Publisher, roles and me
I've hardly written here in the last few weeks. That's partly because - in addition to the new book I'm writing - the situation at the publishing house has kept me very busy.
In August, I wrote to the recipients of our newsletter, which you are also welcome to receive. here subscribe to our newsletter:
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Just under a year ago, we let out a cry for help: „The water is up to our necks!“. The publishing house was making losses, we had debts and were on the verge of no longer being able to pay bills.
I asked for your support through cheerful shopping and spirited prayer. I have given myself a year to look for ways to improve the situation and then to
decide whether I can continue, and if so, how. This year is now almost over.
The good news
It's better. We were able to pay bills and reduce some debts. That's a great reason to be grateful for the relatively short renovation period.
The challenge
It's not enough yet. We have been able to reduce the stock somewhat, but the costs are still very high. We are looking for people who could drive from Giessen to Berlin once or from time to time and take a few boxes of books from our warehouse there. Here in Berlin I can store things for free.
I've been able to pay bills and employees over the last few months, but no salary for myself. It's super frustrating and stressful. I can't and don't want to live like this in the long term.
It remains exciting
1 September is my deadline for deciding whether and how to continue with Down to Earth. For me, making up the current deficit of around 10,000 euros by then and a plus for my salary is a prerequisite for continuing.
Can we do this together?
We would like to continue to inspire and empower you with our books, quadros and courses! In order to create a solid basis for this, we want to make up the shortfall over the next few weeks. There are some super special offers available until the end of August.
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As you can imagine, in the midst of all the unanswered questions, it was challenging to write a book „on the side“, to train a new editor and a new webmaster (fortunately, they did a large part of the familiarisation themselves. Nevertheless, there was a lot of additional communication work.
What became clear to me in all my thinking and praying:
- Give: My team and I give a lot to people - knowing that makes us feel good.
- Supply: God provides for me...sometimes classically through a salary, sometimes differently.
- Take tougher action: The measures we took were good, but still too gentle. With more drastic measures - e.g. transferring stock to a more favourable warehouse - the publishing house could become healthier and stronger.
- Accompaniment: I need advice to balance out the areas in which I am not so strong, e.g. analysis, finance, controlling.
- Define and strengthen roles in the team: If I define areas of responsibility and roles even more strongly than before and train people in my team in them, it takes time and energy at first, but takes the pressure off me in the long term because I can then act more strongly in my strengths.
Over the next few weeks, I will continue to write my book, make further progress with the publishing processes...and hopefully enjoy many more beautiful autumn days.
