Building a Business Chapter 7/6-7/12

This week in business 7.6-7.13

I took quite a few days off of this venture. Working very minimally on all aspects and it is coming to the point where I have a to-do list that is pretty long, and I just haven’t been able to really push through it. Things are piling up and this week is the week where I get a full-time dog plus another one that has come for a visit. A little bit of a life change and one where I have to spend time with this dog to train him correctly as he is coming to me untrained. My family coming for a visit will have me busy as well so I will see how it goes.

Let’s just give the times for the last few weeks where I have neglected these blogs. From 6/22-6/28 I worked for 404 minutes which was a good bounce back. Almost 7 hours worked and that was filled with content creation and looking up pricing for clients. A big jump in the month of June from the usual 200 minutes.

Back to the usual June numbers last week I put in four hours for this. Once again it is a small number that won’t be enough to grow this into what I want. I need to put much more time into it.

Which brings me to this week. One of the busiest weeks in the last few months. Visits, new lifestyle changes. One of the busiest times at work on top of that which will probably lead to lower opportunities to work on the side business. Even more important, a new college football video game comes out this week and there will be no doubt the game I play during my off time. So much so that it will be hard to put in the extra work to do any more than just maintaining the venture.

I am starting to think about what I need to buy to lower my taxable income for the new venture. I am looking to make a few thousand in taxable income but how can I minimize the payment out of pocket while I try to buy more tools for a bigger jump.

Some ideas are an increased marketing budget. If I pour some money into paid ads can I grow a bit more?

A new camera for park/cruise/hotel videos. Can it become more engaging to make some content like that. A small pocket camera is for $800 but would it be necessary to get something like that without the editing software that I need to splice the videos into a full video.

Which leads me into a monthly subscription to editing software again. I tried vlogging before, but it wasn’t very fun for me. As an introvert it just didn’t make sense. Making videos with a voice over discussing pricing and others could be fun but it is also unnecessary as I can make those with my phone. The increased quality could be fun though.

A quality microphone to pull audio away from my phone into an actual quality mic. This could be something I would like to have and could travel with me as I try and grow this more.

I think the marketing budget could be the best. It is something I really need to do to grow. Can I get more eyes on me?

A free disposable camera? Where after you get all those pictures for free to look through with your family. On top of cruise and castle credits. And an included photo album? That is a lot of freebes but could be a quality way to look back and have something TANGIBLE to look back on it with. It is in the mail coming my way. We will see how it goes.

I am glad I am writing these entries because I completely forgot about the cameras. This was a fun idea that I would like to expand on. This week is finally coming to an end so let’s wrap it up.

Time worked could have been better. I just didn’t have the fire in me last week with all of the stuff I had to do throughout the week. It was busy with visits, new dogs, busy times at work, and with all that stacked up on me, this got pushed down.

I did manage to have some wins. I changed my domain once again, the new website is now JourneysbyJD with the emphasis on travel, and my personal journeys through life.

I also posted daily but the views are back to the 200-300 view range. I still haven’t made a quote form. Push it to next week.

Here are my totals.

Monday: 51 minutes

Tuesday: 83 minutes

Wednesday: 50 minutes

Thursday: 21 minutes

After those days I took three days off and was just going from event to event and not sleeping well.  This was a total of about 200 minutes for the week. Not quite where I want to be at. It is just extending the amount of time necessary to make an impact. I am doing bare minimum, and I have to be honest with myself there. I could be doing so much more. I did get my largest paycheck as a travel agent. $1,500 for booking vacations for people. I loved that I took a chance to apply to this. An extra $1,500 is huge for me. I hope that it is just the beginning of this journey. If I pour more resources and more energy that it can grow even more.

It was a decent week, but not enough time dedicated to it for a difference to be made. I can do better next week, even if I get off to a bad start.