Michael J. Cavallaro - How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Private Investigation Business

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

INTRODUCTION

Think back to a time when you discovered something that was meant to be hidden from public view. Was it an open diary with your name written somewhere in it? Perhaps your mother was having a muted phone conversation in the next room. Maybe someone in your neighborhood turned out to be different from who he or she seemed to be.

We investigate things because our basic makeup as human beings compels us to bring organization and arrangement to the chaos of things beyond our understanding and control. If you are reading this book, you may be looking to do more than just a little investigating. You may be someone who believes your skills, interests, and desire for self-employment are reasons for seriously considering this as your profession.

Private investigation is an information business. Someone needs to know something, and he or she has contacted you, the private investigator, because your skills and training can deliver, record, and process the information he or she is looking for. Information is often used in many ways, and not always for the purpose of impartiality. Advertising and marketing agencies may use information in ways that conveniently skew results to the benefit of their clients products. Broadcast news organizations look for breaking news to disseminate to as many viewers as possible. They editorialize, fray the boundaries of neutrality, and maybe even lie.

Conversely, your responsibility as a private investigator is to gather information that may never be divulged to anyone but your client. That means you will have to gather information discretely, without crossing legal boundaries or arousing the suspicion of others. Should your client want information for the purposes of making it public record, the information must be unbiased, untainted, and most importantly, it must be factual.