This is one of those blogs wherein you explain why you haven’t been blogging much.
Life happens. I’ve been busy with business, visiting Mom (who continues to decline day-by-day), and dabbling with a new play.
But mostly working.
At one point, we had eight editions of Coffee News and did all of our layout, all of our own printing, and none of our own delivery.
We had no life.
Since January of ’10, we’ve had four editions and done all of our own layout, all of our own printing, and most of our own delivery.
Still no life. And not much money.
Now, we’re not doing any of our own printing. Ah!
We’re doing a lot of delivery, still.
But we’re shedding the areas that aren’t working, and concentrating on more fully developing the areas that do.
We closed Huntersville in January. In two weeks, we’ll be closing the Kannapolis edition and publishing three huge editions.
Our Salisbury edition does great. All ad spaces are full, and there’s a bit of a waiting list.
Concord is doing great, and growing.
Mooresville is on the upswing.
By the end of October, we’ll be getting out of the delivery business — except for Salisbury (which is easy to deliver, since I live here and can handle it over two days).
This is just to say that we’re re-shaping the business. Rather than working to grow bigger markets, we’re working to more fully penetrate the markets we’re in. We want to create not only a successful business, but a better, more sustainable, more manageable business. One with reduced potential, but reduced costs (and pressure). One that is conducive to living an enjoyable life.
One that allows more time for writing.