As a small business owner, it drives me crazy when I receive cold calls from salesman, whether it for website upgrades, office supplies or advertising. Even though we have our receptionist weed out most of these callers, it still wastes staff time. I appreciate that these callers are trying to make a living but it is very disruptive when you are trying to concentrate and keep getting interrupted by unsolicited and unwelcome phone calls.

I recently came up with a new strategy in dealing with these cold calls. When ever we now receive a cold call, we immediately request credit or debit card information from the caller and tell them that we charge $100 for salescalls. Strangely enough, the calls seem to end right there.

I encourage other small business owners to adopt this practice.