Back To Blogging…Finally!

December 9, 2006
Weblogs
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To begin, I want to apologize to all the loyal readers who occasionally check out this blog site and have found little if any updates during the past many weeks. I’d like to be able to tell you I’ve been on some extended hunting trip that has taken me to many exotic locations hunting a wide variety of species…but alas, the truth is I have not done nearly as much hunting as I would have liked to accomplish. It’s a problem directly related to my business…and this year it has been worse than ever.

You see, I have this little problem. I own a marketing business that produces and markets a wide array of calendars to businesses who purchase them for advertising purposes. It’s a great gig…been working at it now for about 18 years. The problem is I try to do it all myself…I’ve been resisting the temptation to hire any employees. My wife says that has to change for next year…and I guess she is probably right as I have promised to hire an assistant for next year.

During the months of October thru about Mid-December I commonly put in 14 to 16 hour days (often including the weekends) doing everything from customer contact, order processing and the accounting activities necessary for the business…and it becomes a daunting task for one person to handle. But I work through it…the problem is this year my hunting and my blogging efforts have suffered tremendously. That is my biggest regret.

To complicate matters, I guess it was back in early August when I first learned that my farm was being considered as the host site for the Minnesota Governor’s Deer Hunting Opener held last month. I jumped at the opportunity realizing chances like this only come around once in a lifetime. During the weeks leading up to the event, this meant several meetings with DNR personnel, the Governor’s security staff and others to pull all the logistics together. I confess…I became overwhelmed keeping my business afloat and gearing up for this big event. I soon resigned myself to the fact my fall season would consist of one big outdoor event held on November 4th…and a lot of work in my office.

Please understand I’m not making excuses or looking for any sympathy. I pour my heart and soul into my business because I want to see it succeed…and while statistics show that most businesses fail within the first five years, mine has prospered now for almost two decades. Of course, success usually does not occur by accident…it takes plenty of hard work to make it happen.

As things now begin to wind down for the year in my business I find life returning to some semblance of normalcy (if there is such a thing). This will allow me to once again begin pouring some serious, devoted efforts back into my blogging. An exercise, by the way, I have sorely missed doing. But you have to understand that when you spend over 10 hours each day working on the computer answering e-mails, processing orders and doing similar such tasks it just wears a person out. Even as relaxing as blogging has become for me…during this time of the year it becomes another computer-related activity further draining my energy reserves.

Thanks again to all the loyal blog readers who have dropped me an e-mail showing concern for my Internet absence. I appreciate both your patience and continued commitment in reading this blog. It feels good to finally be back…as I have lots to tell. Stay tuned.