Photo by Jim Golden Studio
As you may have noticed, not a single thing was updated in January. No new Profile, no new posts, no newsletter emails. Not exactly the running start to 2015 I had hoped for.
What I’ve realized is that for Polynate to truly have a shot at success, I either need to put 100% of my time and energy into it, or I need to assemble a team. Better yet, I should do both. As much as I would love to quit my styling gig and devote all my time to growing Polynate, I’d be shooting myself in the financial foot. To help offset the time I spend working for money instead of working on Polynate, I need to find and hire talented contributors that can keep the ball rolling when I can’t.
Up until this point, I have been incredibly cautious and prudent in my monetary spending towards Polynate. A large part of what’s made Polynate possible has been its laughably low initial investment (I think in total I’ve spent less than $300 on website hosting, the domain and buying a license for the WordPress theme). In order to maintain a steady flow of content — which is all Polynate is at this point — I need to hire help. And as we all know, that requires money.
Graphic by Neil Secretario
Investing money in any of the numerous business ideas I’ve had has always been where I get gun-shy. I’ll explore and obsess over an idea until it requires money. But not this time.
I’ve decided to invest $5000 of my savings into getting Polynate off the ground. (Baller, right? Ha.) I realize that compared to most businesses, five grand is a drop in the bucket. Thankfully, Polynate is exempt from a lot of the usual costs associated with starting a business: a storefront, an office, inventory, equipment. The one thing it isn’t exempt from is paid help. I plan on outsourcing some of the workload to freelance contractors that can write and take photos for new Profiles.
If you’re a fan of the site, locally based in New York City, and are either a writer or a photographer, please get in touch at hey@polynate.org or leave a comment below. I’d love to meet you and discuss the possibilities.
