Quick Update

Wow, no time for blogging lately...

We seem to have stalled out in growth at approx $550 per day, with our record day at just over $700. Graphing our daily sales over a number of weeks shows that we have plateaued...
Our plan has been to grow on word of mouth, then advertise when we go flat on the growth curve. We have 18,000 daytime workers in a one mile radius of us. We are going to have several thousand fliers printed and we are going to start hitting parking lots in the area, as well as office lobbies with the fliers. We are going to start with all the buildings closest to us, then spread out over time.
We are still going to hold off on the paid advertising via print media, due to the high cost. It is unbelievable how much it costs to put an ad in the paper or on radio! I am also going to take photos of the shop, along with some graphic arts and create a multimedia presentation that can be saved to disk. I want to keep it short, maybe two minutes, and pass out the CD's to some of the largest office buildings around here. we have also developed a customer database of about 1000 email addresses (we collect email addresses via an entry form for a free half pound of coffee that we give away in a drawing every Friday). I can send the presentation out via email to all of our customers who have participated in our drawings, and ask them to forward it to others in their company/department/school/etc... It has been over 100 degrees for the last week or so. Would it motivate you to get a photograph of an iced caramel swirl latte via email??? WooHoo!!

We are very pleased, though, with where we are. It is stressful to be working so hard and not be able to pay ourselves anything, but at the same time, $550 per day in revenue as an average after only three months in business without advertising is quite impressive.

I received my business cards for the photography side of things. They came out really nice and lots of them have been going out the door with customers. I did a senior portrait session on Monday, a portrait session for a couple on Tuesday, leased the studio to another photographer on Thursday, and I invoiced for event photography this week for a previous event. That is $470 invoiced this week (does not include the senior portraits, as we still have outdoor sessions to complete) for the photo ops. As I build this business, it will help our overall bottom line.

A number of friends have said they want to have family portraits done once I get the photography studio up and running. Well, as of Monday July 16, it is set up and operational! If you are reading this and were one of those people, give me a call to schedule an appointment. The studio number is 719-635-2946.

In the meantime, I also made significant progress on the rental house. I got the front yard landscaping under control, pulling enough weeds to fill five huge contractor lawn and garden bags packed tightly. I also purchased new PVC picket fence sections, although I am not going to install them until later so they don't get broken by the punk teenagers in the area. I also finished hanging all the drywall and brought in some help with the taping/mudding the seams (thanks so much Ted!). I tore up 500 sq ft of carpet in the basement living room and one bedroom. I pulled up the heavy duty pad and scraped the concrete floor clean of adhesive, and am almost finished pulling up the tacky strip and the base trim. I picked up the wood flooring from Lumber Liquidators and have it staged at the house.
Next steps are to paint downstairs, install the wood flooring in the living room and one bedroom, and install tile flooring in the new bathroom, and paint in there. Then I can install the new vanity, toilet and linen closet. I also cut down some 25 foot tall trees that grew behind my wood shop. They were about 6" in diameter trunks. One tree top did not fall in the direction of my wedge because it got snagged on a branch from an adjacent tree. It slowly started falling in the direction of the city utility power line going to the meter for the shop. I ran towards the shop, jumped - pushing off the shop wall with my feet, and grabbed the top portion of the tree which was falling and was at about a 45 degree angle, slowly headed for the power line. My plan was to pull it out away from the shop, free it from the snagged branch, and let it fall where I wanted. I pushed off the shop wall so hard that my force, along with the weight of the top of the tree, snapped the remaining part of the trunk that was attached. Instead of my hanging by the tree, I shot straight back away from the shop at about 8 feet in the air. I landed flat on my back, knocked the wind out of myself, and then took a shot to the abdomen from the top of the tree that fell on me. Good thing I'm in good shape... I was back to work in about two minutes, but I had some sore shoulders for a few days, along with an abrasion and a huge bruise on my rib cage from the tree trunk that landed on me. I wish I had it on video... I bet it looked really cool (or stupid, maybe). I used to do crazy stuff all the time, but not so much anymore. I know it sounds weird, but I actually liked bouncing off the ground, knocking the wind out of myself, and sporting a big ole bruise (proudly). I know 42 year olds shouldn't enjoy that or think that way, but I thought it was pretty cool... I no longer live life on the edge like I did for so many years... Anyone who knows me will understand and know exactly what I am talking about.

Well, I have to run. I have burritos to finish, and a few shop closing items to do. Then I have to head home and finish packing. We are going camping outside Woodland Park tomorrow morning. It is only one night in a tent, but it will give Josh, Jonah, and Ethan a little bit of adventure... We haven't had many adventures this summer since we opened the shop...

Take care, and God Bless!

"...but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, good character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

In other words, God says for us to enjoy our difficulties, because it makes us stronger in character via perseverance, and gives us hope for better days. This hope is resolved through the Holy Spirit, which dwells within us and gives us God's strength to endure...

Extra credit for anyone who can tell me where this is in the bible!