Kick Start

I received my first donation for the Breast Cancer 3-Day. Thanks, Dad!

I'm starting my official marathon training on Monday.

I'm thinking about having a certain amount from each client session fee (from now until October 1st) serve as a donation. I just haven't decided what amount, and if I want it to come from the session fee or from the portrait order.

Yesterday, I had a big chunk of the day to myself, with big plans. Olivia was at school until 3:00, Natalie was at Gigi and Grandpa's doing school, and Parker had school until 2:30.

Before I even got out the door in the morning with Olivia and Parker, to take Olivia to school, I received a call from an ad. rep. asking if I would accept the position as the only photographer on the front cover of the new Ada-area phone book. This costs me an additional fee, besides the big amount I'm already paying for my ad inside the book. I accepted, because I did see the results of my phone book advertising last year, and the advertising (expensive as it is) does pay for itself with just a few good clients (especially senior sessions).

Then, as soon as I got home and started on one of my business tasks that had to get done yesterday, I received a call from another ad. rep. with another phone book company that I turned down last year. I worked a good deal for the book ad and online, so it cost me less than what they wanted for just the online last year.

Anyway, both of the ad. rep. calls took a long time. Plus, I had to send some files with the logo, etc. Then, I received a call from a woman I met last weekend (by chance). She is a small business owner (massage), and she wants to do some dual marketing and also for me to display in her shop. Her call was about an opportunity with a commercial project for another local small business. The massage lady is part of a barter group, and the job was being offered/requested through that group. I said I would be interested, and she gave me the contact info. for the guy who runs the group. I called him and we scheduled a coffee shop meeting for 1:30.

I knew the guy who runs the group, because Jeremy used to live with him a long time ago. I hadn't seen him in a long time, except for his photo in advertising, because he's in real estate and several other businesses. Anyway, the meeting went well, and I said I would join. Now, I'm sort of doubting that I will get enough offers for my service for it to be worth my monthly membership fee for the group. I'll just give it a 3-month trial and see if it's worth it to me.

After our meeting, I picked up Parker. He was asleep on the carpet when I went in to get him. The teachers apologized and said they wore him out and they had been playing outside. I was worried he might be sick, because he would never fall asleep at school like that. When I woke him up to carry him out, he said, "Mommy, I'm sick." He was. He was really, really hot by the time we got home after picking up Olivia, and he said he was going to throw up.

I didn't get much sleep last night, and I'm trying to catch up on the priorities that didn't get handled yesterday because of the interruptions to my plans by ad. reps. and other new opportunities.

So, lots going on for me with the business, and I need to wrap things up so I can kick start client sessions for the year and start making money again!