Wow, it's been a while.

Anyone still reading along here must be asking "How's his hostel coming along?" People seem to think that I'm all talk and no action. Ya, maybe for the most part I am. I am full of good intentions but this is one that I'm going to follow through on.

Lately I've been working on the financial part of the plan. That is a process. I've been using the Interactive Business Planner through www.cbsc.org. For the financial statement you just type in your numbers and it does the calculations for you, putting the numbers in the right spot. I was advised by a friend to download my business plan from the net, giving me more freedom to format and adjust to my needs as the IBP was limiting. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I did. The trade off has been that the ability to perform calculations has been lost. I've had to copy the .doc info onto a spread sheet and figure out all the formulas so that the numbers come out the way they are supposed to. Not terribly difficult but definitely time consuming.

I've also been attending two general interest courses at night school. Starting and Managing Your Own Business and Bookkeeping for Small Business. Oh and to help my spreadsheet progress, I'm taking a spreadsheet course. It's a self taught one.

There has been a great deal of research to do as well. A kind of learning curve thing. Ask one question, the answer poses 5 more. I keep trying to write down places to phone and email and the questions I need to be asking. Sometimes I get them written, sometimes I don't. There are just so many questions. I contacted a hostel affiliation in regards to becoming an affiliate. The price is right to go through with it however I must thoroughly weigh the advantages over the disadvantages. That's one of the next steps. I've also been mulling over putting an offer in on the building that I am interested in. I was about to go through with it when the real estate agent told me that the sale terms are "as is". She wasn't clear on what that meant, thinking that if I make the offer and it's accepted then I it's mine. But I want to have it inspected first, a condition of offer so that I know the building is structurally sound. I've seen it and it definitely needs a great deal of work. I'll have to gut the building to make it suit the needs of The Rock Hostel. Great floor layout. Anyways, so there is all that to deal with.

In the mean time, I've also applied for a job in Steadybrook outside of Cornerbrook as a shuttle bus driver. I believe it is to pick-up and drop-off guests of the Humber Valley resort to and from the airport. It requires some sight-seeing guide experience, people skills, etc. Stuff I've done with Discover Banff Tours. We'll see how that turns out. I hope to hear back from them soon.

There's lots more to write about but instead of wasting time typing away at this I'd rather keep plugging away at my business plan. Until later I guess.....