The Road to Big Profits
Maps serve a purpose. People use it for directions. They trust it and depend on it to get them where they want to go. It tells them where the local attractions are, and other places if interest, particularly among tourists - the people who use maps the most.
Considering the credibility and the power of maps as a printed medium, it takes an entrepreneur 2 seconds to realize that there’s money in maps… as an advertising vehicle.
You can design your city map to be as large as 28″ x 40″ which can be printed by commercial print houses with large format presses. Or you can use the 11″ x 17″ format and bring it to your neighborhood quick printer.
The Map
What you’re going to make a map of is as critical as deciding about how you’re going to do it. These are the two questions that will make the foundation of your business.
Big cities are very seldom a great market for City Maps. However, if you break them apart and make maps for selected business districts, even down to selected neighborhoods, the taking is plenty.
Focus on dense retail districts. Target those with neighboring restaurant row, historical spots or other tourist attractions.
Purchase reprint rights of already existing maps as this would prove significantly easier and more cost efficient than producing one yourself.
Cartoon styled maps may be visually entertaining, but they are seldom useful. You will probably attract more advertisers if you can equate your advertising rates with potential use.
Advertisers
Position advertising blocks on the outer edge of the map area. Depending of the size of your map and the paper you plan to print it in, you can have as many or as few “blocks” to offer for advertising. Encourage your advertisers to buy more than one block of advertising. This will not only make your map look more exclusive, it will also make your selling ad spaces get done a lot sooner.
Producing Newsletters On CD
Brandel Communications is currently developing a newsletter that will be released on Compact Discs, mailed to you once every two months.
The subscription rate is $195 a year. (Our production cost: around $3 per CD. With 6 CDs a year, our total cost is $18 per subscriber.)
Instead of print or video, we have decided to tap the CD market, the fastest growing communications media.
Minimum Start-Up: $2,500
Average Start-Up: 10,000
Profit Margins: 50% to 75%
One Person Business: Yes
OPPORTUNITY SEEKERS
To offer a subscription to this (still unnamed) newsletter, we are running full page ads in opportunities magazines, as well as implement a direct mail campaign.
Our initial marketing thrust will be directed at individuals seeking to start their own business, or a second source of revenue.
The Biz Opp market is at a strategic crossroads where new economic opportunities intersect with our growing disenchantment with conventional employment.
This market thinks! And it is quick at recognizing new opportunities. This is why we decided that the growth of How-To CDs depend on the variety of titles available.
WE CAN REPRESENT & SELL YOUR CD TITLES
While we are selling subscription to our newsletter, we offer customers the opportunity to purchase other CD titles.
We also have a regular New Titles ad which lists new Power Guides and How-To CDs available.
Every time we send out a newsletter and a catalogue, we include your CD on our title list and orders are sent directly to you. We do not take a commission or a percentage of your sales.
Your customer’s orders and payments come directly to you. You fulfill the orders and keep the money. We will design and print your ad for you.
CREATE YOUR OWN NEWSLETTER
We will accept advertising from those of you who plan to produce your own CD newsletter.
Producing a newsletter on CD allows you to collect subscriptions in advance, which is extremely helpful in generating cash flow during your start-up stages.
Producing a newsletter gives you a continuing link with a market that shares your common interests. Consider also the interest factor for a newsletter in CD form is quite high.
Making Money With Giveaways
The guy who thought of giving away free rolls of film every time you have your films developed at his photo center - is a genius!
You know the rest of the story, and so do thousands other photo centers around the world who copy this excellent promotion.
STRETCHING DOLLARS
A budget conscious market is always out looking for a free lunch. For this reason, you can build a marketing system that self-liquidates its associated cost, distributing gift certificates that offer free this or free that - all the customer has to do is pay a minimal shipping and handling charge.
FREE SOFTWARE
In Las Vegas, I met a poker player who sells software he put together for $29 and higher.
To double the volume and reach other markets, he decided to repackage his software. He gave it a new name, made a new floppy disk label, and offered it at a ridiculous price: FREE
To receive the software, all you have to do is fill out the gift certificate and send it back to him with $8.69.
THEY WENT APE!
He was giving the certificates to schools, businesses, and stores who give away the certificates as their own promotional gifts to their customers. Because the cost to produce and mail this disk is cents, he was making $8 with every certificate that was redeemed for the free software.
$800,000 IN 27 WEEKS
Take a snapshot of this picture: Say, a total of 1 Million certificates were circulated. Let’s say you paid half a penny to print and distribute these million certificates. Your cost is $5,000.
If you generate a 7% conversion, you’ll earn $560,000.00
NUMBERS GAME
If you give other people permission to make copies of and give away your certificates, your cost to circulate 1 Million certificates will go down. But your opportunity to make money remains the same.
1% response = $80,000
2% response = $160,000
3% response = $240,000
5% response = $400,000
10% =$800,000
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:
- Design your card.
- Figure your expenses and set your ad prices.
- Contact businesses that frequently use discounts or coupons (potential advertisers for you) either in person or by mail, with an information package.
- Gather the ads (and the money!) and print them together on wallet-sized cards.
- 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
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