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5 WAYS TO GENERATE QUICK CASH YOU NEED BY RUNNING A MINI-BUSINESS, PART 3 of 5

Continuing from part two, mini-businesses:

MINI-BUSINESSES

There are countless businesses you could run as a quick cash producer. I’ll go into a few that I think are the best ideas for most people. Some of these may sound minor league, but that’s what they’re meant to be: easy-to-run, low time and expense businesses you can use to up your income.

DISCOUNT CARDS

There is a good money business that can be started for next to nothing, with low risk, that involves giving away special cards. These cards are DISCOUNT CARDS, wallet-sized cards that allow the bearer to receive discounts at participating businesses. These businesses pay to have their advertisement on the card. They profit from the increased exposure and from gaining new customers who come in for the discount and become return customers. The card-holders benefit from the discounts they can receive. And YOU benefit from the profitable advertising you sell!

This is a relatively simple business to explain. Here’s an overview:

1. Design your card.
2. Figure your expenses and set your ad prices.
3. Contact businesses that frequently use discounts or coupons (potential advertisers for you) either in person or by mail, with an information package.
4. Gather the ads (and the money!) and print them together on wallet-sized cards.
5. Distribute the cards to the public.

That’s all there basically is to it. Of course, there are more details you need to know, and those will be covered in detail here.

This business works especially well if there is a college in your town, or any large number of people who either vacation there or move to town, but it can be run successfully in any area. The best part (besides the money) is that you can run this business from your kitchen table! Here’s exactly what you need to do to make great profits in the discount card business.

First, think up a name for your card. A catchy name that has words like DISCOUNT, SAVER, MONEY, BUCKS, BIG, FREE or other dollar-saving words will stick in people’s minds. If you (or a friend) have artistic ability, design a logo, either with your card’s name, or a picture conveying the money-saving feature of the card.

Next, design how your card will look. It should fit easily into a wallet, so stick to credit card size. On the front, your logo should appear, along with, at most, six ads, in three columns of two. The back should be divided into, at most, twenty ad spaces, again in three columns (7 on the sides, 6 in the middle). This might sound like a lot, but they will be readable. Don’t forget to put your business name, address and phone on the front or back, at the bottom of the card.

You should also put together a poster with your logo and information about the card. Leave space for a list of locations where the card can be obtained, and for a list of the advertising businesses. This poster will be inexpensive for your printer to produce, and can be produced on your computer, if you have one, reducing your expenses even further.

Now figure your costs. The major cost to you will be printing, so check with a number of printers for price quotes. You will want a one or two color glossy card, with price quotes for quantities for 1,000 - 10,000 cards. Find out at what quantities significant price breaks occur. This can help determine exactly how many cards you want to produce and distribute. This number will be important when it comes to contacting your advertisers.

Don’t be put off by how much the cards will cost! You won’t have to worry about laying out a lot of money for the production of the cards, because you should require that advertisers pay at least half of their advertising price at the time they decide to advertise, the remainder when cards are distributed. Some businesses will prefer to pay 100% upfront, which is just fine! You shouldn’t deal with businesses that won’t pay anything upfront, unless you have some desire to deal with collection headaches.

You should be thinking about how to distribute these cards. If there is a college in your town, here are a few ideas. Contact the admissions department at the college, explain your discount card, and see if they would consider putting a card into the orientation materials each incoming student gets. Also, find out places where you may put a stack of cards for students to take. Prime locations are cafeterias and dining halls, snack bars, libraries and any other places where students group.

For the general public, great distribution spots are similar to the college spots. Restaurants, grocery stores, theaters, apartment buildings, anywhere where there are large groups of people. Don’t forget that you can give a good supply to each advertiser, to give free to their customers. All you need to do is a few good, persuasive phone calls, and your distribution will be taken care of easily. Stress to the person you’re speaking with that making the cards available to their customers will be good business for them, even if they don’t advertise on the card, because their customers will appreciate being given these discounts and will look upon the business as their friend for doing so.

