That a smile, a pleasant word and a liberal amount of good humor will succeed better in the collection of accounts than the bullying method, was the idea of a young friend of ours who decided to make Collections a regular business.
About all he had with which to make a beginning was a desk, three chairs, a small rug, a second-hand typewriter, and $50 for some printed matter and a month’s office rent.
He had arranged with a young lawyer friend of his to attend to whatever litigation might be necessary, and the attorney’s name appear on his letter heads as counsel for the agency.
Then he called upon the leading merchants and solicited their accounts, on a basis of 5 per cent on the fairly good ones, and from 24 to 50 per cent on others.
In every case where it was possible, he called upon the debtor personally, and possessing a most pleasing and sympathetic manner with which to meet the usual “hard luck” stories he encountered, he was able not only to impress the fact that he was the debtor’s friend but to compel a recognition of the creditor’s rights and equities in the matter.
As a result of this method he collected many old accounts that were regarded as hopeless, and made his business pay.
In those cases, however, where the debtor was defiant and inclined to not to care he dealt with them judiciously.
You probably have no idea how many people would pay for rag rugs, to be used in their bathrooms, bedrooms, dining rooms and elsewhere if only some one would make them and sell them from house to house.
An old lady in Illinois, who knew all about making rag rugs, as well as rag carpets, and who needed a little money very badly, concluded to use her knowledge of rug making and make a few dollars in the only way she could think of.
Her only available resources were a quantity of clean bits of cloth of various hues and textures, some needles and thread. The pieces of cloth she tore into strips of the proper width, and sewed them together, so as to form combinations of blue and white, brown and white, red and black, grey and old rose, etc. and, having no loom with which to weave them, she made them into three-strand braids and sewed them together in oval shape, until she had completed a mat about 2¹⁄₂x3¹⁄₂ feet.