Poke Probe Pry and Peek

Chapter One

Out of the box you do not have to be tall, dark, and handsome, or pretty if that is your gender. It helps, but it’s not necessary. Next, much like in real estate, location is important. In the world of the licensed PI, the ability to learn is important. To survive, you must become a fully functioning licensed professional capable of exercising all the fundamental skills of our profession and the business world. Fall short of this; don’t leave your day job.

A good start is understanding the word “professional”. Here is a word misused and misunderstood like few other words. It is tacked on to so many other words to indicate quality that many people do not know or care to know the real meaning. What it really means is “ licensed by the state in which you practice your profession.”

Becoming a licensed professional private detective is obtainable. The journey is long, littered with pitfalls and obstacles. But, it’s not impossible. I did it, and so can you. This is what this book is about. How to get there, and once there, how to stay there. In this mix are many of the more unusual cases I worked, how I worked them, and why I worked them the way I did.

Lets talk about basics. First a realty check. Forget about the big murder case. You’re not going to go out and solve a murder case that the police cannot solve. It is not going to happen now, later, or ever. If you think so you’re watching to many TV shows or going to the movies to often. Entertaining yes, but it’s never going to happen in real life. You will find niches in the broad variety of work in the investigation field that you are comfortable with. Some detectives just like doctors and attorneys specialize but there are also many that do not. They are generalists in the pursuit of their profession.

Together we will explore how you’re going to do that. You’re going to learn what a good PI really does and how he does it. As I relate to you the varied type cases I worked you’ll discover what it takes to be successful. Most importantly I am going to give you a lifetime of advice based on fifty years of street and management experience.

We will also spend many pages talking about you. How to sell yourself. How to present yourself. How to put yourself in the win-win column. Many PIs I know are part- timers. They are part-timers because they never learned how to sell themselves-----------

Chapter Two

To succeed, you have to be professional in every aspect. You must be tireless in your quest for success and you start by MARKETING YOURSELF.  Are you saleable? Are you a good sell? You purchased this book. You want to succeed. Good start. Good for you. Now I know you don’t want to become another big dumb gumshoe. The formula people is a simple one. It is YOU equals MONEY. Hopefully you now realize the formula starts with you, will always be you, and will end with you. If you do it right, it equals money.

Clean yourself up physically so that you are presentable. If you have bad teeth, get them fixed and learn how to smile. Moderate haircut is always nice as is trimmed and cleaned fingernails. You get the picture, first impression counts and it will always count. You can be the best PI around but if you look like crap warmed over you will never get the chance to demonstrate your skills and make money while doing it. The CEO/VIP that is going to pay the bill expects to see a professional with good communication skills. He or she also wants to see and hear good manners and a sense of confidence that you can get

the assignment successfully completed on time and at a reasonable cost----------------

Chapter Three

A real professional PI works, other PIs only talk about it. Don’t wait for the phone to ring; you must make it ring. In the beginning, you have to find work. As a rule it will not find you. You can pass out nicely done business cards, digitally processed brochures, and punchy one-page business letters to every lawyer in you county. And then you wait like the guy in the washing machine commercial. And you wait some more. ----------------

Chapter Four

Let’s change the tone of this chapter. You must be getting tired of how-to-market yourself rhetoric. We are going to talk about my very first case and my very first dollar working as an independent PI. I am going to teach you a few tricks of the trade as we navigate our way through something that is not too spectacular in nature. Sorry, there are no murders, shootouts, explosions, car chases, car crashes or karate chops. Most of what you’re going to do is ho-hum and nothing like what you see in the movies. So get used to the idea----------   

Chapter Nine

In this chapter we will continue exploring unique ways of putting all that real or imaginary talent you have to good use. As always we will have brief side trips into that important genetic diversity we all have. Whether you call your actions to promote yourself networking or interacting, you must have a business plan to meet people, (clients) to make money. The time between meeting and money is where all that character we have been talking about begins to hopefully pay off. ----------------

  Chapter Ten

The Chicago area is unique in that it literally sprawls from Wisconsin on the north to Indiana to the south. I bounced over the state lines now and then for a quick something or other and soon came to the conclusion that I should be licensed to operate legally in the adjoining states of at least Wisconsin and Indiana. I procrastinated about this for months as I gave this idea some thought.

One morning I received a phone from a national firm headquartered in, of all places, Iowa. They would need me in two months and the uniqueness of the case wetted my appetite, as did the money. I would have to reserve two to three weeks exclusively for them and personally work the case. There