A New Form Of Networking

Seventy percent of Americans belong to one association. Twenty five percent belong to four or more associations.

Our professional existence is held together by the network of people with whom we share common interests, even common goals.

As technology gives us new ways to link up, communicate and share ideas, our need to identify with a collective presence reflects our need to become more significant.

Today, this need is being fulfilled by privately organized, managed and funded trade associations.

For-Profit

If there is anything that drives any venture to succeed, the principal motivation is profit – the commercial purpose for which any trade activity exists.

Because we still maintain a mindset that associations should not be a money-making venture, it is difficult to imagine a trade association as a for-profit representative body of a particular trade.

However, as the efficiency, agility and productiveness of for-profit trade associations become evident, members become more confident that operating a for-profit trade association is the only way to guarantee that the association will remain productive and beneficial to its members.

Objectives

Unless your primary reason for creating a trade association is to lobby issues in Washington, your association’s principal objective should more or less focus on information sharing.

If you are creating a trade association as a forum for its members to share ideas about their trade, it is essential that you provide your members this vehicle by which they can communicate, maybe even interact.

Beyond Membership

Since most associations get started with low membership dues, usually in the $20 to $30 bracket. Many associations are lucky to break even on membership dues alone. To guarantee its healthy existence, its financial foundations should expand beyond being exclusively dependent on membership dues.

Although most trade associations start off with a newsletter, it is in an ideal position to organize conventions (that provide members a forum to network, meet suppliers, and hear experts) which can be a prime money-maker for the association.

Zip Code Phonebook Yellow Pages

A California-based research company has been extensively doing studies on U.S. ZIP (Zone Improvement Program) Codes, they can now predict, with certain percentage of accuracy, what you ate for breakfast based on your zip code.

Zip Code is the smallest, most organized accumulation of information by which we can evaluate the demographic flavor of a given area.

From a marketing standpoint, most retail businesses use zip code along with the Pareto Principle that 80% of your customers reside within the zip codes that connect to your location. In theory, they live no more than 7 miles from where you are.

A CHANGING MARKETPLACE

The phonebook we have grown accustomed to was developed over 30 years ago. Only it has grown in terms of thickness, weight, and aesthetic design.

From a marketing perspective, except for its dominance and near monopoly, it has been rendered useless by a more mobile and more efficient market.

When the Yellow Pages was first introduced, the world “malls”, “strip malls”, “executive centers”, and “postal & mail box centers” were unknown to American consumers.

Today, it is easier for us to dial directory assistance or look online than it is to use the phonebook.

USE OLD PATTERNS

To make it easy for advertisers and consumers to swallow something new, make it look like it’s old. So, use simple patterns and designs borrowed from old phonebooks, including rates charged for your territory.

Establish your advertising rates based on the number of homes and businesses your Zip Code phonebook is going into.

You can cover as many Zip Codes as you want, just make sure you do not pile up a marketplace so large you are practically competing with the phone company. The best rule of thumb is to break the phone company’s general distribution area into 7 phonebooks.

GTE used to have what they called “The Neighborhood Phonebook”. I think the reason it died is that it broke down its neighborhood either very conceptually or too similar to the way all other phonebooks do. Advertisers want solid numbers. Zip Codes are solid. Just ask the postal service.

A REAL LIST OF MAIL ORDER BUSINESSES TO CONTACT

Before you spend any money. Before you believe all the lies out there on the market — here are a few people you can contact that are honest and trustworthy folks in the mail order industry. Their names and addresses are current at the time of this writing, but since this report carries reprint rights, you could be reading it for the first time many months or years into the future. Therefore, you need to keep in mind that people move, lives change, businesses close and people die. However, since these people have already been in business a few years and become established — they or a relative should still be operating the business when you contact them.

Here’s how to contact them, write a letter that says something to the effect:

“I saw your name and address on a mail order report that recommends you as an honest business. I am enclosing two first-class postage stamps. Please send me updated information and prices on the products and services you currently offer. Thanks. (Your name and complete address.)”

Respected Mail Order Dealers

• J. Stewart Caverly, 216 McLean St, Wilkes Barre PA 18702
• Herman Holtz, PO Box 1731, Wheaton MD 20915
• Graphico Publishing, PO Box 488, Bluff City TN 37618
• Valentine’s Printing, 870 Bender Ave, Galion OH 44833
• Don Harris, PO Box 1052, Oviedo FL 32765
• Broadway Publication, 7546 Palm Rd, W Palm Beach FL 33406
• M.T.B. & Associates, 1482 Clairville Rd, Oshkosh WI 54904
• Ken Weiand, PO Box 624, Cherokee Village AR 72525
• Margaret Lucas, 1006 Runion Ave, Fort Wayne IN 46808
• Harland DeGroot, 2765-H Jefferson, Springfield IL 62702
• William Lee, Rt 1, Box 10790, Madisonville TN 37354
• David Dye, PO Box 1002, Battle Creek MI 49016
• Willie Damel, 25 Clifton Ave D-1508, Newark NJ 07104
• Robyn Hormel, 4615 Takilma Rd, Cave Junction OR 97523
• Gloria Rivers, 5308 NE 49th Ave, Vancouver WA 98661
• Mail Order Messenger, PO Box 358, Middleton TN 38052
• Gary Davis, PO Box 80, Foyil OK 74031
• Kathy Mathews, PO Box 8125, Fort Collins CO 80526
• Willie Mae Brehm, 1422 S Lake Pleasant Rd, Apopka FL 32703
• Gold Service, PO Box 508, Duarte CA 91009
• Joe Reinbold, PO Box 424, Morganville NJ 07751
• Glenn Bridgeman, PO Box 10150, Terra Bella CA 93270
• Tropics West, 130 E Main St #315, Medford OR 97501
• JRS Printing, PO Box 2508, Calcutta OH 43920
• Tom Leash, 64 W Main St, Dallastown PA 17313
• C.J. Nelson, 1825 Domanik Dr, Racine Wi 53404
• William Thrailkill, 4811-16th Ave, Chattanooga TN 37407
• George Norr, PO Box 70268, Salt Lake City UT 84170
• Gregory Bey, 1324« Lincoln Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15206
• Frank Novak, 3857 Heppner Dr, Chippewa Falls WI 54729
• Gail Lamothe, PO Box 46, Derby VT 05829
• Dale Rolland, 2045 Deer Trail, Floresville TX 78114
• Charlie Mims, 316 Hill St, Rochelle Ga 31079
• Ray Benbenek, 1151 Sonora Ave #118, Glendale CA 91201
• Bill Kern, 6460-65 Convoy Ct, San Diego CA 92117
• Edward Canty, 4828 Zorich Dr, Charlotte NC 27533
• Hamilton Plummer, PO Box 7768, Washington DC 20044
• Maynard Hawkins, PO Box 3403, Wichita Falls TX 76301
• Betty Culpepper, 3082 New Franklin Rd, LaGrange GA 30240
• Roy Beasley, PO Box 3087, Jekyll Island GA 31527
• Carl O’Shea, PO Box 700, Baldwin Park CA 91706
• Scott Covert, 24650 Eglinton Ave E #303, Scarborough, Ontario Canada M1K 5J7
• Don Smith, PO Box 7600, Newark DE 19714
• Chris Nelson, PO Box 745, Bloomington IL 61702