It’s 11 in the morning and it’s a nice beautiful day to do business. Yes, I am thoroughly Desi, and a good sunny day is to make a lot of money and not spend it on futile encounters like picnics with your wife. So, my definition of a nice beautiful day revolves around adjectives like successful business deals and more successful strategies to grow.

So, I arrive at work in high spirits, open up my log and start calling my clients.

I call up a real estate agent for a company based in Toronto and try getting his attention to expand his clientele by using my marketing services. This real estate agent was at a Tim Hortons in a meeting with a client. Whether it was the caffeine in his blood or the effect of a sunny morning, he delightfully tells me to call him after an hour. Like a computerized machine, I give him another call exactly after an hour, after all discipline in calling is my first rule to success in my business. This time, he is in another meeting at another Tim Hortons in Brampton. He tells me to call him late in the afternoon.

By this time, light rain has started and the weather outside has become chilly. I crave that hot cup of coffee that he is enjoying at yet another Tim Hortons. As per his instructions, I call him late in the afternoon, this time he is at Second Cup having some deal set up with a client. The client from what I overheard was extremely mad at setting him with a lawyer who did half-hearted job and screwed his client over. I think about feeding coffee to angry clients and smile at my coffee-less office space. After listening to their long “jibber-jabber,” the real estate agent came back to talk to me. He apologized. And said I can come see him at Coffee Time in Mississauga in the evening. I accepted the invitation and went to see him. He was on the phone, bent over his dollar notebook, noting something down. He was clearly a handsome man, with Punjabi English accent with brown shades over his eyes. The mousse he had applied that morning licked his hair and the square silver cuff links were enough to complete his professional look.

He looked up to see me, directed me to sit and I sat while he talked to, I think, his boss about closing a deal next Tuesday or Wednesday. Finally he came around to talk to me. We talked and as I was getting up, someone called, and he gave another woman an address for a coffee shop near Bovaird Drive in Brampton.

The next morning I called another guy who is working with a law office. He tells me I should come see him at Starbucks at Hurontario and Britannia. He tells me I should be there at or before half past eleven, else I will have to see him at some coffee shop in Brampton. I thought to myself, God, why do I have an office for which I pay $1,600 + GST rent when all these coffee shops are sprawled all across the Greater Toronto Area where even if I have to offer coffee and a muffin to my clients, I would be saving more than $800 a month.

Or I can set up a home office. And bribe my teenage sister to take my phone calls in my absence, send whatever emails I need to send and still save the office rent.

Author:Rahul Mehta