FOR YOUR HEALTH: If You’re Feeling Down, You’re Not Alone. It’s That Time of Year

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You don’t have to let the dark days of winter get you down. Learn how to beat the blues and when to recognize it’s time to seek help.

(NAPSI)—You may have heard the terms—winter blues, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), Depressive Disorder with a Seasonal Pattern. No matter what you call it, with approximately 17.3 million adults in the U.S. experiencing seasonal depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, feeling gloomy this time of year isn’t uncommon—but it can be overcome.

The Problem

Depressive Disorder with a Seasonal Pattern (formerly called SAD) can affect anyone of any age. Whether you’re a student returning to class, a busy working professional who’s always playing catch-up, or even newly retired with found time on your hands, the excitement of the holidays is long over and wintry dark days are here. While January and February are the typical peak months for the disorder, symptoms can persist through April, according to Mental Health America.

Doctor’s Advice

When that feeling of sadness persists for several weeks, it’s time to take action, according to Dr. Desreen Dudley, a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Behavioral Health Provider of Therapeutic Services for Teladoc Health. But, she points out, often the toughest thing for many is how to discern whether what they feel is temporary or something more serious.

“If someone has a few days of feeling low, that’s normal and typically nothing to worry about. It’s when the feeling lingers for weeks and people lose interest in daily activities and suffer persistent negative thoughts, that lend a stronger basis for Depressive Disorder with a Seasonal Affective Pattern diagnosis,” she says.

What To Watch For

Other symptoms she warns about are:

  • Change in appetite
  • Change in sleep pattern
  • Decreased energy
  • Decreased concentration
  • Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
  • An inability to think, concentrate, or finish tasks at work or school
  • Thinking about suicide, self-harm, or death

Dr. Dudley contends individuals already struggling with depressive disorders are susceptible to SAD patterns. For older Americans, a Vitamin D deficiency can exacerbate low moods. On the other end of the spectrum, she has worked with newly independent college students who find SAD a heavy burden and say their new responsibilities of classes, exams and jobs can compound their depression. For some, not rising as early for classes as they did in high school means sleeping in more and further limiting their exposure to sunlight.

What To Do

In addition to considering therapy, such as virtual care, which is available on your terms and from any location you choose, Dr. Dudley recommends:

  • Avoiding or cutting back on alcohol and other addictive substances
  • Eating healthfully—more lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, and eliminating sugar
  • Daily exercise at least 30 minute a day (walking counts)
  • Yoga or meditation
  • Learning about and trying light therapy
  • Regularly surrounding yourself with those you enjoy being around.

When To Seek Help

According to a recent global study conducted by Ipsos MORI for Teladoc Health, individuals often recognize when they’re struggling, but even so, over a third of the respondents who have had one mental health episode admitted to not seeking professional help. The reason? For many, it’s often the difficulty in finding mental health care.

“Thankfully, virtual care is becoming increasingly available as a source of convenient mental health care,” Dr. Dudley says. “It eliminates the traditional obstacles of in-person visits and has opened up access for anyone with a busy schedule, individuals who may have difficulty getting out of the house and students who may fear the stigma of walking into the campus mental health clinic.”

Learn More

For further information, visit www.Teladoc.com/therapy.

SOLON & BEYOND: The longest obituary ever written for a Maine community

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Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percyby Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percy
grams29@tds.net
Solon, Maine 04979

Good morning, dear friends. Don’t worry be happy!

This mixed up computer has given me a terrible headache this morning as I have been trying to get it to work so I can write my column! Hopefully, I will be able to save it after I get it written, so I can send it along to China.

Have been thinking more and more about getting driven out of our homes in Flagstaff when CMP built the dam, as I read the pros and cons of their proposed corridor through Maine. It made me wonder how many of you may have read the book, There Was A Land. I am going to turn 91 in April and I don’t think there are many people left who lived during that awful time! ….but, I have a clipping out of a newspaper back in 2002 that states it well. “Treasured memories of a place now covered in water.”.. and it goes on to say, On the face of it, 70 authors focusing on one subject, in one volume, does not suggest a good result. However, in the case of There Was A Land, a source book on life in the plantation of Flagstaff, Bigelow and Dead River before their destruction in 1949, we are given a treasure.

