Three Priorities For 2014: Closing Thoughts

It has been a couple of weeks now since I wrote the last entry in this series. I was avoiding this, and am not sure why. I think I was afraid that reviewing the whole thing would leave me feeling overwhelmed. But I just did that, and it didn't. There's good stuff here; stuff that deserves hard, smart work.

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to devote ourselves to the good deeds for which God has designed us."

That's Ephesians.

Closing thoughts? Only that I want to live in a way that invites others to come along, and then makes them glad they did.

As God grants me focus, it will be one heck of a ride.

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Three Priorities: The Complete Series
Three Priorities For 2014 - And Beyond
Three Priorities For 2014: 1 - Encouraging The Body Of Christ
Three Priorities For 2014: 2- Growing Businesses.
Three Priorities For 2014: 2.5 - Why Build Businesses?
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Legal Shield
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Homewood Capital Partners
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Luminaria Productions
Three Priorities For 2014: 3 - Redeveloping Race Street
Three Priorities For 2014: Closing Thoughts

Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Luminaria Productions

Luminaria Productions LLC owns this blog.

It also owns Homewood Nation, the internet-based community news service headquartered at www.homewoodnation.com. For the first couple of years after its launch in April 2010, I made the mistake of identifying the website as Homewood Nation. But Homewood Nation includes a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, and a Twitter feed (you can use the green bar above to check out all of those elements).

I declared the intent a few years ago to build Luminaria into a company whose April 2017 IPO establishes its value at $1 billion. Not because I personally need the levels of money involved, but because I imagined that it would feel amazing to have the world say that I have created that much value.

I still think that that would feel amazing, but I've misbehaved badly enough so that I now need to either push the timeline back, or shrink the number.

I'll keep the number, because I like it, and shift the timeline as appears needed. Meanwhile, I must learn to work harder AND smarter AND more consistently at building a billion-dollar enterprise.

So what else is cooking in Luminaria's pot, besides ReVisions and Homewood Nation? Multiple projects in various stages of development...

A VIDEO GAME: PeaceBuilder: Homewood

A SCREENPLAY COLLECTION: QuickFlicks - a collection of short screenplays for fledgling filmmakers.

SHORT FILMS to be produced from the QuickFlicks scripts: "coda," "Message, Not In A Bottle," "No Dessert," and "End Run."

FEATURE FILM SCRIPTS: "The Nature of Love" - a dissatisfied wife falls for one of her husband's employees, not knowing that he intends to kill her family; "The Moses Effect" - a small town sheriff's life is turned upside down when a satellite-based system begins enforcing all of the laws on the books, including the most absurd ones.

A REALITY SHOW about the rehab of a building in Homewood - most likely 1015 N. Homewood Ave.

A NEWSLETTER for Homewood.

HNTV - A TELEVISION CHANNEL devoted to Homewood

HOMEWOOD NATION MERCHANDISE - branded apparel and gifts; a tablet computer (which may be manufactured/assembled in Homewood.)

A Homewood Nation hoodie could help you 
make it through the final brutal weeks of winter!

EVENTS:

• Building A 21st Century Journalism Enterprise - a discussion series for writers, editors, designers, photographers, videographers...basically, anyone interested in the possibilities and challenges of doing what the title says, with the tools now available.
• An event honoring writer John Edgar Wideman
• An event honoring Lou Scheimer, founder of Filmation, the animation company that produced "He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe."
• Communicating for Community - a discussion, or series of discussions, on enhancing communication within Homewood and enhancing Homewood's communication with the world (and wow, this is the first time I have said it that way - I like it!).

PUBLISHING, under the Greenhouse Publications banner:

• Book, working title, "Black Man In A Suit" - a collection of posts from "My Homewood"
• Book, "Homewood 2013" - a review of the year.
• Magazine, working title, "Homewood Quarterly Journal," (blech)
• Posters
• Other books

And that's the list of projects, each of which will require work by other people, and all of which together will require the work of lots of other people. The key to Luminaria's outrageous success, is, as I said in December, attracting and retaining great talent. And getting myself out of the way.

Do you see a possible place for yourself in this list? If so, drop a line to luminariaprod@gmail.com, and I will email you updates as they are issued.

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Three Priorities: The Complete Series
Three Priorities For 2014 - And Beyond
Three Priorities For 2014: 1 - Encouraging The Body Of Christ
Three Priorities For 2014: 2- Growing Businesses.
Three Priorities For 2014: 2.5 - Why Build Businesses?
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Legal Shield
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Homewood Capital Partners
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Luminaria Productions
Three Priorities For 2014: 3 - Redeveloping Race Street
Three Priorities For 2014: Closing Thoughts

Three Priorities For 2014: 2.5 - Why Build Businesses?

I promised to share some big-picture thinking about business. First, a little story:

One day back in the early 1980s, I visited a car dealership in Louisville to apply for a job there.

I don't remember the name of the dealership, or of the man who owned it. I do remember him standing before a group of prospective hires and talking about how much it meant to him to know that his business was helping his employees to put food on the table for their families.

When I left that meeting, I didn't have the job I had sought; but I did have something else:  the desire to own a business.

I think that's where it began for me, this quest to build an enterprise. So the first thing that I want to say about building businesses is that for me, building a business is not primarily about making money, for at least three reasons.

1) My wife and I don't need much income to live well. Our house, car and college educations are paid for, and we don't have kids. Beyond that, we don't have extravagant tastes. She is more frugal than I am, but even my wishlist doesn't go beyond a bodacious home theatre and a Tesla Model S.

I do NOT want a yacht. I DO want one of these. Truly.

2) Having piles of money sitting around has never appealed to me. I would rather have assets that generate income, than simply have a pile of money. And if I can create those assets without money, or acquire them at a discount for cash, or use my money to leverage other financing to acquire them - in other words if I can accumulate assets that have more value than the money I spend for them - so much the better.

3) Making money is at most one-third of the benefit of building a business. I consider the possibilities that a well-run business has for blessing the world to be downright magical. The magic of business is the potential for creating value for more and more people in more and more ways. Money (and other value) for the owner(s), money (and other value) for employees, money (and other value) for vendors whose goods and services the business uses...and on top of all that (or before all that), value for customers.

When I left the showroom of that car dealership, I was inspired by the possibility of helping people to put food on the tables for their families. I still find it inspiring to think of becoming a job creator (however much the term has fallen into disfavor), and of creating value for dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people beyond that.

Heck, make that, millions of people. Because a successful TV show, movie, or video game - or even a YouTube video - will in fact entertain and/or enlighten millions of people. Thus, Luminaria Productions.

