With things freeing up a bit on the business end (thanks to automation made possible by a small personal investment) we have a bit of time to get some real promotion going for 2023. We are kicking it off with the mention of MT Merchandise and the purpose these items serve.
At first glance, they can give the impression that we are just looking for more ways to make the business “profitable” and that has become a really bad word in some people’s minds. We don’t want that, so we are going to be very transparent about what we mean when profitable comes up in our messages.
We are an LLC registered in the State of Utah. This means profits are passed on to the owners as income at the end of the year and we report the income when we file our personal taxes. We had a $16,000 deficit at the end of 2022. We spent $16,000 more than we made from February to December. There were no profits from Metaphysical Times LLC. Still, we invested funds from our other ventures and personal savings to catch things up and put a little money in MT’s bank account so 2023 can be a better year for MT and it’s community members.
We are MT’s investors and creditors. We don’t have credit cards or loans to draw from. We work and provide services in other ventures and invest up to 50% of those funds into MT. This is on purpose. We believe that more of what is made by the business should go to the business and the people it serves. Newspaper and magazine sales keep the business open and newspapers and magazines coming. They don’t leave anything for expansion and growth unless our reader base grows.
We created our logoed merchandise to be a means of making extra funds so we don’t have to take on debt to pull off all we want to do. The funds we need to create and implement new services, offer discounts, and create new formats have to come from somewhere within us.
Some of the plans we have ready to implement when the funds are available are:
*Offering funding to event hosts to cover improved security (big need for events more than ever before)
*Offering more in-kind sponsorships and ad exchanges to more event types (classes and courses, healing services, etc). Ad space is a revenue stream, but if we are offering it in exchange for advertising, no $ is coming in from that ad space. We want to be able to offer our ad space for sponsored events and services because it’s needed. Not to pad our bottom line.
* Hosting our own community building events around the globe and using them to introduce locals to businesses and service providers they might not know exist near them.
* Adding weekly and daily content to the platform (hiring journalists, photographers, and paying contributors)
* Adding a video podcast (where we can spotlight individuals and businesses of all kinds in video interviews).
We’ve priced the products so that a minimum $3.50 of every product makes it to us and not having debt with interest to pay off, means the entire $3.50 (vs. $0.85) from each product goes toward helping an event or an individual in the community get closer to success.
Visit our MT Merchandise page to see our full list of merchandise and consider purchasing a coffee mug or a t-shirt as a way of supporting the people in your global community. They make great gifts and you never know who it will help out!