Breathing... for the moment

Enough things have gone right in the biz that we have reason for hope.  There's still a lot of ways this could end badly, but the odds are that things will work out for our short-term survival.  In small business, that's about as far out as you can make an educated guess.

It rained a little, but probably not enough.  We'll see if it gives us a job or two next week.

Personally, I sold off a bunch of stuff.  Both of the four wheelers are gone.  Logan's pitching machine.  A radar gun I bought last year.  These are all things that largely just collected dust.  Because of that, I'm good on the personal finances for a few more weeks.

I need to get into the gun cabinet and start selling off some more firearms.  One way or another I think I'll be thinning out that herd, soon.  It's not like I don't think I'll want them sometime in the future, but I don't shoot much at all these days.  No need to keep storing this stuff when its my short-term financial health that's the issue.

I am due for some tax money to be refunded.  So, that'll carry me through another month or two.  Plus, the Servpro convention is coming up.  I'll get my convention check, which should be another couple of thousand. 

About 3 weeks ago, I would have put my odds of bankruptcy at about 70%.  I was preparing for the "end of days".  Since then, a few things have gone our way.  I'd say that we're talking less than a 30% chance, now. 

So, to make the breakdown:

30% chance of bankruptcy
50% chance of just continuing to muddle through
20% chance of taking off and thriving

In early August, I pay off one more business note that will free up a little over $300 a month.  After that, though, no notes will be retired until Summer of 2013.  It's gonna be a slog.

I'm glad I'm doing the law school thing.  Should have done it years ago.  With any luck, it'll set up a second income stream and maybe even out the bumps a little bit. 

Thing is, that's going to take a few years to come to fruition as well.

It's still hard to stay encouraged, but it's good to remind myself that this business can be a helluva profitable thing when it's working right.  I think it'll work right again, someday.  Lord only knows when, though.

Not out of the woods, but at least I can sleep at night without waking up at 3:00 a.m. wondering how I'm gonna pay my bills.  For the moment, everything is current. 

If we can just get some adjusters to pay some bills (we've got one that's 2 months overdue), we could be in solid shape, here. 

Life is just this way sometimes.  Nobody said it had to be easy.  A lot of folks are hurting pretty bad.  Just gotta get through this and it'll be like all the other wierd stuff that makes for a colorful life.