BJM Free Press |

WHAT IT COSTS TO START A MAIL ORDER BUSINESS

You can read stories all day long about how easy it is to start your mail order business for as little as $10. But I’m sorry my dear friend. It costs much more than that.

Of course you can pay for expenses as you go along if you have another type of income you can use to pay your personal living expenses with some left over to invest in your mail order business. You don’t have to have all the money up-front — but regardless of what anyone tells you — it costs money to own and operate a mail order business.

How much money? Well, it all depends on what type of business you go into and how quickly you begin to generate orders that reimburse you for the money you pay out of your pocket in the beginning. However, it’s safe to say you need at least $500 to get going in the right direction.

Why do much? Because the first thing you need are office supplies. At bare minimum you need envelopes (the #10 business size), paper, a typewriter or computer, 3×5 cards to keep track of names and addresses of people, tape, scissors, ink pens and a pack of mailing labels (handwriting an address on an envelope is very unprofessional and shows you are an inexperienced beginner.)

Next, you will need to have enough money to pay a typesetter to design you some ads. Don’t buy a kit and make them up yourself. At this stage of the game, you are very inexperienced and don’t know how to write or present ads that will bring you a response. Invest $5 or $6 in a few one-inch ads that a mail order typesetter will design professionally for you. They will pay for their weight in gold!

You’ll also need some money to pay a mail order printer to get some copies made so you can mail them to prospective buyers. Don’t try to make copies at the quick-shop down the street. Most of them want 15c or more per copy and mail order printer prices range around $30 per 1,000 or 3c each. This is a big savings.

You’ll also need money for research and an investment in your education. This means purchasing “Big Mails” from other people to read and consider. You’ll also want to buy a couple good books on mail order marketing and even buy a few tabloids, adsheets, etc. This is the only way you can find other people’s names and addresses so you can contact them. It is also the only way you will be introduced to publishers and where to advertise so you can start getting some orders.

You’ll also need money for postage to mail out your letters and correspondence. This is a mail order dealer’s biggest expense.

From the day you place your first advertisement (display or classified), it will take anywhere from 1 month to 6 months to get your first order. Why so long? Because, no one knows you. Unless you are selling the Brooklyn Bridge for $24.95, you won’t generate a lot of excitement at first and most people who see your name will probably mail you their offers. (They know you are new because they haven’t noticed your name before.)

But a quicker way to generate some name recognition is to find several established mail order dealers who advertise or publish in mail order publications and correspond with them. When you find someone who is interested in you and takes you under their wing — you’ll begin to go places.

If you are selling reports, don’t be afraid to contact someone else who is selling reports. The mail order business is very different from operating a local business. If a pizza shop opens up across the street from your pizza shop — there will be a definite competition. But if another pizza shop opens up 60 miles away from you, it doesn’t matter. In mail order — the WORLD is your marketplace. Two people who sell the same product can work together and still have enough business to keep both of them happy. The world is a big place!

When you contact other people who share in your own interests and what you are selling, you can form lasting friendships and learn from the more experienced people. Invest some of your money into phone calls and contact these people directly. Ask them questions you don’t understand. Listen to their answers with an open mind. Although a mail order dealer has been in the business for 30 years though, if he or she isn’t making any money their advice may or may not be right for you. You can’t ask them how much money they make — but after talking to them awhile, you can determine if they know what they’re doing. Good luck!

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

HOW TO ANALYZE A RIP-OFF SCHEME

This review is taken DIRECTLY from a piece of “junk mail.” It is for the program that starts out with the heading: “Before You Decide To Throw This Away, Please Read The Enclosed At Least Once — Then Decide. This is Not a Chain Letter! I Threw The Program in The Trash.”

The first paragraph reads: “I had received this program before and threw it away, but later I wondered if I shouldn’t have given it a try. Of course, I had no idea who to contact to get a copy, so I had to wait until I was mailed another copy of the program — eleven months passed, then it came. I DIDN’T throw this one away. I made $41,000 on the first try!!” Signed by D. Wilburn, Muncie IN

In order to get your attention quick, Mr. or Ms. Wilburn shares their experience of making the mistake of throwing the letter away. A normal person will say to themselves: “I don’t want to make the same mistake Wilburn did. He had to wait another 11 months before he had the chance, so I better really read this thing.” But in reality you’ll find out that this piece of garbage has been floating around for years and if you miss this copy, you’ll get another one tomorrow or the day after.

