{"id":1782,"date":"2009-02-15T07:57:15","date_gmt":"2009-02-15T12:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/?p=1782"},"modified":"2009-02-15T07:57:15","modified_gmt":"2009-02-15T12:57:15","slug":"1782","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/1782\/","title":{"rendered":"The time consuming part of my job"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My brother Jerry is a hoot.\u00a0 He knows I\u2019ve been stressing this week trying to get the March Horizons Magazine done on time, and it has to be to press by sunset tonight.\u00a0 He is always offering to help me.\u00a0 Cancer male that he is, his nurturing nature wants to lighten my load.\u00a0 So he emailed me this early morning and asked what version of Adobe InDesign I use to layout the magazine.\u00a0 He is a whiz at learning new software, and he has a real intuitive gift for it.<\/p>\n

But I answered him back and said \u201cSomeone having InDesign doesn’t help me.\u00a0 Layout is a breeze and is maybe only 20% of the job.\u00a0 The time consuming part is me getting through all the emails. Like I have 207 emails to go through now but none of them are for the March Horizons, so I’ll start on them when the mag is done.\u00a0 I usually only run about 100 behind but I’ve got a bunch of address changes for the newsletter all waiting for me now, too.<\/p>\n

The emails are either asking about ads, or the emails contain ads I copy and paste into layout and then format.\u00a0 The time consuming part is answering the phone all day while trying to download the emails, and for people who don’t have email, I take their ad over the phone unless they mail it early enough to arrive before deadline.<\/p>\n

Half the calls go to voice mail starting about the 8th of the month and then I have to find time to take the voice mail off.\u00a0 I don’t have anyone else check the voice mail, I do it myself. Friends know not to call to chat between the 5th and 25th.<\/p>\n

Another big time consuming part is every day getting the mail at the post office.\u00a0 I separate the mail as it comes in as bills to be paid, review copies and then everything else.\u00a0 The bills go into my desktop flip calendar on the date I need to order their check.\u00a0 The review copies of books and cds go in the back office to be logged in later. I haven’t logged any in for maybe 3 months.\u00a0 They don’t go on the shelf or get played until they get logged in.<\/p>\n

Every few days I have to pay a bill that is in the calendar, and I have 41 monthly bills right now, I just counted.\u00a0 I don’t keep extra money in the checking account because what goes in, goes right out again each month for expenses.\u00a0 That means I have to make sure the money is in the account by the time I have to pay the bill.\u00a0 So that means 3-4 times I week I have to drive a deposit to the bank, a one hour round trip since I always combine errands when I’m out, post office, market.<\/p>\n

So then in the daily mail, people send me their address changes and their ads by mail, so I have to open them as they come in to make sure the sender included all the info.<\/p>\n

Then there’s the daily emails of people inquiring about ads or emailing to tell me they like Horizons or people asking for demographics or people trying to sell me something or convince me they should get their ad for free or wanting to schedule readings.\u00a0 I get a lot of calls asking to be referred to someone or somewhere for this and that.<\/p>\n

The people who ask for a copy of Horizons, I put one in the mail to them.\u00a0 I get half a dozen of these a week.\u00a0 When I see a Paypal receipt for an mp3 file, I email the buyer back with the mp3 file download instructions. I know this is a redundant step and I could bypass it, but I use it as a way to let them know I received it, and am answering them personally.\u00a0 When someone gives me money, I want them to feel acknowledged for it right away.\u00a0 I know I like mine to be acknowledged.<\/p>\n

A lot of callers don’t have email and I sit with them and figure out what their ad should say and how many phone directory lines does that come to and how much is that?\u00a0 If I am creating an ad for someone, I create it in Indesign, then I print it to a pdf file. Then I open the pdf in Photoshop and convert it to a small jpg file to email to them.\u00a0 I may do several of these a day.\u00a0 When they approve the ad, I take it back into Photoshop and convert it to a 200 dpi CMYK tif to place on the page in the magazine file in Indesign.<\/p>\n

When I get a new advertiser, I enter all their info into a card in my bookkeeping program MYOB.\u00a0 I create an invoice for them and make it recur every month.\u00a0 I have about 200 that go out each month.\u00a0 It keeps track for me who has paid a year in advance for their subscriptions and when I need to bill them for their renewals.\u00a0 It keeps track for me who has paid for their display ad 6 months in advance and when I need to bill them for renewal.\u00a0 Same for the calendar and phone directory and classified ads.\u00a0 One client may have 4 ads that all expire on different months, so it keeps track of when I should bill for each renewal.\u00a0 So although it’s just one advertiser, it’s 4 jobs to the system and to me.\u00a0 I have dozens of those.<\/p>\n

Everyone who has paid gets on the subscription list and people email and mail me with renewals cancellations and address changes.\u00a0 For each I make the change in the bookkeeping program, on their invoice, on the recurring invoice, and on the subscription label itself.\u00a0 Every few months, I call the churches and stores to make sure they are getting the right number of magazines each month and to make sure they are still open.\u00a0 The post office does not let me know.<\/p>\n

Ah, the post office, it now takes me 3 days for the mailing when they deliver the magazines.\u00a0 About 6,000 are mailed in stacks of 25 and 50 to locations where I have no drivers and that is the cheapest way to get it to them.\u00a0 They get mailed out of the bulk mailing facility that has rules for sorting, bagging, labeling, weighing and pricing.\u00a0 We put the stacks of 25 and 50 mags each into approved polyvinyl mailers, and label them by zone and zip code.<\/p>\n

So two full days ahead of mailing I am doing the post office paperwork of how many sacks weighing how much are going to which zone and what is the rate I used to calculate it and updating labels, putting them in the order that helps me bundle them correctly into the mail sacks, and label them and hope Gerald\u2019s truck is available and drive them to the post office.<\/p>\n

It’s about 150 sacks a month right now, weighing about 30 pounds each.\u00a0 The day of mailing, I\u2019m helped by Beth, Sally, Julie, Melanie and Gerald . I am done with the post office by 2:00pm usually.\u00a0 Then I just need to drive it to Cassadaga and everyone else drives it everywhere else.<\/p>\n

Before the post office rules changed, it used to take me half a day to update and prepare the labels, and 3 hours to get the stacks of magazines ready for the post office to pick up.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s 3 days.<\/p>\n

I’m not complaining here, I’m just letting you know what the time consuming parts of my job are and why you having InDesign doesn’t help me.<\/p>\n

Ok I sat down here at 5:00 to do a quick blog post and go back to bed and now it’s 7:11am, maybe I’ll just let this be today\u2019s blog post…\u201d<\/p>\n

How lazy is that?\u00a0 Actually using that email as today’s blog post?\u00a0 Wait, it\u2019s not lazy!\u00a0 Today is a day of rest.\u00a0 Even though I will be working later, it is only because last week I spent much time goofing off one day making Facebook posts with friends when I should have been more focused.\u00a0 So since time is an illusion anyway, simply man\u2019s mental construct, I\u2019m trading that day for this.<\/em><\/p>\n

And now, I\u2019m headed for a nap for a few hours before getting up to finish the magazine and it will be done in perfect time.\u00a0 It always is.\u00a0 Synchronistic how it all works out, huh?\u00a0 Almost, as if the Universe were watching out for me or something\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

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