Business Entities and the State of California

Over the years, my creative streak has taken me down several entrepreneurial paths. I've owned a couple of small businesses, as an individual and as a partner. I've also handled most of the administrative chores for our family business, so I've had plenty of experience dealing with bureaucratic details.

When I sat down to remind myself which agencies I needed to contact in order to open the doors of my Heaven's Wait web store, I realized that the first order of business was to establish a new business entity. Knowing that I'm at a stage of my life where estate planning is a must, I thought it would be wise to establish a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and to make my sons members right from the start. That way, if anything happened to me, they would already be part owners. After all, this project has never been about money to me.

Filing for a DBA, a local business license, or even a business bank account was dependent on the establishment of that LLC and its accompanying account number. So I filled out the application and sent it to the State, along with the registration fee. At that point, the wait began. 

I knew these processes took a while, but after more than a month passed with no response, I went online to see whom I could contact. Well, it turned out there was no one to contact. The State didn't accept calls regarding the progress of business applications. So I researched the site further to see what I could do to find out if the State had even received my application. I finally came across a notice stating that due to budget cuts, there were significant delays in the processing of such applications and that I would be notified when it had been handled.

HUH?? The State, though in such budget despair, doesn't staff the office at the center of getting new businesses and their accompanying revenues up and running? Am I missing something here?

A good two months later, I received correspondence from a clerk, who asked for more info and another submission. I was actually relieved at that point. 2011 was almost over. An LLC comes with an $800/yr. flat tax. Why would I resubmit, pay my $800, and have to pay it again when the new year began?

So, if you've been wondering why HW's online store has yet to open, wonder no more. I submitted a fresh application in January. It's hard to say when I'll hear back from the State. At last check, December applications were still being processed. Am I having fun yet?

Product Development Detour

During my unexpected journey, I developed a line of products to represent Heaven's Wait. It included fun items and activities for young children that revolved around my bonus characters of the land, the Drippils. Since the suite of Drippils products was ready to move beyond my test groups and onto my website for purchase in the real world, I realized the name, The Drippils, needed the same protection as Heaven's Wait. I inquired into beginning the trademark process all over again, but decided to hold off until the items were actually out there in commerce. Knowing how I had hit snags and delays in the past, I wanted to make sure all was in order before I proceeded.

In the meantime, I realized that with my first eBook, R.J.'s Story, Heaven's Wait! Tales from Vowella, soon to become a reality, I wanted to add some items to the Heaven's Wait store that represented elements from my original vision and storyline, of which R.J.'s Story was a part.

It wasn't hard to decide on the first two items. In the story, R.J. loved the coffee blend he had created from the various nooks and crannies of Heaven's Wait's dark and creepy Jimmy's Jungle. Since I was deeply connected to a certain Bay Area coffee roasting company, I leaned on my husband and sons to come up with a coffee offering that would be worthy of R.J. And since R.J. and the Vowellans are such smart folks, we also gave them credit for figuring out how to decaffeinate some of the beans in their remote environment. So we ended up with two coffee offerings for the Heaven's Wait website: R.J.'s Blend and Jungle Decaf. I designed the packaging to fit the HW theme, and I added the items to the store.

Another idea I wanted to pursue was the design and creation of Wistamere scarves. In R.J.'s Story, wistas were magical animals that were under the care of one of Vowella Valley's oddball clans, the Fig Wigs. The Fig Wigs were masters at creating dreamy scarves from the combings of the wistas. So my sister, Donna, and I went on a hunt for a yarn that could emulate the heavenly, delicate combings of the wistas. After pounding many a sidewalk, we came across a unique yarn that fit the bill, in a color that was a perfect match to the wistas and Heaven's Wait's theme.

Donna knitted and ripped out again and again on cheap yarns until we settled on two designs that fit my vision of scarves the Fig Wigs would produce in their isolated world. I sent Donna on her way, with good yarn in hand, to produce some lovely handmade scarves that would be as exclusive to Heaven's Wait as the coffees. It was so much fun to see the ideas materialize into real, marketable goods. *

Once again, I was creeping a little closer to pushing my project out the door.

