Money Matters

I have been a full-time entrepreneur for 10 months and while every single project, experience, trip and challenge has been awesome, money is an issue sometimes.  I’ve never wanted to be driven by money- neither by the constant yearning for more, nor by the obsessive focusing on its insufficiency. A major part of the reason I quit my job was because I wanted to love what I did every single day so that it never felt like “work”. However, lately I am beginning to wonder if love and passion have to take a backseat so that I can chauffeur a few more profitable passengers/clients to keep the lights on. Sigh.

I saved a good amount of money last year to be able to make this happen and it has kept me afloat. However, my goal was never to burn through my savings. The challenge now, as is the case with any entrepreneur, is to figure out how to establish a steady revenue stream while still remaining selective about my projects and with whom I work.

Paycheck vs. Passion

This is certainly challenging for anyone running a business, but I find it especially tricky for a service-based business model since I don't have a standard priced widget to sell; every project can have a drastically different margin.  I am accepting that I will have to balance paycheck clients (not exciting but can afford me) and passion clients (awesome but can’t afford me) in order to create a sustainable business model right now. In the long-term, I trust that this will not be the case but I guess I need to swallow it now. (Right? Or do I hold out for the dream combo of awesome AND can afford me?)

 

The projects that I believe will have the biggest payoff are the ones that will barely provide any revenue at first. For example, (first public announcement) my business partner and I will be launching a Concert Series in Philadelphia next year. This will require a great deal of time, energy, work and money. We have no real way of knowing what profits will be until after the concerts happen. We are developing our projections now and speaking with potential investors to get the expenses taken care of but at the end of the day, it really is a gamble. While every ounce of me believes that these concerts will be successful, belief doesn’t pay the bills.

My Plan.

I will never give up on passion clients. If I do, I might as well get a 9 to 5. I have been working on lining up smaller projects- consulting gigs and help with events that can give me some income while I wait for a return on my work in bigger projects. This is challenging because since I don’t have a staff I also have to take into consideration how much I can handle at once. If I didn’t need to sleep, I would just get a part-time job and some side projects, and carry on with just passion clients. However, this is sadly not the case.

Honestly, it has been a bit stressful. I especially feel the shortage of funds now that it is the holiday season. Sometimes I secretly wish I had parents who could generously supply an occasional bailout but those are brief and rare moments of brattiness. I will not get hung up on it. I mean, this is what entrepreneurship is all about. 

My faith- in God, my talent, my business partner and my business model- keeps me going. I have never been someone who gets really uptight about money, and even when I haven’t had a clue how rent or a bill will be paid in the past, something always comes through. Things just happen to work out. When it comes to business, however, I am trusting that this "it’ll-work-itself-out” attitude will not be necessary for long. I envision this company becoming so lucrative that I am managing salaries, stocks, and a high profit margin alongside a few losses that I can handle... dammit. While its difficult to see right now, I have to believe it will happen.  

I guess I just needed to get that off my chest. These darn holidays rooted in consumerism are testing my entrepreneur fighter spirit but… I’m still here. 

Think I'll make this my holiday mantra this year.