And on a smaller scale, the rehabilitation and resale of 20 or 30 or 50 homes in Homewood will create value for dozens or hundreds of people. Thus, Homewood Capital Partners.

And helping people to gain affordable attorney access so that they receive full benefit from our legal system - well, that can be valuable to anybody I know or can talk to, who doesn't already have it. Thus, Legal Shield.

In sum, I see building a business as a way of giving more to more people than I could ever do otherwise, and thus a way of fulfilling Jesus' instruction and promise, "Give, and it shall be given unto you" - not to mention the cultural mandate of Gen. 1.28.

More briefly still: Why build businesses? Because business is holy.

That's my view. What's yours?

***************
Three Priorities: The Complete Series
Three Priorities For 2014 - And Beyond
Three Priorities For 2014: 1 - Encouraging The Body Of Christ
Three Priorities For 2014: 2- Growing Businesses.
Three Priorities For 2014: 2.5 - Why Build Businesses?
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Legal Shield
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Homewood Capital Partners
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Luminaria Productions
Three Priorities For 2014: 3 - Redeveloping Race Street
Three Priorities For 2014: Closing Thoughts

Three Priorities For 2014: 2- Growing Businesses.

I am writing this at nearly 2 a.m., but it will not appear until 7 a.m., if I use Blogger's scheduling feature correctly. So I begin with...

This blog post was supposed to appear yesterday. Sorry about that.

This is where I start talking about growing businesses. Right now that means learning to allocate resources (time and attention, mostly) between four:

I created Capital Synergies, Inc. to own and manage partnerships that would in turn invest in real estate (one partnership per property). I haven't done that yet, but in the meantime, I created Luminaria Productions, a media company that now owns both this blog and Homewood Nation, a community news service that incorporates an eponymous website, Facebook page, Twitter feed and YouTube channel. Capital Synergies owns Luminaria Productions.

Along the way I also signed up as a member of, and independent representative for, Legal Shield, under the Capital Synergies name.

Homewood Capital Partners is an LLC that I formed for the purpose of partnering with others to invest in real estate in Homewood.

I'll say more about all of them later, one at a time. For now, general observations:

1. Any one of Homewood Capital Partners, Legal Shield, or Luminaria Productions could in and itself provide a very comfortable living. Managing all of them well will make me rich (especially since my definition of rich sets a relatively low bar: $50,000 a year in passive income.). Managing them poorly will - make me poor? Destroy my marriage? Seriously, I can't even imagine how bad it could get if I don't manage any of them well. Or to put it more precisely, how much worse it would get if I don't learn to manage any of them well.

2. Managing four businesses well (or even one) begins with managing myself well.

3. It's nearly 2 a.m.

4. Going to bed, right now, would be a good step toward wealth and power and stuff.

Before talking about managing individual businesses, I think I should share some of my big-picture thinking about business, so that will come next.

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Three Priorities: The Complete Series
Three Priorities For 2014 - And Beyond
Three Priorities For 2014: 1 - Encouraging The Body Of Christ
Three Priorities For 2014: 2- Growing Businesses.
Three Priorities For 2014: 2.5 - Why Build Businesses?
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Legal Shield
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Homewood Capital Partners
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Luminaria Productions
Three Priorities For 2014: 3 - Redeveloping Race Street
Three Priorities For 2014: Closing Thoughts

Building A Billion-Dollar Enterprise, 26: A lovely milestone

At 1:28 a.m., it is technically Friday morning. But in my consciousness it is still Thursday night, so when I say, "Luminaria Productions passed a milestone today," "today" means Thursday, January 9, 2014.

Luminaria Productions passed a milestone today.

The company executed its first sponsorship contract, with Urban Innovation 21, the public-private partnership that sponsored the grant competition for Homewood-based businesses that Luminaria participated in last year. Luminaria didn't win a grant then, but Urban Innovation president and CEO William O. Generett (he prefers "Bill") expressed a desire to advertise on "Homewood Nation," the community news website that is Luminaria's flagship product. After I explained that Homewood Nation offers advertising only for my own lines of businesses - a Cafe Press shop, an Amazon affiliation and being a Legal Shield representative - we agreed on sponsorship as a way for UI21 to support Homewood Nation.

Over the last month or so, I created a sponsorship package that offers businesses, nonprofit agencies or individuals to the opportunity to be listed as sponsors in exchange for levels of monthly support ranging from $50 to $500.

Today, in a meeting at the Homewood branch of Carnegie Library, Bill Generett and I signed off on an agreement for UI21 to sponsor Homewood Nation for six months at $180 a month (a 10% discount extended-run discount on the $200/month sponsorship).

This is not only Luminaria Productions' first sponsorship contract, it marks the company's first instance of recurring revenues. In and of itself, it will not make Luminaria profitable; indeed, it will not even enable Luminaria to break even. But it does bridge the chasm between 0 and 1 in recurring revenues.

The bigger news is that creating the sponsorship package gives me something to offer others who have expressed an interest in supporting Homewood Nation (I love creating re-usable stuff!). I need to schedule meetings with those folks within the next week. When I do, Luminaria could gain additional revenues within the next week.

In recent weeks, Luminaria has taken on expenses that would normally be covered by Capital Synergies (specifically, gas for the car), but in the normal course of things, it would take only one more $200/month sponsorship to make Luminaria profitable. So, Luminaria could become profitable within the next week.

And even if it doesn't happen next week, there is now a good probability of it happening this month. Woo-hoo!

Finally, the biggest news may be that Bill Generett spoke about replicating Homewood Nation in other communities - i.e., helping people in other communities to set up websites after my model, and charging them to do so. We are going to talk about how that might work.

Thank You, Lord.

It's not just the prospect of being able to pay bills that is gratifying here. It is the affirmation that Homewood Nation is truly worth doing, because by doing it I am truly creating value. People have given me lots of verbal affirmation, but those words ring hollow when the number of people who demonstrate the willingness to help me eat can be counted on one hand. Obviously I need a better way of asking.

Today, sponsorship proved to be a better way.

Forward!

Building A Billion-Dollar Enterprise, 24: HR 101

A few days ago, I posted the following on Facebook...

HYPOTHESIS: In building an enterprise, the most important skillset is that which enables attracting and keeping talent.

The important thing about building a billion-dollar enterprise - or building any enterprise- is not that I possess all the expertise needed to make the thing go. It's that someone in the enterprise has all the expertise needed to make the thing go.

I have persistently made the error of trying to cultivate expertise within myself rather than learning to attract and retain others who possess expertise.

