One year ago today: January 25, 2021, another “1960s” song list.
Five years ago today: January 25, 2017, $121 is now $171 (monthly).
Nine years ago today: January 25, 2013, a terrible post.
Random years ago today: January 25, 2003, my early journal transcript style.
One big news story is the Canadian trucker convoy protest. If you look at any site with posts, they say the same thing. Be careful, don’t trust the police, watch your back, and don’t believe any concessions the government appears to make. I will watch because it as grown into a much larger operation that I thought it ever could. Tells me things might be getting serious out there. Good morning and it is freezing again in Florida. Since Friday, the red cardinals have been visiting the feeder, their chirps always put me in good spirits. Maybe I should tidy up this front of my refrigerator, shown in this photo. Hey, that’s why they make them magnetable.
PayPal. I never did like them. Around 2013 they began creating delays paying out larger sums of money. This compassionateless behavior sent many small businesses into a tailspin. The owner of Book-a-neer told me they held up a transfer of $30,000 on him and nearly caused his bankruptcy. I’ve always known PayPal to be an outfit that will shaft people without compunction. It seems they have extended “larger sums” down to the $600 Biden limit and out notaries are dropping PayPal. Right after we went through hurdles to get it attached to our business account.
Another hurdle in the new business has been passed, and it isn’t the greatest news. I did some cold calls myself to test the script. Three of the dozens of phone numbers were good and the results are:
1) The guy has already hired somebody and is annoyed by all the calls.
2) Bob, our mentor, worked this client years ago and the records weren’t updated.
3) This lady hired somebody but now can’t fire him.
So besides the frustration, what have I learned? Well, somebody is working exactly the same list I am and they got there first. This means I must get new or better lists and find the people faster. Landing on the same client as the guy who sold us the training modules, that one I’ll have to think about. No way that is just a coincidence. And unless the power of attorney has expired, as it does in Georgia, the lady is out of luck. I'll explain below.
1948 Chrysler Windsor.
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Another round on the phones tells me the low-hanging fruit is gone. We will have to go after smaller claims, or locate people who are harder to find. I chose Georgia as a testbed and it’s looking more like several others have done the same. That’s actually the second time I’ve landed on something already processed by the office. Have we bought into a saturated market? It won’t matter, because one thing this round has produced is we have a complete office system now set up, website, 800 number, office address, biz license, PayPal, and a commercial bank account. If we miss, it is by a little less ever time.
A few hours later, I’m exasperated by what’s on-line. I don’t want a service I use myself, K find those all seem to be interlinked and contain the same stale data. It seems these places manipulate their own ratings. You reject Intelius for poor scores, but when you use other sites, you find they default to the Intelius search. Peoplefinder and Peoplefinders are two separate companies. They all default to circular patterns going nowhere and don’t give you all the info you thought you paid for.
Also, many of them make you wait through phony search screens that take their time. One control is to run the same or known info to compare the results. Who recalls Frank Bytheway? He’s alive and back in Texas, but no phone or any contact info except an employer, maybe I’ll see if he wants to re-establish contact. The guy got mixed up with the wrong woman and it wrecked his life. She ran off with their divorce lawyer and nailed his second paycheck for support payments every time he tried to get a job.
We don’t want to trace these people ourselves. The training modules suggest there are outfits that work on contingency. I’d go for that. If they get us the right people, I’d pay them very handsomely. For now, it’s long hours on the phone, including the extra steps needed to keep both locations parallel on our efforts. We have no shared files at this time.
What important lessons have we learned this week? A number of important ones, but we still suffer from the fog of war. We don’t yet know what the other people are doing, but we are now far enough into the process to encounter them, if only indirectly. I mean, what are the odds that two of the first three contacts were already processed, one of them by our own mentor? Secondly, while the State of Georgia may have those 140+ counties, but they are consolidated into 64 units, resulting in 59 counties that do not keep a separate list. The resulting 30 counties with significant options are already on our files, I’ve been looking past the end of them into space the last week or so. Now we know.
The easy clients are long gone. We don’t know how many people are working the lists, but anybody with a week’s head start will have picked off the few people who can be skip traced and answer their phones. I’ve flagged the lists for a secondary and tertiary pass, first the estates which demand extra paperwork, and last the LLCs and small businesses which are known hard targets. It gets tough to remember my system is geared to require only four successful transactions per year. That means a real gain if I can cut down the effort spend finding the right clients.
Any interim conclusions? Yep, a few. While I’m not used to “selling” anything by telephone, it turns out I must have a real ring of sincerity to my voice, which is no doubt helped by the reality that I am sincere about this. The shift of tactic for now will be to go after harder to find clients and smaller claims. Georgia requires a lawyer and the few people I’ve talked to indicate the fee is around $500. We know now the latest “graduating class” from headquarters has at least a small group focused on Georgia and to us, it appears they are wildly successful notwithstanding that cannot be the full explanation. They must have encountered the same problems because things like outdated lists cannot be bypassed.
In a few days at most, we will re-prioritize our immediate goals, taking into account the changes. I’ve long since noticed the testimonials from the head office never repeat. It’s always new people reporting a one-time success, then they evaporate. Our system is flexible and adaptable. I find the work sometimes tedious but recognize success is a function of the time put in, no getting around that. And unlike many of the others, we have no bills to pay and can lower our prices.
Any success at all? Well, yes, technically. One lady we contacted had already signed up somebody to process her claim. But he’s done nothing since April of 2020. She can’t find him and he’s using a mailbox. When she had her daughter call, the guy got antsy when asked for his address. Now, we know these claims don’t take that long, so I sought advice from the head office.
They said get a copy of the POA (Power of Attorney) contract, which has limitation clauses. The lady has agreed to find her copy or get a copy, which in itself might spur the guy into action. If there is a time limit and she can “unhire” the guy, she’s agreed to pay us, let me see if I’m allowed to tell you an exact number here.
Yes, she will pay us $14,980 to do the work. I told you, we only need four claims a year. I emphasize this is a side hustle. At least until I figure out how to automate it.
ADDENDUM
Just when you think America has tapped the bottom of the stupidity keg, along comes Ford Motor Company. They are now demanding that their remote employees be vaccinated. That’s a good way to lose your customer base.
(Justin Trudeau / Castro family)
