challenges??? bring it on.

In the past 2 days, I've spent time with 3 former colleagues from my past life in a different career. It was great seeing them, hearing their thoughts and talking about this new page in my life. This blog has been an awesome tool in respect to adding clarity in my approach for this new venture. I AM NOT A WRITER, things very rarely flow from my brain to my keyboard but this blog has forced me to concentrate on my thoughts so now talking about it has become that much easier. The talks I've had with these folks have inspired and reinforced why I'm doing this in the first place,,, thanks to everyone for their opinion and challenges, this has only made things better.

Forming a non-profit has one huge challenge different from forming a standard for profit business, acquiring the ever encompassing and brain racking 501(c)(3). This application form is enough to make most mortals run from the philanthropic hills and look to invest their time and money into a soft pretzel franchise. People familiar with this process have looked me square in the eye and asked "Do you really know what you're getting yourself into???" However, tax exemption is key to any public charity and luckily I have a great support team in a huge law firm doing lots of the work. They will process it for me when all my ducks are in their rows. One of the more difficult phases I am working on now to complete the application is building my Board of Directors. The Board must be established for completion of the application. This brings on it's own challenges but I am moving forward with the tools I feel will give me a better chance to attract the target Board members needed to make this venture a success.

Currently my website and logo are being developed, this has been exciting to say the least. The elements of each are so important to success of the overall feel for my venture. Tools that promote the image, values and function of this organization couldn't be more important to it's success. Seeing the website and logo concepts come to life adds a reality to all the work I've invested into this organization, one step closer to being real when I see them coming together. I am actually going back and forth with my designer as I type this to finalize my logo,,, can't wait to share it with the world.

DD