design, disneyland, dancing and doffing clothes in the sunshine

I received an eviction notice.

A 3 Day Pay or Quit Notice, actually. That was last Tuesday. I was flat broke. My Internet had already been turned off a week. I spent my last couple dollars on cat food. Borrowed money for gas. Fortunately I had a few cans of soup and a cat in the cupboard (about the cat—she hangs out in the cupboard; she’s not on the menu). I was so paralyzed with my financial condition I stayed in bed for a day and a half because I didn’t know which way to turn. And I never stay in bed. I hardly ever get depressed.

Hey, it’s okay. I’m writing this because I haven’t been this happy or excited about my business, my future, my finances, in a very long time. Keep reading; it gets good.

I used to earn good money. I’m a brilliant designer, if I do say so myself (check out my website). This felt like the twighlight zone—successful, award-winning designer can’t even afford cat food. Brilliant at design, maybe. But what about managing money, running a business? No time to ponder that; I gotta come up with the rent.

Like I said, I am usually upbeat and optimistic. I’ve always been able to raise money instantly. But this time, for the first time, no client needed any work, even at a tremendous discount; I couldn’t hit up my youngest brother because he loaned me the money for a new clutch just last month; my sister just lost her husband so I’m not going to intrude on her; and my other brother, well, I already owed him about $20,000 from several years ago.

Now, there is this one client who has owed me $2300 for several months. I needed that money a couple months ago to pay a huge storage bill, and never got it. I had to really hustle up some new assignments to pay that bill. On the day I nearly lost my possessions, a miracle occurred: the storage facility postponed the deadline, as long as I sent them something, which I did. So, whew. Then the rent is due, and I still don’t have this $2300. The car breaks down, and I borrowed to get that fixed. All along the soup supply keeps dwindling (but the cupboard kitty keeps getting fatter). Then the rent is due again. I’m screaming at this client to send me the $2300 and it just doesn’t happen.

So the pay or quit notice arrives, and I immediately tell the client about it. Of course she wanted to pay me, but her own circumstances were dire as well, she admitted. But when I told her if I don’t have a place to live, a place to plug in the computer, I won’t be able to complete her project—that’s when she finally contacted me and said she’d have $1000 for me by the end of the 3 days. I still had to raise $500. (Bear in mind $500 is normally a drop in the bucket to me—but $50 would have seemed like a fortune right then.) I made a few calls to clients for work, and one, in fact my oldest and dearest friend for whom I design silent movie titles, Joe Rinaudo, offered to send me $250 as a deposit against an upcoming project. I still needed to raise $250, but I figured that would happen somehow. It’s only $250.

Still, I was depressed at the whole situation—especially “slapping the landlord in the face” after they approved my application at face value, saying I looked like a trustworthy tenant. (I said I was doing very well in my business when I found this place, last February—and I was! Business just seemed to quit all of a sudden. More on that later.) So, I just went back to bed for the entire day and finished a suspense novel. I was lethargic, but was I worried? No. I had three days to raise the funds (mind you, nothing had come in yet, just promises, and I’ve learned about promises) and there have been so many instances where God has taken care of me, even at the last minute, even when the situation seemed impossible, that I knew I was covered. I also know God helps those who help themselves, but I just didn’t have it in me to get up and do anything.

So I stayed in bed all day, don’t remember if I had anything to eat for dinner, but remained in bed until I finished that novel. I was restless. I had run out of books, except for this one that I purchased for 25 cents a couple months ago. I started reading it back then, but after a few pages of how life was in the 1800s I was bored. The book was called Marriott, the biography of J. Willard Marriott (Bill), who founded Marriott hotels. I love reading about entrepreneurs and inventors, but this one just started out about his great grandparents, then his grandparents, and so on, how they migrated to Utah, their religion (Mormon), and about raising cattle and so on. Not my area of interest—I like industry, the future, cities.

But I had nothing else to read and I was restless. So I continued reading about this guy who worked real hard as a kid on the ranch, then moved to the city (he had a bent for industry, innovation, and city life too), opened a root beer stand with 9 stools, and then a chain of “Hot Shoppe” car-hop drive-ins (which he eventually turned into a multi-billion dollar empire). The story became interesting, and I was engrossed in the book. While reading, I was jotting down some of Bill Marriott’s principles. I was relating, in my dilemma with my financial condition, to his similar problems in business. Then I read how he dealt with those problems and how he came up with solutions. He would ask himself:

1. What is the problem?
2. What is the reason for the problem?
3. What is the solution?
4. What is your solution?

The “your solution” part is, I believe, why he was so successful. A problem can have a typical solution, but if you’re as brilliant and innovative as Bill Marriott, you’ll have a better solution.

