Sometimes I wonder how much should I share of the realities of the processes we we are going through to make these maps. Are people really interested in this information? Will it come across as complaining? (Which I never would want!)
I also don't really want to sugar-coat the realities of this process. This is our lives. This business is our lives - 24-7. That is no exaggeration. I could count on one hand the number of full days off - no business work at all - we have had in over a year.
We are putting everything into Climb-On Maps, and I mean EVERYTHING - our life savings, ALL of our time, and, when we are out in the field, sometimes we are even putting our lives on the line. We try to minimize and mitigate the dangerous situation thing, but it happens more often than we care to think too deeply about. We deal with it and try to be safe and smart, not pushing ourselves too far.
When we are home, processing data and dotting the business i's, we are working equally as hard, just differently.
Rick works especially hard. I can only put in about a 14 hour day (5 a.m. to 7 p.m.). Rick puts in 18 hour days. Non-stop days. No break days.
4:51 AM - this is when I got up this morning - most mornings. Rick hasn't even come to bed yet. He has been climbing into bed between 4 AM and 6 AM nearly every morning since we got back from our last road trip. Rick sleeps until 10 AM or maybe noon, then gets up and does it again. You see, we have maps to publish. There are climbing events, and climbing seasons we need to catch.
Those two big computer screens in the photo below look blank, but they aren't. They are actually zoomed in parts of one of our maps - Rick is meticulous with the details. The small computer screen below (where you can actually see the image) is Rick's distraction while he tends to more of the "mindless" editing on the maps. Most of the time Rick is jamming to music, but sometimes he watches a show in the background. It is his little self-reward while working so hard.
I also don't really want to sugar-coat the realities of this process. This is our lives. This business is our lives - 24-7. That is no exaggeration. I could count on one hand the number of full days off - no business work at all - we have had in over a year.
We are putting everything into Climb-On Maps, and I mean EVERYTHING - our life savings, ALL of our time, and, when we are out in the field, sometimes we are even putting our lives on the line. We try to minimize and mitigate the dangerous situation thing, but it happens more often than we care to think too deeply about. We deal with it and try to be safe and smart, not pushing ourselves too far.
When we are home, processing data and dotting the business i's, we are working equally as hard, just differently.
Rick works especially hard. I can only put in about a 14 hour day (5 a.m. to 7 p.m.). Rick puts in 18 hour days. Non-stop days. No break days.
4:51 AM - this is when I got up this morning - most mornings. Rick hasn't even come to bed yet. He has been climbing into bed between 4 AM and 6 AM nearly every morning since we got back from our last road trip. Rick sleeps until 10 AM or maybe noon, then gets up and does it again. You see, we have maps to publish. There are climbing events, and climbing seasons we need to catch.
Those two big computer screens in the photo below look blank, but they aren't. They are actually zoomed in parts of one of our maps - Rick is meticulous with the details. The small computer screen below (where you can actually see the image) is Rick's distraction while he tends to more of the "mindless" editing on the maps. Most of the time Rick is jamming to music, but sometimes he watches a show in the background. It is his little self-reward while working so hard.
The bar code image represents the work I am doing.
I am learning about super exciting things like UPC codes, ISBN numbers, and bar codes, and which of these should be on our maps (it turns out, for a map, we need all of them - surprisingly, that wasn't that easy to find out!). I am also learning about local taxes, interstate taxes, distribution, and large-scale printing. I am figuring out and maintaining social media, reaching out to retail stores, networking, and learning about advertising.
For the maps I make the crag stats, labeled photos, and "front matter." I am having to learn HTML to format the front matter for the maps because you just can't cut and paste a Word Doc into the program Rick is using to create the maps (and the WZIWIG editors don't make the document look like we need it to so I have to code). When making the crag stats and labeled images, I have to use Adobe Illustrator, which I cuss at all the time because I am not a professional graphic artist and that program is SO NOT intuitive. And, there are what feels like 20-million more items I have on my daily list.
Rick makes the maps and I do everything else. Unlike Rick, at least I am getting my full 8-hours of sleep!
Despite all of these things, I cannot imagine doing anything different at this moment in time. That is no bullshit.
Almost 2 years ago I quit a job from hell that made me sick - very sick. It took quite a bit of time and effort for me to recover. But recover I did. Now I work my ass of even more than in that previous job, but the difference is I am happy!
Is owning a business hard work and scary? Hell yes. Double hell yes. But, still, I feel grateful and fortunate to get to experience this process and create something that will hopefully help other climbers use their time well - for climbing of course!
