An Introduction: 9 Months In

So here I am nine months into the 'experience' of owning and operating a business, searching for a set of words that accurately describe what things have been like in that time.

Here goes: neat, disappointing, enlightening, exciting, shocking, fantastic, and frightening.

Quite the set of emotions in there, and to be honest I think I am forgetting several others, like constipating, or lets not forget euphoric-market-success-related-arousal. The cause of such varied sensations in undoubtedly related to my ignorance of the business development process, and sheer stupidity and unflappable enthusiasm that is present before the realization that not everyone thinks your business concept is the greatest thing in the universe hits home. In a nutshell, the past nine months have been a roller coaster to be sure. So maybe I will take a step back and offer up some history on how PG Listings began.

Before the PG Listings website began, I was an elementary school teacher in this district. As any local resident is surely aware, several schools have been closing due to budget cutbacks. Because of this, I was looking at a wait of at least two years before I had the necessary seniority to land a permanent contract. Being an impatient dandy, I decided that I wanted to do something a little more productive than wait at home for the phone to ring with a summons to a local school to look after Mrs. Whatever's class of midget primates while she was away dealing with the four million viruses and bacterial infections she had collected from the little cuties.

Anyway, on a whim I did a little investigating and found a nifty little program for EI applicants called the Self Employment Benefits Program, which was run with Community Futures Prince George. In a gentlemanly fashion I signed up, and was inducted into an interesting business development program centered around the construction of a solid and accurate business plan, designed by the acclaimed Dan Boudreau. Two months of classes ensued, sometimes run by fascinating local entrepreneurs like Howard Foot, and sometimes run by others of a more colorful and confusing nature.

I attended these classes and admittedly learned a great deal, and I soon realized that my business concept, although misunderstood by others and viewed with general negativity, was far more creative and innovative than those of my classmates. After completing the assigned tasks in handsome fashion, my business proposal went before a committee and was barely approved.

This ends part one of the story of PG Listings.ca, and the first blog post. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more of this amazing and thought provoking tale of hardship and glory.
Dan Abraham of PG Listings.ca
www.pglistings.ca