Cindy Jepson's April Goal: Survive

So... my goal is a bit over dramatic.  Maybe I changed it so I don't look bad that I didn't get my real goal done- caulking the showers?  Survival sounds much more important than caulking stupid showers.  Yep it is true, it was a diversion technique.  Truth is, I am not really sure what happened to April.  It just sort of passed through my hands like sand. 

There is nothing too interesting to report.  My weekends were as follows (skip to the next paragraph if you are prone to boredom)- watching general conference at my Nephew's house an hour away- Loved it!  We had a store house assignment for our youth followed by a Mormon prom.  A campout over Easter weekend with our ward got replaced with 6 days of various family members having various illnesses: strep, vomiting, achy body and fatigue.  The weekend of the month, I honestly have NO idea what I did besides my daughter's weekly sand volleyball game.  Such is life.

So what will I share?  The most interesting thing I did in April was meet a family that has spent the last 10 years traveling.  First they sailed around the world in a catamaran, followed by racing all over in an old Porsche, followed by driving through Europe in a VW bus, followed by sailing all over again, and now they have bought an old classic motor home to travel all over again.  Yes, that is 5 once in a life-time dream experiences.


Their current "home" a '66 Dodge Travico

My husband started following their blog, bumbuzzle.com when we got home from our year traveling.  It was a rough transition into regular life (I know poor us) and following another family traveling helped him adjust.  Here is a link that has a picture of my husband an I taking a look at their new "home"  http://www.bumfuzzle.com/blog/2014/04/21/texas-bbq/.  If you take a look at it, we are in the third picture down. 

The event we went to was a pot-luck barbeque thrown by some of the blog followers and open to the public.  I am a bit shy with new people so those kind of events where I know no one are not my favorites.  However, this one I enjoyed because it was fun to meet so many people with wanderlust-  lots of kindred spirits with my husband.  I enjoyed seeing his eyes light up as he heard adventures and shared adventures.  Several of the families were living aboard boats and two were getting ready to set sail.  It is an interesting life, but the boat thing would not suit me.

It was great to be reminded to focus on obtaining experiences and relationships in life not on obtaining stuff.  I left the experience with a renewed desire to build relationships even if it involves being in what seems like will be uncomfortable situations.  Who needs nicely caulked showers anyway?

Cindy Jepson's March Goal: Register Daughter for Driver's ed

Yeah, I am just writing about March... So I put off the goal until the very last day of March, but I did get it done!

I found out that before you can begin the online class you have to mail in a request and 20$ to get a the packet from the state.

I had my daughter wait to start the class until we got the packet, but that was not really necessary, we could have started the class first.   Although there are tons of online options, I went with this local company America's Drivers Ed. and so far we have been really happy with it.  Glad to know that I am supporting local people.

 

 

Preview to April: I wrote that I was going to re-caulk my showers, but I decided that even though it really needed to be done, I did not want to do it, so instead my goal was just to get through April! LOL!

Cindy Jepson, February Project- Finish January Project, the bones of a private practice

Hello!

**I have edited this post to remove my business name because when I google my business name this post comes up, but not my website.  I'd rather have my website come up so I am seeing if deleting my business name and logo off this post will help.  If you are really curious what I ended up naming it, contact me and I will message you.**

Sooo I have a feeling this year of projects is a lesson on how I often bite off more than I can chew at any given time. 

My goals for January were to get the bones for a speech-language therapy private practice done, file a PLLC with the state, design a logo, make a basic website and get business cards... or something like that.  Nothing much!  As you recall, I got held up at step one as I waited, and waited for dreaded paperwork to go through. 

I am happy to say that now I am official!!!  It happened by the skin of February's teeth though... Sheesh! Waiting! Blah!

Part of the process of making things official required that I change the name I had chosen for my business.  There was another business in the greater area with a similar name.  I chose a new name that was area specific rather than specific to my town which ambles over many miles.  Our local mall and even my church congregation shares this area specific name.  It will let people know the general area I am at better than my city name would. 

It is much more difficult to choose a name than I expected.  Although I was crazy about the name I chose in the beginning, I am not sure how I feel about it now.  Ironically, it could be a little tough to say.  There is comedy in that and hopefully my clients will not mind because the process to obtain a name was time intensive and costly.  I do not want to change it!!

With the name change also came a change of heart about my Logo.  I decided I would rather have it look more neutral and business like to appeal to a large range of clients and not just parents of young children.  I love how it turned out.  Once again, I have my talented husband to thank. 

And here is me with my shiny new business card.

I was also able to get a business bank account set up.  Did you know that you have to have a tax ID number for your business before you can get a business bank account?  It is called an Employer Identification Number (EIN).  This is where you can apply on line if you ever need such a thing: https://sa2.www4.irs.gov/modiein/individual/index.jsp. I didn't know anyone needed to do this, but now I do.  What a fun learning process. 

I wrote in the January post that it was also my goal to go to my state conference to get some continuing education done.  I got that done too.  I always love learning new things. 

I still do NOT have a website up and running though.  We were making good progress on it when I accidently deleted part of the template I was using and didn't realize it until I didn't have enough undo's to get it back.  Yeah, I am technical like that.  It is in the process though.

I have to admit that all of this feels pretty empowering, but nerve wracking too.  Sometimes I think I wait for someone to give me "permission" to do things that I have every right and ability to do. 

