Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Day 519

Weird day. I learned that the rural airport where I store a vintage car that I own was struck by a tornado last week and several hangers were destroyed. Evidently, half a dozen airplanes were demolished, but the hanger where my car is stored wasn't touched at all. I got lucky. The guy who happens to own the hanger wasn't so lucky. His dog attacked the teacher's dog in training class tonight. It's never a good move when your dog attacks the teacher's dog.

People keep wanting me to do stuff for lower and lower budgets. I just wonder where all this is going to end. If I had any advice to give a young person wanting to start their own ad agency, it would be this: always try to work for very large companies that have a purchasing department. When you work for a small company where the owner pays you out of their own wallet, nothing you do will ever be cheap enough. You can cut your prices to the bone and it will still seem too expensive to folks who are paying you with their own money. One thing I have learned over the years is that people are much more generous when they are paying you with other people's money.

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon paying bills and trying to do some office bookkeeping. I sure wish that when you got your credit card bills, they would tell you what you actually bought. The statements do tell you the name of the store where you made the purchase, but it's up to you to remember what you purchased. I've made a number of electronics purchases during the past several months at Fry's and Sweetwater. I look at the credit card statement and then I look around the office to see if I notice anything new, and I still can't remember what I bought.

This is one of those days where I envy the dogs. They never have any bills to pay. They just spend half their day sleeping and then divide the rest of their time between barking, eating and pooping. Sounds like a good life to me.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day