Write to these companies for more information on the business opportunities they have available.

CARPET DESIGN SERVICES

Carpet Artist Assoc. Of America Inc.
1628 W. Northwest Hwy.
Arlington Heights, IL 60004

Carpet Sculpture Gallery
510-A W. Central Ave.
Brea, CA 92621

National Carpet Equipment Inc. Of Minnesota
6801 Winnetka Ave N.
Brooklyn Park, MN 55428

Sacramento Carpet Service Inc.
PO Box 13574, Market Branch
Columbia, SC 29201

HOME FURNISHING ACCESSORIES

Amerilok Corp.
410 Atlas Ave.
Madison, WI 53714

Bunk Bed Bargains Co.
4808 Bywood W.
Minneapolis, MN 55436

Diversified Arts
15 Palmer Rd.
Box 603
Waterford, CT 06385

Furniture Classics Inc.
PO Box 571853
Houston, TX 77057

King Koil Bedquarters
770 Transfer Rd.
St. Paul, MN 55114

Martek Ltd.
PO Box 15160
Charlotte, NC 28211

Nationwide Carpet Brokers
PO Box 1472
Dalton, GA 30722-1472

Rickshaw Collections
311 Richert
Wooddale, IL 60191

REFINISHING & RESTORATION SERVICES

Clear Image
PO Box 4984
Seminole, FL 34642-9998

Faux Effects Inc.
1613 10th Ave.
Vero Beach, FL 32960

Homewood Industries Inc.
PO Box 1535
Homewood, IL 60430

Master Finishers
372 S. Saginaw
Pontiac, MI 48053

Minuteman Furniture Restoration Inc
115 N. Monroe St #10
Waterloo, WI 53594

WALL-PRINTING SYSTEMS

Decowall Company Inc.
5413 Rhea Ave.
Tarzana, CA 91356

Euro-Wall Styles
10022 Iroquois St.
Apple Valley, CA 92308

The Unwallpaper Co.
PO Box 757
Silver Spring, MD 20918

MISCELLANEOUS

Anchol Industries Inc.
PO Box 3477
Evansville, IN 47711

Classy Closets
2001 W. Alameda Dr.
Tempe, AZ 85282

Closet Classics
3311 Laminations Dr.
Holland, MI 49424

Intellitricity Inc.
3307 Northland Dr., #130
Austin, TX 78731-4941

Mastervoice Inc.
10523 Humbolt St.
Los Alamitos, CA 90720

Silks By Rose Inc.
2060 Lincoln Way E.
Chambersburg, PA 17201

Stony Brae Ltd.
16 Wilton Rd.
Westport, CT 06880

TransDesigns
1000 Transart Pkwy
Woodstock, GA 30188

Sounds pretty unusual, doesn’t it? Well, if you run this business right, you can make a lot of money with advertising placemats.In a nutshell, you will be giving free paper placemats to restaurants in your area with either a prominent color ad or their menu in the middle, and two-inch by two-inch ads around the edge. These ads will make so much profit for you that if you run up against a stubborn restaurant owner, you can even pay him or her to take your placemats and come out way ahead. They’d be a fool to refuse!

Figuring out your costs

The first step in this business will be to figure out your costs and prices. Contact a good number of printers in your area and find out what kind of blank or ready-made thin paper placemats they can either print or have printed for you. There should be a variety of sizes and styles. Get quotes for at least 5000 mats in two-color printing. Compare your quotes and find the printer that will do the best job for the best price. Make sure this is a printer that will work with you on the layout of the placemats, if this is new to you.

Once you have your printing costs, which will be your primary costs, you can figure out how much profit can be made. Your profit will depend, in part, on how many ads you can put around the perimeter of the placemat. For example, if the placemat is 11×15, you can put a total of 20 ads around the sheet, leaving a one inch margin around the edge for the printer. Divide the printing cost, together with your other estimated costs (phone, postage, travel) by the number of ads, and you have your cost per ad.

For example, suppose your estimated expenses will be $600. Divide that by 20 ads and you have $30. This is how much each ad contributes to covering the cost of the placemat. Now, figure a target profit margin. In my area, an ad that will be seen by 5,000 people over an extended period of time could go for $90. This would be a $1,200 profit!

Finding your clients

Now, make a list of restaurants that would be likely prospects for this service. The best prospects will be locally-owned family-oriented restaurants that are visited by residents of the area. Don’t try truck stops or restaurants by toll-road exits, as most of their customers are just passing through, and won’t patronize any of the advertisers. Also, big-name chain restaurants and fast-food places may be a waste of time, as most of them, if they use placemats at all, have their own already. Smaller, particularly family-owned, restaurants will be your best bet.

Here’s the approach to take. Tell the restaurant owner that you can provide 5,000 free paper placemats with either a large color ad or a color menu printed in the middle of the placemat. Local advertisers will be featured in small ads around the outside. When you say the words “5,000 free paper placemats,” you probably won’t even have to go any further! If the owner’s a hard case, offer to pay them to take your placemats! Offer $50 and 5,000 placemats. This will break down more barriers than you can imagine!