Now that you have your printing quotes, determine how much you can charge for advertising. Estimate what your phone, advertising, driving and postage expenses will be. Lump these all together and you have an idea of what your costs will be. Now, multiply that figure by five. Divide that figure by the total number of advertisers you will have on your card. The number you end up with is the average price you could charge per ad. Does this sound reasonable, considering the number of cards you’ll be distributing? If so, it should make a good starting point.

For example, if you are planning to distribute 8,000 cards with 26 advertisers, and your estimated expenses will be $1200, the formula is
($1,200 x 5)/26, or $230.77 average ad price ($28.85 per thousand), and your profit would be $4,800. Considering the benefits the advertiser will get from the cards (they will be kept and used for a long time, usually 3 to 6 months, and 5,000 people will be exposed to their ad repeatedly over that period of time), this will probably be reasonable. You need to consider the economy in your area, the size of your area, and any competition you might have, as this can effect what you may be able to charge.

When you decide how much to charge for ads, here are a few things to keep in mind. Ads on the front of the card should be much higher priced than on the back, and, as a result, should be slightly larger. On the back, you can set two different ad rates by putting using “boxed ads.” An ad with a black box around it will be noticed more than one without, so it can be slightly higher. A good example of ad prices corresponding to the above average ad price would be $200 for a plain ad on the back of the card, $230 for a boxed ad on the back, and $260 for an ad on the front of the card.

(Side benefit from this business: give yourself an ad for free!)

Now is the time to contact potential advertisers. Here’s a short list of the types of businesses that will be most likely to take advantage of your service:

• Restaurants, particularly fast-food and snack establishments
• Theaters
• Printers
• Dry cleaners
• Oil change and auto parts businesses
• Travel agencies
• Clothing stores
• Hair salons
• Formalwear stores

This is not a complete list, but it should give you an idea of the types of businesses you need to contact.

Put together a list of the businesses you want to contact, and send them a sales package with full details about the cards, the population you will be distributing them to, and ad rates. Include a postcard they can use to contact you if they’re interested. Here is an example of what you can put on the card:

Yes! I am interested in talking with you about (card name). A good time to contact me would be _________________. Please ___ call or ___ visit.

Name _________________________
Business ______________________
Address ______________________
City __________________________
State _____ Zip ________________
Phone ________________________
Fax __________________________

If you are selling 26 ads, try to send information to at least 200 businesses. This will help you easily get enough interested businesses.

When you contact businesses in person, be professional. Break all the costs down so you can show them exactly how inexpensive this advertising will be. For example, if your card will be “active” for six months, distributed to 8,000 college students and the ad the business is considering is $230, show them that it will only cost 4/10 of a cent per month per cardholder ($230 divided by 8,000 people, divided by 6 months)! Also, show them that you’re distributing the cards to an audience that will need and use their services. College students will always buy pizza, so if a particular pizza restaurant can snare the incoming students with this discount card, they’ll have the edge over the other pizza restaurants. This is how you will make successful sales. Stress the benefits that the business will get from advertising with you, as well as the fact that this advertising is targeted to a specific group, instead of everyone, which will make this advertising more effective than, say, a newspaper ad. Also, let them know that you will be preparing posters advertising the card and the businesses that are advertising on it, and that this will be extra FREE advertising for them.

When the conversation moves to payment, insist (nicely!) that the business pay at least half upfront as a good faith gesture. You trust them to pay the remainder, as they trust you to deliver on your promises. Honest business owners should have no problem with this.

Advertising copy must be direct and short, due to the limited space. Ads should be three lines at most, with the first line for the business name and phone, second line for a short description of the business, and third line for discount. For example:

JOE’S PIZZA 555-1234
Best pizza in town!
10% off large pizza.

When you have your advertisers and their ads, get together with the printer you’ve chosen. Your printer will help you with the card layout, if you’re inexperienced. If you have a computer and a good typesetting program, you may be able to produce the masters for the printer, lowering your expenses.

While the cards are at the printers, put up your posters. Put them in high traffic areas where the people you will be distributing the cards to will see them. Always get permission before you put the posters up.

When the cards are done, distribute them to the locations you’ve picked out, and collect the remaining balances from your advertisers. This whole process can be done in your spare time, and should take no more than four to six weeks. The example above yielded a $4800 profit, which is pretty good for that short amount of time!

