Must.Stop.Procrastinating

My current project is for a client that has a banana plantation and wishes to expand the hectares under cultivation and increase exports to South Africa. I'm having a terrible time getting motivated to finish the client's business plan so that we can start fundraising for the project.

The first problem is that this banana thing is an old project, not something new and exciting. This person was one of our very first clients, and he had some serious trust issues in the beginning about giving us the details of his business. Understandable. We were a new company and this client has never worked with consultants before. After about a year "developing" our relationship, the client finally decided to hand over the information necessary to create a business plan. We still lack several key pieces of information to finish the job, however, and coordinating with this client is not at all easy.

To be fair, however, we haven't pushed very hard to get this info as there is no formal deadline to finish this person's project. This is the second problem, the lack of a schedule to get the job done. No grant application deadline, no IFC-funded 30-day job period, no production start date by which we need to have funds secured. Nothing. I find it unbelievably hard to work when I'm not faced with a deadline, and am a master at just pushing my work back as much as possible. The client is not overly concerned as their company has enough funds already to start the expansion project on their own. They don't have enough funds to take it to the leve they envision - that's where we come in - but it's not like the client is idly waiting to start the project while we trot after money.

Speaking of money, the third problem has to do with exactly that. Since this client was one of the first clients Rico and B. secured upon starting this consulting gig 2 years ago, an atypical arrangement was reached. Since we did not have a track record as consultants (and because this client had never worked with consultants before), Rico and B. decided to waive any initial fees for our work and only charge a percentage on whatever funds we eventually are able to raise for the project. This was a necessary strategy in the beginning to get clients to sign on for our services, thereby enabling us to establish a good name for ourselves in Mozambique. Most of these initial clients had short projects that are already completed. But this particular client's project has dragged on, and on, and on.

The end result of this all is that we are working for free on a project that just creeps forward, trying to be disciplined enough to finish the business plan so that we might have a chance at a payday. It's especially hard to be dedicated to this project when we have other job opportunities out there with clients that will pay today.

I've given myself the next week to sit down and crank out as much of this banana business plan as possible, but God have I been procrastinating. I really must get it together and work. I feel a big obligation to this client, even if it is just to protect our reputation and deliver a finished project.

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In other news, I bought a bag of large pearl tapioca at the Indian grocery store last week. It looked really cool on the shelf, but now I'm at a loss as to what to do with it. All the recipes I've found online are either for bubble tea or involve instant tapioca. I'm interested in making a savory dish, although I'm open to a sweet pudding or something as well. Anyone have any suggestions? Monkey, Non Vocabulum - I'm really hoping one of you has some fabulous idea for what to do with this tapioca...