The next thing you see is a bold headline reading: “You are about to make at least $50,000 in less than 90 days — in the comfort of your own home. Read the enclosed program, and then read it again.” The average person is skeptical but the idea of money has been planted in your mind right up front. This will cause you to read a little while longer.

The rest of the page is completely filled with hype — informing you everything is LEGITIMATE and LEGAL. (We all want to be legitimate and legal don’t we?) Claims are made that the program works 100% every time and how thousands have used the program to raise capital to start their own business, pay off debts, homes, cars, etc., and even retire. You can ALWAYS recognize a scam because your emotions are appealed to in a big way. Think about it — doesn’t everyone on the planet earth want money to start a business? Pay off debts? Have homes, cars, etc.? Would anyone turn this offer away? NO! That’s what makes it so easy to recognize these scams — they appeal to everybody and do nothing! Your emotions are cruelly played with!

Okay, let’s move on. Frank T of Bel Air MD relates his personal testimonial at the top of Page 2. Try to look in the phone book and find either D Wilburn or Frank T. Notice how only a partial part of their names and addresses are ALWAYS presented. This is so nobody can find them. But why bother? They don’t exist!

The instructions are presented on the rest of Page 2. They consist of precise directions for ordering four reports, paying $5 cash for each one and moving the names around on the list. This is a typical chain letter and they don’t work because 99.9% of everyone receiving it replaces their name and members of their family with the people listed.

These instructions are completely stupid. They make you go through a bunch of bull just to make you believe you are doing something worthwhile. Actually — all they’re doing is selling you some worthless reports — which you may or may not ever receive.

Page 3 instructs you to get a mailing list to mail the letter you are reading to. Of course, when you order the reports, you will get information on where to purchase this mailing list. Don’t you see that these people only care about selling you a mailing list? They could care less if you get a response or not because they made their money from you purchasing their bunch of worthless names and addresses. In fact, you are even told to get names and addresses from your phone book. Come on! This is the ABSOLUTE WORST way to sell anything simply because you have no idea what these people are interested in. Even if you sold a real product, let’s say: baby-sitting services — you wouldn’t sit down and advertise it by writing letters to everyone in the phone book. Instead, you’d place an ad in the paper and have people only interested in baby-sitting contact you.

Now comes the guarantee. It says: “The check point which guarantees your success is simply this: you must receive 15-20 orders for Report 1. This is a must. If you don’t within 2 weeks, send out more programs until you do. Then, a couple weeks later, you should receive at least 100 orders for Report 2.” Notice the word “should.” The fact is, you could mail until the day the Lord comes back and you’ll NEVER get 15-20 orders. You’d be lucky to get even one. Believe me — 1,000’s of people have put the chain letter theory to a variety of tests and actually given it every chance in the world to make money. None have ever worked.

Now, here’s the hype that really gets most people. Here it is reprinted in its entirety: “Let’s say you decide to start small, just to see how it goes, and we will assume you and all those involved send out only 200 programs each. Let’s also assume that the mailing receives a 5% response. Using a good list, the response could be much better. Also, many people will send out thousands of programs instead of 200! But, continuing with this example, you send out 200 programs. With a 5% response, that is, 10 orders for Report 1 (ten people responded by sending out 200 programs each) for a total of 2,000. The 5% response that brings 100 orders for report 2. Those mail out 200 programs for a total of 20,000. The 5% response to those is 1,000 orders for Report 3. The 1,000 send out 200,000 total and the 5% response to that is 10,000 orders for Report 4 (10,000 $5 for you.) Your total income in this example is $50 + $550 + $5,000 + $50,000 + $55,550. Remember friend, this is assuming that 95 out of 100 people you mail to will do absolutely nothing and trash this program. Dare to think what would happen if everyone sent out 1,000 programs instead of only 200? Believe it; many people will do that and more. By the way, at current prices, your cost to send out 200 programs is less than $100. The participation fee is ridiculously low when you consider what you stand to gain! Consider your self fortunate to be invited to participate in an exclusive program that really works. Have faith. Think positively, Keep in mind that your investment is minimal and its easy money invested in you.”