Anyone who has ever watched Elia Kazan’s film, Wild River (1960) will grasp the situation immediately. In the movie the Tennessee Valley Authority moved people off the bottomlands in order to build hydroelectric dams in the 1930s. Similarly Central Maine Power had long planned to dam Dead River at Long Falls and the Legislature granted the company rights of eminent domain in 1924. The Great Depression and Second World War delayed action, but in the end, 130 Maine citizens were uprooted and their homes moved or destroyed. Today it all lies beneath massive Flagstaff Lake.

There Was A Land might honestly be called the longest obituary ever written for a Maine community. Yet it is a story that proves as uplifting as it does wrenching. What we have in these pages is an unmatched community scrapbook – diaries, recollections, articles and photographs that describe a hardscrabble but fully functional community before the flood.

Readers will find a fair amount of repetition as they move through these short, sometimes humorous, sometimes gripping essays. Indeed, one starts to believe things are about to get too repetitive when the different views start to build to a critical mass. No two witnesses give exactly the same view though each confirms the story as a whole.

The paper had printed some of the things that different people from Flagstaff and Dead River had written, and then it goes on to say: “Though many residents of the plantations were distressed and depressed by the CMP dam project, there was no public outcry. In that era nobody challenged multi-million dollar projects. As one resident put it: ‘The water be much greater, the possibility of floods far less; a great service for many towns at the expense of only two small communities and the homes of very few people.'”

Though driven from their home, many of the citizens remain joined by continued friendships, kinship and shared memories. Flagstaff Memorial Chapel built by CMP in Eustis, serves as a headquarters for the publishers of this informative and fascinating book.

There have been several printings of the book, There Was A Land. The last time I talked with Kenny Wing he said there were just a few books left.

Now for Percy’s memoir entitled Winning Ways; We walk along life’s highway meet the bitter and the sweet. Rejoice with those who’ve made it… pit those who’ve met defeat. And as we journey down the road, see sadness, joy and pain, We wonder why some lose the race while others, goals attain. We know misfortune comes to all and problems we must weigh; The Lord will stand beside us every minute of each day. So walk the road with head held high, though life, at times, seems glum; But if you keep the faith you’ll find… your battles can be won. (words by Angie Monnens.)

Now I hold my breath as I attempt to send this!

I’M JUST CURIOUS: The $100 race

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by Debbie Walker

My son-in-law shared a four-minute video with me this past week. The title of it is Life of Privilege Explained in a $100.00 Race. In fact, if you would like to view it on computer just type in the title in your search bar.

The premise behind this race appears to be someone invites (?) these college students to run a race for $100. There is a coach/facilitator who first has a few questions about their background. Before the actual race begins, he has them take a step or two forward depending on the answer about their backgrounds.

There are some who appear to get quite far ahead by stepping to: Take two steps forward if you grew up with both parents in the home. Take two steps if you didn’t get help getting financing school on a sport scholarship. As more questions are asked some stay where they are, and some get quite a head start. At the end of his questions he had the front runner participants turn around to view where the others are behind them. I quote the facilitator here: “We don’t want to recognize that we have….It’s only because you have this big of a head start that you’re possibly going to win this race called ‘Life’.”

As I am watching the video, I am thinking about my first impressions. The facilitator is asking question after question, the people who had what could also be called “advantages” are taking all the steps.

When he had the ‘forward’ steppers turn to look behind them, he also pointed out that the results at this point are only due to what their parents have been able to accomplish, nothing due to themselves.

He also made the comment that if this was a real foot race he believed,”some of those black guys in the back line could have still smoked you.” Also, the reference to a sports scholarship, I wasn’t crazy about either comment. I am not convinced it was necessary.

Giving credit to a past instructor I had in what was a class on critical thinking, there are a few questions I would have to ask. I would want to know who sponsored the race? How were the participants chosen? What were the ages and health of those that were chosen? I am not sure what was the reason for the ‘race’. I’m not nosey. I am just curious.

The short little video’s meaning can be just to point out the differences in students in a college program, to help them understand they are not there due to their own work of bringing in the grades needed to progress or to support some of the contestants in discovering their lack of parental support. I really don’t know for sure, but I know it certainly gave me things to think about and more questions.

