Archive for the 'Small Business' Category

Long Time + No Post

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on January 4, 2007
in Life and Small Business
. 0 Comments

Yes, it’s been several days since I posted. I could try to be funny and say I haven’t posted since last year … but maybe I won’t do that.

Whoops, too late, I did.

Life has been busy. Obviously, there was Christmas, and I was sick. I barely recovered, and Rachel’s family arrived, and I played lots of poker and put off reading Getting Things Done. Rachel’s family left, and I took it easy for a bit. Then my cousin, who has been in Africa for three years (he’s a missionary there) came by. My parents are here now.

The fun doesn’t stop … next week my brother will be here.

I’ve also agreed to play a (very small) role in the musical 1776, despite my most regrettable and generally unpleasant experiences with theater back home with a director who set a new standard for "egotistical."

I only have a small part … I’m playing the part of Joseph Hewes, the delegate from North Carolina. I get to say "North Carolina yields to SOUTH Carolina" several times (if I’m not being interrupted by irritated people saying "Yes, Mr. Hewes, we know!"

I’m not thrilled about "yielding" to the lesser Carolina. Perhaps I’ll ad-lib and say something like "North Carolina regretably and inexplicably yields to the fire-breathing seccesh half-wit no-count yokels from the lesser Carolina" instead.

Speaking of inexplicable … I can’t find any evidence that Mr. Hewes spent the better part of his time in Philly yielding to South Carolina. I did discover that he had been granted more power than any other delegate from any other colony, and North Carolina apparently supported indepedence quite solidly from the beginning. My best guess is that the writer took some liberties in order to  "spice up" the sectional conflict over slavery.

For those of you who are interested, performances are going to be the the first two weekends in February, at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church off of Hixson Pike. I’ll post more information about the performances later …

Some time during all this mess I’m supposed to get work done. :-)

Actually, I’ve gotten quite a bit done this week. I even managed to open a business checking account, which was no small feat because the bank hadn’t ever dealt with an LLC with a sole member … their "account creation" program insisted that they enter two members … and there aren’t. But, it’s done now.

So, I’m all ready to send out my first bill as "4-8-4/IntuiWorx" (my business alias) … and that time should come here in the next few days …

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4-8-4/IntuiWorx

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on December 29, 2006
in Small Business and Twitter Updates
. 0 Comments

Today I received my notification from the Tennessee Department of State that my LLC Alias has been succesfully registered, after a few false starts (including yours truly sending in the wrong form). So, starting Jan. 1, 2007, I’ll be able to do business as 4-8-4/IntuiWorx or Four-Eight-Four Software Works (my official LLC name). There’s a long story behind why I set things up this way … I’ll discuss it in another post in the next few days.

It’s Time to Get Organized

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on December 27, 2006
in Getting Things Done, Life and Small Business
. 0 Comments

Over the past weekend, I was sick off an on (mostly on, unfortuantely). I’m not sure if it was simply act two of what I had the week before, or something entirely new … but regardless, it prevented me from enjoying the holidays as much as I would have liked.

I missed much of my daughter’s performance in our church’s Christmas program. Granted, it wasn’t much of a performance, as she played Jesus as an infant … but she reportedly provided all the appropriate sound effects. Makes me wonder exactly how much of a ‘Silent Night’ it was in reality …

I even missed being able to help "put the Mass back in Christmas" at First Lutheran’s Christmas Day service because I developed a coughing fit while driving over. Bummer … I’ve developed quite the appreciation for Christmas Day services since becoming Lutheran, and this is the first one I’ve missed in several years.

Oh well … such is life.

Being sick over the holidays did, however, have one positive aspect. I had lots and lots of time to think … because most of the time, I didn’t even want to touch the computer. And … I spent quite a bit of time thinking about the big mess that my (business) life is in right now.

Now, I don’t mean that I’m about to go bankrupt, or anything of the sort. Frankly, the last six months have been the best I’ve had since I struck out on my own a little over a year and a half ago, with my gross profits slowly growing each month without a serious increase in expenses.

Rather, the mess is related to my being organized. The main problem is that my short-term memory rates a -3 on the age-old one-to-ten scale.

Just to give you an idea of how bad my memory is … on Christmas Day, my wife sent me home (from her parents’ house) to get some cream gravy I’d frozen the last time I made chicken-fried steak; she wanted to use it with the Christmas meal they were preparing. By the time I got home (a ten minute drive), I couldn’t remember what exactly she had sent me for, so I called and asked "Am I supposed to be bringing the baking powder or the baking soda?"

Yes, I had completely forgotten "gravy" and had managed to insert two completely unrelated items into the mental slot where gravy should have been. That, my friends, is my short-term memory at its best. Sad, isn’t it?

Couple that with the fact that I’m juggling a couple of large projects, a handful of minor projects, the need to keep my business expenses and records in order, and umpteen other business-related tasks … and you have a big mess wherein I wake up, sit down at the computer, fly by the seat of my pants all day, and then fall asleep as I think of all the things I forgot to do.

This is despite having umpteen lists of tasks scattered all over my office.

I really need to hire an assistant, and perhaps another developer. But … I’m not financially ready for that. So, my only choice at this point is to improve my efficiency.

Efficient isn’t exactly the best way to describe how I’ve done things for the last year and a half or so. I’ve gotten things done, and gotten better at getting things done … but after reflecting for the last few days, I have to admit there’s room for improvement.

I’ve been hearing about this Getting Things Done (GTD) stuff for some time now … at least a year or two. I just haven’t spent the time to figure out if GTD would help me get organized and get (more) productive.

So, I bit the bullet yesterday, and ordered David Allen’s Getting Things Done. It shipped out today, and should arrive on January 2 … just in time to help me get a jump on starting my new year right.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.