It’s been a calm couple of weeks around the Oasis. We’ve finished out the last of the activities related to preschool and dance class, with the final recital this past Sunday. The weather has turned from someone chilly and gray to heat and humidity that we don’t usually see until the middle of August. Just this week, the calendar was nearly empty, which is a far cry from the overloaded calendar just two months ago, while Team Sexy Life was performing customer discovery. On one hand, it’s somewhat refreshing, but on the other hand, it can make for some bored kids.
Much like my calendar, the events in the local entrepreneurial community have taken a bit of a hiatus over the last couple of weeks – this is why there’s been a bit of a gap between this post and the previous post. 1 Million Cups is continuing through the summer, as they do all year. I am planning to get back to that later this month once summer activities begin to occupy the kids. The folks from Venture School have started their Summer Accelerator for student startups. Some of the ideas coming out of that program sound pretty solid. The teams from that program are presenting at 1 Million Cups throughout the summer, which should be great practice.
I attended a seminar in the Kinnick Stadium Press Box a couple of weeks ago on angel investing. This is a part of starting small business with which I have no experience, so I knew that just attending and listening to the presentations would be educational. I kept the handout that the small business attorney provided on the legal aspect of raising money for a new business – tons of legal language, but definitely helpful. I’m glad that I attended, not just for the program itself, but being able to connect with some folks that are a bit further ahead with their ideas than we are with Sexy Life and to pick their brains about the parts of the process we have yet to reach.
With the lack of major events over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been able to put my nose to the grindstone on some projects that I’ve not had much chance to do. I was able to finally finish out the Web site for the Barbecue Hut. I’m working on a newer version of the Sexy Life Web site which we had designed several months ago, but I never had the chance to build out. It’s going to be much more mobile responsive than the current version, and it should be something we can continue to use as we slowly move forward with the project.
I’ve also started working on a series of “top 5” lists related to freelancing and entrepreneurial endeavors that I hope to gradually release over the next few months on this blog as well as a couple of other platforms. I have wanted to branch out from these updates and promote my business while getting a bit more practice writing for more general audiences. (Plus, I got bit by the writing bug a few days ago and wanted to release some of that creative energy.) Look forward to these lists soon on an Internet near you.
I’m hoping that more events will start to pop up on the calendar soon. Like I mentioned before, it’s nice to have some time where I can put some time in on some projects around the house and in the office. The kids and I have been home for the bulk of this past week. However, the kids and I are getting restless and need to get out and about. I’m looking forward to my older daughter starting tennis and swimming lessons next week (and she’s pretty excited about it, too.) Let’s see what unfolds in the next few weeks – I’m as interested as you are to see what happens!