Happy Holidays! This is always a fun time of year where books are closing, final bills are going out, and businesses (and individuals come to think of it) are otherwise getting ready to begin again with a clean slate.
Here’s what’s been going on the last two weeks:
I am starting to draw a salary on January 1.
Since the official full time start of my business in May up until this moment, I have been living entirely on savings and income from my part time jobs (the inn this summer and very sporadic French tutoring in the present). I’ve been putting all business money into a business account (DBA) and using this account only on occasion to buy things for my business like web hosting or a new printer.

Starting January 1, I will be drawing a small salary. It’s not as much as my old job but it’s certainly a good start to the new fiscal year. And as my savings were dwindling, it is certainly a bit of a relief to have reached this point.
I got my first client in my hometown.
The old adage goes something to the effect of you can’t be a prophet in your hometown. The good news is I don’t want to start a cult, however, I would like to have some clients in or near my hometown of Fort Kent because it is not only a good sized market of small businesses but also because I’m culturally and socially familiar with it.
This week was a big moment for me in that I finally got one that isn’t my mom. Not only that, but this client is a family I know and really like. (I even taught their kids swimming lessons back when I was in high school.) I hope to do a really good job for them so that the family will continue to like me and so that word will spread. As a bonus, it would also be able to justify (and write off) going to visit my family more often.
I got an iTouch, so I am now getting to learn more about the mobile web.
When I was meeting with a client last week, I was lamenting about having locked into a regular cell phone contract for two years (I have one year left on it) when it had become so clear to me how important it was for me to learn about the mobile web. And since my carrier is Verizon, it’s clear from news reports that fees to get out of this service would be out of my reach.
One week after this conversation, I opened my big gift: an iTouch I hadn’t even asked for. My brother-in-law picked it out for me, figuring I’d like it because I’m a technology nerd. In addition to my personal love of geeky things, I also love this gift because I can do things like play with applications and browse the internet on a ‘smartphone’ without the smartphone contract. Yay!
I broke down and bought a printer… then took way too long to hook it up.
Because I print so infrequently but I have gotten to the point at being very annoyed at paying $1/page at the local copy place, I bought an inkjet printer last week at my local computer store. I hooked it up with my network and… nothing.
Those who know me know that computer hardware is not my strong suit. It took someone who owed me a favor finally coming over to my house to hook it up correctly. As much as I liked spending 15 minutes and a couple dollars getting a copy of some notes, I think this will be much better for me.
I co-hosted a Twitter chat, and it was fun!
Last week, I cohosted a Twitter chat with @budgetpulse about money and dating. It was fun to get back to my money blogger roots but more fun to understand the group power of Twitter. I ended up connecting with people in really fun ways, getting new Twitter followers, and a spike in traffic. (If you are interested in seeing it in action, the group chat happens every Wednesday at 7 pm and is about a different financial topic. Just follow the #bp hastag!)
I look forward to thinking of ways my clients can have Twitter chats and use it to drive interest in their products and traffic to their sites.
Overall a fairly productive couple weeks, even if part of them was spent eating a lot of baked goods and otherwise spending time with family and friends…
Happy New Year, friends!

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