Saturday, August 23, 2008

Dealing with the Unpredictability of Tomorrow

This month has been two years since I started my business.

There have been some definite joys, some eek-moments, and a greater sense of peace as the layers of stress have either abated or they have taken on a much more manageable form. It doesn't always look like it's manageable: a.) I'm working longer hours, b.) I'm taking on bigger projects, c.) there is no such thing as a weekend or vacation and d.) my desk is living proof of things gone amok.

But above everything else that's out there there's but one single thing that I have not been able to fully address: tomorrow. It's elusive. It's the "how are we going to pay next month's bills" or "do we have enough time to tackle yet another project." We've been riding a pretty substantial tidal wave since the spring time -- and yet I get the knots in my stomach when I feel like I can see the end of the projects appearing on the horizon.

Darby keeps my head focused on the: "it'll be fine" mentality because anything less and I'm going to squick myself into a pit of self-doubt.

Ultimately though - she's been right on the money each time. We have been incredibly blessed with a tremendous amount of word-of-mouth marketing -- that we haven't needed to do much in the way of advertising. In fact, we haven't had to advertise -- but we're gearing up to send out our first official advertisement directed at lawyers that can hire me out in a myriad of different ways.

It's scary -- it's exciting -- it's reassuring -- it's humbling.

I recently got a referral from someone who I met only once -- merely just sitting in his conference room talking technology .... passed my name to someone and that will likely garner another unforeseen vein of incoming business. Someone who doesn't really know me from Adam -- and all of a sudden I'm being referred.

Keeping it going in the positive direction is tough .... very tough. There are moments when I feel the tidal waves crashing on us -- but we keep moving forward and the unpredictability of tomorrow fades a bit in that moment. Our September is going to have some incredibly busy times for us. It's positive -- and if it keeps going like it is ... it might be very positive.

So in the meanwhile, we'll keep doing the bucket brigade to get the water out from the bottom of the boat ... and let the waves of stress take us where we need to be.

Lots to do -- signing off for a bit.

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