Motivate your damn self (note to self)

Taken by Kari Alana of www.karialana.com in May Pen, Jamaica. Photograher maintains copyright. All rights reserved 2009.

FB Friend: What u been up to? Apart from being married....

Sheer Almshouse: Transitioning, re-positioning, re-inventing and adapting.

And aint that the truth in a nutshell!

It's been three months since I came to Dubai, and two months yesterday since I got married and those verbs (note present continuous tense used) have been defining my existence.

I am working on my business plan. Running into some kinks. Realising that the market I thought I had would not have access to a major part of the project... so I am back to Engineering 101. I cant say that this is such a bad thing though. I have identified the problems early, which is part of the processes of due diligence and research- and critical- when attempting anything entrepreneurial.

The learning curve spikes hourly. I am so hungry to really get to know how this place works and work with it. I am trying not to assert my own assumptions and to understand before I seek to be understood.

I think there is a market for my projects 1. a company and 2. another blog but I just have to make certain that I dot my I's and cross my T's.

It is also a major challenge that my start-up capital has been drained so I really have to be very detailed about how I will be able to capitalize these entities and project that rate at which they will grow.

I think I need to start building a time table- a schedule to guide execution since I really do have a lot of good projects, but all of which require intensive use of my hands that already hurt from using a laptop full time. Yes I should be using a desktop for somebody who is at the computer for such long hours, but that is an expense that will have to be delayed. Hmmn maybe I could think of an ergonomic keyboard in the interim?

It may be a blessing that I am not privy to huge capital injections... at least now I will have to force myself to build from ground up and make smart investments that yield sustainable ROI. This time around, I don't have a huge client up front providing me money for the startup costs or a job to help me pay for third parties. I can't afford a lawyer just yet and I can't afford a graphic designer. I can't even afford the regulated start-up fees.

I am not necessarily getting much done but I have been making more and more contacts and slowly seeing how the vision I had for my transition could actually work. It is a slow and tedious process and not always yielding of spectacular results, but if I know anything, it is that the small victories should be celebrated.

I go on a photo quest this weekend with new Brit photog friend and that will be good for both of us.

I think I need to draft a marketing communication plan for myself and use it as a guide to rollout the different things I want to do.

ESC has been uber supportive of me and allows me the luxury of being a kept woman while I sort myself out.

Right now... my time is my greatest resource. I would be smart to use it wisely.

UNRELATED: We completed stage 4 of the visa process. We are in the clear, so now it's on to the 3year renewable residency stamp. (I currently have a temp 2 month paper visa).