Some good, some bad, life goes on

Well, lets see where to begin... I missing my best friend right now, she and I have gone our separate ways in what will hopefully be best for us in the long-term, but right now, it just sucks. All the way 'round. There isn't an upside to losing your best friend, ever. Its a struggle, every minute, to not pick up the phone and want to try again and again and again, like we've been doing. But doing so would just be selfish of me, which I'm not going to do. Not after everything I've put her through.

My partner for Argentine Tango is going to be traveling for the next two months for work, so she won't be able to do Tango By the River with me. Which is really disappointing, but I can't exactly complain too much, it is for work. Soooo.... Find a new partner, I guess, try it next month? Who knows.

Got all the paperwork to officially file for my Fictitious Business License. Will be doing that on Monday, at which point I'll open up a bank account, get checks, and officially start my business. Really, really excited about the opportunities that that holds. More than anything else, that is something that I can pour my heart and soul into right now, when every idle minute brings more thoughts of Nicole. I wanted her to be a part of this too, so in some ways, its bittersweet, but its my dream, and I have an opportunity to pursue it right now, when I have no attachments, nothing to distract me. But on the other hand, its also a time when I have very little inspiring me. That makes it hard sometimes. I operate better with a muse, but I have a clear vision of my future, and that will sustain me for now.

Got kept on at JC Penneys, and am getting a decent number of hours, if not quite as many as I'd like. Hopefully, the number will be getting ramped up, as one of the primary people in my department got transferred to a different area due to stupid and senseless politics and general bitchiness. Its really crappy, but eh, c'est la vie.

One of my good friends is coming up this weekend so we can make a reproduction of his great-great-etc-grandfather's lap desk from the Civil War. I'll have photos up documenting our process at some point, hopefully before too long. Should be a really cool and exciting project, and definitely a learning experience for me. I'm looking forward to it, a lot. That'll hopefully be one of the mainstays of my business.

Speaking of which, for those of you that don't know, this is the plan:

Reproduction Woodworks - Specializing in historically accurate and documented reproductions, but also doing general woodwork for various vendors at Ren Faires, etc. I'm currently working on three primary projects that will be the pilot pieces for this venture. The first is an original folding chair from the Civil War. All of the templates, and initial leg members are cut out and ready to assemble. I'm waiting for correct rivets from RJ Leahy to complete the prototype, at which point, I will be sending out an e-mail to solicit the first round of orders for the chairs. First 10 replys will get a discounted price. I'm planning on marketing by letting people who purchase my products give referrals. Anyone that purchases from me, and mentions someone by name, the referer will get a $5 coupon towards their next purchase. That should drive some business, and make people who promote my products able to get things at pretty nicely reduced prices. Secondly, I'll be making Bread Boxes, Ammunition Boxes and Rifle Boxes for the Civil War, which are all simple to make, cheap to produce, and there aren't many people making them right now. Those will be marketed to the sutlers throughout CA, as they're a bit hard to ship long distances, but if there is demand for that, I'll approach that when I'm ready to. Third will be the Lap Desk that I am making this weekend, and those will be marketed nation-wide. I'm going to see if I can work some contacts I have with east-coast reenactors to get one out there and on display. That is by far the larger market, and what I want to break into eventually. Doing so will dramatically improve the profitability of the business.
On the side (well, at the moment, we'll see if it becomes the primary money-maker), New Stirling Arms wants me to start making goblets, which I'm looking forward to, it will be a great project to develop. Over the next three weeks, I'll be doing prototype designs, then take up several examples to NSA to see what they want to proceed with. Then, into production in the spring. That, in addition to the crossbows and catapults, which are coming along nicely.
To facilitate all of this expansion, I'm going to seek a $8000 loan for materials and to build one of these: http://www.mechmate.com/
This'll handle all of the drilling, boring and cut out of the chair parts, possibly even doing parts of the lap desk if I can get it set up how I'd like, and also making the crossbows I do sooo much easier and faster. As in, cutting my time EASILY in half, probably reducing two-thirds of the work for the crossbows as well as giving a superior result. Then, having that in the shop will open up a lot of other avenues for pursuing work, both for NSA and other vendors, as well as projects in modern woodworking.
Soooooo.... That's the plan. If you know anyone that would be interested in investing or reviewing my full business plan and financial plans, let me know.

And we'll see where life takes me from there.