On Being an Entrepreneur

Some snippets:

In my last day of classes, our program director came around and had a few words for each of us.  For me, he said that he thought that people would love working for me and that I would be a great entrepreneur.

My horoscope for today:  "If you haven't been feeling it already, today you should really start to sense that there's a new beginning right around the corner. New ideas, new situations and -- most importantly -- new people are going to start influencing your life in some challenging, but wonderful ways. You'll be asked to reach deep down and gather up the best of what you have to offer. It's time to grow in a new direction, so be open to suggestions and recommendations."

What's been going on:

What I have been working on over the past few weeks is the purchase of a home cleaning franchise.  Seems odd that I might do this, but the work is pretty much what I have been doing for most of my career:  human resources.  There is going to be a lot of hiring going on.  Partly for the startup of the business, partly because it can be a transitional role that people take to make ends meet.  The pay will be reasonable at about $15/hour. If you are only paying minimum wage, you don't get quality people doing quality work, so pay should reflect it.

I have been looking into grants and loans.  There are a bunch of companies out there ready to take your cash just to tell you what the grants and loans programs are.  Sheesh.  I did find one, however, that is the actual "granting" institution.  And I made sure that they would consider granting funds to support the purchase of a brand new franchise.  (The criteria for some programs deliberately excludes franchises.)  So this works for the home cleaning franchise, but would not work for a Canadian Tire Dealership.

I have lined up a lawyer to look over the franchise agreement and to do the articles of incorporation.  Yep.  I decided the company should be incorporated.  Now I need to think of a name.