La Bene Vita

RECITALS!

My Saturdays are normally busy, and with the sound system work days all afternoon at church the last three weeks, I've been non-stop from 8am - 9pm every Saturday for a month. So you would think yesterday, with recitals in between Saturday morning lessons and Saturday evening Praise Band rehearsal, would have been par for the course. But at 6pm, on my way to church from recitals, I could have crawled under the covers and passed out for days right then and there, behind the wheel of my Jeep With a Capital Junk. I'm not sure what that was about, but three agonizing hours later, I finally did crawl under the covers, and I slept like a rock all night. Rehearsal is a vague blur, and I hope I was nice to the church musicians I lead.

Next Saturday, I'm taking the afternoon off.

Reach 300 students by 12/31/11:
I keep thinking we're slowing down. Then I look at the stats and really think about it, and we're at 135, versus 127 at the end of last month. If we maintain the trend, we'll be up a total of 20 this month, and 20 per month is pretty standard. And yet, there is still that feeling that we've stalled, and I think it's in part because we didn't get all the enrollments out of our last batch of samplers that we thought we would. More people are actually sampling instruments, instead of enrolling in a sampler with the full intention of eventually enrolling just to get a cheaper first month. And I'm cool with that, too, because our samplers are slightly more profitable than private lessons, so long as our per-class enrollments stay up. The only bummer about samplers is the lack of long-term committed revenue. That's the beauty of this business, which is something I miraculously didn't consider when choosing it: music lessons are an ongoing commitment, versus a consumable one-time buy. Therefore, the business is very stable and predictable. I have a good idea how many students I'll have next month, because a good majority of them are already enrolled.

I'll take the miraculous business selection, along with the miraculous location selection, which is driving our volume growth to double my initially-targeted numbers, and the miraculous staff finds, which are going to make us wildly successful and profitable. I haven't told them this, but I envision a corporate executive staff in a decade or so that includes a certain core group of current teachers and administrators. And me, of course.

Customized database by 12/31/11: Design web page interface for potential form.
Every once in awhile, I think of this. We still really need a database. Right now, I'm too busy growing and hiring. It's crossed my mind to contract this out, but I'd rather spend my money on another piano or two, another drum set, and a computer lab renovation. And a receptionist!

Potbelly: : Add one repertoire song per week
"Forgive Me" - and I'm sort of in a daze that I completed this goal, of all goals, while I failed at so many others. On a related note, I had two separate requests for Dave Matthews in a span of maybe two or three weeks.

Messiah: One noteworthy accomplishment per month:
Yes, although I didn't go over our new song ("Our God") with the band last night, due to (1) a delayed start caused by extensive equipment adjustments and sound checks, and (2) utter exhaustion on my part.

Reading: One book per week.
I read like a page before passing out, and I'm at about 76%.

Writing: Goals TBD:
(1) Blog at WDC daily.
(2) Blog at MT.com   weekly: pending. Growing. Hiring.

Count points: TOTAL POINTS YESTERDAY:
I'm falling into bad habits again. We got donuts and muffins for the Adult Recital, and I ate a muffin and several donuts. Then I came home and had a piece of pizza. And throughout the day, I nibbled on sticky buns and other miscellaneous junk. Bottom line, I have no idea what I ate, and my resolution was to keep track. If I eat 100 points in a day, I will KEEP TRACK. Damn it.

Today's list, which shall be in complete form tomorrow morning:
Tall, nonfat, no-whip white chocolate mocha (7)