Ever wonder what we do with those dollars you send us every month? Wonder no more: here's a pie graph of how we divvied up the income we received in the first half of 2013:

An observation or two

1. 56 percent of every dollar we receive goes to Customer Service or Development (which includes any kind of programming meant to improve, maintain, or update Populi). In other words, we're not using that money to go after other opportunities; rather, we're using it to pursue our customers.

2. A bit over 10 percent goes to running the company—paying rent, buying office supplies, keeping the books, etc. Another 10 percent lets us go after new customers and communicate with the world about Populi (via this blog, for example).

3. The big purple "non-operating" wedge shows what we devote to making Populi a sustainable business. It includes net profits, stock purchases, preparation for new hires, and so on.

4. One tenth of every penny is converted into coffee. Coffee, in turn, is converted into the other 99.9%. Definitely our most efficient expenditure.

What we spend on what we do

There are two ways to look at what we spend. One way looks at the particular things the money goes to: compensation, servers, software, insurance, and so forth. But that doesn't say much; what if we were using servers to host pirated video games?* An itemized list of expenses doesn't necessarily say much about our priorities.

What the above graph represents is the other, more helpful way to look at our spending: it portrays what we do with our income, and, therefore, better illustrates our priorities. Judging by the chart, we think it's important to improve Populi, help our customers, and establish a stable business.

And that's what we've been hoping to do all along.

* Don't worry, we're not doing that!