*Catch a glimpse of these exclusive items from R.J.'s Story(before they are available for purchase)on HW's website: www.heavenswait.com/ShopHWStore.aspx

Juggling It All!

It seems we all multitask these days. We try to keep up with the demands of work, our households, our family and friends, and the many activities that round out our lives. We do our best to maintain some sort of balance in managing our tasks, satisfying our responsibilities, and fulfilling our desires. But even if we try to keep things simple, life happens. And oftentimes everyone seems to need us RIGHT NOW.

When those times kick in, I actually become calm, organized and efficient. I plow through the issues that need resolution, knocking them down one by one. I've learned that the more I can keep emotion out of the tasks at hand, the better I am at dealing with the overall issues. I may fall apart later, but that's okay.

That said, in recent years I've found that if circumstances don't permit me to have blocks of time so that I can lose myself in my Heaven's Wait project, I get cranky, snappy, impatient--not what anyone who knows me would expect of me. 

Heaven's Wait has allowed me to submerge myself in a different world, a world of my own making, and I am a much better person because I have that world as a back up. The project is a juggling act in itself, with its own set of self-imposed tasks and responsibilities. There's the writing, the music, the artwork, the blog, the website, the business responsibility, the marketing, and the growing stream of correspondence. But there are also the joys, the discoveries, the side adventures, the personal challenges, and the potential to make a difference, even if for a relatively small audience.

So I'll continue to squeeze Heaven's Wait into odd moments in my life. The creative process will likely continue at a snail's pace, but as long as I have my occasional "moments" to immerse myself in the fantasy world that I created, I'll be satisfied and endlessly inspired. I can't wait to see what lies at the end of my Heaven's Wait journey!

I Hear Music: The Theme Songs of Heaven's Wait

It was time to dig out the theme songs of Heaven's Wait and find them a home. Several years after I had written the music, I was pleasantly surprised when I played the Heaven's Wait Theme in my Cakewalk music program. The melody and accompaniment still filled my senses with the feel of Heaven's Wait as I had first envisioned it. I hoped I would someday have the opportunity to lengthen the piece, but I felt the music was ready to go up on the Heaven's Wait's website now. Once I struggled through the process of converting the song into MP3 and .wav files, I worked it into the optional Flash Introduction that is now available on the website's Home Page, accompanied by small graphics that illustrated my overall vision for my ideas.

I moved on to the next major piece, A Journey Above, which is R.J.'s main theme song. I was again pleased with the melody, although the arrangement lacked the lush accompaniment that was swirling through my head. I started cutting and pasting, adding and subtracting, experimenting with various changes in a trial-and-error way -- as I had always done. I worked on the sections that sounded bad when time allowed, but I had other HW issues to attend to, so I finally had to put that project aside. The music still needs help and son Mark is now experimenting in a different music program to see if he can improve the overall arrangement. Amateurs we are, for sure!

I had yet to establish a theme song for the Drippils, the tiny "other" creatures that occupy a more secret place in Heaven's Wait. The Drippils needed fun, childlike music. So for the Drippils' Theme Song, I dug into some old original music files from my sons' elementary school days. I had composed some simple tunes when I taught some after-school classes at their school. It was fairly easy to adapt one of those songs to the Drippils' world, so I chose playful effects for the various tracks, saved them as files, and added the sound clip to the Drippils' homepage on HW's site.*

Although the theme songs of the various Vowellan clans, as well as other original songs that accompany unfinished HW Tales, have not yet been included, I plan to incorporate them into my project as I continue my journey.

*Note: Because the sound clips are presently embedded in Flash files, they are unavailable to Apple and other mobile devices. Apple has decided not to support Flash files, so I will eventually have to find a different way of presenting the sound files so that mobile users may enjoy them.

Back to Publishing! Traditional or Self? Print or eBook?