Just because I like to point out that not all students are going to benefit in a college degree, I am adding this info that follows: Many people have begun to realize college isn’t for everyone. There are many careers that don’t require college but vocational school certificate. I believe there are still some careers that require apprenticeship training. Just saying….

I am just curious what your opinion of the video would be. Let me know. Contact me at DebbieWalker@townline.org with your comments. Thanks for reading.

REVIEW POTPOURRI: John Greenleaf Whittier

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Peter Catesby Peter Cates

John Greenleaf Whittier

After barely making ends meet for decades, Quaker poet/abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) hit paydirt in 1866 with the publication of Snowbound, an account of an 1800s family stuck inside the farmhouse during a beautiful blizzard and getting some quality time during its duration. I plan to write about him and other New Eng­land poets from his lifespan years in future columns, along with the sustaining of a commitment to Maine ones that has been on-going. The richness of the New England literary landscape in both its major and minor poets is beyond measure.

John Greenleaf Whittier

This week, I present several verses from another poem of Whittier’s, Amy Wentworth, in which he traces a heroine he modeled on those to be found in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, early colonial society of the 1600s, a group of people less Puritan than that of Boston, Massachusetts:

Her fingers shame the ivory keys
They dance so light along;
The bloom upon her parted lips
Is sweeter than the song.

O perfumed suitor, spare thy smiles!
Her thoughts are not of thee;
She better loves the salted wind,
The voices of the sea.

Her heart is like an outbound ship
That at its anchor swings;
The murmur of the stranded shell
Is in the song she sings.

She sings, and smiling, hears her praise,
But dreams the while of one
Who watches from his sea-blown deck
The icebergs in the sun.

She questions all the winds that blow,
And every fog-wreath dim,
And bids the sea-birds flying north
Bear messages to him.

She speeds them with the thanks of men
He perilled life to save,
And grateful prayers like holy oil
To smooth for him the wave.

Notice Whittier’s gifts as a storyteller in these verses and a general theme of true love!

For what it’s worth, before Whittier’s success with Snowbound, with which he made $10,000, he was supposedly quite lacking in social graces and wasn’t attracting the interest of women at all. After success, he was bombarded with marriage proposals and one woman went so far to buy a house next to his farm in Haverhill, Massachusetts, to have him within easy reach of her tempting tentacles.

GARDEN WORKS – Seeds of your dreams: Find joy in a seed catalog, Part 3 (H-N)

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Read part 1 here: Seeds from your dreams: Coming from a seed catalog to you, Part 1 (A-thru-E)
Read part 2 here: Seeds of your dreams, Part 2 (G-H)

Emily Catesby Emily Cates

The crackle of a cozy fire, the crinkling pages of a seed catalog, the whistling of the kettle bubbling with water for my tea— all creature comforts to accompany me as I search for treasures hidden within the pages. Whether it’s the black-and-white FEDCO catalog that stands out for its literary content as well as its seeds, the Johnny’s catalog brimming with full color photos, or the Pinetree catalog loaded with seeds and gift ideas, there’s sure to be something for everyone.

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at a few more seeds that in my opinion are worth finding as we search our catalogs. Let’s look at letters ‘H’ through ‘N’ this time. If you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to share them on our website or Facebook page, or email me at EmilyCates@townline.org.

Hyssop, anise – I was actually going to start at the letter ‘I’, but I realized I had almost forgotten about one of my favorite herbs of all time – anise hyssop. It’s related to neither anise nor hyssop, but is an herbal superstar in its own right. With mint-like leaves and cute, purple, spire-like flowers, this perennial herb begs all to make friends with it. The foliage and flowers taste delightfully sweet and licorice-like (in a good way!). Delicious herbal teas and confections await this special herb.

Indian Corn – I know I already mentioned corn in a previous article in this series, but the so-called Indian corn cultivars are a must for anyone who appreciates the beauty and historical value of this plant. Look for Abenaki Calais Flint, Hopi Blue, and Painted Mountain.

Juneberries – I have a few of these wonderful native fruiting shrubs planted right alongside the edge of my garlic patch and beyond. Think of a plant with a variable form – shrub- or treelike – that is one of the first to bloom in springtime. Then think of a juicy fruit with the appearance of a blueberry, with a taste reminiscent of a luscious mix of apples and almonds. That is a juneberry!

