As I travel along SH1 on my journey from Bluff to Cape Reinga and back calling on every business and asking them for their business cards I get asked a lot of questions and here are some of them.
Why are you travelling the journey?
When Edmund Hillary climbed the highest mountain in the world they asked him the same question My journey is somewhat different to Hillarys but my reason for doing it is the same
Because it is there and no one has ever done it before.
Many people have travelled the length of New Zealand and back on SH1 but no one has ever called at every business along the way and picked up business cards and placed them on a website in an online phone book.
No one has ever travelled the length of New Zealand and back on SH1 taking photographs of all the icons in every town and putting them on a webpage to promote all the towns and businesses in New Zealand along SH1
How do you keep fit?
To keep fit I go for a swim at 6 am most mornings for an hour. I eat a good breakfast and my days work involves calling on about 50 businesses every day. I walk up and down the streets and the roads collecting business cards and photographing anything that I think will be of interest to people surfing the internet.
When do you go home?
My adopted home town is Timaru. I spend one week on the road and one week at home loading all the cards and photos onto my computer. I build web pages for each town and send them off to my webmaster who puts them online. Timaru is in the centre of the South Island which it makes it easier shorter to come home each week.
How are you going to come each week when you get to the North Island
Wherever there is a will there is a way. They have invented aeroplanes and all I have to do is find a company that will sponsor me some air tickets. I will work on that nearer the time and in the meantime my goal is to make it to Picton
What distance have you travelled so far?
At the time of writing it has been 50 days since I commenced my journeyand in that time I have travelled 3625 ks in my car and walked in and out of over 600 businesses, I have also walked the roads and the streets and haven taken over 1000 photographs.
How much are your expenses
My expenses consist of meals, accommodation, car expenses, webmaster, web hosting, computer maintenance and wages. If I was to pay myself a modest wage of just $100 day I would need to earn $20 from every business I visit.
How do you fund your journey?
I sell advertising on my 6 Business Directories. I also give away $100 worth of advertising per night in return for a bed. In some towns I ask for donations and most businesses will give you something. I stopped asking for donations in Dunedin because many of the businesses are corporate companies and chain stores and the staff don’t like giving from their own pocket
How do you sell your advertising?
I tried selling it on my journey but I found it too time consuming. It is not possible to collect business cards and sell advertising at the same time. Calling on every business and picking up their business cards is a job on its own.
In the new year I intend to telephone all of the 600 plus businesses that I have business cards for and attempt to sell them advertising space on one of the SH1 Business Directories. If I don’t get enough to cover my costs so far then I will return to Bluff and personally visit everyone of them again I get enough sales so that I can move on to the next leg of my journey.
How much does the advertising cost?
Each Business is listed in our online phone book with their name and address only. If they want to have their phone, fax number and other contact details listed with links to email or website highlighted in bold bright yellow their is a minimum fee of $100 plus Gst PA
Other positions on the website include business categories of your choice, business cards revolving on the top of every page and a business or personal profile with a story and photos telling people why they should deal with you. Each position is $100 with a maximum of $400. An investment in the 4 positions qualifies your business to become a Gold Subscriber where your logo will be appear with other Gold Subscribers on a special page
Do you raise money for any Charity
I would love to raise money for charity but it is something that takes time and I cannot do it on my own. I would need an assistant to help me do that. I would also like to give discounts to groups who advertise together so what I have decided to do is not to give group discounts but instead pay the discounted amount to a charity of the groups choice.
e.g. If the tenants of a group such as a street, building or shopping mall advertised together in a SH1 Business Directory with their own home page we would give 10% of the total revenue received from the group to a charity of their choice and this would happen annually.
Are there any other reasons why you are making this Journey?
Yes, Ever since Queenstown learnt to promote itself most of the tourist traffic now either fly direct to Queenstown or travel by car inland from Christchurch via Geraldine through the lakes and they by pass SH1.
My goal is to change that and I believe that with the help of all the businesses on SH1 we can promote all the good things that there is to see and do along SH1. With 6 Business directories online and more to come we are already well exposed worldwide with over 100,000 hits a month and climbing
What is a Motivational Business Coach
I have been a motivational speaker for many years and I’ve done many motivational seminars and one to one self development coaching. One of the things that I teach is how to be role model for others. My philosphy is don’t try and teach anyone something you have not done yourself. One of the things that motivates me is that I like to do things that have neve been done before in order to uplift and inspire others.
World Records
At age 64 I became the first man in the world to row 100,000 metres in 9 hours on indoor rowing machine. Now I am looking for my next challenge in life which is to travel from one end of New Zealand to the other calling on every business on SH1 collecting business cards taking photos of icons and building the first online phone books for every town along SH1. If I make then I will be the first person in the world to do it
In January I will 69 years of age and if I can make it to Cape Reinga by the time I reach 70 then I’m hoping my acheivements will motivate, uplift and inspire others .
I then want to travel New Zealand and the world giving motivational seminars to businesses and the public demonstrating that you can do anything if you have the right mental attitude