I've LEARNED that GROWING my GARDEN is much like GROWING my BUSINESS!

While working in my shop I've fallen madly in love with Lavender, Gardenia and Plumeria, so much that I wanted to plant them in my home garden. I never thought that florals were for me, but boy was I wrong. Here we've planted two different types of Lavender plants outside our dining room, along with some gorgeous pink Hydrangea's. 

In our back yard are the alluringly intoxicating Gardenia's. Everytime I walk by those gorgeous flowers, I can't help but stop what I'm doing, learn over and slowly take-in their soft femine fragrance.  Unfortunately, these flowers don't last as long as I would like, so I take every opportunity I can to enjoy them while they're here.

Then there's the lush tropical fragrance of the exotic Plumeria flower. We found this large Plumeria plant at Costco for thirty dollars.  I can't wait to see the first flowers from this Plant. Now, I've just got to decide where to plant her.

While gardening, I've been thinking a lot about the close association that gardening has with growing my business.  These plants (like my business) have the potential to grow, but not without constant maintenance.  I can't just simply plant them and hope that they grow. Planting them is just the first step, of many. I must constantly nurture and monitor how they're doing. Are they growing? Do I need to change some things? Is what I'm doing working? If so, how long do I keep doing it? I couldn't help but think how beautiful SHEA CHIC has grown in the last year.  It's bloomed, and grown into one of the most gorgeous flowers of my life. I look forward to seeing how SHEA CHIC will grow and change through out this next year. All I know is that I'm thankful for the gardens in my life, they've made my life much more beautiful. ~April

http://www.sheachic.com/ 

Almost ONE year in business... it's time for a BUSINESS PLAN update!

Some of the AMAZING San Diego SCORE Counselors.



I attended another amazingly informative SCORE Business Workshop.  This past week I attended a six hour workshop, and it was packed... with people and information! I left armed with everything that I needed to revise, enhance, and update my current SHEA CHIC Business Plan.  Wow! My head was spinning... by hour two! I was worried I wouldn't absorb everything, but luckily we were each given a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet (on disc) to easily imput our own company information for income, cash flow, and balancing figures. What I enjoyed most about the event were the Counselors.  Each Counselor, had years of experience in their own industry.  Whether it was Marketing or Finance they had a plethora of knowledge and endless ideas on how I could grow my business. There are no "nay-sayers," just fun, encouraging, and knowledgable Counselors. Also, we didn't need to bring anything to this workshop.  They provided the printed version of their Microsoft Powerpoint Presentation, so we could follow along and take notes as we needed and... lunch was provided! SCORE literally...(dork I know!)



SCORE San Diego Business Plan Workshop.

I think I could take this course three more times and still learn something from it.  It's a lot of information, and a great workshop for anyone interested in starting their own business. Now, I've got tons of work ahead, but now I've got the tools to do it! Great Job SCORE of San Diego! ~April

http://www.sheachic.com/