
Home: http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com

On 3-Jan-08, at 6:24 AM, Jeff Ball wrote:

> Doug,
> Yep, that's a business plan.  In my experience I did a business plan
> when I wanted to borrow some money and be selected for a big project
> of some kind.  The key area where I failed was being able to stick to
> the estimate of the time I should be spending on each project or
> silo.  Probably as an over reaction to having been in large
> bureaucracies for twenty years, or having a father who was a systems
> engineer, I have never been able to allocate time for two or three
> different projects in one day.  I get focused on a project, I work on
> it until it is done; and it may not be earning me enough money to
> justify the time ; bad mistake.
>
> The other factor in my inability to work with a business plan, was in
> the 25 years every one of my big money making projects was
> unexpected.  One event leads to another event which leads to a new
> contact and I'm working on a $40,000 video project that I never
> imagined I would ever be able to take on.  I guess the one discipline
> of a business plan that I have always followed is knowing pretty
> precisely each source of revenue and the amount of revenue each
> year.  I think that with the Internet it is easier and maybe even
> more necessary to think about trying a business plan.  Why? Because I
> think a garden writer can have more control in developing projects or
> funding streams  than might have been possible back in the paper and
> pencil days.  The explosion of personal computers and the associated
> equipment such as printer, scanner, and modem is almost perfect to
> support a career in writing.  The shift to digital and the Internet
> have been frosting on the cake.  I can live in the boonies of
> Michigan and do almost everything that I needed support for 20 years
> ago.
>
> Maybe I should try getting into movies or owning television
> stations.  Or maybe I should just shut up and keep working on what I
> have making me money and leave the blue sky piloting to younger less
> wise garden writing adventures.
>
>
> Jeff Ball
> jeffball@usol.com
> 810-724-8581
> Check out my daily blog at www.gardeneryardener.blogspot.com
> Check out my extensive web site at www.yardener.com
>
>
>
> On Jan 1, 2008, at 9:51 PM, Douglas Green wrote:
>
> Dan - I suspect your cash flow should identify the cash/financial
> requirements of your writing business rather than your operational
> plans.   I keep them separate - using the operational  plan for income
> generation planning and the cash flow to control expenses so my
> accountant doesn't have heart attacks on my behalf.  I do plug the
> numbers from the operational business planning into the cash flow
> income side so I know what I "should" be making.  Expenses are based
> on history and any costs associated with the operational planning.
> But I do consider these two things to be different.   Both are part of
> a business plan and my reply to jeff focussed only on the operational
> planning and did not include the cash flow side of things.  Sorry for
> any confusion  - thanks for pointing out the need for cash flow
> planning.
>
> Doug
>
>
> Douglas Green
> Online Garden Publishing
> Blog:  http://blog.douggreensgarden.com
> Home: http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com
>
>
>
> On 1-Jan-08, at 8:51 PM, Dan Clost wrote:
>
>> A good point Jeff- even if I'm not Doug
>>
>> Will the exercise of even  attempting to write out a business plan
>> at least
>> identify many of the hidden costs, aka overhead, that most of us  
>> don't
>> account for until they bite us in the bum come tax time?
>> Dan
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Jeff Ball" <jeffball@usol.com>
>> To: "Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum"
>> <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 8:43 PM
>> Subject: Re: [GWL] The "Cost" of the matter
>
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