Rain Clouds and Wrong Numbers

by John Passmore

- 50 cards
- 6 DVDs
- Talk to six people
- Send five texts

... I also planned to walk to the dog.

And what happened? It rained. In fact in Suffolk it rained pretty much all day - the real stair-rods stuff. Don't blame me, if I'd taken the dog I'd have had to drag her all the way round and people would have stared at that awful man taking that poor doggie out in the rain.

And when it's raining, getting through the To Do list is a matter of determination.

Of course it started off easy enough: I filled up the car and the man who pulled up on the other side of the pump was in a plumber's van: "Hi," I said brightly. "I'm always on the lookout for plumbers - plumbers, electricians... business owners who'd like to make an extra income alongside the one they've got already. Would that be you?"

"Might be," he said. "Tell me about it while I fill up."

So I did and he ended up with a DVD and I ended up with his card.

Next stop was Oxfam with a load of junk - I beg your pardon - a selection of high quality merchandise we no longer require. The thing about this is that you go in with your arms full and you come out empty handed - which means everyone on the way back to the car park gets a card: "Hi, have you had one of these?"

I made three trips, and each time I passed through the covered walkway outside Boots, I shifted another ten cards - and three people said: "What is it?"

So I told them. Two were interested in saving money so they would get a text when I got home in case they lost their cards and one was already a customer, thought the club was great but really didn't want to know about making money. Nor did he want to recommend any of his friends to me. But he did volunteer to give them my card - so he got another ten.

And then I remembered the cleaning and so the woman behind the counter heard all about it and said she'd tell her husband (I wonder if she will?)

And by the time I'd been to the bank for a load of pound coins to replenish the school dinner money pot we keep in the kitchen, I had only five minutes to go in the car park and only one card left.

That makes me choosey. In fact I was nearly there when I saw him: A tall man in a suit and looking purposeful - the sort who is much too important to take a card from someone in the street.

So I said: "Excuse me. Are you in business? Only you look successful and I'm looking for successful people who'd be prepared to look at a second income stream. Would that be you?"

And just maybe I struck gold. It turned out he was in the commercial property business. He bought it, sold it, sourced it for clients. Yes, he knew a lot of business people. We spent my remaining five minutes talking about what my part-time business had done for me and what it could do for him.

By the time I got back to the car (before the ticket ran out) I had done everything on my Business Development Plan except for the five minute task of sending the texts when I got home.

But that's only the basic stuff. There was also my appointment at 3.30 - a referral from one of my oldest customers. I was in and out in 20 minutes and yes, he joined. When I asked him to reccommend six of his friends he thought he might manage a couple. But then he had a brainwave and went and fetched the membership list of the Woodbridge and District Lions Club and carefully marked six names for me to ring.

"I'll be seeing them tonight," he said. "I'll tell them you'll be in touch."

And finally there were some calls to make to the people who'd had yesterdays DVDs and one of them turned out to be a wrong number.

"Oh dear," I said when the voice on the other end said he had never heard of Daniel Pearson. "He asked me to ring and tell him how to make some extra money. I don't know what I'm going to do. I suppose I could tell you instead. Would you be interested in extra money."

And guess what. He's looking at the website, he's got an email sitting in his inbox and at least I know I've got the right number when I ring him today to ask what he liked best!"