With so many materials and plans finally in hand, I knew the time had come to decide where to take R.J.'s Story, the initial story at the heart of my entire creative project. 

The publishing world was becoming an ever-changing hard shell that was more and more difficult to crack. If I pursued a traditional route, finding an agent to represent me would be the first task. I was sure that the list of agents I had accumulated years ago, when I was crazy enough to think anyone would even consider my initial manuscript, was long since obsolete. I needed to find a working agent who handled fantasy fiction for a general audience. That meant querying and waiting and querying and waiting. If I were lucky enough to be picked up by an agent, she would have to shop my book to publishers, whose numbers were dwindling and demands were far more finicky in today's market. I, as the author, would be expected to do much of my own marketing, since publishers no longer carried that burden alone. And if my book were published, I was probably looking at a 1.5 to 2-year time frame, from agent acquisition to printed goods.

Did I really want to go through such a tedious process that seemed so far removed from my original intent? If I was less concerned with establishing a writing career than fulfilling my creative goals and sharing my ideas within a manageable circle of influence, was the traditional publishing route going to serve my purposes?

Somewhere along the line, I became aware of the self-publishing option. It was the up-and-coming alternative, and many options within its realm were available to writers. I learned that independent publishing companies were sprinkled throughout my backyard, the Bay Area, if I was interested in a printed book format. I discovered several online options for eBook and/or print self-publishing as well. Amazon's Direct Publishing offerings were growing at breakneck speed. So were companies like Barnes and Noble PubIt!, Lulu, and Smashwords. I even found several eBook software options, which really allowed you to dig in and "self"-publish. 

Finally, after attending a presentation by Mark Coker, Smashwords' creator/owner, I made the decision to introduce R.J.'s Story to the outside world via the self-publish eBook options available at Smashwords. Its guidelines were easy to follow; it was gaining an audience at a rapid pace; and it offered a more generous potential for royalty income than traditional publishers, if the author did his/her marketing homework.

I opted to produce a printed version of the book at a later date.

Strategy for the Launch

During the last couple of years, I've read countless articles that define strategies for writers trying to market their books. Build your platform. Maintain a website. Connect to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Join writers' groups and online writers' communities. Start a blog. Allow readers a personal glimpse of you, the author. Develop the presence before your book is published. Find ways to get speaking engagements and book signings. But in the meantime, keep writing…start your next book. AAARGH!

I filtered the gobs of advice and developed what I could, as time allowed. Heaven's Wait now had an almost-ready website. It also had its own Twitter account and Facebook and LinkedIn pages. The framework was set up for my blog, The Unexpected Journey of a Persistent Creataholic, where articles such as this one could be posted.  My personal website, which had basically been unknown to the outside world, was now updated. I had lists of writers' groups with which to connect. I had to be careful, because each marketing avenue I traveled would hack away at my time, which was already in short supply. But I continued to read articles about writing and publishing from agents, artists, established writers and more.

Of course, R.J.'s Story had to be ready before any of these avenues could be used. But, how would I launch everything once the book was ready? I charted out initial launch options that seemed manageable; the rest would have to wait. Then I played with the order in which they should be addressed. At first, I thought it might be good to start with a couple of blog posts, and send a letter to my immediate circle of family and friends inviting them to my blog. But why not notify my connections on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn at the same time? And why not make everyone aware of HW's website then, since all the marketing elements were linked to each other?

Networking Elements	HW Website	Blog	Facebook	Twitter	Linked In	Letter to Family/Friends
Initial Shuffle	6	1	4	3	5	2
Final Shuffle	1-B	1-A	2-C	2-B	2-D	2-A

So I prepped my website and blog to go live. In the meantime, I composed an introductory letter to my potential audiences that included links leading to my other Heaven's Wait tentacles. The letter would go out to all of the audiences at the same time. That day was bound to be very busy, so I made sure all of my elements were coordinated. It was also going to be a little scary, since this would be the first time the materials that I had so carefully developed and guarded would be exposed to the world. The time for the launch was almost at hand! 