Once you’ve done one card, do another one! Differentiate it from the first by using a different name, distribution to a different group of people, and different advertisers. Here are some target consumers groups to start with:

• Senior citizens
• Families with children
• Singles
• High school students
• Women only/men only

By distributing your cards to highly targeted markets like these, and contacting businesses that cater to these groups, you can successfully generate the extra income you need to give your main business a boost!

This is part three of a five part series. Click to read part one, two, four, or five.

PUT YOUR CATALOG ON A DISK AND MAKE HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY!

If you’re involved in any type of business where you sell products or services, you should know that you need to sell more than one product to be successful. Of course, there have been exceptions, like the Pet Rock, but those are few and far between. You see, if you only sell one product, you need to find those prospective customers that want that one product. Add a second product, and you’ve opened the door to customers who want it, but not your first product. Add a third, and you have more prospects, and so on.

You can present your products or services through separate ads or flyers, but it’s really more efficient and professional to have a CATALOG. That way, your customer can see all you have to offer in one place, instead of one ad here, another there. Having a catalog will increase the orders you receive, since your customers have more choices and you can show them everything in one mailing. There’s just one problem…

Catalogs are expensive.

If you’re thinking of putting together even an eight page catalog, call your local printer and ask for a price. Get a quote on 1,000, since you’ll want to have enough. My best printer would charge $150, which would be 15 cents per catalog. Then, you have the mailing cost, which would be 52 cents. You’re now up to 67 cents per catalog. Add in the cost of getting the name to send the catalog to, and you could be over a dollar per catalog. That means over $1,000 to print and send out all your catalogs!

Worse news to come… you won’t get rich from an eight page catalog. If you really intend on making it in your own business, you’d better offer at least 20 related products or services (or a combination). That way, you can hit a specific group of people and have a good chance of getting a decent return. But if an eight page catalog would cost over $1,000 to print and mail, think about a 20 page catalog! Printing alone would be $375 or more!

You can reduce your printing and postage costs significantly by having your catalog printed on a web press on newsprint. The only problem with that is, you need to print a higher quantity to make it worthwhile. Figure on at least 10,000.

There’s an easier, less expensive way to do this…

PUT YOUR CATALOG ON A DISK!

A CD will hold hundreds of catalog pages, if you do it right! HUNDREDS!!! The higher storage disks will, of course, hold more! Your customer will receive your disk catalog, put it into their computer, and will be able to view full descriptions of your products and services on their screen. They’ll even be able to print out an order form!

Right away, let’s look at costs. For a catalog disk, the disk will cost 10 cents (that’s right, only 10 cents - I’ll reveal the source for this low price later in this report). Next is postage - 52 cents. You’re at 62 cents. Your cost for securing the name to send your catalog to is the same as above.

You might be thinking, great, this saves me a big NICKEL! BIG DEAL! Well, it IS a big deal, and I’ll tell you why.

One cost that I didn’t figure in is storage. If you have a bunch of catalogs printed (especially if you had 10,000 or more newsprint catalogs), you’re going to have to put them somewhere. With a disk catalog, you can copy them as you need them. No need to have 1,000 made up in advance, unless you really want to!

Also, keep in mind the storage capacity of the disk. If you wanted a 68 page printed catalog, whew, it would break you, unless you have pretty deep pockets. A dime will get you one on disk.

Finally, consider this… you have 10,000 of your fantastic catalog printed. You start mailing them. All of a sudden, you discover you have to change the price of one of your products. Or, the source for a product dries up. Or, you want to add a new product or service. TOO BAD! You’re stuck with the catalogs the way they are. With a disk catalog, NO PROBLEM! You make the change on your master copy, and all subsequent catalogs are instantly up-to-date.

See the advantages? You can sell your products just as well with a disk catalog as with a printed one. In fact, people will keep your catalog around longer due to its uniqueness.

So, how can you get your own high-powered order-pulling disk catalog? Well, two ways… you can make one yourself, or you can have an expert put one together for you, saving you the time and effort.

