BJM Free Press |

Here’s a pleasant home based business that will challenge your creative as well as your managerial skills. It’s a fun business for those who have the flare for creating appetizing gift packages.

A FUN PRODUCT

Gourmet gift baskets have become popular in recent years. They are a collection of desirable items and in such a variety that they appeal to all. By determining the markets you want to target and the type of baskets you want to produce, you can set your income goals for as little or as much as you like.

CORPORATE ACCOUNTS

From the very large and the very small, businesses have needs for gift giving on a pretty constant basis.

By targeting corporate accounts, you protect yourself from potential sales fluctuations common to what are generally considered seasonal items. Business love gift baskets because they are “safe” compared to other gifts like chocolate (many people now carefully watch their fat intake) or wine & spirits (many people don’t drink). Of course, other possible clients for your gift baskets include associations, retail outlets, fund raisers, and individual customers who purchase for themselves or as a gift.

CREATIVE DESIGNS

Gourmet gift baskets are fundamentally a few nice items placed in a unique arrangement and presented to look extravagant. Use your imagination and keep an eye for unusual and appealing products.

To keep unit price low, inventory most commonly used items by purchasing direct from the manufacturer or main distributor. Look for large pretty items; they will give your product “size”.

THEME MARKETING

Focus on a theme and build around it. From a corporate perspective, create presentations that communicate the corporate perspective, create presentations that communicate the corporate or marketing slogan.

Do not limit yourself by just using baskets as your main vehicle. For example, a basket with an Italian theme can use (as its basket) a large pasta bowl to hold a small bottle of vinegar, olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes and kitchen utensils.

Raffia or “grass” can be used to cushion the items, sealed together with shrink wrap.

Finish your basket with a bow or medal, and you’ve got a product that can be retailed for around $39. Your cost: as low as $12.

How To Get 100,000 People To Send You $10 Each

NO! It’s not what you think. Although the title of this material may appear quite gimmicky, it is really about one of the best information products on the market.

CONTENTS

What you have in your hands is called PowerGuide, an all-inclusive how-to business system that include an audio cassette seminar, a computer software, an information guide sheet, and Gift Certificate redeemable for over $50 worth of promotional merchandise offered by participating sponsors.

THE $10 HOTCAKE

If you sell a PowerGuide for $10, plus $3 shipping & handling you’ll make a profit of $10 because it costs around $3 to produce, package and ship a single PowerGuide.

R.A.P. PUBLICATION

Aside from the information it offers, the freebies and its attractive packaging, Power Guide has a feature that is unlike any other publication or how-to product offered in the market. PowerkGuide is an RAP (Rights Acquired Purchase) publication. This means that anyone who buys a PowerGuide also acquires the non-exclusive rights to reproduce and sell that PowerGuide title. The more PowerGuide titles you buy, the more variety you can sell.

LICENSEE PACKAGE

A Licensee Package, usually referred to as Distributor Kit, is an all-inclusive package which contains the designs, material, and the rights to 24 PowerGuide titles. Each Licensee Package contains all the tools and master designs needed to produce the 24 different PowerGuide titles included in the package.

Licensee Packages sell anywhere between $49 and $179. If you sell Licensee Packages, you have to determine your own selling price, depending on where and how you intend to market PowerGuide Licenses.

DROPSHIP

You can sell Licensee Packages on a dropship basis. Instead of making copies of materials and producing your own packages, it would be easier for you to send Brandel $12 along with the name and address of the customer to whom Brandel would send its most current License Package.

If you sell a Licensee Package for $49, you keep the $37 profit for yourself.

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.

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 How-TO CD’s

The CD is entitled: “This CD Can Make You Filthy Rich”, and It’s about producing how-to CDs - a concept whose time has come. At $15 each, plus $3 shipping & handling, the producer of CD will gross $18,000 selling 1,000 CDs.

Minimum Start-Up: $2,500
Average Start-Up: $5,000
Revenue: $12,000
One Person Business: Yes

The production cost is quite small. The audio program was written by the producer who brought the script to a “Narration House” where a professional announcer does the voice recording using a professional studio.

NARRATION HOUSES

You can order radio commercials as well as other “voice” recorded programs to be produced by so-called “narration houses”.

This business is usually run by a professional announcer who owns or has access to a professional recording studio.

Just send your script to a narration house and have thim record it for you. The amount you are charged depends on the length of your material and the type of tape on which you want your “master copy” recorded. A 30-minute material may cost you $450.

THE INTERVIEW FORMAT

Another popular format for a How-To CD is what we call the “Interview” format.

This is where the author or producer of the CD is interviewed on a subject in which he or she is an expert.

Since this format is prepared on a “question and answer” basis, it is relatively easy to structure, allowing for a more logical presentation of the ideas the author wants to cover.

With this format, the author can prepare 30 to 50 questions which, together with the answers, can be edited down to a 30 to 40 minute program.

Depending on where the interview is produced, this format may cost less than a straight presentation where the bulk of the work uses the voice of a professional narrator.

YOUR MARKET

In a “How-To” project, it is always recommended that you select your topics based on your expertise or access to information.

From a marketing standpoint, it is equally beneficial for you to be familiar with the market to which you expect to market your How-To CD.

If your topic is very selective, use direct mail to market your CDs. If it is an extremely popular topic that can be promoted on TV, use 60-second TV spots or print ads.