It’s been a tough year. Starting a brick and mortar business with cash and refurbishing it from head to toe ourselves was no small task. Marketing and getting clients has been tiring. All this while working jobs and going to school and doing all the other little side-venture things that make a couple hundred dollars here and there.
Payments were skipped and we were behind for a while. Not, “oh noes our house is toast” behind, but more than we had become comfortable with. Plus, I still owe just a wee little bit of money to a former college that needs to get paid sooner rather than later to get my transcripts released. There are a couple super-valuable prerequisites in there I need in order to fulfill some basic requirements when I transfer in September.
December is looking like the month. The one where we’re all caught back up. I’m nervous, because even though I never wanted to be behind even a little bit on payments to our house or office space, it was tough going from a mortgage to a mortgage and a lease payment that was actually more than our mortgage payment! It effectively doubled the amount we spend on a monthly basis for lodging, because there are two lodgings.
But it was something both hubby and I really felt we needed to do – see if having a physical location matters as much as “they” say it does. We wanted to see how much we could leverage a nice local office space to our business’ benefit.
Turns out, not so much. It certainly didn’t hurt us in any way, and if my husband decided he wanted to refurbish office spaces for a living he would have an amazing portfolio to show after all he did in our space – it was a total dump when we moved in, seriously – and could go do that for others…but that’s not what he loves to do. Well, he enjoys it but more as a hobby/pastime than a career or business.
But we signed the lease on April 1st (if I am remember correctly) and we will be all caught up on all our bills and current again come December. Not bad, really. It shows that we know how to up our game if necessary to pay twice as many bills as we did before leasing the office.
I wonder if my husband has given thought to reviewing the lease. I bet he has, but we haven’t talked about it. Since we paid two months rent up front – as well as a security deposit that I’m sure we’re getting back because of how amazing the space looks compared to when we rented it – it’s possible our last payment could be in January if we choose not to renew. So we caught up just in time to let it go…if that’s what we decide to do.
Of course, it’s possible that we’re just not in a position with our jobs and the business work we do to really put the time into a physical office that is necessary to make it a hub of the community and insanely profitable.
Either way, we’re going to have a killer write off for tax season.
Plus? By the end of the year my savings account won’t have thirty-six cents in it anymore. It will have a deposit. Not including my school deposit I put in there that I refuse to count because that money is going for summer classes. It’s dedicated savings for a purpose, not an emergency fund.
How is your emergency fund looking these days?
I ♥ Being Social!