Nah I also did this and it was totally fine
Getting another cat is a lot, but in my experience it’s more of a lot when you are travelling with them or if one of them is weird about food. Otherwise they spend a lot of time on top of each other and they can share a litter box and water and maybe even a food dish if they’re both chill about food and you can free feed them.
The process of actually introducing the new cat is a lot though? If your cat adjusted to the two temporary cats well then that’s probably less of a concern.
The prevailing thought I have seen is that if your cat likes other cats then it will be happier with a friend/sibling. Cats are social creatures and they are easily bored and having a friend to play with is a very nice thing.
It’s nice to have a friend. Taylor says so.
FWIW we had one cat and he was annoying and wanted to play a lot so we got him a friend and it went great. They love each other and play all the time. He’s still annoying when it comes to food but much better. Unfortunately, she pees on the furniture (much less now that she’s on anxiety meds), but that’s just the luck of the draw.
I want to develop a proper business plan for my art/video small business.
But I’m overwhelmed at the idea of writing/developing a business plan
Does anyone have resources or templates they know to help guide me?
Omg yes, I love a business plan.
My favorite business plan resource is the Gale series of Business Plan Handbooks (yellow covers), they are a reference series of other people’s business plans. I have e-access to these so if you check the volume table of contents & see one that looks particularly relevant, I can probably hook you up with the chapter. The range is pretty broad, they have covered some creatives in the past. Highest number on volume is most recent.
The SBA website still has some good stuff up, this overview looks good at a scan (probably the lean is more what you need?) & also has sample business plans to download: Write your business plan | U.S. Small Business Administration
Are you wanting a business plan as more of a self reference/strategic document, because it’s part of the requirements for your move, and/or something else? Because I can give you a lot more but I don’t want to veer off too far from your purpose! (I like having All The Info but I realize that’s super overwhelming to others at times!)
AHHH thank you so much!
This one!
Apparently (!? wtf) I don’t actually need a business plan to do this visa. The lawyer said don’t bother.
I want to do it for myself. Because I feel kinda scattered and I could use a road map to reference, and I think drawing that road map will help a lot!
LAY IT ON ME!
I love this forum so much 
genuinely. You are my people.
I feel so lucky i can just rock up and fellow lovely nerds are like YES I HAVE ANSWERS.
I love our little mini society. 
Another approach could be a business model canvas, which is less about the plan, but more about articulating what you’re doing, where the gaps are, etc, to help figure out what you should plan
Thank you!
I’ll look into that! 
I’m also happy to get on a video call and walk you through either/both approach if you prefer to talk things through vs. use workbooks & forms.
Thank you so much! Let me read through things and get my head around it and I’ll reach out if I’m struggling.
Thank you for this! It looks really useful for me too.
I share your mystified stance that it isn’t required given the visa but also yay for complete freedom! Honestly if it’s for self-reference then you can really do it however you like, so I would start with laying out some general goals or areas of curiosity you want to explore or build on.
puts the business librarianship hat on
thoughts and a booklist under here
I think you’ve done a great job of this in the past from reading your journal (ie, you’ve identified parts of video editing you wanted to do more of/better and that kind of thing) and when you were first conceptualizing and naming the business I think you had a pretty strong vision for at least parts of it - the community grants, etc.
So I would start with your original thoughts/purpose, identify what’s changed in the interim (did certain things come up that you realized you didn’t like that you thought you would, how has the digital maker landscape changed over the time you’ve been active as a producer in it*, etc), and brainstorm from there.
*essentially these are SWOT questions: SWOT analysis - Wikipedia
I double-checked your current website for BQMS and your actual business model is more community-centric vs product-centric, right? Or is that something you are still figuring out for yourself? Because depending on what is being monetized (community membership/subscriptions, classes, sponsorships/affiliate marketing, other stuff?) that will change the most relevant resources too.
Here’s some general ideas for books to look further into:
- Start Your Own Business (8th ed 2021) by the editors of Entrepreneur magazine & Write Your Business Plan: A Step-By-Step Guide to Build Your Business (2nd ed 2023) - Entrepreneur magazine has its own press & they publish variations of “Start Your Own” for different business types/industries. These are good overview titles for the broad subjects of accounting, marketing, etc.
- The Artist Entrepreneur : Finding Success in a New Arts Economy (2020) - written by a performing arts professor, more of an overview/motivational entrepreneurship title, but has a couple tidbits about booking & grants from the artist POV that may be useful
- The Creative Business Handbook: Follow Your Passions and Be Your Own Boss (2023) - written by women, more overview/mindset book but does do artist profiles as well and so might spark some ideas. Authors run Create! Magazine.
- Artpreneur: The Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Sustainable Living from Your Creativity (2023) - written by a woman, sales and marketing focused, probably has good info for audience building. Author has a podcast interviewing other artist businesses (The Inspiration Place) and also does business coaching so probably pretty practical POV, the better up-to-date info is probably in the podcast re: specific platforms or technology recommendations.
U are a saint. I have much reading to do. 
Does anyone have any personal experience with Hinge Health or Hello Heart? These are both “benefits” (for the past couple of years actually) offered by my company with the insurance plan I have (and some others not just mine). Hinge Health in particular has programs on joint pain and pelvic floor health (probably among other things). They are available for free to me. But I can’t help feel like it’s just a ploy to get me on a list to deny me coverage due to preexisting g conditions in the future.
Anyone have any thoughts? Am I paranoid?
I obviously can’t speak to your company + what might happen in the future with preexisting conditions/denial of coverage/etc. But I can give you input as someone who professionally implements exactly these kind of benefits! I don’t know these two programs, so speaking generally.
Employers like these benefit types because they are cheap to implement and people like them. Also, the goal is that employees would take advantage of this as a preventative health measure (eg someone would use the app to manage their pelvic floor issues instead of needing the company to pay for out of network PT).
My company offers Hinge as a benefit, and it’s ok! I signed up because I wanted the free deep tissue massage thingy and exercise bands, haha. I’m sure if I actually did the daily PT exercises it would be somewhat helpful, but I don’t! They send you reminders every day which I think is annoying, but if I wanted the accountability I’m sure it would be nice.
From what I’ve experienced, the exercises are pretty general and you can be vague as to what issues you are experiencing. I don’t think there would be a circumstance where a PT on Hinge would be diagnosing you or adding something to your medical chart/history, it really seems pretty general