I thought about my problem, which was no money, and the reason, which was no business, and the solution, which was to do the one thing I hadn’t done in my entire career for my own business, but I’d done for all my clients: marketing! I’ve always been so busy through repeat business and referrals, that I’ve never needed to do much marketing. Just a sales call once in awhile. But the number one rule of business is to market when business is good so you’ll be branded in people’s minds when business slows down. Which I hadn’t done in years! This is getting good, I’m starting to feel better, optimistic, excited. I love marketing, and now I get to be my own client. I won’t question the layout, or the concept, or the budget. I’ll be the best client I ever had!

Okay, I gotta stop here and state the reason for this long-winded blog post. It’s about miracles. Or to put it another way, “God works in mysterious ways.” Did God drug me with lethargy so I’d climb back into bed and pick up that book? Did He knock me upside the head with the eviction scare so I’d really take in what Mr. Marriott was telling me about problems and solutions? Or how he lived his life, which boiled down to three simple principles? Or that even though it was humiliating to me to receive a 3-Day Pay or Quit, it got the client to promise to send me a payment?

About those principles that Bill Marriott lived by:

1. Unselfishness in service to others
2. Good personal habits
3. Strong faith in God

I really respect this dude! Those are the principles that my parents lived by. They are principles that I believe in. But I must say I sure do falter on item number 2.  But that’s partly because it’s hard to stay motivated to keep on track when you don’t have the means to move forward, let alone food or gas (or Internet!). But here, I was getting motivated! I am going to focus on marketing (following the formula which is when business is really down, spend 50% of your working hours on marketing), and my goal is to triple the business I did last year. (If I said triple the business I’m doing right now I’d be making 6 figures—all zeros!) So Thank you, God! for answering the prayer that I didn’t realize was being answered: “Please guide me.” Lying in bed, I really felt God had abandoned me, because I was not getting any direction. Well, God’s GPS took me right to the location He wanted me to be: in bed, reading that book.

Bill’s philosophies about business and life are truly inspiring and so easy to implement! One section, though, really got my attention—his rules on advertising:

1. Reach the greatest number of people at the least possible cost
2. Reach the greatest number of people continually
3. Make a distinct and lasting impression on them continually

At the least possible cost—why, that’s the Internet! And some postcards and mailers, too (gotta show off my print skills).
Continually—right here, baby. It’s called a blog.
A distinct and lasting impression—oh boy, can’t wait! If anyone can do that it’s me! (Remember, “brilliant designer”?) 

I finished the book, knowing without a doubt that God had once again blessed me with not only the rent money (which I still didn’t have one penny of), but with the solution to the overall problem, marketing, and instilling me with the enthusiasm and motivation to earnestly dive into that ever-important task of my business. I planned to relax over the weekend and start my marketing plan Monday—yesterday—which I did, and at 5 am Tuesday morning, I haven’t left the computer! Nancy O’Neill of One Dot Enterprises gave me a quick tutorial on setting up my blog properly (my first and only posts were August 2009); my youngest brother Rob gifted me the reconnection of my Internet service (it was his birthday yesterday, but he gave me the gift!); and at the very last minute on Saturday all the money came in to pay the rent in full—thanks to a generous loan from my other brother, Andy. Yes, the absolute deadline was Friday, but there was a snag at PayPal. So my landlord gave me one more day. They’re nice people; in fact, they were happy for me that I finally got paid from my client. So was I.

I hope you enjoyed this story, and especially hope that if you are facing a debilitating situation in your life right now, that you have been inspired to believe that faith in God, along with asking yourself how to solve the problem—what’s your solution?—will make everything all right, bringing you peace now and promise for a joyous future.

Now that I’m blogging, you’ll get to experience examples and how-to tips on conceptual design, colors, typography—and lots and lots of opinions on what good design is and isn’t. I’ll also throw in some reports about my most exciting visits to Disneyland, where the snazziest Lindy Hop classes are, and how I enjoy sunshine and water volleyball. And of course I’ll tell you about the latest solutions to my problems.

M-I-C… Seeya real soon!

K-E-Y…Why? Because we like you! And because I finally know how to blog!