Give me a break! What a bunch of lies. Anybody that reads this and really believes it can work must also believe that Snow White really lives in the forest with the 7 dwarfs.

The truth of the matter is that it really would work if everyone did what they were supposed to do — but they won’t. I’ll prove it. Go to a place where there are a lot of people (like a mall.) Walk up to the first person you meet and ask them to give you a $5 bill. In return for their $5, they will get $50,000 if they will just find 10,000 other people to give them $5 by promising them the same thing. How many people do you think will take you up on your offer? If you do find one person to do it they will either be mentally retarded or hard of hearing. So if you couldn’t work the program in person, what makes you think it will work through the mail with people who have no idea who you are? The truth is — it doesn’t work. It NEVER will!

Page 4 tells you all about these four wonderful reports you will be purchasing. Their titles are beautiful: “How to Make $250,000 Through Multi-Level Order Sales” and “Sources For The Best Mailing List.” I’m sure we all can’t wait to order them right away.

Page 5 is a personal note from the originator of the program — Edward L. Green. He doesn’t have a city and state beside his name. Why, because his full name is used. (Remember, they don’t want you to try and find these people.) A real testimonial would be proud to give you the full name, full address and phone number of the individual so you could get in touch with them to find out more about the program. Anyone hiding so that you can’t call them up or write to them directly is a scam artist. No doubt about it!

Edward L Green tells you about how poor he was in 1979. He also says that he will never see a penny of your money. He has already made $4 million and wants to retire. Give me a break. If you made $4 million wouldn’t you want $5 million or $10 million or $20 million? Why stop at a measly $4 million when you could star on the Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous and be interviewed by Robin Leach? $4 million is chicken feed if something really worked to bring in this amount of money!

Amazingly though, on Page 6, Johnson Distributing gives a real name and address. But try to get a phone number on them with an address of “PO Box 7, SAFB IL 42225-0007.” It doesn’t exist!

Page 7 and 8 contain letters from Chris Johnson, Paul Johnson, A. Zurki, Carl Winslow, A.S. Jalosyk, Bill Nelson, J.T. Adams, Charles Fairchild, Tommy Jayhet and Mary Rockland. They all tell you some hard luck story about how this program changed their life. Again — try to contact them. If you live in Waco TX, try and find Tommy Jayhet and see what he has to say about all this.

Do you get the picture yet? Almost all scams follow this same general theme. Don’t get taken!

HOW TO AVOID FRAUDS, SCHEMES AND RIP-OFFS

The poor newcomer to mail order is often dealt the hardest blow. Unsuspecting people who know nothing about the business world and how to recognize cons are often taken for thousands of dollars. People who never have worked outside the home or confined to a wheel-chair at home are not out in the world enough to recognize all the con artists. They might hear about them on television, but it’s hard to believe people like that exist.

This same type of person will see an advertisement claiming to bring them financial rewards. They need the extra money desperately. Besides, the ads make everything sound so easy:

• “Make $1 million from a single sheet of paper”.
• “Stuff envelopes at home and make $5 each”.
• “Home workers needed now, limited time offer”.
• “Only $9.95 to get you started in an easy business at home”.

The sad part is that these people can’t afford to be ripped-off because they have low incomes or exist on a meager pension. The only person making any money with this junk is the person you send your money to. It’s a sad situation.

However, there are ways to avoid being ripped-off and it doesn’t cost more than a few cents. Here they are:

1. Before sending more than $1 away for anything that interests you — WRITE the company a letter asking for more information. If they don’t respond to you, they don’t want your business and you are better off without them.
2. Never order anything unless you fully understand EXACTLY what it is you are ordering. Ads claiming to explain the “secret” only after you send in $14.95 are worthless. Anyone with a legitimate product to sell can easily explain what the product is and be proud about doing so. They have nothing to hide and are eager to share the concept before you throw down your money.
3. Since you read mail order tabloids and adsheets, write to some of the publishers or people who have been in business awhile. Ask them for their advice about a specific money-making opportunity. (Just be sure to send a first-class postage stamp or LSASE [long, self-addressed stamped envelope] as a courtesy for their reply and time.) Write several letters. Some people may not answer and some people may. The people that take the time to answer you will probably be good dealers that will introduce you to other people like themselves.
4. Join a mail order organization to be protected against all the con artists. Some long-running, substantial organizations are: The Once-A-Month Association, Chuck Rollason, PO Box 370, Dauphin PA 17018 and The Inner Circle, Dale Rolland, 2045 Deer Trail, Floresville TX 78114 but there are many other good ones out there.
5. Just because someone makes a lot of promises doesn’t mean they are telling the truth. The only way you know they are telling the truth is by practicing what they preach and succeeding with the same advice they are giving you. Ask the guy who claims to help you make $1 million within 30 days if he personally did it? If not — it’s a scam.

