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

Continuing from part four, mini-businesses:

INCREASING YOUR INCOME FROM YOUR PRESENT BUSINESS

The easiest way to bring in more income quickly is to offer a special price or package of your current products or services. Your only upfront expense will be getting the word out about your special. Depending on the type of business you run, this expense could be minimal.

For example, one of the services I offer, in addition to my publishing efforts, is custom typesetting and layout work. I could offer a special price for a limited time, or a quantity discount off my normal per-page pricing. In this case, the most cost effective marketing method I could use would be to prepare a flyer for the special (no cost to myself but time spent creating the flyer and copying costs), and distribute it to my best customers and those prospects I would most like to have as long-term clients.

Besides the quick business I’d get from the special, I may entice a few newcomers into my fold that will bring long-term business my way. Used correctly, this technique can provide the quick income you need, while building your permanent customer base.

CONCLUSION

Every business has hard times at the start. That’s just a fact of life or the self-employed. It doesn’t have to be so bad, though, if you plan ahead and take whatever steps are necessary. Package your products and services for quantity sale. Run a small secondary business. These are the ways to reinforce your main business and keep it afloat in rough water.

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

5 WAYS TO GENERATE QUICK CASH YOU NEED BY RUNNING A MINI-BUSINESS, PART 4 of 5

Continuing from part three, mini-businesses:

INVENTORY VIDEO TAPING

This is an excellent secondary business to run. You can easily control how much time you spend on this, and it has great profit potential!

You only need one camera, decent video skills, little expenses and supplies, and, if done right, very low marketing expenses. Besides our Video camera, you’ll need an instant camera and an engraving tool, which together should be able to be found for under $100.

Here’s the business in a nutshell: You videotape household and business inventory and valuables for insurance purposes. Then, if a robbery occurs, the owner has a video documentation of the missing valuables for law enforcement and insurance agents. Your primary prospects for this service will be upper-income families and businesses that specialize in high-ticket items or have a high investment in equipment.

The first step you should take to run a property inventory taping service is to meet with your area law enforcement agencies to find out what regulations, if any, they have. Remember, you will be going into other people’s houses and will have full knowledge of their valuables. If you have endorsement from the law, your customers can feel comfortable that you won’t use this knowledge for the wrong purposes. The person you want to meet with would be the one in charge of neighborhood watches or community services. Normally, police agencies are enthusiastic supporters of services like this, as it makes their job easier. Others to meet with include insurance agents, private detectives, fire officials and attorneys. Not only will you gain valuable information from them, you will be building up a network for referrals. Be sure to keep a good record of who you meet with so you can send them business cards, brochures and periodic reminders of your services.

While meeting with insurance agents, take care of your insurance requirements. You should carry liability insurance, and you should also get bonded. The extra expense is worth it, as it will both help to get business and will protect you and your customer.

Your service will be ripe for publicity, so prepare a good press release. You should be able to find a good book or two on publicity releases at your library. Get these releases to every daily and weekly newspaper in your area, as well as local business magazines and television stations. When your service gets written up in the papers, keep a clipping of each article to use in your marketing materials. Send a copy to all the insurance agents, attorneys, private detectives and law enforcement agencies in your area. You WILL get referrals from this!

Another idea for publicity is to set up a booth at local home and garden shows, preferably in the home protection areas (alarms, etc.). This will establish your name in the minds of consumers. If you don’t mind public speaking, offer to give a short seminar on home inventory protection and how your service can help prevent theft. You can prepare one presentation that can be given numerous times at different community-related functions and locations, such as country clubs.

Now for the meat of the service; when you set up an appointment with a customer, make sure they know you will be charging by the hour, so it will be to their advantage to have things such as jewelry, china or antiques laid out and ready to be taped. Take your camcorder with extra tape and batteries, an instant camera with plenty of film, your engraver, forms for listing valuables, and a three-ring binder for the forms.

When taping valuables, be sure to get a clear picture of them, including any distinguishing characteristics. Be sure to fill out your forms completely, listing special features or characteristics, such as type and weight of gems, etc. Jewelry is probably best photographed with your instant camera, as is any small valuables. Large antiques and other primary household items are easily videoed. Be sure to get any brand names and model numbers clearly taped.

After taping the individual items, walk through the house. Be sure to get any computer and video equipment, phones, TVs, art and other items that would be tempting to thieves. Engrave the client’s social security or driver’s license number on the back or bottom of items that won’t be damaged by doing so and record this on the forms, including the location of the engraving and all serial numbers. If the home is burglarized and police recover the stolen goods, this will help the client get his or her valuables back quickly and easily.

