Tuesday 15 July 2008

Commerce

If you look at the left frame of this page you'll see a link called Amsterdam Beer Tours. It's a little sideline of mine. Basically, people pay me to take them on a pub crawl of Amsterdam. Sounds like the perfect job, doesn't it?

This isn't an advertising pitch, by the way. I just mention it because I'm doing one this evening. With one exception, they've been good fun so far. I work out a rough itinerary but often change it around, depending on the interests of the participants. Amsterdam isn't that big. And the city centre has a stack of decent boozers. The possibilities are endless.

Only one problem. This is a school night. Every morning when I stare in the mirror to shave, I'm reminded of a depressing truth. I'm no longer a young man. Four-hour drinking sessions midweek take their toll. I've only just about recovered from Saturday's sesh in Folkestone. Though I did start at 9:30 AM. That might have had an impact. As I just said, young I ain't.

I'm frequently told I should be more commercial. "Ron*, be more commercial." they say. It's true. I should be. The amounts I earn from beer are pitiful. Far less than what I spend on books and travel for research. I'm not naive enough to expect to earn a living from beer. Just breaking even would be nice.

Proactive. That's what I need to be. Unfortunately, I'm a more propassive sort of bloke. Except when it comes to dusty, old books. Those I rather too actively seek out. According to Dolores. God forbid she notices my latest buying spree. I've got rather used to having a matching pair of bollocks.

Which is why I came up with my plan. I think it's a good one. Making Andrew my commercial manager. I've offered him an 11% commission on any new advertising he can drum up. He's still got 6 weeks of his summer holiday left. He was already starting to get bored after week one. Then we unwisely installed video editing software on his PC. Big mistake. Now he's busy the whole day videoing and editing. I can't think where he gets that sort of obsessive behaviour from.


*Or, as a Czech would say, Rone (pronounced as two syllables). Don't you just love the vocative case? It's always been one of my favourites. Especially as it entails sticking an ending on my name.

No comments: