It’s been a busy two weeks with lot of goodness. The buffer is back, my jewelry business had the December it needed, and I’ve had lots of time off with my family. In the last four weeks I’ve also made lots of business planning progress and been taking an awesome online class.
The best news is that the personal financial buffer for my business is back! Over the last year my insurance company, Regence, went from being totally awesome to being greedy jerks. They brought in a third party company, CareCore National, that decided my massage therapy for my Fibromyalgia wasn’t “medically necessary” because I did not show signs of improvement. That’s chronic illness! To top it off, it was an Acupuncturist who reviewed my case and overruled coverage of the care prescribed to me by my doctor, an M.D. WTF?!? Best I can figure, they just flat out didn’t want to pay benefits for expensive chronic care patients and this was their loophole. They refused me use of the remaining massages in my plan, so I had to pay out of pocket most of the year. I am still beyond pissed about this situation. Needless to say, I planned to switch my insurance as soon as possible. In October or so I was chatting with the super nice office manager at my awesome massage therapy place (can you tell I like it there? 😉 ) about my frustration with the extremely limited information shown for the various insurance plans on the state’s health plan finder website. None of them showed any specific information regarding massage therapy! She suggested looking into an insurance broker and that suggestion changed everything. I got the name of a broker, and she suggested a couple plans. I now have the best private insurance plan I’ve ever had (at least by the numbers). If everything turns out as it should, this plan will save us hundreds of dollars a month. The buffer is back! Yay!
As for the rest, I was hoping for Etsy sales at least as good as last year and I made it happen. I also got really organized, figured out the possible conventions and shows for 2015, and filled out several applications. I started taking another free CreativeLive class on Dec. 1st that has had a significant, positive impact for me personally and will hopefully have the same impact for my business. I won’t go into detail about the class now because it would be waaaay too much content, but whether through it’s own dedicated post(s) or spread out over others, I’ll definitely be sharing about it in the future. Last, but not least (most importantly, actually), I’ve had virtually a full week off with my hubby (and Joxer) during his vacation, as well as visits from my in-laws and brother-in-law over the Christmas holiday. It has been much needed and enjoyed. I also plan to take New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day off with my hubby. Then it’s on to 2015!
I hope you had a wonderful holiday, and if I don’t write again before then, have a happy New Year! 😀
–Amy