Don’t forget to tape the outside of the house, including patios, walkways and landscaping. This can help the client establish value in case of vandalism.

In businesses, videotape the office equipment, as well as the offices themselves, inside and out. In specialized businesses, be sure to tape any special equipment.

A good idea is to provide window stickers for your clients that tell potential thieves that items in the house have been marked and recorded. These stickers can be purchased or printed. Your local law enforcement agencies may even be able to provide these to you at a low cost.

When through taping, give the tape a quick run-through to be sure everything’s ok, then give it to your client, along with the binder. Encourage them to store these in a safe deposit box, in case of fire.

How much should you charge? A typical mid-sized to large home should take two hours, at most, to tape, if the owner has prepared everything ahead of time. You can charge anywhere from $50 to $150 per hour, depending upon what your local market will bear, with $75 per hour a good figure to start with. You should be able to see how this business can add up!

In your marketing materials, stress the fact that your charge is a small price to pay, considering it is a crime deterrent and will result in far less stress and time on the customer’s part if a mishap does occur. You can feel good that you are providing a service which will help people in bad times. Remember to be professional while in the client’s home, don’t make any comments which could be construed in bad ways, and be assuring about the safety and reliability of yourself and your service.

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

5 WAYS TO GENERATE QUICK CASH YOU NEED BY RUNNING A MINI-BUSINESS, PART 2 of 5

Continuing from part one of a five part series:

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. Come 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.

CURB NUMBER PAINTING

Here is a great opportunity that can work for anyone in any sort of community. What you will be doing is painting address numbers on curbs for a fee. Why would anyone want this service? Answer this question in your marketing and you’ll find great success with this.

If your house number is painted on the curb in front of your house, it is easier for emergency vehicles (police, ambulance) to find the house, as well as friends and family who aren’t familiar with the area. I’m sure you’ve tried to find someone’s house at night before, but had trouble seeing the numbers on the house. I’ve seen some house numbers that I couldn’t see during the day, much less at night!

Anyway, you should be able to start this business for less than $50. Here are the supplies you’ll need for this service: reflective white highway spray paint (available from paint supply houses), black highway paint, 3″ tall number stencils, wide masking tape, a few old rags, and flyers. The flyers should read something like this:

(Your business name, address, and phone, centered at top of page)

If the police or an ambulance had to find your house at night, would they be able to see your house numbers? If friends or family were trying to find your house for the first time, would they get lost?

Not if you have curb numbers!

Curb numbers are 3″ tall address numbers painted with high-quality, long-lasting reflective white highway paint on a black background. They are highly visible both day and night. You can have professional quality curb numbers by (business name) for only (insert your price).

If you would like this valuable and helpful safety measure, please fill out the coupon at the bottom of this flyer and leave it, along with a check for (price), made out to (business name), in your mailbox. We will be painting numbers tomorrow, starting at (insert time). Thank you!

NOTE: Our service is 100% guaranteed! If you are not satisfied with the quality of our service, call us and we will repaint your numbers or refund your money, no questions asked! (Business name, address, phone)

——————————————-
Name: _____________________________________

Address: __________________________________

Phone (Optional): _________________________

Please leave this coupon, along with a check for (price), in an envelope in your mailbox before (insert time) tomorrow. THANK YOU!

Prepare a batch of these flyers on your computer, or produce an original and photocopy it. It is crucial that it look professional. Take your time, and don’t handwrite it! If you can’t produce a quality original yourself, paying someone else to do it right will pay off in increased business.

Be realistic when setting your price. This is a very low cost service for you to offer, so there will be a good profit margin built in. I would say the price range for this service would be between $3 and $10, with $5 being the most likely for success.

The best neighborhoods for this business are newer, middle to upper income developments, though almost any neighborhood will produce orders, if the price is right. Drive through the neighborhoods in your area and look for those with house numbers that are hard to see.

When you find a neighborhood that looks good, go door-to-door with your flyers. It’s not necessary to knock on doors and do a sales pitch. Rubber band the flyers to door handles, or put them in newspaper boxes. DO NOT put them in mailboxes, as this is illegal. It should only take two or three hours to blanket an average size neighborhood area. The best time to do your distribution is on a Saturday morning, so you can do your painting on Sunday afternoon. This leaves the week untouched for your main business.

The day after you distribute the flyers, return to the neighborhoods you hit. Go to each mailbox and, when you find one with an order, use your masking tape to outline a rectangular area on the curb that is big enough to contain the house numbers. Then, paint the black background. Paint all the backgrounds for the neighborhood before painting any numbers. This will give the black paint time to dry.