It’s amazing that people will actually spend $1,000’s of dollars without knowing what it is they are ordering. They are nickel-and-dimed into buying a report, then a manual, then a book; and still won’t know nothing more than the day they answered the original ad.

Then some people get caught in a “Catch 22.” They buy a program for $50, follow the instructions by sinking another $1,000 into other materials or stock and then are stuck trying to sell the stuff. So as to not lose their investment, they will try their best to at least make their money back and go down the tubes trying to do it. This is a sad situation.

But if you do get ripped-off and you have wrote to the company trying to get your money back, and they refuse — take action. GET ANGRY. Tell them you are NOT going to take their abuse. Don’t threaten that your attorney will be contacting them. Instead tell them that you are going to place PAID advertisements in the SAME publications they are advertising in, telling other people what they did to you. Also tell them you are going to write to every mail order publication too and expose them through national advertising. The printed word is much stronger than you think and can do wonders to help you get your money back.

Then, next time — follow the procedures outlined in this report and avoid the thieves!

ESTABLISHING YOUR OWN VISA/MC MERCHANT ACCOUNT

ATTENTION — LEARN FROM THIS SCAM TO PROTECT YOUR SELF IN THE FUTURE!

There was an advertisement and press release that started circulating in late November 1993 from Daron Fordham, Mail Order Merchants Exchange, phone (904) 322-2607. Daron claims that you can just pick up the phone, call the phone number and his company will set you up (the same day) with a merchant account. The cost is less than $50 per month.

Daron states: “The majority of mail order dealers are losing thousands of dollars in profits because their local banks are refusing to grant them merchant accounts. Mail Order Merchants Exchange, a mail order dealer discount products and services organization, will grant VISA/MC merchant accounts to new mail order companies for a small monthly fee.”

The very first question in your mind should be “who” gave Mail Order Merchants Exchange the “legal right” to grant these merchant accounts IF banks have refused to? Does Mail Order Merchants Exchange have higher authority than a real bank? I don’t think so. Has anyone within the inner-circle heard of this guy before? I’ve been in business 7 years and I’ve never heard of him!

But before you take my word for it, take a second of your time to personally call your own bank. Ask them what you have to do in order to establish a merchant account so you can accept VISA and Mastercard orders. Explain to the bank employee that you will only be receiving orders through the mail and not as a walk-in business.

Then, after you get the specifics, ask them if you can just run a charge through another business’s merchant account? Run down the street to Kroger’s and see if they’ll charge a purchase from your customer for your product and issue you a check to buy your groceries. Sorry folks — it doesn’t work like that!

It is our job to put a STOP to this type of activity. This new type of scam could escalate into something big if we don’t. Can you just begin to imagine the problems something like this can cause?

Let’s suppose you call Daron’s phoney business (which he claims was established in 1993) and set up a merchant account. You receive an order from a customer for $100 to be charged to their VISA card for a product you sell. You give your customer’s credit card number and expiration date to Daron and he could charge whatever amount he wanted to without you or your customer knowing until it was too late.

It’s impossible to determine the extent of Daron’s full intention since Mastercard CLOSED him down. His plan might have been to “get in” and “get out” quickly, obtain credit card numbers and authorizations to charge purchases for himself — then slip out of existence for awhile. Or, perhaps, he planed to make his money from the $50 monthly fees he collected from hard-working people like you.

You know as well as I do. If you establish a merchant account today it will take a little while to let your customer’s know about it and receive your first credit card order. Daron knew this too. And during this period of time you are still paying $50 per month and waiting on customers to charge a purchase with you, But Daron is making money and planning his escape. Don’t fall for this one and take the time to warn others before they fall prey! (Note to Daron: We’re not as stupid as you think we are.)

