January 31st, 2007 → 11:37 pm @ terry
I worked on the manual pretty much all day. I’m making phone calls to get updates for the manual and doing a little research into some new possibilities for field services businesses.
You probably know I promote diversity. You need a variety of companies, a variety of services and be willing to try new field services.
I’m talking with several field reps about their success with doing notary services. This field service is commonly called “notary signing agent”. After talking with these reps and checking with several companies that use the services of notary signing agents, I have started a new chapter in the manual and will now include a list of the companies I find and check out. I’m sure you don’t want to wait for me so you can go to Google.com and search for “notary signing agent” to start your education on this service.
I continue to get comments from Mike on his accomplishments in finding new income opportunites. He commented that when he called TIS, they gave him information on other companies that could use his services. He passed the info on to me and now I pass it on to you. They told him about www.arco-members.com. I checked their web site and they seem to have the same goal we do – to help field reps. I called and spoke with their President only briefly. I will give you an update when I have had the opportunity to talk with her again. I am going to try to arrange for a phone interview that I can post for you.
I did get out of the house briefly today. Vickie put together a route of sixteen inspections and I went out and half-heartedly made an attempt to finish. I only completed eight and came back home. I wanted to work on the manual! I have purchased a nice javascript menu system that I am putting in the updated manual and I really wanted to get back to setting it up. At least thats the excuse I gave Vickie!
I know that all of you have not downloaded the manual so you do not know about the very first company that gave me a field service assignment. It came from Collateral Specialists, Inc. Their assignments are for leased equipment inspections, floor plan inspections and that type of stuff. Check out their site and see if you can’t pick up some assignments from them. They sent me to a couple of hardware stores and some lawn equipment sales centers. I counted a bunch of floor planned lawn equipment such as lawn tractors, edgers, trimmers, etc. Later I moved up to the big stuff; bulldozers, mobile homes, construction cranes and other equipment. Now that was really fun!
Ok, I’m out of here for the night. I have the feeling that tomorrow is going to be a very productive day. I have several phone interviews lined up so we’ll see how it goes.
January 30th, 2007 → 11:36 pm @ terry
So many wonderful things happened today and my excitement meter is setting on 133 but first: a friend, a police officer, my backup on too many occasions died Sunday and will be buried tomorrow. He was an outstanding police officer, a dependable partner and a good friend. His name was John and he will be remembered.
Sandy, thank you so much for the books. Gestures such as yours encourages me to help as much as I can. You will get to see some of the results these books will bring. Thank you!
Who is your enemy? You may not have any – none that you can think of right off. Well, I have plenty of enemies and I have named most of them. You may have heard of some of them. I can start off with Worry, a really tough guy – hard to shake off sometimes. At times I think I have rid myself of Doubt but he shows up when I think I’m in the clear. Guilt is a deceptive and conniving enemy that has left me with some nasty bruises. I can pretty much hold my own with Fear but he has a tendency to bring some of his buddies with him; guys like Doubt, Loneliness and that creep Low Self Esteem.
I’m just an ordinary guy – I’m sure pretty much like you. I know every word of Melancholy Blues and no longer have to look up the spelling of euphoria. There are days, boy there are days! Why all this @#&* about enemies and stuff? It’s because I want to let you know that I get calls just about every day from someone that has beaten back one or more of their enemies. I’m pumped up just about every day with success stories. Don’t get me wrong, not everyone succeeds - but the drop outs don’t call.
Wouldn’t it make you feel good if you could pick from the following list of people to help them out even just a little? This is just a sample of the callers this month:
I get to help them all and it’s great! Ok, enough of the rah, rah. What happened today? Only sixteen on the route and they were miles and miles apart. I was out six hours and covered a lot of ground. I did have my accomplishments however.
This is simple enough but you may not know about it. I have been looking for a property for about a month now. I have made four trips to the neighborhood and knocked on twenty doors. I counted them. Five houses on the street; four trips – twenty door knocks. Never anyone home. Today I decided I just had to have an answer. I really needed to put it to rest once and for all. Is the house I’m looking for really the one I think it is? It’s one of those streets where all the mailboxes are out on the main road and no one on the street, actually a dirt trail through a cotton field, has a number on their house.
Well, enough is enough. I went to the power meter on the side of the house and wrote down every number on the face of it. Then I called the power company. It went something like this:
This is Terry Platt and I represent (NameOfBank). I’m looking for a particular property and I think I have located it but there are no numbers on the house. If I give you a meter number, can you verify that the address is (AddressLookingFor).
Yes sir, I can do that.
Now is that easy or what? I did not ask the power company to verify who lived at the house or who is on the record. They usually will not do that due to privacy matters. They will, however, match a power meter to an address. So, if you ever need it, there it is. Just be sure you have the power company phone number in your cell phone.
I’m seeing a lot of activity at ComplyTraq. If you have not already done so, register at their site.
Be sure to check with your local insurance agents and let them know you are available for drive-bys, pictures, etc.Â
Visit groups.yahoo.com and search for InsuranceandMortgage_Services. There is an underline between Mortgage and Services. Join this group.
For he knew that the secret of happiness was freedom, and the secret of freedom a brave heart; and he did not stand idly aside from the onset of the enemy.
Thucydides, funeral oration of Pericles, 429 B.C.
InsuranceandMortgage_Services-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
January 29th, 2007 → 11:27 pm @ terry
Only one phone call today. All in all, a real quite day. Here at the end of the month, it slows down and routes consist mainly of rush inspections and odds and ends thrown together just to make up a route. It can be hard to have a profitable day when scraping together anything and everything for a route. Today was (38•6.50) so not too bad.
My appreciation and thanks for the Siberian Huskies book. It was a pleasant surprise – thank you very much. I have to read about Huskies quite a bit to stay ahead of Pakak.
I hate to say it, but the day was really humdrum and the only deviation from the monotony of the route was that one vacant house on my route has been purchased and the locks changed, so the interior inspection could not be done. One other change was the addition of a new property that required an interior inspection. Really kind of boring, huh?
I have picked up the pace on enhancements to the manual and with work slowing, I may be able to complete some of the changes this week.
I guess that’s it for the day. Tomorrow will be more of the same. We have prepared the route for tomorrow and there are eighteen inspections over a very wide area in the south part of the county. I will probably be out most of the day.
The deputy is recovering nicely.