What's really weird about that, is that I have known better for some time now. It has been at least a couple of years since I began sharing with others an acronym that I said I would make the basis of everything I do: RISC. Which stands for:

• RELATIONSHIPS
• INFORMATION
• SKILLS
• CAPITAL

The idea being that, in putting together any kind of project, process or entity, I will always begin with relationships. Then comes acquiring and packaging information. Then, using those relationships and that information to attract people with the necessary skills. Then, and only then, seeking the capital for the whole package. (I considered it important, and still do, that money comes last. Further, I convinced myself that when the other things are in place, the money will come relatively easily. That notion may deserve a separate post.)

So, I know that I need to get good at attracting and retaining talent. Now I need to think through how to make that happen. I could just ask, "How do I attract people who have the skills needed to attract people?" Hmmm.....

However I go about it, I need to include filters that prevent the acquisition of bad talent - i.e., people with skills who would ultimately be poor employees. Like Larry Summers.

When Larry Summers was still under consideration to become the next chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, James Kwak wrote a piece at the "The Baseline Scenario" blog titled "Toxic Trait To Avoid #1."

In it, he quoted Felix Salmon:

"Summers is, to put it mildly, not good at charming those he considers to be his inferiors, but he's surprisingly excellent cultivating people with real power."

...then added, "this is absolutely the worst personality trait you can find in anyone you are thinking of hiring."

As Luminaria Productions grows, I want to create a culture which, first of all, would not be attractive to a person who lacks empathy. And I want to establish hiring processes that would weed out such people even if they did come forth as candidates.

A simple test might be to meet someone for lunch and observe how they treat the waitstaff.

Alternatively, I/we could ask for references (or better yet, inquire without asking), not from someone's manager, but from someone they managed.

Meanwhile, "Snakes in Suits" is still on my to-read list...

Building a Billion- Dollar What?

Two big changes have occurred in my BBDE journey in recent months. Two that I know of, anyway.

The first is that I quietly and incrementally laid aside the April 2017 deadline for Luminaria Productions' billion-dollar IPO. Over the summer, I conducted so little activity specifically intended to build Luminaria that at some point I said, "April 2017? Don't think so."

Maybe April 2018.

The second thing happened within just the past couple of weeks, and it was a striking enough shift that I should have noted it right away.

Simply put, it happened one day that I found myself thinking, not in terms of BBDE - Building a Billion-Dollar Enterprise - but of BBDN - Building a Billion-Dollar Neighborhood.

The reasoning behind that notion is that on the path toward becoming a BBDE, Luminaria will employ a bunch of people, but not necessarily as employees. Much of the work to be done can be - and perhaps should be - done by independent contractors, by people who own their own businesses, and whose work for Luminaria can strengthen their ability to get work from other companies. As they grow and get better, their work for Luminaria will get better, and they may themselves hire people.

So it seems to make sense that Homewood could become a billion-dollar neighborhood before Luminaria becomes a billion-dollar enterprise.

I like that idea very much. I like it enough to think that it may be worth promoting, to begin injecting into people's brains. What would it take for Homewood to become a billion-dollar neighborhood? Could one neighborhood be home to, say, 50 $20 million businesses? What would it take to grow 50 $20 million businesses?

How can Luminaria Productions help other Homewood businesses to grow?

Building a Billion-Dollar Enterprise, 22: In search of "ne plus infra"

Today (Friday, 6/7) was weird; it seemed to be all distraction.

I woke up late, cancelled a meeting. Went to lunch with Andrew Butcher (of GTECH). Had a hard time focusing this afternoon, until the repeated appearance of a particular video in my Facebook news feed led me to write this blog post about it.

The evening was actually a little scary. I think I'm paying too much attention, or the wrong kind of attention, to pageviews and visits. I'm feeling too much.

As the evening wound later, I kept thinking that I needed to do something Luminaria-related, because I want a chronicle of doing something Luminaria-related every single day (shades of "Julie and Julia"). But my motivation and focus were shot.

"Any little thing," I told myself. "What's the smallest thing you can think of to do?"

Draw a sketch of what I want Luminaria's office to look like? Do some research reading? Compose a musical motto? Email a graphic artist about ideas for new products on which we could collaborate?

Everything seemed like too much. I wanted the ne plus infra of action - the opposite of ne plus ultra, or the thing which nothing could go beyond. I wanted the thing which nothing could go below, the smallest possible action.

Finally, I thought of something that seemed like the smallest possible thing I could do. The thing that I can always do. The thing that may be the biggest thing I can do.

I prayed.

"Lord, please grant me wisdom to build the Luminaria the way You want it to be. Or take away the desire for it."

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Only after beginning this post did I remember that I had promised Greg O. last night (see the comments section) that tonight, I would explain why I am sending out links to these posts via LinkedIn.

Here's why:

1. I have more than 600 1st-degree contacts on LinkedIn. That's more direct contacts than I have on Facebook, Twitter, G+, or any of my email lists.
2. LinkedIn is more business-oriented than the other networks. Over time, I want this chronicle to provide greatest value to people who are most interested in business, as a learning tool.
3. When I am ready to begin hiring people, people who have followed the development of the business may constitute the best hiring pool.
4. When I need to partner with someone, people who have followed the development of the business may make the best potential partners.

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I want to continue reporting daily stats, even as I learn to avoid attaching emotion to then. I've learned that I need to wait a day for complete information. So here are the final numbers from Wed., June 6:

ReVisions pageviews: 55

Homewood Nation visitors: 64, average time 1:34

I am nowhere close to being in a position say whether any of those numbers are good or bad. For me, now, they simply are. And are subject to improvement.

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Today, for the first time, I thought seriously, if only briefly, about creating a nonprofit to publish a neighborhood newsletter. Or more precisely, revamping a nonprofit that I formed years ago but never used. The newsletter and "Homewood Nation" could feed each other material, and the newsletter and its nonprofit could attract funding that for-profit Luminaria could not.

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I did do something else today for Luminaria Productions, come to think of it - if "for" is the appropriate word.

I talked about it. With Andrew. Not at any great length, but enough to make me realize that I need to talk about it more, to hear myself say out loud what is in my mind and in my heart - and sometimes, even, to discover what some of what is in my mind and in my heart by saying it out loud, like "Making Homewood a hub of Pittsburgh's film industry." That goes a bit beyond wanting to make a movie or two.

Maybe I should not only do something for Luminaria every day, and write about Luminaria every day; maybe I should talk about Luminaria every day, too.  

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 21: a new media experiment

This evening's update on my work to build Luminaria Productions into a billion-dollar enterprise:

1. I promoted last night's BBDE post via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and G+.

2. I also promoted last night's Homewood Nation story about TechShop coming to Homewood Library, via Facebook and Twitter.

