It is a bit of a cliché but the reason clichés become so over used is because they often mean exactly what they say. Use it or lose it is exactly what I mean when it comes to The Mover magazine.

You see the beauty of The Mover is that it is independent: it’s not published by anyone who has a ‘position’ in the industry or any axe to grind (there’s another cliché for you). That means we can publish what we like, sometimes sail a little close to the wind (whoops!), and tell the truth as we see it, even if that upsets a few people.  That’s why, I wager, you like to read it and it has been so successful over the last nine years or so.

But the downside is that we are funded entirely by advertising.  We don’t have a corporate backer to bail us out in times of austerity. And I do wonder sometimes if the balance between advertiser/readership is a little one-sided.  We are blessed with loyal advertisers who have stuck with us over many years because they receive value for their advertising spend.  Thank you for supporting them. But there are many more readers who enjoy the magazine every month, yet their companies have never supported the magazine. Nobody ever said life was fair of course, but that does seem somewhat out of kilter.

So, may I ask, that if you do enjoy reading The Mover, and your company does provide services to the moving trade, please ask your marketing people to consider directing just a little of your annual advertising spend in our direction. We are not trying to get rich here, but we do need to get enough revenue through to make it worth doing.  If we can’t, sooner or later the flow of creative juices will slow to a trickle, I’ll turn to tending the roses (which look like they could do with a bit of care to be honest) and the moving industry will say goodbye to what I know for many of you is a welcome friend.

On a happier note: please read the Ray daSilva interview this month.  Ray is a visionary who wastes no time on acting on his impulses. He believes that the industry is poised on the lip of a wonderful opportunity.  I agree with him.  The industry has missed many opportunities in the last 50 years: let’s not make this another.