The Myth of "It's Not Personal"

Most people will tell you not to take something personal that happens at work. I get the same advice from other store owners. Let me tell you though, not taking something personal is more a frame of mind than a reality.

It starts with finances. Many people think that a small business is this separate entity, like a corporation with distant shareholders. It works that way with mid to large size businesses, but it's certainly not the case with small business. Starting a business begins with the capital from the owners. Nobody, and I mean nobody, will loan a "business" money or give a "business"credit. They might do these things for the owners, but the business is just your reason for getting the money. Companies give loans, approve credit, and sign leases with individuals. They might say, "yeah, yeah, Black Diamond Games LLC, but whose going to pay for this when it all goes south?" The answer is the business owner, that guy, with his own name on the dotted line. It's very personal and there's no walking away unscathed.

You can get an SBA loan, secured with your house. You can get a business credit card, but they want you social security number, not your federal tax ID number. I've been moving towards having business credit, and my name and the business name are on the lease, but I don't ever envision a time when someone will loan money to my business, rather than me. When I die or quit, the business ends unless someone else steps in with their credit and reputation. I would call that pretty personal.

Chimera
I spent last night putting together a troop transport called a Chimera. All these late nights or assembly are probably why my cold re-lapsed. Anyway, I found it interesting that the Chimera shares 6 of 8 sprues from the Basilisk box. I saw a lot more of that attention to detail I mentioned before, such as nicely textured doors on the inside of the model, where nobody will ever see it.

Orr tells me my army is too cliche now, since I have the basilisks, rough riders and sentinels. But Mike agrees with me that those are the coolest parts of an IG army (at least at 1500 points). I've also decided to go with that Mars red paint scheme. I just need something bright and vibrant to work on, and that cool Mars camo with a white primer should do it for me. Of course, I'll never find a red board to play on, so they'll always stand out like a sore thumb.

Next I'll probably be working on the Tallern guardsmen, since they were ordered first. I decided to special order Apocalypse Sentinels, since they have the cool looking enclosed crew cabin. Sentinels are starting to grow on me and I could see have a second army list that forgoes the basilisks for a buttload of high point value sentinels.