I did all of that by noon or so, on the belief that people might be more likely to browse social media then during lunch. I also used my new spreadsheet to keep track of what I had posted where.

According to Google, "ReVisions" had 3 pageviews today, after 77 on Monday, 59 on Tuesday, and 42 on Wednesay.

According to Clicky, Homewood Nation had 59 visitors today, with an average time per visit of 1 min, 31 secs. That would include people who visited to read about Shimira Williams...

3. I wrote a story about Shimira Williams creating and registering a new hashtag for people to share and find information about local youth activities - #youth 412.

The last gave me special pleasure, and I consider it especially important, because it was, as I said to Shimira, "a new media experiment."

We were chatting on Facebook, and at 2:45, I got the idea of doing a story about the hashtag. I asked if I could interview her, right there on Facebook, she agreed (with the caveat that she was multitasking), and we were off.

The chat itself served as notes, and I began writing while we spoke. At the end of our convo, she sent me a pic of herself to use.

At 4:35, I posted the first link to the completed article on Facebook, quickly following with posts on Twitter and G+.

It's not great journalism. But I'm certain that it is the fastest story I have ever done. And I think it is also serviceable, as opposed to being downright bad. It accomplishes the not-grand purpose of sharing a little bit of information that some people might find useful.

And it even has two - not one, but two - pictures.

I am downright proud of having reported, written and published a serviceable story in less than two hours. The better I get at producing serviceable stuff faster - the better.

This post marks the beginning of me tracking visitors/pageviews on a daily basis. First results don't look good for my use of LinkedIn to promote my content. Is the very title, "Building a billion dollar enterprise" off-putting for that audience? How can I make this more interesting and useful?

Thoughts for another day.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 20: refining reporting

So, this work may go better if I have some sort of system for reporting.

First, some clarification - I have created legal entities for at least a dozen businesses through the years, of which I am now focusing my attention on two - Homewood Capital Partners LLC and Luminaria Productions LLC.

Homewood Capital Partners is a for-profit LLC, created to invest in Homewood real estate.

Luminaria Productions LLC, of course, is the media production company behind "Homewood Nation" - and, it occurs to me, would make a perfectly sensible owner for this blog. Duh!

Three other entities relate to Luminaria in some way. I have a long-dormant sole proprietorship, Greenhouse Publications, which I have mentally, but not formally, moved from being an extension of me to being a subsidiary of Luminaria - its arm for print products. I see the first print product being a book derived from four and a half years of the "My Homewood" blog; the working title is "Black Man in a Suit."

There is a real estate partnership, 529 N. Homewood LP, created to purchase and hold the eponymous property. I mention it here because I may place it under Luminaria. As of now, it stands separate.

Finally, there's Capital Synergies, Inc., predating all of the above except Greenhouse Publications. The purpose of Capital Synergies is to own and manage entities that own assets. The original idea was to have it be general partner of real estate limited partnerships, and it is the GP of 529 N. Homewood Ave. It also owns and is Managing Partner of Luminaria Productions. So it will show up in posts about building a billion-dollar enterprise, as a background player; but not much, I think. Most of what I write about BBDE will be about Luminaria.

So, what did I do today (Wed, 6/5) for Luminaria?

1. I promoted Rob Jones' piece on Homewood Nation about coaching Homewood.
2. I scheduled a room at the library for TechShop's presentation on June 18, then wrote, posted and promoted a piece on Homewood Nation about it.
3. I conducted an interview with RaShall Brackney that I think could provide material for at least a couple of stories in Homewood Nation.
4. I promoted last night's BBDE post on both LinkedIn and G+.
5. I created a spreadsheet to decide which venues to use to promote which types of content that I create online. This is a small thing that could have a big impact because I have caught myself wasting time deciding which venues to use to promote which content. I have also wasted time trying to remember which venues I had used and which ones I still needed to use. It is curious how I sometimes simply lose track of what I'm doing, mid-task. As a type of checklist, the spreadsheet should help. Never underestimate the power of a good form.
6. I emailed Eric Brown, president of Hybrid Learning Systems and ImpactGames, about PeaceBuilder
7. I emailed Kilolo Luckett, primarily about Homewood Capital Partners, but also about meeting.

That seems like it. On the one hand, that doesn't look like a full day's work; on the other, I feel as though I kept busy. Except when I was nodding off. Gotta exterminate the night owl.

Tomorrow morning, Pomodoro. Task #1 - update entities and projects list. Going forward, that list will provide the basis for both planning and reporting Luminaria activity.

I've just come up with tweaks on the LinkedIn./G+ experiment:

• share these posts twice: upon completion, then about 12 hours later, or between 12 - 1 pm,
• early in each post, link back to the preceding one.
• always link to new Homewood Nation content (don't just say, " I wrote/posted so-and-so.") 

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 19: Brick by brick

Today (i.e., Tuesday, 6/4) I worked mostly online.

I enrolled in the eService program for Legal Shield associates, snagging my associate website. I then went back to yesterday's post and inserted a link to the website there. I also rewrote my Google Plus profile, which appears here to the right, to link to it, as well as to Luminaria Productions' YouTube channel. You may have noticed that I also added a Chatroll chat window - I'm not sure why, except as a whim. I am more likely to use a chat window on Homewood Nation than here.

On Homewood Nation, I added an ad for Legal Shield that links to my Legal Shield website. And I created a sidebar module that links to both this blog and to Quick Flicks, my site for selling my short scripts to aspiring filmmakers.

Homewood Nation, which has so far generated only $50 in a one-time donation, now contains these channels for potential revenue:

• the Homewood Nation Cafe Press shop
• a sidebar link to my Amazon shop
• a sidebar link to Quick Flicks
• a sidebar ad for Legal Shield
• a donation button

It just occurred to me that, besides the having the sidebar link that invites people to search for books on Amazon, and besides inserting a link to my Amazon shop when I mention books in my Homewood Nation posts (something I should do more often), I may be able to create a "Recommended reading" sidebar module that highlights a particular book, such as my most recent favorite, Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, (the link is for the 2d edition; I read the original.)

While reviewing my stats for this blog, I noticed that my May 17th post, "Internet journalism and the Black Church's $420 billion," was receiving comments from people saying not only that they appreciated it, but that they were sharing it with others. Bad effect: I became overly preoccupied with checking to see how many times that post had been viewed. Good effect: I redistributed the link to it via G+, Twitter and Facebook.

Result - the numbers went up yet further. Yay!

Also today, I reviewed +Rob Jones'  piece for Homewood Nation, about coaching a community. That will go in tomorrow.

