June is t-shirt month

May is Scotch month.  A whole month dedicated to Scotch – not the proverbial me (that part of me died a few weeks ago) – but to the fire-water of my ancestral home, the birth place of my father and his father before him.  I was fortunate last week to taste a wonderful bottle of double wood Scotch (stored in oak then sherry casks) with two friends and I’ll admit that I liked it.  I’ve been a big fan of bourbon over the past year, but I feel that I’ve moved on to tastier endeavours.  Enough about Scotch – did you know that June is t-shirt month?

In celebration of ‘t-shirt month’ I will be making t-shirts and selling them – one hundred percent of the proceeds (not profits, but everything) will go to charity.  I’ve been thinking about the writing and phrasing on the t-shirts for a while now but I will need some help from artistically inclined friends to flesh out the design.  I know that a few people have been waiting very patiently for me to get the lead out of my ass and to start making them – they will be ready in June.  :)

So two questions remain – which charity and who wants to help?

Alumni – The Problem

Well I was going to write about seasonal changes, being let down about a green winter, and some personal updates but now I’ve taken on a more poignant topic – Dealing With Alumni.

Here’s how it started – a post on LinkedIn in regards to the amount of funding that actually goes to the Alumni Association (A.A.) at the University of Guelph.

The First Post

Of course, I was curious – just how much money goes to the University of Guelph Alumni Association?  The answer – a small fee.  Well that was obvious, but just how much?

Let’s do the math (rough numbers) – $110 for a print directory, $70 for a cd option 1, and $30 for cd option 2.

To date there have been approximately 20,000 people who have updated their contact information out of the supposed 100,000 active members.  Let’s assume that 20% bought cd option 1 – since it’s the middle option – 20,000 * 20% * $70 = $280,000 in revenue.  And the University of Guelph Alumni Association receives…..a small fee.

Hold on a second here…..you mean that there are cross selling opportunities for Harris Connect (the third party that is soliciting alumni info and selling the directory to said alumni)?  Oh wait an opportunity to sign up for People Magazine – see link here.  So let’s add in this additional revenue – 20,000 * 20% * $117 = $468,000 in revenue.  And the University of Guelph Alumni Association receives….a small fee.

Now let’s take a look at the cost to the University of Guelph Alumni Association in terms of actual cost and economical cost.

Upfront fee – $0

Subjugating their alumni to high pressured sales tactics to cover the cost of two post card mailings, a few unsolicited phone calls and acquiring alumni info from telemarketing companies – buying lists – (we know that at least 20,000 post cards went out)

(($1.50 * 2) + ($15/10)) * 20,000 = $90,000

(cost of post card and mailing) + (cost of call centre and staffing per hour/ calls per hour) * 20,000 alumni

I have to go now but I’ll finish this post later on and flesh out the argument.  In the mean time I have posted an Alumni Association rep and my comments below:

One Alumni Association reply

 

Scotch's Post

Shirking Responsibility

In the past, I’ve found ways to shirk responsibility.  It all started with girls.  In fact, one girl in particular in high school.   There I was, standing there minding my own business when this girl walks up to me in the cafeteria and says with the utmost conviction and gumption “We have slept together.”

Stunned silence on my part.  I believe my mouth was hanging open as I stared at her, looking her up and down.  My first thought was – who the hell are you?  Honestly, I had never laid eyes on her in high school and I knew that I didn’t go to elementary school with her.  My second thought was – please god no, do not let her be pregnant!

The next words out of her mouth were, “In fact, we have shared a bed together on many occasions.”  My stance changed to the defensive, peering deep into her eyes and thinking “I have no clue who you are” then glaring at the few people who had gathered around us, seeing if I could garner any clues as to her identity.

Nothing.

A cold sweat permeated my body.  More people were looking over at our small group; pointing, whispering.  I fully expected someone to wheel in a baby carriage and for her to launch into the full blown antics that I had witnessed on Jerry Springer – only this time there was no Steve to break things up.  I knew I had to do it.  I never imagined that at the age of 17 I would be in this situation.

“I’m terribly sorry, we may have slept together, but I seem to have forgotten your name.”

Thank you Jennifer.  It turns out that we had slept together.   On many different occasions.  And we thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company and played with each other for hours.

As toddlers.  Over 15 years ago.