THINK YOU CAN DO THIS?

If not, don’t feel bad. Unless you’re comfortable going beyond just using a program on your computer to actually construct a catalog, you may not want to spend hours upon hours trying to do this by yourself.

If not contact the company below for an estimate:

Northridge Electronic Publishing
522 Northridge Crossing Dr.
Dunwoody, Ga. 30350
404-901-9747

HOW TO GET RICH WITH CD-ROMS (2 OF 2)

This is part two of a two part series. Part one was published on Monday.

HOW TO START THIS BUSINESS

First of all, immerse yourself in the CD-ROM world. If you don’t already have a CD-ROM unit, spring for one. Here are two sources for low-priced CD-ROM units: CRAZY BOB’S (yes, that’s the actual name of the place), 50 New Salem St., Wakefield, MA 01880 (800) 776-5685 (an excellent source for CD-ROM units starting at $259, plus tons of CD-ROMs at low prices - call for their catalog); and CORPORATE SYSTEMS CENTER, 1294 Hammerwood Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94089 (408) 734-3475 (new and refurbished CD-ROM units from $149). Read the computer magazines, especially ones dealing with multimedia topics. Many of them will have lists of the top selling CD-ROMs. Become a frequent visitor at your local computer stores - pay attention to what people buy. All these will give you clues as to what the big sellers are. Take good notes, and keep them handy!

Next, decide how you will run this business - in a store, or by mail. This business can be run equally well both ways, though the methodologies are a bit different. If you run it retail, you’ll need to be in a good, visible location, with a decent amount of advertising and publicity. If you operate as a mail order business, you’ll need to put together a catalog of what you have to offer and get it out to CD-ROM buyers.

Now, put together a starting inventory. You can do this by advertising in local and national magazines. Put a classified ad out saying something like this: “CASH FOR YOUR CD-ROMS!!! Excellent condition only, must have all manuals. Send your list for quote. (Your name and address).” Good places to put this ad include Computer Shopper Magazine, Computer Monthly, PC Magazine, multimedia-oriented magazines, BBSs, and local computer user group newsletters. When you receive lists in the mail, compare them to the information you compiled earlier. Find out what your local dealers and national mail order retailers are selling the titles for. Offer the person an average of 25% of the normal selling price. Most of them will take it, rather than have the CD-ROMs sitting around on a shelf, gathering dust. You should try to compile at least one to two hundred CD-ROMs before you advertise them for sale.

When you DO start advertising, emphasize that you will take trade-ins (remember the two for one deal described earlier) in addition to selling for cash. This is a very cheap way to build inventory. Remember to get at least double what you paid for each CD you sell.

If you want to run your business as a retail store, you should consider stocking some new CD-ROMs. Allow customers to trade their old CD-ROMs in for new ones, keeping your costs in mind. There’s no reason why you have to have a hard set concrete rule, such as “you get one new CD-ROM for every three used ones you bring in.” You can set a certain dollar credit amount for each CD-ROM they bring in, if some are more desirable than others. Also, you don’t have to take EVERY CD-ROM that people bring in. Like any other product, some CD-ROMs will be total dogs that no one will want to buy, except someone who’s never heard how awful it is. Don’t take these. If you manage to pass one off on an unsuspecting customer, good for you, but you’ll probably never see them again. You want customers to return, and return, and return. You want them to buy a CD-ROM from you, come back and trade it in, then do the same again and again. That’s where the real money is.

After all, say a customer buys a CD-ROM from you for $50 that you paid $25 for. You’ve made $25 profit. That customer comes back in a few months later to trade it in. Now, that CD-ROM might only be able to bring in $35, so you offer $17 for it. You still have $8 profit. You’ll make $17 profit on it when someone else buys it, bringing the profit amount back up to $25. The customer now buys another $50 CD-ROM, giving you another $25 profit.
And so on…

If you’re running a retail walk-in store, you won’t need a huge one. In fact, a smaller store can be better than a large one. Your products are small, so a large store will just look empty, even when fully stocked. Plus, get four or five people into a small store and it looks busy. Put four or five people in a huge store, and it looks dead. You want your store to at least LOOK busy, don’t you?