Here are a few REAL banks that are willing to doing business with people in mail order:

• Rancho Vista National Bank, 820 Escondido Ave, Vista CA 92083, (800) 433-2460
• Bank of Oakland, 360 14th St, Oakland CA 94612, (415) 763-6834
• Charter Pacific, 30141 Agora Rd, Agora Hills CA 91301, (818) 991-8512
• Rocky Mt Bankcard Systems, Inc., 950 17th St, Ste 735, Denver CO 80202, (303) 629-7755
• American Pacific State Bank, 16912 Devonshire, Granada Hills CA 91344
• Bank of California, 400 California St, San Francisco CA 94145, (417) 765-0400 (Merchant Relations Dept.)
• United Bank of Denver, 1700 Broadway, Denver CO 80274
• Central Bank Service Corp, 309 Captain’s Walk, New London CT 06320, (203) 447-3500
• Bank of Delaware, 300 Delaware Ave, Wilmington DE 19899, (800) 722-1172
• Bank South, Atlanta, PO Box 4387, Atlanta GA 30302
• Bank of Hawaii, PO Box 2900, Honolulu HI 96846, (808) 537-8111
• First State Bank & Trust Company of Park Ridge, 607-611 W Devon Ave, Box 718, Park Ridge IL 60068, (312) 692-4114
• The Central Trust Company, 201 East Fifth St, Cincinnati OH 45202, (513)651-8253 (minimum 1 year in business)
• Ameritrust, 4169 Pearl River, Cleveland OH 44109
• Michigan Bankcard Services, PO Box 30096, Lansing MI 48917, (800) 848-3213
• American National Bank & Trust Co, 8990 W Dodge Rd, Omaha NE 68114, (800) 833-2586 (midwestern states only please)
• The National State Bank, 401 Park Ave S, Linden NJ 07036, (201) 474-1043 (business must be located in New Jersey or New York)

Processors and Independent Sales Organizations

Some believe the following firms are easier to deal with than banks. However, the fee they charge merchants to process charge cards is usually higher than the fees charged by banks.

Automated Communications & Engineering, Inc, 2367 Agate Ct, Simi Valley CA 93065 (800) 678-5667 (provides 800 and 900 number system that takes orders and provides information to cardholders. Discount rates, based on volume available. Their system can reverse chargebacks.)

• Telecredit, 6301 W Idlewild Ave, Tampa FL 33614 (813) 886-5000
• T.J. Little & Co., 54 Stiles Rd, Salem NH 03079 (603) 893-9333
• Banc One Wisconsin Bankcard Corp., 1000 N Market St, Milwaukee WI 53202 (800) 824-8870
• Bankcard System Inc., 3880 Michelson Dr, Ste 200, Irvine CA 92715 (714) 733-0707
• Electronic Credit Card Systems, 236 W Portal Ave, San Francisco CA 94127 (415) 877-1557
• R.A. Mulhern Co., Inc., 1820 East Garry, Santa Ana CA 92705 (714) 252-1445
• Bankcard Inc., 1233 Sherman Dr, Longmont CO 80501 (800) 666-7575
• National Bankcard Systems, 1800 Silas Deane Hwy, Ste 54, Rocky Hill CT 06067 (203) 563-8292

Why?

Many of you may be asking “why” mail order businesses are so discriminated against when trying to obtain a merchant account. The reason is NOT because the bank, Visa or Mastercard dislike you. The reason has nothing to do with your credibility as a human being.

The problem lies primarily in the fact that a mail order business can open and close up shop tomorrow. And if a small mail order business owner dies before a customer gets his/her bill — the customer could refuse to pay it (called a “chargeback.”) This leaves the credit card company being left in the middle to pay the bill and absorb the loss. This situation may sound like “one chance in a million” to you — but things like this happens everyday and credit card companies (as well as banks) have to protect themselves.

So don’t get mad and out to seek revenge if your bank denies you. Just find another bank that approves you. It may be difficult — but it’s not impossible. Besides, if it were extremely simple for everyone to get a merchant credit card account — anyone could set up a fake business today; have their friends charge purchases on stolen credit cards; transfer the funds into their account; withdraw it tomorrow morning and be on the way to Mexico in the afternoon!