Srsly - between the lack of schedule structure and the ADD, I can spend entire weeks forgetting everything I ever did... tracking with click to start/stop (as opposed to, oh, trying to remember something later) is a total godsend. And not just for hourly billing; it's also incredibly helpful to keep an eye on what I'm doing on my own (work) time.

hey, I don't have ADD and I can forget what I've done

Hola, Buffista Chamber of Commerce Delights! It's the last business day of the month, and thus time for the monthly checkin post!

As a reminder, checking in is absolutely not mandatory, ever. Please don't post specifics of clients or money. And your business is your business - no worries about too big, small, new, on-the-side, or whatever to play in the checkin. Mmmkay? So:

• what successes did you have this month?
• what do you have an eye on for the next month?
• any brags, frustrations, brilliant ideas, inspirations?
• didja at least pay the rent? (or whatever your personal bottom line is for "is my business doing okay?")
• how are your psychic wages doing?

Oh, damn, is the month over already? Sheesh. Ok, I'll have to look back and assess.

Dude, I know. I'm currently stuck halfway between "what, already?" and "August HAS a 31st?"

I'm in the midst of my crazy busy season, so free time is in short supply, but that means that I've got around 16 people on payroll for the next couple of weeks, and then it drops down to around 10-12 people on payroll until the end of October. This means one of my "Did you pay the rent goals" which is to not just keep myself employed and fed, but also to be keeping other people involved in the arts in Los Angeles employed as often as I can.

We seem to be having a successful start to our Halloween Horror Nights install, so that's good. There are a number of overlapping projects this month so that will be a challenge for staffing, coordination, and design work.

Um, that's the short version.

bonny - gonna be tomorrow evening instead of morning. I've started but don't trust my low blood sugar brain to get it all right now. Hope that's okay!

Thanks smonster, insent with a new version in a few minutes.

Fabulous. I'm going to set an alarm on my phone so I don't forget.

Okay, here goes.

what successes did you have this month?

Well, I felt like the month just evaporated, but I took an actual look at it and: finished camp, bunch of donor maintenance (raised $2000 when we thought we were just cooking), got caught up through May with data entry, established school year sched, got former student registered for discipleship program, worked w/ graphic designer on marketing materials rework, additions to web, mailing list maintenance, electronics recycling.

Sorry to list all that out, but I think it's important for me to recognize that I haven't been just faffing around. Lots more to do, of course, but that's not as shabby as I thought.

what do you have an eye on for the next month?

This is the big one. We start school back up, I (hopefully) escort my former student to Chicago, hopefully replacement board meeting, finish getting current.

any brags, frustrations, brilliant ideas, inspirations?

Not really, the theme for this month seems to be despite. Despite my procrastination, I got my student in the program. Despite my mess-ups, we got our financial house back in reasonable order. Despite my best efforts, I have not gone under.

My big frustration right at this moment is that I threw my hands up and turned all the old laptops over to the recycler without clearing them out. Had I done so, I would have realized I couldn't throw out my last one yet, because I still only had a working version of Adobe CS on that one. I have a call in right now to their support center, but if they can't help me, I'm screwed, because I thought I would just buy the lastest version, but it's out of stock at the non-profit discount tech store and I can't afford it full price.

didja at least pay the rent? (or whatever your personal bottom line is for "is my business doing okay?")

Yes. Thank goodness. Still have to assess what the rest of the year will look like, but we have at least one major donor being courted and the annual campaign is about to start.

how are your psychic wages doing?

Excellent. We have one former student in town right now who just went through two years of rehab, is now working with the drug rehab center, and is studying to become a pastor. We have one student who was homeless, jobless, and an emotional wreck who is getting ready to enter a 10 month program. We have one former student we didn't think was going to graduate, whose family rejected her, now married, expecting, and in town hoping to record, while on break from their touring.

Lots of tough stuff too, but I'll take what I can get at the beginning of the school year.