Other Business

Early on in this blog I mentioned that I had plans for another business. A two-pronged event services business. Event planning is where my heart is. Not that I don't love making and selling my own products. This is just another business where the goal, or at least my goal, is to help people and make them happy. Events just have all my loves in one place so to speak.

Event planning has both the creative elements as well as the practical ones. Plus there is the variety, the deadlines, the stress (yes, I love stress), and the almost constant gratification. I could do three events a day and that would give me that high of a job well done and a client being happy three times. Just knowing that I did a good job and everything went well and that the client is happy, makes me happy . Plus event planning has a definitive outcome. You know what your purpose is and can actively work towards it.

So, this business I want to start is an event services business that would cater to mostly personal and business events; meaning personal life events like weddings, vacations, etc and business meetings, lectures, etc. The two-pronged part comes in because I am Pagan. Pagan event planning is an unexplored niche that I'd like to take advantage of. That sounds bad but there are so many people and events in the pagan community that I would like to lend my event planning experience to to help make things easier on the hosts and help build a bigger more successful community. The two parts of this business would be named the Pagan Event Planner and Excelsior Events. And hopefully there will be some overlap in clients since for me its all one and the same. I want to help everyone equally, and get paid for doing what I love. I can even offer some of my products for certain events.

As far as this blog is concerned I will be making event business posts as well as event ideas and interest boards, so please look out for those. Also, for those who may be confused, please remember that this is my business blog and I did mention from the first post that I would include posts about both businesses. There is some overlap but I will keep each clearly marked on this blog with tags. Also there will be no event business posts open the Scarlet Moon Creations Facebook or Etsy pages.

So please lock forward to my event planning posts.

Business Math

After my second sale I finally realized that I was uncomfortable with my somewhat blase attitude toward how much I'm making and how much I'm charging. I tried to sit down and work it all out again but there were some things I just wasn't getting; like how to include labor costs for my time per hour and in what way could I document everything to see how much I need to sell to make a certain amount of profit.

Then I remembered that I have a business consultant. Brenda is awesome and a good friend. Up until recently we had only been meeting and discussing the more abstract portions of my business. But I quickly emailed her late one night asking for more practical assistance. I also sent her the excel sheets I had been working on.

Credit: Ken Teegardin on Flickr

Now I know math. I'm actually good at it, both complex and basic, even though I can't stand it. I have never felt that math was practical. Nothing that involves going on into infinity and has professors lying to you saying this is the rule one year and then telling you rules were made to be broken the next is straightforward. But maybe I'm more annoyed with my teachers then math itself. Anyway, I am also good with excel, which I've mostly taught myself. And business math, especially in excel is mostly basic math. My problem was that I didn't know what information to use, what formulas to plug in and in what way so that I could coherently get and then understand the outcomes I wanted.

Cue Brenda, the good witch, lol. We met and talked and she explained what it was I was looking to make and use in business terms. Which somewhat went over my head. And then, she came back with awesome excel sheets made up just for me. Now I know what cash flow is and how it looks in a chart. That it will help me figure or how much I need to sell to make a certain amount. I can play with it and adjust it for different scenarios.

She also helped me streamline a COGS, costs of goods sold, chart. I had made one but this one is easier on the eyes, plus I know what its called now. I've also got a sales and costs worksheet as well as an income statement. All four together will help me keep track of costs, sales, expenses and income for my business. It was all very helpful and will be for a long time. There's some relief knowing what I'm doing now because its written down in a way I can understand and remember. Thank you Brenda.

~Lashette
Scarlet Moon Creations