I am writing this because I want to post something here every evening for the remainder of this month. I don't think I've done that here for such an extended stretch, and I believe that doing so could produce dramatic results - with my definition of dramatic being something like, "having 50 readers daily" or "starting to make ANY money with this."

Wow; I've forgotten what may be the most important thing I did today. I posted a LinkedIn status linking to last night's post. I think it was the first time I've promoted a blog post on LinkedIn, despite having more 1st-degree contacts there (619) than I have Facebook friends (450).

But not only did I post the link on LinkedIn. I posted it ONLY on LinkedIn and on G+. Not on Facebook, not on Twitter. As an experiment.

I think I'll keep the experiment going, with these parameters: 1) write a BBDE post every evening for the remainder of the month, reviewing that day's activity; 2) promote it only on LinkedIn and G+.

I can write non-BBDE posts at will, and promote them everywhere EXCEPT LinkedIn.

On a separate note: I've tried to use AdSense here, but have never gotten it to work. Gotta get that going.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 16 - Notes in preparation for a really big week, 2

In my last post, I explained that I have a meeting scheduled in Los Angeles this Thursday that could lead to Luminaria Productions producing its first major project, and said that of the possibilities in my mind, I would prefer to do a TV series. First, to create more jobs over a longer period of time. Second, because of financing.

This is about the financing.

I've made a passing reference to this: the "fiscal cliff" legislation passed at the beginning of the year included the extension of Bush-era tax credits for film and television production. The tax credits were created to stem the tide of productions leaving the country to take advantage of tax credits in other places, especially Canada.

Film and television production typically involves investment by people or companies other than the production company itself. As I understand it (and I am still learning) the tax credit means that a qualified investor in a film or TV project can get some of their money back in the form of reduced taxes, even if the project itself makes no money. Say you are in the 35% tax bracket - a $100,000 investment in a qualifying project will let you take $35,000 off your tax bill (this is for people with more money than I've ever seen).

In case you didn't click that last link, here's the line from The Hollywood Reporter that jumped out at me:

"As extended through 2013, the credit allows deduction of production costs up to $15 million and as much as $20 million for shoots that occur in sites that meet the bill’s criteria for an economically disadvantaged area."

One criteria is that the site be an area that is eligible for designation as a low-income community under the New Markets Tax Credit program. Homewood - North, South and West - is eligible (type "15208" in the search box here to see for yourself). So I am going to say something now about what is possible. Not about what I'm gonna do, but about what is possible. It is possible for a film shot primarily in Homewood to receive up to $20 million from investors whose investment will be at least partly guaranteed by federal tax credits.

Please take 60 seconds to imagine $20 million flowing into a Homewood-based company to produce a film that is mostly shot here. Most of the money doesn't stay in the company. Most of it goes back out to the dozens or hundreds of people employed in making the film.

"But you said you would prefer to do a TV series. Why do you keep talking about a film?"

To establish the basic concept. Now, hold on to your hat while I add this to the mix:

With a TV series, the tax credit can be applied to each individual episode, up to a total of 44 episodes. So, again stating what is possible, without saying anything about what will happen: It is possible for a TV series shot primarily in Homewood to receive up to $20 million per episode from investors whose investment will be at least partly guaranteed by federal tax credits.

None of the above takes into account the Pennsylvania tax credit for film and TV production, which would return even more of an investor's money to their pocket, regardless of how the project fares financially.

I have just written stuff that I find patently ridiculous. I cannot imagine what lawmakers were thinking. But since the law is there, I want to make use of it.

I also cannot imagine producing a TV show that costs $20 million per episode. But I can easily imagine that a TV show with a union cast and crew, plus management, would run a half-million per episode, or $6 million for a 12-episode season. If ONE-FOURTH (not all, not even half) of that went to Homewood residents, that would be $1.5 million. For one season.

To be clear: I am not talking about revenue FROM the TV series. I am talking about investment IN the TV series. Up front money.

So that's why, if I have the opportunity to produce something for and/or with Punch TV, and if I have a choice in what, I would prefer a TV series. That's why I'm up past 3:30 a.m., just thinking about this. That's why I'm asking folks on Facebook, and will ask folks via other networks, to pray big on my behalf this week. For this week could bring the a fulfillment of a prayer I began praying years ago:

Lord, please make me one of the righteous in whose prosperity the city rejoices. (Proverbs 11:10) 

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 15 - Notes in preparation for a really big week.

Tomorrow is going to be such a big day that by the end of it, I may want to sleep for a week.

No such luck.

Early Wednesday morning, I will drag myself out of bed to catch a 7 a.m. flight for Los Angeles. From Wednesday afternoon through Friday night, I will enjoy/endure a whirlwind of meetings put together by my friend Andrew W. Thornhill.

At least, mostly put together by him. The first one, Wednesday evening, will be the regular monthly meeting of the Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers West (BADWest). I expect good content from the presentation, but the real purpose is to be in the room with a group of documentary filmmakers. The relationships established Wednesday evening could prove transformative for me, especially if I wind up acquiring 1015 N. Homewood Ave., redeveloping it, and making a documentary about the process.

Anyway, after that comes the whirlwind.

I want to be on my toes for all of it, but the meeting which offers the greatest apparent opportunity will be an informal sitdown with Joseph Collins. Mr. Collins is President and Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of IC Places, Inc., the corporate parent of Punch Television Network, aka Punch TV. Punch is one of the numerous TV networks that sprung up after the transition from analog to digital television left all of America's 1,700 full-service TV stations with four channels, where they had previously had one. According to the press release announcing its first annual stockholders meeting, Punch ended 2012 with 38 partner stations.

I will spend much of the next three days studying the company's annual reports, along with the information on its websites. As with Joe Ciotti in tomorrow's meeting, the word that seems to best describe what I want to do with Mr. Collins is "seduce." I want to make him want to work with me. Not to pitch a specific project. To have him know that Luminaria Productions can offer a variety of projects over the next 2-3 years.

Or as Dov Simens taught me to say in "From Reel To Deal," "I have multiple projects in various stages of development."

Such as? Well, besides the aforementioned documentary on the redevelopment of 1015 N. Homewood, which would also be about Homewood itself, there's:

1. "The Laundry" - a dramatic TV series about the professional and personal challenges faced by staff and residents of a rehab facility/program that boasts one of the highest success rates in the field ("Come in dirty, leave clean"). The idea was hatched by actor-writer Atticus Cain, known around Homewood as William Robinson, who is also our tenant and one of my closest friends.