Kale – This trendy superfood might have peaked in popularity, but it really shines as a staple in every garden not only for its nutritional value, but for its ability to grow in the cold. When other plants have hunkered down for the winter or expired, kale just keeps on growing. It’s such a delight to harvest it during a December snowstorm, or to dig for it in the snow, like green treasure. It’s sweeter then, too. Look for a variety pack of kales and enjoy its diversity.

Lettuce – What’s a garden without lettuce? I, for one, can’t get enough of the flashy, frizzled, spotted, and speckled kinds. There’s such a stunning variety of kinds, I know I’ll never try them all and console myself with a dazzling variety pack of mixed types and colors. Lettuce, for the most part, prefers cooler weather and doesn’t mind a little shade where it can grow among other plants in the garden.

Melons – If you don’t mind a challenge, grow melons in Maine. With the right selection of short-season cultivars, a bit of compost, plenty of sunshine, and black plastic mulch, it just might work. Look for Golden Gopher, Prescott Fond Blanc, and Hannahs Choice. For exquisite watermelons, find Cream of Saskatchewan (my favorite), Moon and Stars, and Blacktail Mountain.

Nasturtiums – What is a garden or patio without nasturtiums? They look good wherever they grow. Not only are their leaves and flowers adorable, but they are delicious in a spicy, peppery way. Insect pests, however, don’t find them as palatable, and as a result, nasturtiums are often planted alongside other plants in the garden as a natural and aesthetically pleasing repellent. I like how a mix of trailing cultivars cascades over the side of a flowerpot, like a cheerful, colorful waterfall. Look for Alaska Mix, Empress of India, Jewel Mix, Tall Climbing Mix, Peach Melba, and Whirlybird 7-Color Blend.

Looks like that’s all the space we have for this time. I hope you have fun hunting for seeds. Let me know what you find!

Lovejoy Health Center welcomes Brandy LeClair

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Brandy LeClair, LCSW

The staff at Lovejoy Health Center will be welcoming Brandy LeClair, clinical social worker, to the practice this winter. With the addition of Brandy to the team, the practice is expanding its counseling services as patients have been pleased with the opportunity to work on issues such as managing a chronic condition and other life stressors and crises right at the health center. Brandy brings experience in outpatient, community and residential social work.

Brandy obtained both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in social work at the University of Southern Maine. Her areas of expertise include children and adolescent individual and group therapy.

Brandy recently shared, “I have decided to join the team at Lovejoy due to my passion for holistic care. Lovejoy provides an environment to combine medical and social work, which has great benefits for patients.”

Brandy will be joining clinical social worker Deb Daigle as well as physicians Dean Chamberlain and David Austin, physician assistant Bobby Keith, family nurse practitioners Kaitlynn Read and Keiko Kurita, and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner Marta Hall.

LEGAL NOTICES for Thursday, February 27, 2020

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STATE OF MAINE
PROBATE COURT
COURT ST.,
SKOWHEGAN, ME
SOMERSET, ss
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
18-A MRSA sec. 3-801

The following Personal Representatives have been appointed in the estates noted. The first publication date of this notice February 27, 2020

If you are a creditor of an estate listed below, you must present your claim within four months of the first publication date of this Notice to Creditors by filing a written statement of your claim on a proper form with the Register of Probate of this Court or by delivering or mailing to the Personal Representative listed below at the address published by his name, a written statement of the claim indicating the basis therefore, the name and address of the claimant and the amount claimed or in such other manner as the law may provide. See 18-C M.R.S.A. §3-804

2019-046-1 – Estate of WILLIAM B. BLOOM, late of North Anson, Me deceased. David Beane, 92 River Road, Benton, Me 04901 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-029 – Estate of HAROLD A. MATSON, late of Madison, Me deceased. Nicole Matson, 2017 State Route 46, Bucksport, Me 04416, Thomas Matson, 12 Skyview Avenue, Brewer, Me 04412 and Ryan Matson, 600 Newburgh Road, Hermon, Me 04401 were appointed Co-Personal Representatives.