The best way to display your stock is to put the CD cases out and keep the disks behind the counter. You can either put cheap racks on the walls to put the cases on, or build some cheap bins for people to flip through. The advantage to the racks is that people can see the artwork on the front of the case, which draws their attention. The bin advantage is that you can store more CD cases in less space. Plus, it appeals to human curiosity to rummage through the bins. I’d have bins in my store.

If you build your own bins, all you need to do is make a wood box that’s 16.5 inches wide and anywhere from 10 to 15 inches deep. Now, divide the box into three compartments that are 5.5 inches wide. You will be able to stack the cases in each compartment so that the spine with the CD-ROM title is showing on the top. That will make it easy for customers to flip through them. Arrange them alphabetically by title in the bins.

To keep the disks, get some 5 inch wide strips of 2 inch thick high-density foam (not the Styrofoam that flakes apart - you want the tough stuff that can be sawed). Glue this foam to strips of plywood that you have nailed either under your counter or on shelves. Next, saw slots 3/4 of the way into the foam every 1/2 to 3/4 inch. Use a vacuum to get rid of any foam dust. Now, you can insert the disks into the slots, where they will take up little space. You may want to put labels on the foam and corresponding labels on the CD cases, so the disks are easy to locate when a customer wants to buy one.

A good idea, if you can afford it, is to have a computer or two out, so customers can try out the CD-ROMs. This will drastically increase your business, because customers will be less wary of being “taken”. Plus, when it isn’t busy, you can play some games…!

Where to advertise? Use your head when buying advertising. You want your ads to be seen by people who will actually be interested in buying your products. You’d be better off to contact every BBS in town and offer to pay maybe $25/month for a full screen ad that everyone who calls in sees, than to pay the same total amount for a few newspaper and radio ads. Why is this? Because, the BBS ads are TARGETED ads. They will only be seen by people who own computers. The newspaper and radio ads will be seen by a higher total number of people, but most of those people probably won’t own computers or even know what a CD-ROM is. Good avenues for targeted local advertising are: BBS’s; computer user group newsletters; computer stores; high school and college newspapers (students are big CD-ROM freaks, especially games!); and other media that appeals directly to computer users. Be sure to put flyers up around school campuses, especially in computer labs, if possible.

It may have occurred to you that there is a hidden possibility for profit in the used CD-ROM business… CD-ROM RENTALS! Why not? Video rentals brought forth video game cartridge rentals, which have exploded nationwide. Rent your stock of CD-ROM disks.

You’ll get the student who needs an encyclopedia for the big term paper; rent them an interactive CD-ROM encyclopedia.

You’ll get the game freak who just has to play something new; rent them your newest and most exciting CD-ROM games.

You’ll get the parent who’s looking for a new educational program for their kids; there are hundreds of educational CD-ROMs out there.

You’ll get the business person who needs special reference material; rent that CD-ROM in your stock that contains the names and phone numbers of every buyer for every large company in the U.S.

How much to rent your CD-ROMs for? Well, it’s pretty much an open market, since there aren’t many (if any!) CD-ROM rental stores around. I’d say, start your rentals at $3.50/day, and see how it goes. You need to find the highest price the market will bear, without damaging your business. For example, if you can rent 100 of your CD-ROMS per day for $3.00 ($300), or 75 for $3.50 ($262.50), it should be easy to see which price to charge.

As with any rental business, you should get a heavy supply of standard rental agreements. Standard video rental agreements should do. Your customer needs to fill one out and sign it before the first time they rent. Basically, the agreement states that anything they break or steal, they buy.

Should you charge for memberships to your CD-ROM rental club? I would answer a resounding NO!!! Many video rental stores charged for a membership. Those days are over. The smart rental stores realized that they’d make far more bucks down the line by giving out free memberships and having many more potential renters, than they would make by having only the people willing to pay $10 to $25 up front, before they rent. Make up some inexpensive rental membership cards (plain cardboard will work fine), and give them out FREE, after the renter fills out the agreement.

