La Bene Vita

Priorities

My blog has always been about priorities. Ironically, keeping up with my blog has not been at the top of my priority list lately. You may have noticed.

But there are long-term goals and short-term goals, and if we fail to keep our long-term goals in front of us, we simply fail to accomplish them. And so, if I truly plan to publish my New York Times Bestseller, "How to Start a Wildly Successful Music School" or "How to Become a Famous Acoustic Folk Rock Star" or "How Michelle Tuesday Took the World By Storm: An Autobiography" (because no other author could write it quite as well as I), then I need to actually *log how I did it*.   So, without further ado (okay... maybe with more ado), here are my goals and progress over the last... *scrolling down to the last time I logged my goals* twenty days or so.

Post at MichelleTuesday.com   at least once per week.
I knew I was forgetting something. Maybe I should hire this out.

Business priorities for MTMS  :
Scheduling and retention databases.
Gah. Sometimes this is a really big deal. Most of the time, our Excel workbook does the trick. I've been too busy fighting fires to even think about it. Maybe I should hire this out, too!

Close October books and update projections and break-even
Hmmm... we updated our projections and break-even. I have a fantastic hiring plan for office and computer lab staff. I never did close the books, and now November is done. In fact, I could review my November data and close that month as well. Duh... THAT is why my momCFO sent me an updated business plan with November data.

Fill Samplers
Eh. We have a back-up plan now, and it works great. We have a (insert a completely arbitrary, made-up, but really high number here) percent conversion rate from samplers. We love samplers. We wish all our private lesson students would start with samplers, because (1) they make us more money when they're full, and (2) we have a lower withdrawal rate from sampler-converted students.

Drums and soundproofing.
Oh, shit. I need to do this today. I should be doing that instead of blogging. I had soundproofing hung in the drum room, but we tore it down over Thanksgiving to hang it up better, and then never got back to it. Poor Drew had to teach in a disaster of a room last week. Although... he could use the band room again. It worked well on Saturday, and I'm pretty sure there are no classes in there while he's teaching tonight. Hmm... I retract the "oh, shit."  I should just pay Drew to do it.

Customer appreciation event or activity - Delegated to a customer. She came up with the greatest idea: to record a holiday CD of teachers and advanced students performing to mail to all our clients.

I completely didn't do this. One of my teachers has a recording studio, and although his quote was reasonable, I thought the budget was too big during my start-up.  I have another plan that I might be able to throw together quickly, but damn it, I need a frame thingy! My photographer was supposed to make me a frame (strictly digital) to go around student photos, and I would print them and send them to parents along with a holiday card. Recitals are this weekend, and she'll be there capturing the event, so I'll have photos of almost everyone. I'll have to beat her up about the frame. I fear that this goal may be neglected altogether.

NEW GOAL: Hire a voice/piano instructor.
Our first voice instructor has officially resigned due to overcommitment and a vocal polyp, and our second voice teacher, who was supposed to help relieve the load the first voice instructor was carrying, got the lead in an opera (YAY! except she had to cut her hours.) So we're in the same boat we were in a month ago, and we're still signing up students. I have stopped taking students of my own and have even been working to give away my students, because (1) OMG, I teach waayyyyy too much with all the subbing, and (2) have you SEEN my goals list??? Sheesh.

NEW GOAL: Advertising.
We are just under 100 private lesson students (about 130 students including classes), which is fantastic, because we only planned for 40 by 12/1, and we stopped advertising because we weren't sure it was bringing the students in (most found us online or drove by and saw the 30-foot sign). But the honeymoon may be over. The phones have slowed down. So we are considering our advertising strategy for the holidays. We're too late to get into many publications we would have considered, but we're trying a new weekly publication (in progress), and there's always Google advertising (done).

NEW GOAL: Prepare for recitals.
Our recitals are this weekend. This past spring, my recital was one hour long, and 30 minutes of that was taken up by my studio band, Sapphire Blaze. Our summer recital was 1.5 hours long, and Sapphire Blaze only played a couple songs. This weekend, we have three hours scheduled Saturday and three hours Sunday! Lots of students. I need programs, setup/teardown checklists, and to get the last of the students signed up.

Launch one new performance repertoire song per week.
Launched the holiday repertoire, and even created a new folder. It's still a bit incomplete, and I probably won't make any more progress on it this season.

One load of laundry per day.
Catching up.

Achieve a weight of 150 by 12/31/2010
Weight: 163. Yes, as in higher than the last time I reported. I've even seen the scale read 64-65 range, but not consistently.
Meals:
7:30 Half bagel with cheese (3.5) and coffee (1)
11:00 Granola bar (2)
1:45 Skinny roast beef sandwich (7)
2:00 Coffee (1)
7:00 Half Wendy's double stack with a couple fries (5)

TOTAL POINTS: 19.5 (Goal: 25)

Total points Monday and Tuesday of this week were both under 30. For now, my "drop-dead" goal is to keep it under 30. This is a lifestyle change, and it's hard to turn on and off. Keeping it reasonable will keep me from bailing. I was so proud of myself yesterday when I sent the waitress away with the bread basket. Go me!

UPDATE: 163 was a few days ago. I weighed in today at 161.2.