When Endless Mile began ten years ago today, I never envisioned the business taking so many twists & turns. Then again, who really knows how a company’s future will unfold? EM has survived desertion, a few changes in focus & two international relocations. But we’re still here! A brief recap of each year shows how Endless Mile has grown over the past decade. Join me for a look back…
2011
Having taken a break from my Rick Steves job in 2010, Endless Mile launched with an iPhone app for Recoleta Cemetery after nine months of off-&-on development. While graphics could have been better, seeing an idea come true was exhilarating. EM began as a team of three, each person with different responsibilities: content, programming & design. Seemed like a great idea at the time, but…
Initial sales were slow yet promising, just as I expected. After all, our app was not a videogame & only of interest to a niche market. I was confident EM would grow as we added more walks & more cities. However, my vision & patience turned out to be broader than that of my colleagues. When the designer stepped away just before our first release, I should have ended things right away. Less than two months later, the programmer bowed out as well. As a couple, they both had their own motives for joining the project in the first place… definitely not the same as mine. Live & learn.
With so much content already prepared for upcoming releases, I couldn’t let all that info go to waste. I’d invested time learning layout design for a PDF guide published one year earlier, so that was the most logical route to take. Guides would take the form of PDFs instead of apps. This gave me an advantage of releasing more walks under the EM brand as well as time to decide if I wanted to learn programming & continue with apps one day. In the meantime, e-books began to take off so I made all initial guides available for the Kindle Fire. Groundbreaking at the time!
2012
This year saw the release of a guide to Calle Paso & Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires + two Lisbon guides: azulejos & the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. While sales grew, I needed to make more income to continue investing in the business. The question came up again: should I pause content production to learn programming or forge ahead? I also began guiding in Buenos Aires for Butler University & NYU as EM branched out with other services.
2013
The Art Nouveau guide to Buenos Aires was finished in February, then I jumped back into working for Rick Steves to make some investment capital. They were happy to have me return, & I promised myself to make Endless Mile work while having another job. Publicity ramped up with big names noticing EM as well as an assignment for Time Out.
2014
Researching & writing new content while on the road for Rick Steves proved more difficult than I imagined. But why not learn a new skill? I’d been impressed with the Nexus 7 tablet & had no trouble envisioning EM guides as Android apps. With a total of five PDF guides complete for Buenos Aires & two for Lisbon, I dove into app design & development. Unfortunately, the end of a relationship & a difficult international move meant that my emotional state took priority over Endless Mile for well over a year. But before everything ground to a halt, I developed a rough Android app that I was keen on completing… when I could focus again.
2016
As the fog lifted, I eased back into EM by researching a new guide about the Catholic heritage of Lisbon. A huge project! I also began to view Endless Mile as an extension of my interests rather than a company that would provide my main income. Also, I merged all blog content to the EM website & brought my personal identity into that of the business. In the end, I’d write & develop what interested me most… being true to myself. I moved to Spain this year as well as got married, so EM had to take a back seat once again.
2017
Even though I knew the app would not sell much —times had changed & app prices were crashing— I hate to leave projects unfinished. I dusted off those programming skills & finished the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos app. The sense of self-satisfaction was worth more than any check from Google. Still looks fantastic to this day!
2018
Guiding tours & very necessary blog redesign took up most of the year, but I finished a mini-version of the Catholic heritage guide… a teaser of things to come. All apps were removed from sale permanently. Investing extra time to tech & programming updates didn’t fit with the new vision of Endless Mile.
2019
Consistent posting on both this blog & the Recoleta Cemetery blog showed big results with increased traffic & sales. Something was going right. The full final version of Catholic heritage saw the light of day… with a huge number of pages. Oh well, I was going to make the guide that I would want to buy 😉 With another major project complete, I could switch gears & tackle new things…
2020
A new Mosteiro de Alcobaça guide came together in a matter of months. Rhythm of production resembled that of Endless Mile when I first started… then the pandemic hit. What to do when no one travels & needs your guidebooks? For a long time, I’d wanted to redesign all guides, give them an updated look & make them more phone friendly. Thanks to lockdown, I completed an overhaul of each & every guide as well as began research for a Sevilla architecture guide. If I can average one new guide every year or two, EM will be in a great place.
Over the course of ten years, Endless Mile has changed & grown along with me. A collaborative effort forced to go solo, I’ve spent a lot of time over the past decade developing EM on my own… stuck between other project. But no apologies; life sometimes takes priority over business growth. On a positive note EM has fueled my interests, kept me motivated to learn & given me something to be very proud of. I’m happy to say that Endless Mile has guided many thousands of people around the world, & we hope to do so for another ten years!