A good idea is to stock up on CD-ROMs that contain collections of specialized programs. For example, get a collection of CD-ROMs with shareware programs on them. Let BBS owners know you have them available. Keep in mind that there are over 60,000 BBSs out there, with more starting every day. Sounds like a good market for rentals and sales.

Or, put together a stock of CD-ROMs containing typestyles and clip art graphics. Then, do a special mailing to desktop publishers, businesses that have in-house art departments, schools, etc., any business that could need these CD-ROMs. Be careful about renting these, though. If you’re dealing with CD-ROMs that contain programs that can be copied, such as graphics, make sure the contents of the CD-ROM aren’t protected by copyrights. If they are, they are only intended to be used by the PURCHASER of the CD-ROM. If they are public domain, then you may rent them as many times as you want.

I hope you can see the profit potential locked inside CD-ROMs. They are not a fad, they are a coming wave. Look at how CDs revolutionized music… they WILL do the same for computers. Establish yourself as a source of quality new and used CD-ROMs, for sale or rent, and you’ll do well! This is a fantastic business that can be easy and fun. Plus, you’ll be keeping up with exciting technology. Be sure you start right away, though. It’s hard to open a profitable video store these days, because everyone’s in on the technology. CD-ROMs are the new technology on the block, waiting to be picked up and used profitably by you!

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH JUNKY STUFF IN THE MAIL THESE DAYS?

I hear it all the time: “There is so much junky stuff in the mail. Most of the stuff is crooked, hard to read, copied 100 times and ugly. I wouldn’t order from them regardless of what they were selling.” I agree!

In fact — I have wondered what would possess people to actually send out some of this “junky” stuff. Don’t they realize it will cost them a great loss in potential sales? Don’t they care? Don’t they realize that they are actually LOSING money?

However, remember the old saying: “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer?” While a poor person of today can be a rich person of tomorrow — a person that stays poor their entire life does so because they have made themselves that way. They have never learned the proper way to conduct business in order for it to turn a profit for them. Some of them may have tried and tried — but for some reason, they continually made bad decisions to keep themselves poor.

Let me give you a common example of what I mean. Around the first of the month, go grocery shopping. This is the time that people shop who are on fixed incomes and draw food stamp benefits. (I consider this the poor side of America.)

Now — watch their buying habits very carefully. Very rarely will you see someone use manufacturers’ coupons to save money. Very rarely do you see them purchase a brand name product (unless its cigarettes or beer.) Most of the poor people ALWAYS purchase unbranded products. These are fine in some circumstances, but if a poor person buys a unbranded name of laundry detergent or dishwashing liquid — it will run out 3 or 4 times faster than name brands like Dawn, Ivory and Palmolive. Sure — the name brand costs more in the beginning, but the long term effects will save the poor person lots of money!

What does going to the grocery store and watching poor people have to do with junky mail? Plenty! Junky mail is created by people who will never be more than they are today — OR they are people who have been taught by bad teachers and are trying to do what they are told. The fact remains through — ANYBODY can look at other things that come in the mail and learn from them. EVERYONE gets mailings from large companies that are written by professionals to sell products. All the mail order dealer has got to do is READ them.

When a piece of mail arrives that appears professional and looks like it came from a company who had a lot of money — dissect it. Find a way that YOU can make your materials look like theirs for a price within your budget.

One problem that some dealers have who mail this “junky” stuff is that they don’t believe they can look good without investing a lot of money. It doesn’t take a lot of money to look good. Just like it doesn’t take a lot of money to take a bath every day! You can still be poor but accomplish the same goal.

Another downfall for “junky” mail pieces is that quick-copy machines have made it easy for anyone to make copies. Copy machines are at most grocery and drug stores, libraries and convenient marts across America. Some people buy a desktop copier for $300 or $400 and use it to make copies of their adsheets; while others order typesetting and make copies of their camera-ready ads so they’ll have more copies.

This is all fine and dandy if you are copying a first-generation master, but if you are running a program or commission circular dealership you can’t get by with making quick copies and expect the quality to hold up. Suppose you have a typesetter design you a 8.5″x11″ circular for your program. You will give new dealers a copy of the circular from your original master the typesetter designed.

