Business card story

My girlfriend was moving in with me but had some of her furniture and other personal items in Salt Lake City, Utah.

We planned to drive my truck, load it up, and return to CA.  On the way, we came across a young man hitchhiking.  In those days, it was a common practice and relatively safe.

He had been visiting friends and was returning to his home in Mass.  He was an exciting and friendly young man.

He rode with us for several hours.  Rather than drop him off in the middle of the city, I dropped him off a few exits east of the town.

I gave him my BMW motorcycle shop business card.  I had no expectations, but they were cheap, and who knows what might be the result.

Months later, a BMW motorcycle rider from back east stopped at my shop for some minor repair work.  I asked how he learned of my shop, as I didn’t have a yellow page ad, and I was very busy with word-of-mouth advertising.

He told me he had picked up a hitchhiker at a toll booth back east.  He put a helmet on the guy, and later when he dropped him off, the hitchhiker noticed that it was a BMW and gave him a business card for a shop in CA, just in case he ever rode his bike to CA.

That was the most remarkable result of handing out a business card.

Updated 30 March 2023