Hit the Road?

OK, what's that saying for someone going door-to-door, trying to sell his wares? Hit the pavement? No. Beating a path? No. I don't know, but that's what I did today.

I finally have my "storefront" ready and today took it to "the mall". In other words, I have business cards, brochures and a demo DVD ready, as well as the right outfit for me to go out into the world to hawk my wares. Everything looks good.

So I hit the 3 funeral homes in Auburn first. I started at Klontz. The funeral director I spoke to there, a woman, was very enthusiastic. She admired my brochure and was happy that I was local. They have someone else they use who is in Sumner, not too far away but not right in town either. So that was a very positive first door.

The next one I went to is the one that held Phil Delaney's memorial, Price-Helton. They do their own in-house. They've been doing them for about 6 months. But I suggested that they take a card in case of emergency, their system is down or they get too many to do at once, etc. They liked that idea and took my card.

The last place I hit was Yahn & Son. I spoke to a fellow named Ed for quite a while. It was very informative. He apparently doesn't have the final word but I think he may do what he can to try to get some work sent my way. They have a guy right now that they're very happy with but it sounds like he can't do overnight work. I can. Maybe that'll be my IN.

One question I asked Ed was the flow of work. In other words, when is "death season". He said between Sept and Jan or Feb are the most deaths. Old people just get sick and die that time of year. So I'm getting this started at the right time of year.

I have been coming up with more ideas of where I can spread my brochures. Florists, senior centers, retirement homes, maybe hospitals. If anyone reading this has other ideas please leave me a comment. This isn't just for funerals, the idea is to do this for graduations, anniversaries, family reunions, etc. I ordered little brochure holders on ebay. I'll decorate them with my info and leave them filled with brochures. Then I'll have to have a route to keep them all stocked, maybe hit them all one day a week.

So overall, even though I didn't get any positive, "yes, we'll send you all our work" I felt it was a good first day. It's so strange that it's still an open market. Good for me though.

Today I hit the road, tomorrow I hit the computer - again.