Thursday December 12th, 2003
I have a lot of work. Logo work, poster work, making price lists, figuring how how much to charge, stupid meetings, and potential new clients. I have a meeting with one. The president of a local community forest. They want to do a promotional video. I go through what they can expect for how much. The price doesn’t seem to bother them. We’ll see. I put together an estimate for them to sign. We will see how that goes over. I am really having to start at the basics here and see what works business wise. There are benefits to no beurocracy (it is much easier to do business… you don’t even realize how stilted doing business in the US has become until you do business where there are no rules). The flip side is that there are no rules.. and getting money from clients is difficult. I’m also contending with the cultural differences. How do you talk about deposits, or discuss pricing at a day rate in a society that doesn’t factor in time to the cost of goods sold equation. I like most of it, but I am going to have to spend a lot of time on basic paperwork management since there is no one here that can do it for me. That is going to greatly reduce the amount of work I can actually do. I also have 50 tontine flyers to prepare for Saturday’s presentation… Did I mention that I am presenting the flyer to the assembled group of tontine presidents. For those who don’t remember, tontines are the semi-formal women’s collectives that manage money.
Um- those who don't remember? That'd be me. Thanks for the refresh!
Posted by: eeno at January 18, 2004 03:39 AM