[Rick Lee]

I do a lot of sales in CA. I'm based in Phoenix, but most of my business is in CA. I only work with gov't. agencies and non-profits and that's a tough sector in CA these days. Plenty of my state agency customers get furloughed a day or two per week and/or can never get any kind of spending approved. I deal mostly around LA, Sacramento and the Bay Area. I'm sure I'd be more successful if I picked one place, lived there and really networked there. But I'm the only guy from my department at my company working west of Chicago. So it's a vast territory. Unless you're switching companies within the same industry and same geo. area, there will probably be a long ramp-up period. I've been out west for over three yrs. now and just a few weeks ago made my first trip to LA where I didn't need my GPS to get to my 12 meetings over three days. It takes a while to get the lay of the land. On this last trip I realized how many of my clients out there used to work with each other or at least knew each other. When you start getting a network, things tend to get better. Takes a while though. I know I'd be way ahead if I spent more time there, attended networking events and was seen a lot more.