I have been on the road alot in the past 10 days and will be out and about again tomorrow. Since the Dave person is trying to find employment elsewhere, it's now up to me to get all the ads sold, then come home and build them. Yeah, it's getting tougher to make a living. And not just for us, for everyone. So I won't even begin to complain. We have our health, family and all the other important things. Many in this world don't.
What I will complain about it the rising price of gas. Again. It's ridiculous that our net income each month is determined by how much money we put out to get to work everyday. Some days it might cost you $5.00 in gas, the very next day it might cost you $7.50. And the balance of this equation lies with the powers to be? Not a bit fair is it?
My sister just lost a very dear friend to cancer and her obituary came out today. Reading through it, you realize how much Laurie disliked cars. She rode her bike everywhere. I have heard that the only time she drove her car to work, which was ONCE, she got a ticket. She even rode her bike to her chemotherapy and radiation treatments. It made me wonder just how much money that girl saved in her life by not driving a car everyday! Amazing.
I'm not sure I could get 10,000 copies of All Things Country Magazine delivered in two days to 20 counties riding a bicycle! No, I'll change that. I know I can't. But, if the cost of gas keeps rising, what are we all going to do? Go back to horse and buggies?
I would estimate that I have driven over 1,000 miles this month already - and there are 8 days left in the month. At $4.00 a gallon, that means I've burned up at least $140.00 in gas, not to mention wear and tear on the vehicle. If it goes up to $5.00 a gallon, I'll be spending a minimum of $175.00 on gasoline each month. Gosh, that's alot. And I'm not talking distribution in these numbers. Add those two days to the mix and it's just downright scary to think about how much we pay to deliver a free magazine each month.
The real bummer on all of this is that I haven't brought in any income in all of those miles. I've got several leads that I have to GO BACK to next week. You guessed it, more gas and mileage on the old trusty car. And I've had calls from several people wanting us to run free items for groups. You know, the newspapers does it, why can't we? Well, we don't charge 50¢ per copy for All Things Country. If I did, I could afford to give away free ads. We don't collect income from publishing legal notices. If I did, I could afford to give away several free ads each month. But, that's not the case. Every dime of income at All Things Country comes from us going out daily and pushing the magazine and it's advertising.
The great part of my business, traveling around visiting with people. The bummer part of my business, not being paid to travel around and visit with people. I am in the wrong business I guess. I should be involved in the tourism industry. I see posts from local tourism groups and all the traveling they do. One fellow posts his meals every day, all across the state of Kentucky. Maybe that's why I have NEVER gotten a reply from him regarding our magazine. He's always busy eating!
I could do that too, because as I'm traveling around searching out antique malls and craft stores and the like for advertising, we also have to eat. We've found some great spots to enjoy a meal over the years. Maybe it's time to start my own non-profit. I've been wanting to do a "Community Spirit" type of deal for quite a while anyway. I could even write advertising into the grant and help spread the word through our magazine. Hmmmm.
Well, it's time to get to work. With all the traveling I've been doing, it takes me a whole day just to catch up on office work. Today is that day.
Until next time..... have a blessed day.
Pam
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