February 19th, 2007 → 10:47 pm @ terry
Yes, I think I should have been a farmer. I could deal with the chickens and the cows and the sun coming up over the barn – sort of like in those cartoons I watched when I was a kid.
I got up early with all the other farmers this morning and hit the road. I had several things that had to be done today and the only way I was going to get it all done and have any kind of a productive day was to get at it early.
I was back home by 9:30 a.m. having completed the first route of thirty six. My first project was to pick Casey up at the vet. That went well and she was extremely happy to see me and even happier to get home.
Once at home, I found several excuses to work on a couple of web sites, a couple of programming problems, do a little updating on the manual and so on. Oh yea, I had to go to Radio Shack to pick up some stuff for a project I’m working on.
I forgot to tell you there was a second route already prepared for me; it was laying on the kitchen table. My routine for today was planned and prepared over the weekend and that routine included running two routes. After a couple of hours at home, I began to get encouragement to go do the second route.
I left about 11:30 a.m. fully optimistic. This route was only forty two inspections and it was in an area I can work blind folded. I can recall the houses from memory and know the names of most of the people. Their kids too! A real sweet deal – less than five miles to the first address and then boom, boom, boom. Three properties had two inspections apiece – probably first and second mortgages.
I finished three inspections! I got back at 3:00 p.m. Ever heard of Mardi Gras? When I left the house I really did not anticipate any problems but this year every municipality had their own home grown enthusiasm for the pagan holiday. There was more parades than I have ever seen. More barricaded roads too.
You may not be aware of the fact that Mardi Gras originated in Mobile, not New Orleans. Mardi Gras is serious, serious stuff here.
Yesterday was Joe Cain day. Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday. Mobile absolutlely shuts down for Joe Cain day and Fat Tuesday.
My schedule for tomorrow is to stay home for the full twenty four hours of the day. I know better than to even try to work on Fat Tuesday.
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February 17th, 2007 → 6:06 pm @ terry
The whole day has been devoted to wrapping up the manual update. My post for today is a page written for the company information chapter. Here is the intro.Â
One out of a hundred. Boy things are looking good. You’ve contacted ninety nine companies and have been received with courtesy and enthusiasm. You’ve even gotten a few assignments. Great!
It would be nice if you could just stop here but you can’t, and you won’t. You are going to call that one hundredth company. It would be nice if you had stopped at ninety nine because you’re going to find that one out of a hundred companies that is just waiting for you to call so they can blind you with bright promises and lead you off to their labor camp.
It truly is one out of a hundred. Maybe it’s one out of two hundred now but it has not been that long ago when it was one out of fifty or even one out of twenty five. If there is one overwhelming motivating factor that had me go ahead and get this manual together, it was the one out of a hundred companies that were tearing the flesh off the bones of new reps!
Every rep on the planet would gasp and proclaim to the new gal “you didn’t know about those so and so’s?” Well, no. How would the new gal know? All she had was a list of companies she bought for twenty five bucks and only just now found this golly gee whiz group where all the field reps hang out.
Listen to how yours truly got eaten alive – and I knew better! I accepted about five hundred assignments from a company with a terrible reputation. I figured I was experienced enough to survive. Boy was I taught a lesson.
After working myself to death doing the five hundred inspections in about a week, they said I owed them fifteen hundred bucks! How? I was charged back for just about every one of the assignments because their computer said I was late returning the results. The fact that the previous reps name and assigned rep ID were still on the forms had absolutely no influence.
I had been sent the assignments after that rep failed to perform. I never got paid but was thankful to be rid of them. Of course, that is exactly what they were counting on.
This has been a lot of talk to tell you to slow down and have a plan. You will need to know what types of inspections each company markets and by all means you need to know something about the companies.
Plan, plan, plan!
February 16th, 2007 → 12:32 am @ terry
It’s been very busy around here. I did not get in tonight until almost 7pm. Its been quite a day with sixty six inspections, one insurance loss and one two-attempt.
I used most of the blog time responding to comments on the blog so you will probably want to read those. Sorry, but it’s late and tomorrow will be another long day.