Remembering the Vision

What was my original intention when I started this Heaven's Wait adventure? Did I expect to veer onto fascinating side paths that were filled with new learning experiences? Did I expect to get bogged down by the legal, marketing and business processes that seem mandatory when one attempts to bring creative projects to the public?

No! My original intent was to weave all of my personal bits of attained wisdom into a fun world of stories and activities, and offer them up to family and others.  My idea was that it is important to discover your authentic, purposeful gifts, then to contribute those gifts to the greater good, creating your own Lasting Story in the process. Heaven's Wait became that fun world for me.

It's so easy to get lost in the many creative possibilities that are available to us these days. And it's just as easy to get swallowed up by their accompanying demands: necessary legal documents, product development, and sales and marketing tasks. Pretty soon, the main purpose of your project fades into the background.

My gut told me it was time to stop and examine everything around my Heaven's Wait project that consumed my valuable time. I needed to make sure that each activity and chore was somehow connected to my original vision. Were the storylines and accompanying multimedia embellishments in line with that vision? So far, the answer was yes.

 How about the various components of my website and the products I developed? I audited and revised my website structure so the flow supported the objective, yet left room to grow my business. And I decided on products that, though originally developed to protect the Heaven's Wait name, provided fun and relevance to the stories for potential HW followers. I hoped to use a portion of the proceeds to develop more ways to support my vision.

And what about all of the essential business chores? I made careful decisions with trademarks, business filings, and marketing plans that will, hopefully, allow me to grow an audience of HW enthusiasts so that one day I can hire others to handle such tasks. I would like to be able to devote my time to further creative development of my vision.

The examination process took about a month. I was glad I took the time to revisit my vision. I felt I now had a much more cohesive project, and I became excited in a new way about sharing Heaven's Wait. 

Building a Web Presence

During the years I have worked on my Heaven's Wait project, I have often played around with designs for HW's website. The first one was very crude and basic. The second one was far more massive, including illustrations and links to all the clans, the characters, their environments, their sounds, stories, their food, a glossary, a store and more. The problem was, since I had put aside most of my original manuscript, which dealt with everything that was included in that website, the time was not right to expose it.

I needed to condense my offerings and include only those segments of my vision I had thus far been able to complete. I never imagined that the progress would be so slow. But then, I never expected all the little side trips that would take me wandering off my main path. Thank goodness I had learned the value of staying in the moment and appreciating all that each moment offered!

While I was on my side trips, the online world saw many changes. I found that it was not only necessary to establish a web presence for Heaven's Wait; it was also wise to include a personal web presence. If people started reading my work, they would want to know more about me, the author. It also seemed wise to connect to social networks by blogging and setting up Facebook and Twitter presences for Heaven's Wait. It didn't matter if I went with traditional publishing or self-publishing. Since most of the marketing is up to the writer these days, my work was cut out for me.

I put aside my old website models and started again with fresh pages. Though I still needed to decide how to publish R.J.'s Story, I already had the Drippils and their products in my pocket. I also had trademark protection for Heaven's Wait. I was ready to introduce the name, the Drippils, and my basic vision of Heaven's Wait's home, even if several of the sections and stories were not yet up and running. I struggled to get some of the elements working, like the Flash segments I envisioned and the online shop. I had to depend on the free time of my trusty helpers (my sons Mark and Shaun), so progress was again slow.

In the meantime, I worked on the other parts of the marketing puzzle. I had built a personal website a few years earlier, so I made that link. Visitors were now able to discover a little about me. They had access to my online cookbook and a couple of earlier projects. I established my blog and thought it might be more appealing to readers if it was presented as a true diary of my progress, at least for starters. I wrote a collection of blog entries, so I would have several lined up to publish on a regular basis when the time was right. I established Twitter and Facebook pages for Heaven's Wait.

I just needed to work out the website kinks and push everything out the door. Right?

 

Visit Heaven's Wait's website at: http://www.heavenswait.com/

Visit my personal website at: http://www.frombarbaram.com/