Jenn had just switched over to my high school and her mom had told her to look me up.  We had a few mutual friends that were in on it and from that point on I never looked at women and responsibility the same way again.  I figured that I had dodged one bullet, so let’s see how many others I can dodge.

It took me another 12 years to figure out that my behaviour was hurting not only myself, but those that I cared about as well.  I had created this wonderful behavioural pattern around shirking responsibility – being accountable to no one except myself (and I was not hard on myself either) and it was beginning to show to those around me.  I had started the 31 Day Sprint as a way to hold myself publicly accountable for my successes and failures and it was not until today when I fell back into my old habit that I realized that something more drastic had to be done (hence this post).

I’ll admit that right now I’m struggling with the shift in focus from marketing activities to sales activities.  I know that this week and next week I will overachieve on my daily numbers but it will be the weekly numbers that will hurt the most – units sold, sales volume (in terms of $$), and income (%age).  I will fail miserably at achieving a sustainable level of sales activities to translate into income.  I expect this failure knowing that I will use it to learn and adapt and figure out a way to turn it into a success.

I’ve been in business too long for myself without having to produce a weekly income that drastic measures have to be taken – I have no choice but to continue to break my behavioural pattern.  Wednesday morning when I wake up I will do the two things that I fear most – only because these two activities will help me become successful – workout for an hour and call my clients and business associates.  I’ve relied far too long on technology (email, social media, etc) and I’ve been content with the mediocre results for far too long.  Now is the time to overachieve.  Now is the time to get results.

Hard numbers for today – 67 (12 over daily average)

Marketing – 62
Sales – 3
FLH – 2 (0 fitness, 1 hobby, 1 life)

When I wake up, it will be a new day.  I relish the opportunity for another woman to give me the opportunity to dodge more bullets – just not when it comes to those that I care about most.

31 Works Days

The hard numbers:

• 1569 marketing points
• 22 fitness points
• 7 life / hobby points
• 1598 points!
• 5,927.27% productivity increase from the first week to the last week
• Weekly average points increased from 2.2 per day to 133

Overall, I feel pretty damn good.  So good that I made a wee presentation for you!

In case you didn’t take a look at the presentation, yes I’m doing another 31 days of excitement.  However, the focus this time around is not on marketing, but on sales.  I will be tracking marketing, FLH (fitness, life, hobbies), and sales, but the majority of my focus will gradually shift from marketing to sales.  The best part is, the next 31 Day Sprint (aka The 62 Day Sprint) starts today!

On that note, I will leave you with a quote:

“Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

-Unknown

Weekly Photo Challenge: Opportunity

Opportunity!

I’ve always found that children provide the best opportunity.  Most of the time, I act as a troubleshooter / problem-solver for entrepreneurs and when I’m confronted with a challenging issue, I set aside some time to get with those who are the most creative and who continuously break down barriers setup by others – children.  They will ignore warnings, break the rules, and question everything that they see around them.  What adults understand to be a rule (such as ‘the sun sets in the west’), children question with “why?” and refute vague and unintelligible answers (such as ‘because that’s the way it is.’)

The story behind this picture is pretty simple – I was camping with a few friends and one of them had this bike.  Benjamin, upon seeing the bike, immediately wanted to ride it.  He started fiddling with it – playing with the handles,  inspecting different parts and spending an inordinate amount of time around it.  Eventually we hoisted him up, got him decked out, turned it on and let him rev it at 8am much to the surprise of the other campers.  Needless to say, ear to ear grin the rest of the day.

Meet Benjamin

One Year Ago…

It was a little over one year ago when I made the rash decision to break out of the funk that I was in and take action.

I let all of my business connections know that I would be heading overseas, packed up two bags and flew over 10,000 miles to Sendai, Japan.  It took me weeks to get into a work routine and sleep pattern that allowed me to work on Toronto time and still enjoy day trips on the weekends.  It took even longer to find a steady stream of income that would allow me to continue to live there.  Do I miss it?  Hell yes.  Would I go back?  Not quite yet.

Well enough about the past – onto the present!

• 132 marketing points
• 3 fitness points (90 minute run – thank you Seth Godin!)
• 1 life point

A quick note on the life point for today.  For the first time in seven years I sat down at the piano and played.  It felt great!  I’ve gone online and found some music books and I will be going through those this weekend to find some new pieces to learn.

Right now I am physically exhausted, mentally fatigued and looking forward to a good nights sleep.  Tomorrow is going to be exciting!