 

Wish me luck as I keep plugging along to make this thing work!

Next Month:  Getting my 15 year old registered for on-line drivers ed.





Cindy Jepson's January Project: Get the bones for a very small speech-therapy private practice done.

Hi! I am Cindy Jepson and I live in League City, Texas.  

 The Nora Connection:  We met at CEU (College of Eastern Utah) in the Dorm Freshman year and became fast friends.  In fact, I spent most of my first two years of adulthood with Nora.  This picture was taken after freshman year on our way to our the beautiful Teton Mountains for our summer jobs.  We also lived together when we got back for our second year of school and the following summer we worked together at camp Oak Crest.  Such fond memories! Nora is the kind of friend everyone needs: spontaneous, helpful and supportive, and quick to forgive.  She watched me gain the freshman 25 and didn’t say a word (what? It is 15? Well why be average!) and helped me through way too much self-created boy drama.

Me:  This is my life now and I adore this family of mine.  This summer my husband and I will celebrate 18 years of marriage.  It is crazy how the time flies.           

                                                

Having all girls (ages 15, 13 and 10) is about what you’d expect- high emotion mixed with sweet tender moments.  

Richard, my husband, and I met at college (go Utah State University!).  After he got his bachelors and I got my Masters, we moved to College Station, Texas so he could go to graduate school.  We were off for what I thought was a short span away from my home state and family.  Opportunities and the spirit led elsewhere instead we have had us many adventures across 4 states, lots of towns and a couple countries.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  

My January Project: My project was to get the bones of a small private practice done for a speech-language therapy practice.  I am a Speech-Language Pathologist.  I have been very grateful for the flexibility that this field has had for me because some years I have worked full-time, some I have worked part-time and many, especially when my kids were small, I didn’t work at all.  The reality that college, marriage, missions and hopefully retirement is around the corner makes me want to be more serious about helping to save.  However, being home when my kids leave for school and get back from school is important to me.  With one in High School, one in Middle School and one in Elementary that doesn’t leave much time for work.  The latest school starts at 9:00 and the earliest school gets out at 2:30.  I decided the best answer for me right now is a small private practice with up to 10 clients. 

I started the project a little late because I wasn’t sure I wanted to share what I was doing with the world, but I decided accountability was good so here I am.  These are the steps I planned:

1. Establish a LLC.  – I decided to use Legalzoom.com (my husband had previously formed a LLC with them)
2. Make a Logo- I planned to have my husband help.  He is artistic and good with a computer 
3. Make a basic website- I planned to form a secondary site from a primary site my husband has. The host site has simple tutorials and templates that make it easy to design one. (More details will be provided in next month's post.)
4. Order business cards

I was on fire and ran with everything.  I decided on the name “Simply Better Speech.”  I did a web search to make sure that no one else seemed to have that name and checked to make sure the domain name was available.  Both were clear so I applied for a LLC under that name.  While that was processing, I got a domain name under “Simply Better Speech.”  My husband already had a primary account so it was inexpensive (around $10 a year) to add a secondary site to it.  Then we designed the logo.   My husband is good with art and the computer so he was able to put my idea on paper.  I think it turned out nice!

 

 So after I got this all done legal zoom contacted me and let me know that my name was similar to another speech company in the greater Houston area “simply speech therapy”  and I could choose to contact them and get permission to use my name or I could choose another name.  Woops! How did I miss that one?  Geographically they aren’t close enough to be competition, but I didn’t want confusion.  After thinking about it for a couple of hours I decided to choose another name that gave more of a geographic region in the name.   It makes more sense anyway because we live in a large city surrounded by lots of other large cities.  

 

The name got approved and now we are in the waiting place.  You know… that awful waiting place and we have learned legal zoom can also not be so zoomy.  It takes several days to do the simplest thing.  I put in a request a week ago for them to resend something that I am supposed to sign.  I have even called about it, but I am still waiting.  My husband had a very different experience.  So this is where I stand with my goal.  WAITING.  Forming the PLLC is the gate keeper to moving forward with the other goals.  

I did go ahead and design a new logo with the new name.  It is very different from the first one above, but I am waiting until next month to share.  Hopefully, I will have much more to share too, but it all depends on how fast- or SLOW the paperwork goes.  If I did it again, I would go with a local legal company to file the PLLC.

If anyone else in my field is interested in forming a private practice this article is a good starting point
Starting a Private Practice.

The project was good for me though to get me started and it is fun to be sharing in all of your journeys too.  Happy goal achieving everyone!! 

Next Month:  Finish January’s Project

Cindy Jepson's Goals & Projects for 2014

January: get the bones for a very small private practice done. I have been stewing on this for almost a year, but it is time for action. I am going to get my logo done, make business cards, register a LLC and get a basic website up.   

February:  To keep working on my goals from January. I got a good start but was unable to complete any of them because the legal work to form the LLC wasn't as easy as I expected. I also plan on attending my state's professional conference and getting some continuing education done.

 

March: To work with my oldest to begin drivers ed. It is completely the parents responsibility here.  We are doing the home study option.

April: Re caulk my showers. Actually I am hoping I will do this before April, but if I don't, this is my goal for April. 

May: Make organizers for my two super messy drawers