IRON LOTUS MARTIAL ARTS
(Posted 2007-04-20 12:46:58 by ArchPaladin)

So by far the largest thing that I've done with my time in this large
interval of inactivity was to develop Iron Lotus.  Iron Lotus Martial Arts
is the name of the martial arts organization that I will be directing.  I
know that many of my readers are already familiar with ILMA's current
history, but for those who aren't I'll give a really quick overview. 
Basically, from the beginning of December up to today, ILMA has gone from a
basic outline on a couple of sheets of paper to an actual company with
lesson plans, some basic equipment for when regular classes start, a
trademarked logo, domain name (with nothing currently on it, so I'll not
give the URL out), and about four students.  All is not complete,
however.  The biggest deterrent is that we lack a location for regular
classes.  Insurance is easy to get also, but has to come once location
details are worked out.  Once the location is found, we will officially
open.

I'm rather pleased with how well the setup has gone thus far.  I'm not a
businessman by nature, but I feel I'm on my way to being one (maybe one
point developed, for the games in the crowd).  Everyone always says that
starting and maintaining a business is a lot of work and many late hours -
and I guess they're right, but it doesn't seem very overwhelming to me. 
Perhaps I'm just used to having a lot of things to do for school, so it
seems more natural.  In truth I suppose that the greatest amount of work
is yet to come, as there will be a nebulous period where we are officially
open but need to draw in students to get a real place of our own, and need
to focus a lot on advertising and other marketing-type things.  Not
terribly looking forward to that, but I have my trusty business partner to
help with all the design stuff.

If I ever get the electronic copies of those lesson plans emailed to me,
that is. (looking at you, trusty business parter)

And as this is the appropriate place to announce such things, ILMA may
actually have the details for a location worked out.  I went to the
minister at the Nashua Church of Christ yesterday and told him about all
this stuff and he was very open to the idea of having the school set up
shop in their building.  The location is pretty terrible though, so that
will make student recruitment a royal pain and no doubt lengthen that
aforementioned nebulous period.  Bad location is better than no location I
suppose, but wrestling with the idea of fighting for every student I can
get to show up is not pleasant.  Let's face it - until things actually
open for real, ILMA is just smoke and mirrors, and I suspect that opening
the school's doors will entail a few personal struggles concerning purpose
and adequacy that I don't really want to go through.  (Not that I won't go
through them.  Just that I'll complain to myself about it while it's going
on.)  Having a bad location for the school certainly won't help the
situation.

I suppose that this becomes a matter of faith, and how well I trust that
God has led me to the correct place for the school.  Of course, if you
only have one real option as to where the school gets put, one would think
it would be rather obvious that said place is the correct location, but
doubt is too nefarious an enemy to let an opening for attack go
unexplored.  I suppose more could be said about this, but right now I
cannot think of what.

But anyway...yeah that's been what I've mostly done with my time.  There
are other things, of course, and they shall get their own posts, but not
right now.

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