2020-032 – Estate of GLORIA ANNE PARADISE, late of Skowhegan, Me deceased. Kimberly A. Gregor, 14 Pineview Avenue, Skowhegan, Me 04976 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-033 – Estate of WILLIAM DAVID LOMBARD, late of Fairfield, Me deceased. W. James Lombard, 18 Lilac Lane, Sandown, NH 03873 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-034 – Estate of GRACE L. STOCKFORD, late of Smithfield, Me deceased. Robert L. Stockford, 166 Mt. Tom Road, Smithfield, Me 04978 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-035 – Estate of HOWARD A. BURSON, late of Canaan, Me deceased. Elmer L. Holmes, 1955 Hill Road, Canaan, Me 04924 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-037 – Estate of ROBERT H. PFEIFFER, late of Solon, Me deceased. Sarah S. P. McCarthy, 371 Fern Street, Bangor, Me 04401 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-038 – Estate of RED GREEN, late of Embden, Me deceased. Anita Yvette Horne, 96 Bert Berry Road, Embden, Me 04958 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-040 – Estate of JOANNE PEARL CLARK, late of Skowhegan, Me deceased. Michael Clark and Deborah Clark, 74 Dr. Mann Road, Skowhegan, Me 04976 appointed Co-Personal Representatives.

2020-042 – Estate of MICHAEL L. LOVEJOY, late of Edgewood, MD 21040 deceased. Mary Ann Lovejoy, 303 Canoe Lane, Edgewood, MD 21040 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-045 – Estate of BERL ARNOLD GROVER, late of Madison, Me deceased. Beverly A. Grover, 176 Lakewood Road, Madison, Me 04950 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-046 – Estate of KEITH W. LAWLER, JR., late of Canaan, Me deceased. Ann M. Lawler, 545 Hinckley Road, Canaan, Me 04924 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-047 – Estate of HARVEY D. JOHNSTON, late of Palmyra, Me deceased. Estelle A. Johnston, 955 Warren Hill Road, Palmyra, Me 04965 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-048 – Estate of WALTER G. SCHERER, late of Fairfield, Me deceased. Stephanie Carter, 47 Howe Road, Fairfield, Me 04937 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-050 – Estate of CHRISTOPHER W. WALKER, late of Canaan, Me deceased. Karen E. Skinner Walker, 89 Battle Ridge Road, Canaan, Me 04924 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-055 – Estate of SUSAN ANN DIONNE, late of Skowhegan, Me deceased. Angelia Marie Makowski, 101 Quimby Road, Albion, Me 04910 appointed Personal Representative.

2020-057 – Estate of WAYNE L. CRUMMETT, late of Shawmut, Me deceased. Catherine R. Buker, PO Box 509, Hartland, Me 04943 appointed Personal Representative.

To be published on February 27 & March 5, 2020.

Dated: February 24, 2020
/s/ Victoria Hatch, Register of Probate
(3/5)

STATE OF MAINE
PROBATE COURT
41 COURT ST.
SOMERSET, ss
SKOWHEGAN, ME
PROBATE NOTICES

TO ALL PERSONS INTERESTED IN ANY OF THE ESTATES LISTED BELOW

Notice is hereby given by the respective petitioners that they have filed petitions for appointment of personal representatives in the following estates. These matters will be heard at 10 a.m. or as soon thereafter as they may be March 11, 2020. The requested appointments may be made on or after the hearing date if no sufficient objection be heard. This notice complies with the requirements of 18-A MRSA §3-403 and Probate Rule 4.

2020-028 – Estate of MICHAEL ALEXANDER LeROUX, adult of Anson, Me. Petition for Change of Name (Adult) filed by petitioner Michael Alexander LeRoux, 1060 Anson Valley Road, Anson, Me 04911 requesting his name be changed to Michael Andy Thompson Tronerud for reasons set forth therein.

2020-031 – Estate of BETHANY CAMPBELL CARLTON, adult of Fairfield, Me. Petition for Change of Name (Adult) filed by Bethany Campbell Carlton, 1 Crosby Street, Fairfield, Me 04937 requesting that her name be changed to Bethany Ellen Campbell for reasons set forth therein.