3. Either a one-hour TV special or a feature length documentary on Naomi Sims, the Westinghouse alum who became America's first black supermodel. This would build on work already done and already being done: Kilolo Luckett and I partnered last year for a tribute to Naomi Sims, and are planning a 2nd Annual Tribute on March 30, which would have been Ms. Sims 65th birthday. That tribute can be a major piece of a TV program/documentary.

4. "The Nature of Love" - a feature film (drama); a married woman unwittingly falls in love with a man who plans to kill her family. Both this and "The Moses Effect," below, are scripts that I have worked on, and need to finish anyway.

5. "The Moses Effect" - a feature film (comedy); a small town is thrown into chaos when the world's most advanced surveillance system enforces every law on the books, including absurd ones.

Did you see what I did there? I skipped #2. That's because if Mr. Collins expresses any level of interest, and if I have any choice about what to produce for/with Punch, the 1015 N. Homewood doc would be my second choice. "The Laundry" would be my first.

Why?

Jobs.

The desire to create jobs is a very large part of my motivation for building Luminaria Productions. And while even a small indie film can create 50+ jobs, my thinking is that a TV series would create more jobs for a longer period of time than a one-time project.

...okay, there's a second reason.

Financing. Which deserves its own post.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 14 - Notes in preparation for a really big day

This is my schedule for tomorrow:

1. 10 am - meeting with Joe Ciotti
2. noon - lunch with Joshua Devine
3. 1 pm - meeting with Ashton Armstrong
4. 2 pm - meeting Karen Abrams, et al,

This day, all by itself, could move my life forward to significant degree. More than that, it could affect Homewood.

Meeting #1 - Joe Ciotti is a management consultant with the Small Business Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. We will talk about Luminaria Productions. I hope that we will agree on a schedule for regular meetings for at least 3-4 months. I have found regularly-scheduled meetings to be a huge help in living my life, and I believe that having a schedule with Joe Ciotti will help me to achieve breakthrough on completing my business plan for Luminaria, and on enchancing my doing of what I'm already doing.

Come to think of it, I may benefit most from intensity of scheduling - not once a month for 3-4 months, but once a week or more for 4-6 weeks.

I have been stuck on writing a business plan for two years. Which obviously means that I don't want to do it, for whatever reason(s). But since it's part of their process, I need to get it done.

I think the key is to convince myself that a business plan can be gigantically valuable and fun. With that feeling, I could write it in a day.

And it can be. It can be gigantically valuable and fun. How? By making it include, not only every single thing I want to do with this business, but everything I believe about business, period.

When I let myself think about business - not just a business, but business itself, I uncover a depth of feeling that almost invariably surprises me. There's God, and there's everything else. But in that "everything else," business rises close to the top among things that are good and noble.

Yeah, that's what I said: good and noble. Read it again if you have to. I consider the creation and exchange of value to be inherently good, however often or to what degree it may be twisted into bad.

I won't finish the business plan tonight. But I do want to give Joe enough to seduce him, to make him consider it worthwhile to meet with me on an accelerated schedule over the next 4-6 weeks. Because in 4-6 weeks, Luminaria Productions could be operating on a whole 'nother level. More about that in #4

Meeting #2
Joshua Devine recently graduated from Penn State with a degree in Energy, Environment and Community - or some alternate arrangement of those three words. When he saw the segment about the Save Race Street Committee on Rick Sebak's program, "25 Things I Like About Pittsburgh," on WQED, he tweeted me to ask if one had to live on Race Street to join the Committee. He attended our January meeting, and I hope to explore with him how he can be part of our life and bring his knowledge, energy and connections to our work. He could help the Committee to move up to a higher level.

Meeting #3
Ashton Armstrong is a neighborhood service associate with the Mayor's office, part of the staff for the ServePGH Initiative created by Mr. Ravenstahl's administration. This meeting is to talk about how the Save Race Street Committee might take advantage of two programs to work with vacant lots on our street - the Love Your Block program, and the Edible Gardens program. We have missed deadlines, because I have missed deadlines. In this meeting, I need to submit information late, plead for more grace, and if possible chart a corrective course with Ashton.

The greater part of my work relating to this is not to be done with her, but with myself, my fellow Committee members and with our neighbors. I need to remind myself of the importance of delegating and supervising. The better I get at those things, the more useful I will be, because I will be in less of a position to screw up the details. I need to keep very alert to the question, "Is this a task that I should NOT do?"

Success with Ashton, and then with my fellow Committee members and with our neighbors, will mean a more beautiful and prosperous street.

Meeting #4
Karen Abrams is community affairs specialist with the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Tomorrow I meet with her, planning and design specialist Emily Mitchell, real estate manager Susan Malys, and Jerome Jackson, executive director of Operation Better Block, Inc.

We are meeting to discuss my desire to acquire and redevelop this building, 1015 N. Homewood Avenue:

I moved to this house in July, 1986; 1015 N. Homewood was vacant then. I have long had a vague desire to do something with it. Over the past year, the desire has become more specific, but not specific enough to be a plan.

I want to make it the headquarters for Luminaria Productions.

About two weeks ago, I saw a gentleman from the City's Bureau of Building Inspection poking around it, and introduced myself to him as the chair of the Save Race Street Committee, and he told me, "We're tearing it down."

That surprised me, because over the past year, I have not only developed a more specific desire for the building, I have had conversations that I thought had positioned me to acquire the building from the URA (not that that was guaranteed, but that the conversations were making it possible). And the building - which has been condemned since 2005, and tax-delinquent perhaps as long - went through a Treasurer's sale in October, which I thought meant that the URA had taken title.

So I started talking to people, the last of them being Ms. Abrams. And she set up the meeting.

As of now, this is what I see at 1015 N. Homewood:

First floor: Luminaria Productions office, which includes a rentable meeting space. A bookstore, which includes a cafe.

Second, third floors: Apartments.

The entire building, including the decor in the halls of the second and third floors, has a movie theme. The bookstore's draw is that it has the most complete collection of film-related books in the city of Pittsburgh. Also movie memorabilia. And DVDs. And the cafe has a viewing area, and is home to meetings of the East End Film Nation (which doesn't exist yet, but you can guess what it is, right?).

That's what I have so far. Oh, and maybe, just maybe, offering discounted rents to film workers who live in the building.

And maybe making a documentary about the redevelopment of the building. Sponsored by Home Depot, and anybody else who might want consider it good PR to participate.

There's also a persistent notion of housing a video game academy: a place to teach young people how to create video games. That would require more program development than I have come close to imagining.