When painting the numbers, take your time, make sure your stencils are straight and securely taped in place with your masking tape, and spray your white paint evenly and generously. Wipe up any drips, and touch up as necessary to make your job look flawless.

If you get any calls from dissatisfied customers offer to repaint their numbers or refund their money. Don’t argue and don’t have hard feelings. You might get one or two people who take advantage of you, but that’s a worthwhile chance to take. You see, the guarantee will help to sway any people who are undecided about your service. Offering a no-questions-asked guarantee can greatly increase your business, so why not offer it? If you’ve done a good job, and offered true value for your customer’s money, you shouldn’t get many calls.

Get more orders easily by visiting the same neighborhood 2 to 3 weeks later. Leave flyers at the houses that didn’t get numbers last time. You should get new orders from those who saw your previous work.

A good idea for building order volume is to offer a neighborhood volume discount. For example, if you’ll distribute 200 flyers in a neighborhood, offer 10% off on everyone’s orders if 50 or more people participate. This can help entice people to do a little sales work on their neighbors for you! Note this offer boldly on your flyers.

My final word of advice is to practice before you do any actual painting. Pick up an inexpensive patio block and practice on it. Only an hour or two of practice should be necessary.

A side benefit of this business, besides the income it will generate, is that it will get you out of your office for a few hours each week. Enjoy the fresh air! Plus, the exercise can’t hurt anyone. Good luck!

NOTE: There is a kit for curb numbering that includes interlocking brass number stencils, 2 cans of black paint, 2 cans of white paint and instructions for $39.95 plus $4.95 for shipping. Order from Magic Systems, Inc., Order Dept., P.O. Box 23888, Tampa, FL 33623-3888, or call (800)237-9106 with your credit card.

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

A GOOD CODE OF ETHICS FOR MAIL ORDER BUSINESSES

1. I will give my customers friendly and fast service; making sure to process their orders within 3 days after receipt. If I cannot process their orders during that period of time, I will send them a postcard that acknowledges receipt of their order and the approximate time I’ll ship the completed order.
2. As a publisher, I will provide my advertisers with checking copies (either for free or a nominal charge for postage) so they will know where their ad was run.
3. I will make my telephone number available to my customers or a comparable method of contacting me personally concerning their order (i.e., FAX or voice mail.)
4. I will refer my customers to other dealers who can handle their needs if I cannot provide the service or product they are looking for. (This generates good will among dealers and helps support our mail order industry as a whole.)
5. I will purchase as many products and services (for my personal use) as I can from either small local businesses in my area or through mail order. (This helps keep our industry growing.)
6. I will thoroughly investigate any programs or dealerships before getting involved in promoting them. Because my company’s reputation is based on the products I introduce to my customers, I make sure everything I sell is something I would buy myself.
7. If I decide to enter into any commission-type dealerships, I will order the product or service (or request a sample from the company) before placing my company name on outgoing circulars. (This is necessary so you can answer questions your customers may have, and is essential in determining the quality and professionalism of the prime source. Note: Lots of people place their name on commission circulars without verifying the product or service from the prime source. If you do this, the prime source may keep your money and not fill your orders. If this happens, your customers will come back to you for a refund and not deal with your company anymore.)
8. I will not copy another dealer’s advertisement, or other materials without writing him/her first for permission. (Often, the dealer will give you permission if you use his/her name/address as a reference.)
9. In any correspondence, advertisements or other methods of using the “printed word,” I will cite another company’s or individual’s efforts when referring to their product or service. I will be sure to provide the reader or customer with the full name, address or telephone number for recognition purposes. (Wouldn’t you want someone to do this for you too?)
10. I’ll always enclose a first-class stamp or self-addressed stamped envelope when replying to dealers providing free information. Otherwise, I would be asking the dealer to PAY to GIVE me something.
11. If a complaint should evolve with another dealer, I will contact that dealer immediately for an explanation before talking to anyone else about it.
12. If a check of mine should ever bounce, for whatever reason, I will contact the recipient immediately and make the check good. In addition, I will offer to pay any additional charges their bank charged them for the handling of my bounced check.
13. Regardless of how financially broke I am, I will never “use” another dealer for the sole purpose of talking them into free services. Instead, if I find a “good, hearted soul,” I will treat him/her with the utmost respect and courtesy — and barter with them only when I have something comparable.
14. I will never attempt to lie, cheat or steal from anyone during the course of my business for I know if I do, my business will be short-lived. I am in business for the long-haul and will therefore conduct all my affairs fairly, ethically and morally.
15. If I don’t understand something, I am never too proud to ask. I know the mail order industry is a people-helping-people business and I intend to provide my fair share.