29. How many people did you deliver newspapers to as a kid?
Ha ha ha.
My work ethic and entrpreneurial bent showed themselves from an early age.
I started delivering newspapers at 10 years of age. It was my first job.
I earned 3c per newspaper and used to deliver between 70 and 100 every weekday afternoon after school. My route probably passed 300 houses, so I delivered to around 1 out if every 3 houses.
I'd also sell about 10-15 additional papers for cash, which made me 10c each. I had a public works depot on my route that had afternoon "smoko" at 3.30pm, which if I followed my normal route, I'd get there aftre they had finished their break.
I also had a handful of magazines to deliver, for which I made between 10c and 25c each to deliver, usually about 10 per day.
So I had a thought.
Over a 2 week period, I stopped in personally to every house on my route to let people know I delivered not just papers but magazines a well.
I increased my newspaper distribution to about 150 day. My magazine delivery skyrocketed from about 10 to about 30 per day.
Also, because I know had to return to the shop at least once to restock because of my successful upsales, I changed the way I did my route and took off straight to the works depot as first stop, which usually meant I was there waiting for them as they knocked off for their break - this meant I sold 10-15 extra newspapers each day as well.
In short, a job that took me an hour and made me about $20 per week when I started, within a month. may have taken me almost 2 hours per day to complete, but was raking in a 10 year old boy an average of about $50 per week.
The pushbike I used to do the deliveries was upgraded 3-4 times in the next 12 months.
Glory days.
