In other news, I had two great meetings today.
I went to the SCORE office and met an awesome woman who gave me great advice and was super enthusiastic about my business. I can't even say how good that felt.
She referred me to a woman who does video that I hope I can work with. That would rock.
Then, I had a meeting with my friend who is hiring me. I feel SO much better about the deal.
I helped her to see what I really want to do...which will give her the most value for her dollars. I set the rate at $30 for admin/training development and $60 per hour for on-the ground training/evaluation of her people. Those hours would normally cost $125, but I'm guaranteed 12-15 hours per month that I don't have to market for...so yay!
It turns out, she probably doesn't need a PR campaign anyway, so that's a bit of a relief. I will sit on her calls with the inventor and give her advice, but the shoe leather will be someone else's.
Phew.
PLUS, we agreed that I will be an employee, which will help with taxes. And, we will keep my branding alive. The doggy lama at SG.
Nice.
I should check on that "cannot be combined with other offers" thing too, because I'm certainly tempted by that package. I wanted letterhead, but the cost is usually astronomical.
UPDATE: After quite a bit on the phone, Vistaprint tells me that the TIPPR deal WILL work on seemingly discounted packages like the Business ID package.
Sounds great, bonny. So glad you finally had a good experience with SCORE.
Bonny, insent, and if you haven't ordered with Vistaprint yet, let me send you a referral, if you don't mind. You might get extra savings!
Also, I meant to add, on your rec, I looked up KC's SCORE and they're not too far from me, and I will be exploring theme.
I also may have found an accountant in KC who works with creative types for reasonable prices through a friend. WOO.
I haven't gotten any writing today, but I moved the printer to my office, cleaned and reorged the office for more efficiency, now that I have a better idea what I need, and am creating client management database and expense and budgeting...stuff.
Anyone have Excel docs they would be willing to share as a template? I suck ass at creating Excel, and will move to Freshbooks in a few months, when I (hopefully) can afford it, but I need to have a system in place NOW.
OMG, y'all, this has totally been IT and research day for me. Not a JOT of writing done.
But I found a simple accounting and expense program, Overight, that's free for the first 30 days and $9.95 a month after that. It looks good, synch with my biz account and PayPal, calculates my 1099's.
Only problem I can see (so far) is no way that I have found to include expenses that don't come from my bank account. There are a few things I bought with the joint account before I had the biz account set up, but I have receipts.
I've also been updating the new-to-me laptop my sister gave me -- I moved the printer up and set it up. (Anyone know the cheapest place to get ink for a Lexmark X4560 -- which, btw, don't buy, because it fucking SUCKS as a networking printer.)
I'm also researching mileage and expense apps for my iTouch -- I'm looking at BizXpenseTracker as my top choice, but I don't know.
Also, does anyone know a cheap microphone that I can plug into my 2nd gen iTouch to use it as a recorder for interviews?
Oh, my god, I'm tired! But I got SO MUCH DONE today!
Should I admit I use the "throw all the business receipts in a box" method?