2020-049 – Estate of ASHLEY LEIGH DEARBORN, adult of Skowhegan, Me. Petition for Change of Name (Adult) filed by petitioner Ashley Leigh Dearborn, 6 East Maple Street, Skowhegan, Me 04976 requesting that her name be changed to Adisa Lucian King for reasons set forth therein.

Dated: February 24, 2020
/s/ Victoria Hatch, Register of Probate
(3/5)

FISHY PHOTO: Bassin’ through the ice

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Hunter Hallee, 13, of Rome, caught this bass while ice fishing on McGrath Pond, in Oakland, on Sunday, February 23, with his maternal grandfather, Terry Greenleaf, of Oakland, and Hunter’s sister, Megan.

Leap year baby celebrates eighth birthday

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Back in 1988, Aaron Conlogue, right, was born on February 29. Thirty-two years later, Aaron will be celebrating his eighth official birthday. His daughter, pictured with him at left, will be turning eight years old on April 30. So, they are both celebrating their eighth birthday in 2020. The third person in the photo is unidentified. (Contributed photo)

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS: You gotta have a plan

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Growing your businessby Dan Beaulieu
Business consultant

No matter how big or how small your business is you have to have a plan. Whether you are mowing lawns, plowing snow or making computer chips you have to have a plan. You have to know why you are starting the business. Who your customers are. Why they need your products or services. Who your competitors are and what are you going to do to be better than them, you have to have a plan.

Over the years I have helped a number of businesses get started and during that time I have developed this list of questions that, if answered carefully, thoughtfully, and completely, you will have your strategic business plan.

So, I thought it might be helpful if I posted those questions right here and now. I would urge you to use them to develop your own strategic plan. Here then are those questions. Please remember that this is not a true and false test. This is not a short answer test, this is not a test at all, but rather a series of questions to think about carefully. If you do that…in the end you will have a complete strategic business plan off of which you can run your company. If yours is a one person company then answer the questions alone, but if you have other people involved in the company, then talk about and answer these questions as a team. You’ll see that it will pay off in the end, and it will be your company business plan…not just yours.

PART ONE: THE COMPANY

1. The Company: A description of the company as it appears today.

Answer the questions:

a. Who are we?
b. What does the business do?
c. What category of product does it sell?
d. Is it a service business?
e. What do we do and why do we do it?
f. Why was the business started?
g. What niche or gap in the market does it fill?
h. What is the business philosophy?
i. Mission Statement?
j. Who started the business?
k. Who is involved in the business?
l. What extra personnel will the business need?
m. Where is it located?
n. Where does it do business?
o. What is the technology level?
p. What is the price level?
q. How do we make our money?
r. What is the quality level?
s. How do we assure that we have good quality services or products?
t. What are our strengths?
u. What makes us standout from the competition?
v. Why are we offering this service in the marketplace?
w. Are we sure there is a need?
x. Is it an unmet need?
y. What exactly is the specific niche we fill?

2. The Customers:

a. What image or position do we want our company to have with the customers?
b. What is the marketplace?
c. Is it defined in geographical terms or technological terms?
d. Who are our customers?
e. What do we know about them?
f. What do we do to find out more about them?
g. Who are our best potential customers and what do we know about them?
i. Why will they need us?
j. Why will they want to do business with us?
k. What do we want them to think of us?
l. What will they think we can do for them?
m. Are there any holes in the marketplace?
n. Who will we be compared to?
o. How will we show that we can fill our customers’ needs?
p. How will we convince our potential customers of this?

3. The Competition:

a. Who is our head to head competition?
b. What are our competitors’ strengths relative to us?
c. Why will people do business with them instead of us?
d. How can we counteract their strengths?
e. How will we get them to convert to our services and products?

4. Selling:

a. How will we promote ourselves? Paid advertising?
b. How will people get to know about us?
c. How will our selling be different from our competition?
d. How can we force “word of mouth”? Encourage it?
e. Should we have references?
f. Do we need a website?
g. How will customers find us? Contact us

5. Goals

a. What are our goals as a business?
b. Revenue goals?
c. Customer satisfaction?
d. Sales?
e. Growth year to year?

And that’s it. Now I know it looks daunting, but it’s really not. And I can guarantee that if you take the time and effort to completely answer these questions your new business will not only be launch but start to grow.