Hello everyone,

I am writing this from a classroom today. A High School classroom. Currently I am supervising FIVE students as they read a novel and complete some comprehension activities.

After getting back from Wellington, it was time for me to do some paid work. While the business side of Tall Poppy Press has been doing quite well this year, I need to bank up some savings.

I think that it’s fair to say that the business has grown to a point where almost all day-to-day and business expenses are paid for. Twice this year I’ve sort of screwed myself over where a big bill has been due but the cash I’ve needed for that hasn’t arrived yet. That’s a big problem, but apart from that problem paying for standard bills, etc, has been going well.

So - why am I doing a ‘day job’?

Partially it’s because there are some non-standard big bills coming up. We will need to replace some air conditioning in our house, our car is really in its last 6-9 months of its time with us and I have some travel expenses to pay for.

At the same time, my partner is staying at home with our daughter, but our daughter is old enough that we don’t both NEED to be there with her. So a few days of decently paid work for the next few months are on the radar - just to bank up some more savings.

I’m both surprised and happy with how easy it’s gone, coing back to the classroom. I’ve taught three days now and have a raft of stories, a few more work days booked in and generally have felt fairly upbeat about the whole thing.

I remember, recently, talking to a friend who is looking for a new job while unemployed. He was saying that he had the opportunity to do some temporary work but was a bit torn as ‘it is just labour for money’. I shared with him that, for me, the work I’ve done that has been as simple as that has actually helped me have a healthier mental picture of work. In previous jobs, I would get frustrated and annoyed - I was trying so hard and getting nowhere - but now that I put my ambition into something else, when I have to come and do teaching work, it’s easier, I take things less personally. Or when I did some work for an old boss a few weeks ago, I found it very simple and easy. There’s lots of reasons for that change, but a big one was any time I thought ‘ugh this again’ I would just find it so easy to let it go, after all I’m just there to do work, get paid and go home. Which has often been exactly what has happened to me, even if I’d been wanting to stamp my ideas or personality on a workplace.

My partner and I went over the Tall Poppy Press business data from the last five years. It was so interesting to see that there was a really positive direction: where books were selling, costs were lower and then there was a spike of about 6-12 months where a few printing jobs I VASTLY overpaid for and to see those as outliers is really interesting. I now feel confident that the budget and profit for each book, workshop and merch product is very predictable and under control, and that if sales grow by 20-25% each year over the next three years I’ll be like earning a salary??? It’s crazy to think that may happen, and also crazy to think that hasn’t happened yet.

The difference is not that the business has lost money - it hasn’t - but that by building on my data to define yearly running costs, I can also start to plot where I can take money out of the business. Money that’s mine (or more accurately, my family’s) - whereas the business and my finances have been one for the last five years, potentially as early as next year I can have my own money again - money I can do what I want with without any impact on the business.

The above growth figure may sound slightly nuts to you at home, however in the last three years there has been a ~100% growth in sales numbers. Additionally, now that I am running book fairs and have an ecosystem of fairs and stores I work with, viewing sales as more reliable and steady is not a day dream any longer.

But! But! But!

In my business it takes years to build up good systems, patterns and opportunities and years to capitalise on them. For example, I will be going to Tokyo Art Book Fair again this year, and I hope to see sales increase by $1500-$2000 - BUT that’s not until January. Similarly, I can point to September as likely being a big sales month and I think that’s built on good books, good timing and good opportunities - but September is still 6 weeks from being done and dusted.

I say this to say ‘I can see really good things ahead that translate into improved sales, bringing my closer to my estimated goals and, therefore, the ever closer routine financial security which is the final hurdle for being a full time publisher.

So that’s why I am in a classroom of Year 8s on a sunny Tuesday. That’s why I’m reminding them that they have to complete two pages of work if they want to leave on time. While I broadly enjoy my days working with young people, there are many things I’d rather be doing. But I find that it’s good for me to earn some cash, reconnect with other skills I have and be a bit more sensible financially for a few months.

It’s a bit self-serving, but sometimes I think of myself as being a bit old fashioned. I remember reading that one of the difficulties during the Industrial Revolution was getting consistent workers. People would come to factories and work for a day or two, or a week, then just leave, go back to their farms. They had enough money for the next bit, so they didn’t work in factories any longer, there was other work to do. I feel a little like that sometimes. But as I said it’s a bit self-serving - it paints decisions as whimsical and me as having a lot of autonomy. There’s a less kind description as someone trying hard to hold on to my less mature headspace, thriving with less oversight and pushing not towards a more reasonable middle ground where I do a job, publish a bit and make art, but push towards the most extreme, most challenging and most likely to fail end point.

There are real costs to that ambition - I lose networks, connections and job opportunities, I lose superannuation, I stress the people around me out a bit with financial ups and downs. I spend a lot of mental time considering these things.

So maybe I’m an old fashioned journeyman, making it work by keeping a level head, a mercantile relationship to labour, building my own business. Or maybe I’m a bit of a loose canon who should embrace the advantages of a proper, full time, day job again.

Either way, I think that it’s nice to feel either would be a life well lived. I haven’t always felt that way, but having spent five years building something, and the last two years doing so full time, I feel at peace when I dip back to the world of paid work, and I feel grateful when a big sales month puts some more disposable cash in my pocket, for boring things like fixing AC, getting a second-hand-car, or buying my partner a proper gift.

Anyway, I should probably stop spending my time on the same old newsletter and check these Year 8s have done work. They look busy, but perhaps they’ve been skiving off…

Matt