Sunday, 3/28/10 - Recompense

"You shoud write."

People say that to me...
... after reading this blog.

Duh?

I suspect that they mean that I might want to find a way to get paid for my writings.

Many years ago I started a catering service called Breakfast in Bed. It was a gourmet brunch service and, in case you were wondering, we were never asked to serve in bed.

I was typically hired by YUPs and DINKs (Young Urban Professionals and Dual Income, No Kids) to serve 6 to 8 of their friends. I would leave business cards on the table and invariably would be contacted by all of the couples to serve at brunches for their friends.

So, with very little advertising I was able to get a lot of business. One interesting phenomenon was that I never saw the hosting couple at an event hosted by one of their guests.

I would show up in a tuxedo with their choice of newspaper (being in FL, the NY Times was a frequent request). I would grind the coffee, start the breakfast rolls baking (setting up the day with pleasant smells) and squeeze the oranges and grapefruits.

I would pour the coffee, mimosas, bloody marys or juices and serve the bite-sized breakfast rolls, cute little croissants and mini muffins. My signature muffins were crannie-macs: cranberry macadamia nut muffins. They were so small that I had to place by hand half of a cranberry and half of a macadamia nut in each.

At $70/plate the business did very well.

Actually, it did too well and I found myself considering giving up my computer job and doing catering full time.

I thoroughly enjoyed catering. All of my plates were beautifully decorated - and if it was on the plate it was edible. I spent many hours designing each presentation. It was technical and at the same time very creative.

I realized that the joy that I experienced when catering was because it was not a "job". I did it because I wanted to do it. The money was never a motivation. If I were to rely on it, it would become "work" and that would not be good.

So, I continued with my computer job and cut back on the catering.

That was a very long way to say that I write because I enjoy writing. I photograph because I enjoy photographing.

Yes, I do some photography professionally but most is done on speculation: I show up and photograph with no commitment from you to buy. I place the images on my site and if you like, you buy. I think this is fair.

Being fair is important.

So, getting back to making money (I do seem to be long winded today, don't I?)...

How about an electronic greeting card line? I take the images and write greetings. You select the image, the greeting, the font and color and we email it for you.

I can feature other photographers and writers. Greed is ugly, spread the wealth!

Some photographic possibilities...