Ways to Make Money – A Paperboy

Now this article is going to date me so for all you young Internet whipper-snappers who are reading this, hang on to your hats – here comes a history lesson.

When I was about 11 I got my first job as a paperboy – I know that is a terribly politically incorrect term, but that’s what we were called back then. These days I’m sure the term is more gender neutral.

Paperboy, was a completely awesome job. As I was thinking back on which jobs to include in this series, I realized that it may have been the best all around learning opportunity I ever had.

This job had it all terms of business skills. These days the system is completely different, but back in the seventies when I was delivering newspapers it really was a franchise type system.

Sales

When I wanted new customers or to make more money, I had to go door to door and cold call, asking people if they would like to subscribe to the local daily paper. That was hard, but I guess at age 11 I wasn’t quite a self-conscious as I would be doing the same thing at 22.

Distribution

Six days a week, at about 3pm all the “carriers” as we were called, would meet at the Barnett Highway drop-box collect our bundles. This was a big newspaper and carrying 30 of them at a time, on a Saturday, could sometimes feel bone-crushing on my small frame. Port Moody was an extremely hilly town and a bike wasn’t
any help, most of the time would be spent pushing it up a hill or trying to not crash or go out of control [loaded with papers] on the way down.

Another aspect of distribution was to constantly be thinking about ways to improve the time it took me to do the route. The path followed had been taught to me by the person who had the route before me, but because I used to spend so much of my time exploring forests and green belts in my town, I was able to shave significant time off of the delivery schedule with a few strategic short-cuts through the forest. Remember, the population wasn’t as dense as it is today, these routes spread over several miles.

Helpers

One thing I remember about delivering the paper was that my friends often wanted me to play hockey or football but I had to go directly after school each day and do my route. What I learned was that if I presented it just right, I could get them all to help me with my papers and finish my job in about a quarter the regular time. It is an important skill learned to be able to motivate people to help you out – and no I didn’t pay them.

Obstacles

Besides the weather, there were only two obstacles: big kids and dogs. I don’t recall ever having anything really bad happen, but there was one particular “big kid” who liked to threaten and torment me.

One day, while I was complaining about it at home, my mom said, “just look him in the eye.” I took her advice the next time we crossed paths and sure enough the pleasure he seemed to glean from tormenting me deflated like a balloon with a slow leak. Standing up directly to confrontations has served me very well ever since.

Dogs turned out to be pretty much the same story. I can’t remember who told me, but someone said that a dog only barks if they know you’re afraid. So I would just act confident and realize that they were probably more bark than bite.

The other skill learned with dogs though, if I really did feel threatened, the paper went on outside of the fence – learning proper boundaries of what is acceptable and what isn’t. In case you’re wondering these papers were too meaty to be folded like the way the kids in the Hollywood movies do it. If you practiced though, you could hold the rough end of the paper and aiming the fold at the doorstep you could kind of project [slide it edge-wise] the paper to the doorstep from about 10 or 12 feet away.
This tip saved time and also avoided some dog confrontations.

Getting Paid

When I delivered papers, I had to do my own collections. So at the end of every month as I delivered the papers, I also stopped at every house, banged on the door and collected for that month’s deliveries.

Then I received an invoice from the newspaper [The Vancouver Sun] that I need to pay. Whatever was left over I got to keep. Sweet! As I recall, I delivered 30 heavy papers, over a couple miles of hills, 6 days a week for about $30 a month.

Looking Back

As I look back, being a paper boy really was an amazing job. All of the elements of a real business were present and they were lived and learned everyday.

The only problem was that I didn’t really know what I was learning. What would have made this the coolest job ever would have been for the paper, or some community organization, to help us realize what we were really learning.

A tiny bit of business theory and reinforcement for the kids doing these jobs and you would have had mini entrepreneurs at age 13 ready to transform their lives…never looking for traditional jobs. For me it wasn’t until I hit age 30 that I really put myself in a position with as much business potential as I had in that paper route.

- Jon Symons

P.S. this article is a part of my “Ways I’ve Made Money” series.

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