I attended a Catholic school in Baton Rouge, LA as a child, and every year we sold chocolate bars to help raise money for our school’s needs, as a private school does not receive any funding other than what it can raise through tuition and fundraisers.
I remember one year, near the end of the week of selling, I hadn’t done too much in the way of selling chocolate. In fact, I had eaten more than I had sold and it was all coming out of my allowance which was dwindling fast!
So I opted to take my sister’s kick scooter around the neighborhood, with the box hanging from my handlebars, and go door to door and try and sell them all, lest I eat them myself. As lucky would have it though, it rained that afternoon, and it was the last afternoon I had to sell. Let this be a moral against procrastination!
Still, I was determined to go, and go I did.
As soon as the rain broke, I headed out, splashing through puddles, dodging last minute sprinkles under carports and front porches, going door to door, trying to get rid of all the candy. Oddly, I noticed that everyone seemed willing to buy that day!
I have never had so much success going door to door.
It was years later that I realized my neighbors must have taken pity on me, for surely I was a sorry sight, damp with the rain and heat humidity, pitifully asking if they wanted to buy some chocolate, and obviously shy.
I didn’t go home until I had emptied the box, and that was the year I raised the most selling chocolate for my school. (Sorry I don’t remember how much, but it was a lot)
The moral of the story? Try pitiful and cute. It works.