Apparently This Is The Perfect Job

This afternoon I was walking in the East Village with a friend visiting NYC. He likes to take pictures of food and I mentioned that there is a rice pudding place that appears to be pretty popular. It’s named Rice to Riches and he said the pudding was about $6/cup.

He went inside to take some photos and I waited outside. I noticed the sign (pictured below) on the door and had to do a double take. It’s not everyday you see a job posting noting requirments including: long hard hours, dead-end job, no benefits, etc. The really interesting thing about this sign was watching people walk by the rice pudding shop. In about five minutes time, I counted 20 people who stopped and talked about the sign with the others in their party – one young kid called his father over saying it might be a perfect job for him. A few people smiled, one laughed and another took a photo (like I did).

But the best part for the pudding shop was three people who were clearly walking past the shop actually stopped, read the sign, made a comment and then went into the shop. I don’t know if they bought anything but they were inside – how many others at least open the door based on this sign. In fact, the shop has other signs that are a bit shocking as well.

The reason I am sharing this with you is because it’s a great reminder to all startup entrepreneurs that the first step to making a sale is to get them in the door. The ability to be creative can help increase the number of people who “enter” and that’s one step closer to a sale, a lead or a user signup. Lastly, in today’s social media world, creativity can help your message spread.

(as a side note, I am guessing all of us have worked at least one job that fits those requirements perfectly!)