The new dealer now has a second-generation copy. He or she signs up new dealers and makes a copy of your copy. Those dealers are now getting a third-generation copy, which is probably looking poor and worn-out by this time.

Now, the guy with the third-generation copy sends it to a tabloid publisher who prints and mails it in their publication. This particular printing is now in it’s fourth-generation. Can you imagine what it looks like now?

Don’t believe me? Try it on a copier yourself. Take a camera-ready master and make a copy. Take the copy and make another copy from it. Compare the difference between this second copy and the camera-ready master. You’ll see how the circular is deteriorating — regardless of how professional it was originally typeset! This is one reason mail order is looking “junky” and it’s up to everyone to put a stop to it!

And don’t make the decision to keep your business poor and non-productive! Instead, you could be the next Montgomery Ward!

HOW TO SELL REPORTS LIKE THE ONE YOU’RE READING NOW

Okay. You just purchased a set of reports with reprint rights. First of all, determine the “age” of these reports. This information will be your key in selling them profitably. How do you find out how old they are? Normally you can judge them by their appearance. Compare it to another package you recently purchased. Do yours appear to be printed crooked, hard to read and contain worthless information? Chances are — they are old and everybody, their sister and mother has seen them who have been in business longer than 6 months. You won’t be able to sell them to most people.

On the other hand, reports that are new and updated for will sell well to almost anyone looking for a new business opportunity. Be sure and stress this fact in your advertising so people don’t get them mixed up with the old stuff.

Make Up Your Sales Circular

If you can’t afford to send $35 to a mail order typesetter at the moment to create you a dynamic advertising circular, simply type a list of the reports you are selling (by title) on a sheet of 8.5″x11″ white typing paper. Each listing should look something like this:

How to Make Money (2pgs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1
How to Win At the Lottery (4pgs) . . . . . . . . . $2
How to Sell These Reports (1pg)  . . . . . . . . . 50c

At the bottom of your list, ask the customers to order by saying something like: “Circle the title(s) of the reports you would like to purchase above and enclose with proper payment to: Your name and address.” You also could offer them a special bonus of 5 reports for $4 or 10 reports for $7. (Remember, they only cost you a few pennies to copy.)

Now, place classified ads in mail order publications under the heading of “money-making opportunities” that advertise the fact you have reports to sell. Your ad could be worded something similar to this: “Brand new Victoria’s Reports you can sell to make big money. Reprint rights included. Send $1 to: Your name and address.”

When people respond to your ad they will send you $1 (or you could ask for a LSASE [large, self-addressed stamped envelope] instead).

Place a copy of your typed list of report titles with a note or letter in the envelope and mail back to the person. Your note or letter should read something like: “Thanks for answering our ad. Enclosed is a list of the reports we sell which are making money for us. We hope you find several titles that interest you and we look forward to receiving your order. Please let us know if you are looking for a title not listed and we’ll try and locate it for you. Thanks for your business.”

Including a cover letter or note like this will increase your chances of getting an order from this person by 100%. Why? Because by the time someone orders more information from a classified ad they saw until the time they receive the information from you — they normally forget “what” they ordered. Naturally, they will have answered many different ads and won’t remember the ad they saw with your name on it by the time your package arrives. When you remind them of why they originally answered your ad in the first place, they will identify with the incident and re-generate the enthusiasm they originally felt. Then — they’ll probably order one or more reports.

Every person that orders from you should be placed in the database program of your computer or on a 3×5 card (if you are using the old method of record keeping.) Be sure to record the person’s name, complete address, telephone number (if possible), the date they ordered, what titles they ordered and the amount of money they sent you.

Be sure to indicate in your records if this person just inquired from one of your ads or if they really ordered a specific report title. If they ordered a specific report — you can determine the type of subjects this person is interested in and sell them other products and services in the future in their field of interest.

Regardless of whether you make a sale or not, just generating the original inquiry is worth its weight in gold. Keep accurate records of the names and addresses and when you have 100 or more, you can sell your mailing list and generate another income. This is one reason advertising pays you. Never stop advertising so that you never stop generating new inquiries to your offers.