2024 Business Card for my Director

My first business card that I created was over forty years ago, I am 52 years old now. At twelve, I had a 110-person Newspaper delivery account with the San Diego Union Tribune.

It was a tough hilly campaign that required a 4:45 A.M. alarm clock each day. When I started to get the route wired, one of my strictest customers had a few words with me at the end of the month. This was my least favorite part of the job, collecting the money. In the year 1984, it was common for corporations to get away with this type of constraint; forcing underage kids to collect money from relative strangers.

The somewhat harsh gentlemen took me aside, like I was his grandkid. He walked me down to the front of his driveway to show me what happened to his morning when the paper was accidentally tossed next to his sprinkler system. Most of the time, I would hit the bottom of the garage, smack down in the middle, and there were never any issues.

This month, Mr. R. had purchased an oversized van and it blocked the garage. I thought I was doing him a favor and started hitting the right side, closer to his front door. Unbeknownst to me, his sprinklers were ruining his morning routine.

Well, this late evening, we both came to an agreement that would change my entrepreneurism mindset, he mentioned the word “tip”.

Mr. R. said, “Ryan, if you porch my paper for a whole month, I will tip you $5.00.”

‘Porching’, is a term that means the newspaper was right at the front door.

My face lit up like a Christmas Tree on the ceremonial lighting.

I rushed home and took out 110 postcards, the standard blank 3” X 5” cards, that I used for my homework memorization. On each card, I wrote out my name, house phone number, and new service offered.

Ryan Shankles, your newspaper delivery boy

House Phone: (call to confirm)

New Service: Porching Papers all month for $5 tip

Each newspaper the next day received the ‘special insert’ and all the customers received their papers ‘porched’.

By the end of the week, over ½ my customers were now getting their papers porched. After 3 months, ¾ of my clients received the service. With that simple business card, it brought me $412.50 extra in revenue. For a twelve-year-old, in 1984, that was a lot of money.

Today, like the business card I attached, there are two QR codes. One code on the front takes the person to my website. On the back, one scan allows the person to choose between my four social media pages. I do like simplicity and technology.

WHAT a difference though from 1984, I am confident, we will never return to those days.

By Ryan Shankles 2/9/2024