I have quickly come to realize that the range of possible market avenues that I could explore far exceeds my time to do so. Plus, I’ve learned that this whole marketing and sales thing can be learned, but doing it on the job is a slow and painful process.
I’ve reached out to family and friends across the US and Canada. To a person, they were happy to learn of what I was doing and encouraged me. While several offered posts on their Facebook page or offered to show the Sample around, in the end no one had an interest or the time to do more. Totally understandable.
Since launching this effort, I knew that I’d need someone with real business experience if this was ever going to be more than a “hobby business”. At every opportunity, I’ve sought such a person or persons. I’ve been approached by an occasional earnest and talented recent college graduate already interested in marketing, advertising or sales. A few others have taken calendars to show when they headed south for the winter. I’ve also begun to look for actual independent sales agents with only partial success.
The most often repeated advice from people, who know such things, is that once I am selling in the range of 1,000 to 2,000 a year, the help I need will appear. It is all about showing that real money can be made with this product.
So now that it looks like sales of the 2018 edition will hit that mark, I’m hopeful that a team member or even a partner will soon be found.
