26. My Fake Job Is Very Profitable
I was in Best Buy picking up some software (I do independent IT work). I was not wearing a blue shirt, but the racks were a mess so I was going through the boxes looking for the one I wanted. This older guy (I’m an older guy myself) comes to me with a popular anti-virus program and starts telling me his situation and wants to know if that is the best product for him. I show him a more suitable product, considerably cheaper and recommend it.
He asks if I can check him out, I laugh for a second and explain that I’m in IT but I don’t work here. He looks a little puzzled, walks off to the register.
He comes back a few minutes later with his bagged box and asks how much would I charge to come install the software at his office. I give him my rate, he accepts, I end up at his office cleaning up a mess of 5 virus-infected PC’s before I can install anti-virus.
That was two years ago. To date, my billings to him have exceeded $10K for building an effective business network.
Helping people in a store you don’t work at can be very profitable.