Anyway, tomorrow's meeting could end with everyone saying, "We don't think this is at all feasible. Good luck with doing whatever you want to do in some other building." Or it could end with, "We'll work with you, if you work with us." The latter would put Luminaria Productions, and ultimately Homewood, on a whole 'nother level. Especially in light of what's happening Wednesday and Thursday. 

But that is another blog post, because this one is too long already.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 12 - Prototype QF2013Q1A

I felt like giving it a research lab-sounding name. But to put it more simply, "Quick Flicks" - at least in its initial iteration - is done.

Yesterday, I decided to just buckle down and get it done. I had gotten myself bogged down in questions about whether or not to publish through Kindle, of how to sell downloadable PDFs...I seriously confused myself. Yesterday, I decided to forget Kindle for now, to sell PDFs with PayPal as the transaction mechanism, and to just go ahead and get it done.

Last night, at six minutes past midnight, I quietly celebrated the completion of the mini-website containing PDFs of five short scripts, together with licenses granting people the right to produce them, which they can download upon purchase.

The scripts are:

    "Message, Not in a Bottle" – A young man leaves a very unusual phone message for his twin sister.
    "I Will Love You Always" – A priest abandons his ministry to marry one of his congregants.
    "coda" – A black man. A white woman. A carefully-planned sexual assault. A twist.
    "No Dessert" – A restaurant patron observers two lovers at dinner before carrying out his assignment as a hit man.
    "End Run" – A political candidate's campaign ends with his assassination - which he himself helped to plan.

Today I did a bunch of revisions. Perhaps best of all, I created a front end that is easily accessible and more attractive than a plain old webpage: I uploaded "I Will Love You Always," my first short film, to YouTube, and put a paragraph in the description offering the script to other filmmakers, with a link to QuickFlicks. (actually, just a link to the page for the IWLYA script, but now that I think of it, I think I'll replace it with a link to the Quick Flicks intro page, which I will tweak).

The rationale for Quick Flicks goes something like this: a lot of people want to make short films, but they don't want to write them - their hearts are set on directing, not writing. Some of them would gladly pay for a short script if they knew how to find a writer. Some might pay to use an existing script, especially if the price is in line for a No/Lo-budget project (the Quick Flick scripts are priced at $4.99/$9.99). (UPDATE: This pricing will expire at midnight, Jan. 31, 2013. See this blog post about recipes, teachability and wealth.)

The uploading of "I Will Love You Always" is in itself a breakthrough. When I shot IWLYA in April 2005, YouTube was in its infancy. I knew that I wanted to make short films, and I knew that I wanted to distribute them via the Internet. I envisioned a website where people would pay .99 to view a movie (maybe .47 for a short). I didn't have the resources to build such a site, so it became my dream to have my films appear on iFilm, which was the go-to site for short films online. But while I was laboring over IWLYA with my editor, Andy Fenlock - a process that took wayyy too long - iFilm was bought by Viacom and ultimately vanished into SpikeTV (a story which still saddens me - to my knowledge, it has never truly been replaced as an online showcase for short films). Meanwhile, YouTube grew to become the Godzilla of online video.

And in all of this time, I never learned how to get my short film from DVD to YouTube. Until today, when I Googled "upload DVDs to YouTube" (duh!), and found VidCorder, a dandy little program for ripping DVDs. Some five minutes after installing the program, my video was ready for upload. So I am pleased to present, "I Will Love You Always," an AC Earing/Elwin Green production, written and directed by Elwin Green.


So today, for the first time, I have products in the marketplace, I have the transaction machinery in place for selling those products automatically, with no work on my part, and I have a marketing piece in place to lead people toward the transaction machinery - a marketing piece that doesn't look like a marketing piece, because it's not - it's a short film :)

The very idea of Quick Flicks - making screenplays that I wrote for my own use available for other filmmakers who may not want to be writers - was inspired by Timothy Ferriss' "muse" concept, as described in his book "The 4-Hour Workweek:"

"Our goal is simple: to create an automated vehicle for generating cash without consuming time. That's it. I will call this vehicle a 'muse' whenever possible to separate it from the ambiguous term 'business,' which can refer to a lemonade stand or a Fortune 10 oil conglomerate - our objective is more limited and thus requires a more precise label."

Thanks, Tim!

Finally having such machinery in place is exciting. What's even more exciting is that scaling those elements - products, transaction machinery and marketing - can go a long way in growing Luminaria into a billion-dollar enterprise.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 11: Commerce and Community Identity

Years ago, I declared that I want Homewood to be "beautiful, prosperous and safe."

Then I expanded that to "beautiful, prosperous, safe and green" - the idea being that Homewood could be a leading example of LEED-certified neighborhood development.

Then, recognizing the ways in which communications technology is changing the world, and the importance of continual learning, I arrived at "beautiful, prosperous, safe, green, connected, global and smart."

All of which are great adjectives to describe what I want Homewood to BE, and to be known for being.

A few minutes ago, I wrote what I want Homewood to DO, and to be known for doing - something I don't remember ever having done before. Not only that, I wrote it as a personal aspiration, as something for me to do:

Make Homewood world-famous for producing entertainment.

It felt like an epiphany, a great convergence. It connects my work with the Save Race Street Committee and Block Watch Plus and Operation Better Block with the building of Luminaria Productions. Indeed, it puts Luminaria Productions at dead center of it all, as the company that leads the way in establishing Homewood as an entertainment production center.

I think my mind was nudging me toward this epiphany two or three weeks ago when it rewrote one of my favorite fantasies. I have often declared that I would love to do an internship at Pixar - even unpaid - just to be in the environment where people create astonishments like "Finding Nemo." Well, a couple of weeks ago, with no conscious ratiocination that I recall, I thought, I want people at Pixar to dream about coming to Luminaria Productions.

Hubris? Maybe. But does it make sense to strive to be anything other than the best?

The thing that surprises me as I think about it now is that I had not particularly thought of Luminaria Productions doing animated films. But there is PeaceBuilder. And the world of games is huge, and growing.

In any case:

The Homewood Children's Village talks about making Homewood a neighborhood "where every child succeeds." I have wanted to add, "...and where learning ever stops," an idea that lies behind my description of my ideal Homewood as "a black Chautauqua." I think that idea could still generate a lot of useful conversations that make great things happen. But now I want to add an outward-facing motto for the community: "We entertain the world."

Maybe that should just be Luminaria's slogan (assuming no other company has it already). In any case:

That's "entertain," not "amuse." As Richard Walter notes in "Screenwriting: The Art, Craft and Business of Film and Television Writing"

"To entertain is to occupy, to hold, to give over to consideration as in 'to entertain a notion.' This suggests not painting one's face and performing a tap dance for the notion, but cradling it in one's cortex, hefting its spiritual mass, regarding it, weighing it, investing it with contemplation."

