Today wasn't the best day to say the least, it started out well, but now I feel like crap. My first few classes went well, we pretty much had giant discussions all through Government and English, Finance was pretty much a giant waste of time (seriously, we haven't learned ANYTHING about how to manage money), and French was pretty much spent shivering. I should probably mention that despite the fact I attend school in one of the most affluent school districts in the country, apparently 30 year old air conditioners and leaky pipes continue to be the norm. Today was rainy and pretty cool, yet, because we haven't reached "heating season" the school cannot turn on the heaters, so despite having a high of about 65, the AC ran full blast cooling the room to pretty much 45, not fun. Yet despite this ordinary, draining day, what I got to do after school turned an average day into a truly unpleasant one.
Though I haven't mentioned it for a while, I'm one of the Ad and business managers at my school's newsmagazine an done of our jobs is to try and get local businesses to place ads in our paper. This year, we had a quota of about $2,000 per issue which in any year apart from 2008 to the present would be easy peasy, but because the world is in a giant economic meltdown this is no longer the case. Tomorrow is deadline day, meaning, we have to finalize everything for the first issue, and the grand total for the hours spent over summer break, after school and in class making over 600 phone calls, mailing out over 450 letters, sending out over 600 emails and designing multiple custom ads free of charge resulted in a grand total of $889.75 for this first issue. This time last year, the paper was making about double this which gives you an idea of just how hard the economy is sucking right now. What's even worse is that me and my partner's grade depends largely on how much money we raise which means we are not in great shape, our only hope now is that sending out another batch of about 150 letters will reel in some more money into our dwindling reserves.
Sorry if I sound rather angry/cranky/emotional right now, the last four hours of staying after school pretty much drained any remaining energy I had and has left me with a massive headache. As for the cherry on top to finish off the day, tonight I have to take two quizzes online, read a chapter in my Physics textbook, finish Calculus homework and study for a test I have tomorrow. Now please excuse me so I can drown my frustration and sorrow in a giant mug of hot chocolate, that makes everything better.
Question of the day-
What's your beverage of choice?
It can be anything - hot, cold, carbonated, exotic etc.
All the best,
Phil
Happy Thanksgiving!
3 weeks ago
Well I hope things get better soon and to help cheer you up I got a pic too
ReplyDeletehttp://www.posingguys.com/089/images/1.jpg
Schools are like that all the world mate. It is unfortunate that com,on sense very rarely prevails in these situations.
ReplyDeleteOn the AD front, my advice there would be to (If you haven't got one already)put together a little sales package, kind of like a resume for your paper. Put in it what your prices are for the ads etc, do a couple of mockups with a brief description of each. Then go out and hit the local kids stores, skate shops, cloths stores,eateries, etc. Show them the that their ad can get a captured audience. But most importantly talk to them face to face. It is a lot harder to say "No" to someone when they are standing right in front of you.
Courage and Honour!
Octavius.
Octavius - We actually do exactly what you suggest! Our school has a nationally ranked newspaper and whenever we mail out something, it always consists of an information packet (size of school, % students who have jobs, etc) a rate card, two Ad contracts and an old issue of the newspaper so they have an example of our past work. I would love to be able to actually go out and meet with potential clients because as you said it is much harder to say "no" directly into someones face, but I believe there are rules and regulations which say we technically aren't allowed to do that. But thanks for all the advice! Maybe you should go into the business world if aren't already are.
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