If the restaurant owner has a pre-made ad or menu available, this can be reduced or enlarged by your printer to fit the center area of the placemat. Be sure the restaurant’s section dominates the placemat.

Finding the advertisers

Now, contact businesses that are in the immediate area surrounding the restaurant. Good prospects will be video stores, dry cleaners, grocery stores, book stores, any business that is frequented by families. Tell them that you have an advertising opportunity which will put their name and offer in front of 5,000 people for an extended period of time. Explain the placemat system, and which restaurant the placemat will be at. Break down the ad price to the person. For example, a $90 ad to 5,000 people will only by 1.8 cents per person. This is very inexpensive.

Again, most businesses will have a two-inch by two-inch ad, or one that can be resized, ready for use. If they do, you’re home free! If they don’t, get information about what they’d like to have the ad say, then ask your printer for layout help. You’ll probably only need to do this for your first placemat, as layout is easy to get the hang of. Encourage advertisers to make their ad into a discount coupon with dotted lines around it. This will increase the response to their ad.

Contact as many possible advertisers as you can. The more you contact the more ads you’ll sell. If your prices are competitive and you deliver honest facts, you should have an easy time selling the placemat ads.

Bringing it all together

Now, take the ads to your printer and layout the placemat. Put the restaurant’s ad/menu in the center, and the other ads around the perimeter. Have the printer print the requested quantity, and deliver them to the restaurant. It’s that simple!

This whole process can be done easily in less than a month. But, even if it takes you a month, the example above cleared $1,200 profit (or $1,150, if you actually had to pay the $50). Once you’ve done your first one or two and know what you’re doing, you will find that you can run more than one at a time. If you run four placemats per month, you could clear over $55,000 per year! This is just an example, and your profits could be higher or lower, depending on your area. But, it should be fairly obvious that this can be an easy-to-run, profitable business that you can start part-time and quickly move into a full-time business!

If you have cable, you’ve no doubt seen local advertising on most of the channels. There are three ways a local business could produce a commercial. One, they could do it themselves (and we all know what that looks like); two, they could have the local cable business do it for them (which can also look quite amateurish); or they can have an outside individual do the production. This is where you come in.

If your video skills are top-notch, you can produce excellent commercials for local businesses at agreeable prices. If you have marketing skills, so much the better, but it’s not an absolute requirement. As long as you can clearly answer the “4 W” questions (who, what, where and why), your commercial will be good.

The only drawback to this business is that you should use 3/4 inch broadcast format video, which is incompatible with a home video camera. A camera for this type of videotape usually costs around $3000, less if it’s used. There is a way around this expense, though.

Most cable stations have what is called a “public access” channel. This channel is designed so that individuals and groups from the community can produce their own shows, to be aired on the channel. Contact your local cable company and find out if they have such a channel. You should be able to rent time on their equipment. This is a real boon when it comes to editing a tape, as they will have the equipment necessary to make your tape look professional. They usually offer short courses on using the equipment, too.

Market your services directly to the small businesses in your area. Good prospects are auto dealerships, restaurants, retailers such as video, book, and computer dealers, and, in election years, local political candidates (hope they get elected — you can expect a return customer!). Your quality production, coupled with a reasonable price, should entice prospects to become customers.

Most commercials will be either thirty-seconds or one minute, and will be shot on location at the customer’s facilities. If they provide the copy for the commercial, you only have to direct the commercial. Run through the script with whoever will be reading it, to make sure that it will fit the time without sounding rushed. You want to aim for a relaxed, natural sound (unless, of course, you’re working with your local crazy car dealer, in which case they may want an auctioneer sound!). Above all, make sure the script tells WHO the advertiser is, WHAT they do, WHERE they are, and WHY people should give them their business. This is what the customer needs to hear.

Also, make sure your customer is happy with the result. After shooting the video, edit it (you should be able to ask someone at the cable company to help you), then review it with your customer. As long as you’ve presented the advertiser in a good light, you’ll be in good shape.

The first few times you produce a commercial, you may feel like you’re flying by the seat of your pants. Just relax, use good common sense, and always remember that the job of the commercial is to convince the skeptical customer to spend his or her hard earned money with your client.

You should expect to spend a few hours during the shoot, to get enough takes for editing. Get four or five good takes. That way, any bad parts that you find when reviewing your taping can be replaced with a good take.

A thirty to sixty second commercial should be able to be shot and edited in one day. The first one or two may take a bit longer, but that’s okay. It’s better to take your time when learning the ropes, rather than rush through and end up with substandard results. Because your overhead will be low (if renting equipment, instead of purchasing) you should be able to undercut your competition. In a decent size city, you can expect to charge between $500 and $1,000. Longer commercials are more negotiable, depending upon whether or not you will be asked to write the script. The half-hour long “infomercials” have become a bonanza for many advertisers, and they are a goal you can work up to, as your skills grow.

Watch commercials and listen to them. Keep mental notes about how the advertiser is presented, what message the commercial gives, and if you feel the commercial is successful. Incorporate the best elements of the commercials you see into your own shoots!