The sentence, "Make Homewood world-famous for producing entertainment," came at the end of a thought-sequence sparked by the question, "What does Homewood produce?" To make Homewood a place that produces both dramas and comedies that carry ideas worthy of the world's contemplation...that would be worth a big chunk of whatever time I have left on this planet.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 10

Today I did not do anything specifically to make money. But I did work on building a billion-dollar enterprise, by talking with my wife about it.

I described to her the general steps I intend to take to move PeaceBuilder forward - reconnecting with people I know at Pitt's business school, reconnecting with people I know in Pittsburgh's tech community, and connecting with people I don't know yet, but should -  and told her about the three things I am working on now to generate income: placing a "donate" button on Homewood Nation, setting up a Cafe Press shop on Homewood Nation, and publishing "Quick Flicks."

I also told her that, while it is possible for someone to accumulate significant wealth without anyone knowing about it, reaching my goal of an April, 2017 IPO valuing Luminaria Productions at $1 billion would automatically make the value of my Luminaria shares a matter of public record. And even before the IPO, the very process of building such an enterprise in Homewood would attract the attention that would make me a public person.

I told her those things because - as I also told her - I have long believed that she has a fear of becoming rich, partly coming from a fear of other people knowing about her wealth, and making her a target for them to get some. She didn't disagree.

I apologized for going broke, and asked her if she forgave me, and she said yes. I told her that I am bound and determined to get out of the place that I've come to, and to never come back to this. Ever.

Odd that so far, thinking about making money has focused my attention almost exclusively on Luminaria Productions, when Homewood Capital Partners might actually produce income sooner.

There's a lot of damage to repair. I believe that tonight was a good start.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 8

Spoke with Andrew Thornhill today, who alerted me to the fact that the "fiscal cliff" deal worked out by Congress last night includes the extension of Bush-era tax credits for film and TV productions.

I had not known about such credits. This is the sentence from the Hollywood Reporter's story that jumps off the page:

"As extended through 2013, the credit allows deduction of production costs up to $15 million and as much as $20 million for shoots that occur in sites that meet the bill’s criteria for an economically disadvantaged area."

An economically disadvantaged area? Um, yeah, that would be Homewood.

That news nicely capped a day that started out rough, but got better.

The rough start was me having trouble sleeping last night, being highly congested and suffering fits of sneezing that caused my entire body to seize up (resulting in a kink in my lower back that still hurts). Then spending a really long time in the tub trying to steam bad stuff out of my body.

Finally got down to work some time this afternoon. I think I spent a couple of hours working on Homewood Nation's Cafe Press shop, trying to understand how Cafe Press works in its entirety. I have a couple of accounts with them, and a couple of shops. One is a beta shop; the one for Homewood Nation is...well I'm not sure what it is. I need to read their documentation again to get clear on the options they offer.

In any case, I was pleased simply to discover that the Homewood Nation page featuring the shop contains items that I created before going to Louisville, because at the time it appeared that they were not being saved.

It's time to make money. Now.

I need to do something this month to get momentum going for this year. Maybe I should make it a goal to publish "Quick Flicks," my collection of short screenplays, by Jan. 10. 

That certainly seems more doable than writing a novel in a month (sigh), just by working at it every day. And working at it every day would help to train me to work on building Luminaria Productions every day, period. Which is what I have to do to build it into a billion-dollar enterprise - work at it a minimum of six days a week.

But publishing "Quick Flicks" by Jan. 10 is not a goal just yet. I spent some hours this evening assembling and printing my masterplan for 2013. Or more precisely, the draft of said masterplan. Tomorrow (and perhaps the day after that), I will focus largely on updating it. That updating will determine what emerges as the strongest near-term goal. And what emerges as long-term ones.

A movie or TV series, set largely in Homewood and employing as many Homewood residents as possible in its production - that would change things.

That will influence the masterplan.

Building a Billion-Dollar Enterprise, 0

A couple of days ago, something that I was reading sparked the conversion of a vague desire into a clear, coherent thought.

The vague desire has been: to take Luminaria Productions public.

The coherent thought is: I want to take Luminaria Productions public on April 6, 2017, selling at least 20 million of 100 million shares issued, with a price of at least $10 a share after the opening pop.

That would make Luminaria worth $1 billion.

With a p/e ratio of 10, Luminaria would need earnings of $100 million to attain that valuation; with a p/e of 25, $40 million.

As I write this, Lionsgate is selling at a P/E of 52.7857. At that p/e, $19 million in earnings would make a billion-dollar company.

There's no saying what the median p/e ratios for media production companies will be in April of 2017. But if I assume that it's no higher than 50, and the Luminaria's p/e is no higher than the median, Luminaria will need earnings of $20 million (along with other factors) to be worth $1 billion.

More importantly, Luminaria will need both the structure and the plan to give investors confidence in its continued earnings.

I can't make $20 million today. What I can do today - or any day - is work on the structure and plan that can generate $20 million.

UPDATE: I added the "0" at the end of the title to indicate that this is a starting point. I created Luminaria years ago, but the pursuit of a $200 million IPO for a $1 billion company starts with the declaration that that is the goal.

Just because I need to write

Here's an interesting thing: I love to write. I have specific pieces of writing that I need to do, pieces of writing that can help to enrich myself, my neighbors and the world. I have put off writing them.

What's up with that?

The real question is, "What will it take to break through whatever's up with that?"

Complicated, sophisticated answers may exist. I believe the most powerful answer may be too simple for words - namely, the act of writing, itself. I could spend a great deal of time trying to figure out why I'm not writing more, and/or trying figure out tricks to get myself to write more. Or I could sit down and start writing, like this.

This is now here. It exists. Fingers tapping keys become words on screen tapping brains: just lie still, you'll feel a slight pinch: Hippopotamuses in pink tutus dance weightlessly on tiptoe.

Now, that wasn't so bad, was it? And you won't even think about hippopotamuses for the rest of the day. Especially since I didn't even name the movie.

Oh dear. Sorry.

The thing of it, I have job assignments, pieces of writing that will matter, that deserve more and earlier time than hippopotamuses in pink tutus ever will.

Prospectuses matter more than hippopotamuses. For me, anyway, in my present context. The prospectus for 529 N. Homewood LP; the one for Homewood Capital Partners LLC.

Even more central, more critical, the first phase of the business plan for Luminaria Productions LLC.

Yes, I need to write these things. Quickly. Starting today and completing all within the next week.

Just write, grasshopper. Just write.