business plan....

the ongoing saga of the business plan continues today.... i have reverted to my pc and ms office to produce my final draft of this stroke of genius. keeping my fingers crossed that the blessed thing doesn't freeze up...my mac today is a glorified huge ipod playing my funky spotify playlist by my side through my earphones in case my pc gets overwhelmed and freezes. i am currently jigging to hot chip 'over and over' as i write this, otherwise i would be sitting with my head in my hands sighing as my brain expands and contracts in my head making it ache.... i've been at this business plan for ages now.... like the lyrics in the song 'over and over and over and over, like a monkey with a miniature cymbol the joy of repetition really is in you' that's me and this business plan for the last few months..... i have a final, final, final deadline for tuesday and i'm still indecisive about elements of the business plan... this is why noone has seen any of it yet - it is an ever changing moveable feast....thought it best management of the situation. confuse them once and once only - that's my motto!

it's such a responsibility trying to fathom the most effective direction for a project. organisations have a temptation to create structures to fit people and the way they have done things so to stand outside and objectively look at organisational needs is often challenging - particularly as i am also project managing this particular project and not just looking from the outside in as a consultant...

as this is an international development charity my key major last minute umming and ahhing revolves around ethical issues of charities in the uk undertaking international development work abroad with no constant presence in country so as i revise the organisational structure and timescale for recruitment one more time i am trying my best to be objective.... and think this through laterally. and i think the final outcome will be that the lifespan of this project's uk base will become more and more diminished in order that the project lives and breathes in country.... this business plan has gone through so many incarnations from 5 years, to 1 year to 3 - simply to fulfil some framework for funding applications. it's going to be ridiculous amounts of pages long since it breaks down into a lot of detail the various strategic objectives into detail that can be digested for people who are new to being trustees. it is going to contain detail that won't be pleasing to everyone - i never do set out to make myself popular, but all in all i will ensure that it's a business plan that is credible in terms of the charity's objects and its obligations under charity law around public benefit.

just to make my task easier i've fallen ill, so has my daughter who i am trying to keep occupied and my ex has let me down on having the kids for the weekend, so i'm literally going to be juggling many spinning plates this weekend, popping lemsip and keeping my funky motivational music ringing in my ears... whilst i make miracles happen...

i'm glad to have poured so much thought into this business plan, really glad that since november i have completely and utterly turned the project upside down and inside out... since i think charities have an obligation to fully justify their existence, and fully demonstrate and monitor the public benefit of the their work and subsequent impact monitoring. they also need a damn fine business plan to help them be a sustainable, fundable charity. this is one of the first major showcases of my work and i'm really pleased with it. even if a lot of it is still resident only in my head and on bits of paper and needs to be transported into my document by the end of the weekend!! today is one of those days i wish i drank coffee!

still.... once this is sorted i only have an in-depth 3 year fundraising strategy to write within one day...by the end of next week... yee-ha!

all i can say is it's a good job i haven't found myself a nice 26 year old yet...

one more full-on dance to dizzee then back to static writing...well only gently rocking in my seat (dancing of course!) whilst occupying one more child in from school! 'my name is, my name is dizzie dizz'