The Miracle of the Chairs

When I was growing up, my dad was the pastor of a small congregation. I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have a lay ministry. It wasn’t his day job. It was a temporary assignment that he wasn’t paid for. In our church he was called a Branch President. A Branch is a very small congregation of people. We rented out a local pre-school building on the weekends. He wanted the congregation to grow and he wanted to have enough people coming to church each Sunday that they would qualify to build a building and become a Ward (a larger congregation of people). To do that there was a certain number of people who had to be coming to church each Sunday. He decided that if he wanted to have that many people show up each Sunday, they had to have that many chairs set up for Sacrament Meeting (Sunday Services). He made sure that there were enough chairs to match the magical number of people, continued nurturing this little flock, prayed like it all depended on God, and watched the chairs fill up.

I go to church each Sunday in the building that was built and I’m a member of the Ward that the Branch became. He hasn’t led this congregation for decades, but he still calls it “The Miracle of the Chairs.”

I’ve been working on my Profit and Loss Statement for 2023. I am closer to breaking even this year but I’m still not in the black. So I’ve got all the receipts just incase I get audited.

I then set up my Profit and Loss Statement for 2024. I thought, “In 2024, I’d like 95% of my income to come from Writing and Illustrating Picture Books.” I realized, though, that I didn’t even have the revenue stream of Art Directors and Editors listed on my Profit and Loss Statement.

I’ve set up my P+L to calculate what percentage of my revenue each stream is. I wondered how much I would need to make from Art Directors and Editors to have it be 95% of my revenue. I added Art Directors and Editors and I added every other revenue stream that I had thought about but hadn’t earned money at: things like a YouTube channel or classes in my home. I added possible projects to my project tab and how much money I wanted to earn from each of the projects in 2024. And I kept adding until the revenue number was six figures. It’s still not calculating to 95% of my revenue, but it’s 6 Figures!

I learned that I need to sell 3 books this year and have 12 Cover Assignments or interior magazine pages. I’ll also need 3 other libraries that hire me to do a workshop and continue teaching at BIS and at Epoch, then start a YouTube Channel and get monetized and start teaching art classes in my home or at the Story Book House.

It was a mini business model right there on my Hopeful Profit and Loss Statement for 2024.

None of what I listed is out of the realm of possibility. It isn’t even over reaching what I could do if I focus, work hard and my efforts were combined with a bit of luck with the right connections.

My Hopeful Profit and Loss Statement become a Blue Print for my own Miracle of the Chairs.

When my goals are realized, I think I’ll rename it the “The Miracle of the Profit and Loss Statement”.