Territorial
The red line in the map shown above demarcates the territory in which I work on a daily basis. By drawing this in Google maps, it calculates an area of around 8000sq km or 3000 sq miles. Sometimes I can be at opposite ends of this space on the same day, or I can have multiple jobs within 10 miles of home. It’s becoming an unmanageable area to cover while there are only 168 hours in a week. Often I have to work 100 of those just to cover the workload I’m trying to complete, and a third of that can be driving time.
My lease car is contracted to do about 80,000 miles over the 4 year rental period, and I’m currently estimating reaching that milestone next month - a full year early with anything over the contractual amount being charged at 13p a mile (which works out at over £360 a month - way more than the actual cost of the lease!)
So…. what to do? The money is certainly rolling in, but it means nothing if I can’t occasionally relax and use it. My family are heading off on holiday without me this summer because it just isn’t possible to remove myself from the fray for 2 weeks and not endanger my existing client relationships.
I need to find a replacement for the southern half of this ridiculously huge territory.
You’d think that this would be easy, as there are thousands of keen, talented hopefuls out there just waiting to jump into the role, but you’d be wrong. My biggest client - a chain of high-end estate agents, has never been able to find anyone to fill my boots even on a temporary basis as they either charge too much, fail to meet the expectations of flexibility, or simply aren’t good enough. I’m not one to ever sing my own praises, but nobody else can provide top quality at a fair cost, and work their arse off to the detriment of their health and family life. Imagine that eh?
My search to shrink my territory goes on. I’ve got some contacts to get in touch with, and in the meantime I’m just going to have to battle on through the summer. The screenshot below shows my April workload - not including the 4 hrs+ of post-production toil almost every evening. I’ve had no single day off since March, with a ridiculous 7 day working regime becoming the norm now.
Wish me luck.
