He was a quiet going young fellow and always had a smile but had very
little to say--as a matter of fact he had no gift as a talker. I
remember he had a very pretty girl at school and she had one wish and
that was, for Charlie to talk more. But when it came to class work,
Charlie always hit the “bull’s eye.” He knew bluff and enthusiasm did
not count there but the right answer went a long way.
Charlie was without funds and could not sell, so his case seemed
hopeless, but he found work which just suited him and there were few who
could do it so well as he.
Professors at college and universities are always writing books, so
Charlie, who could brief cases and write on law subjects almost as well
as the professors, worked for a couple of these professors and made his
home with them. His board was unsurpassed at the college and his home
accommodations far excelled those of the best student’s, and he had
their intimate companionship, which meant a great deal to him at college
as well as to his subsequent career.
Students with qualifications such as his will find their college
expenses an easy matter.
PLAN No. 373. HE WENT THROUGH THE LAW COLLEGE AT WASHINGTON, D. C.
His father was always active in politics and raised his son on the plan
to depend on himself. When his son finished high school, the question
was, how to finance his college course. He wanted to be a lawyer and he
desired as broad a training as possible. His father’s answer to his
inquiry about the college expense was, “I know my son has ability
sufficient to finance himself through college.”
The father was right but, nevertheless, he helped the boy to an
appointment in one of the departments at Washington, D. C., where he
served during his entire course.
The young man had plenty of funds during his entire course and had a
wonderful opportunity to study our national government and its workings
at first hand, which opportunity comes to but few men in a life time.
There are many postmasters or men in our government service who would be
pleased to help you get a position in some government department at
Washington when they know that by such assistance they are helping a
young man to realize a high ambition.
PLAN No. 374. FARMER IN A MINING DISTRICT
He was a good natured bachelor of good habits who felt he might as well
live in the country with plenty as to work hard to live in the city and
submit to the inconvenience of having ordinary food and poor neighbors.
So in 1907 he went to Grand Forks, B. C., and there took up a homestead
on the Washington side, which cost but a few dollars.
This was a simple thing to do, as many men do the same in the northwest,
but he immediately cultivated thirty-two acres, built a log house and
out buildings. Then he made an investment of $675 in fourteen cows, one
bull, twenty calves, twelve heifers and eight steers.
He had plenty of spare time so he worked in the mines near his homestead
and in this way earned more than $1,800 a year.
Here is what he accomplished in four years--1907 to 1911:
The sale of his stock amounted to more than $5,000. He earned in the
mines more than $1,800 a year. His farm sold for $3,000, which did not
cost him over $200. He raised enough to feed himself, which means the
money he earned was clear profit.
Figure out for yourself what he made, and anyway you figure it he made a
big success.
PLAN No. 375. AN INK THAT STANDS ALL TESTS
An eastern state recently adopted the following formula for its official
black ink, after learning through the severest tests that it stands
exposure to the sun for three months; exposure to all sorts of out door
weather for six months; exposure to water, and soaking in water and
alcohol.
A man who knew what the formula was, desiring to make a business of
selling an ink so reliable, made it up in large quantities, and found it
to be just as good as claimed.
This is the formula:
Tannic acid, ¹⁄₂ ounce; crystal gallic acid, 77 grains; sulphate of
iron, 5 drams; gum arabic, 100 grains; dilute muriatic acid, ¹⁄₂ ounce;
carbolic acid, 10 grains; clear rain water enough to make 1¹⁄₄ pints.
Mix the muriatic acid and water, and dissolve all the other ingredients
in the mixture.
He sold large quantities of this ink to professional and business men,
city, county and state officials, etc., and inside of a year was in
receipt of a steady income.
PLAN No. 376. BAKER--INDIAN SERVICE U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 377. A CEMENT STICK THAT STICKS
A Virginia man found that by investing 85 cents in the materials
required for making cement sticks he could get back $25, when sold at
retail. This is the way he makes it.
Common glue, and from ¹⁄₄ to ¹⁄₂ as much cheap sugar; melt them together
in a glue pot, then pour in pans ¹⁄₄ an inch deep. As it cools cut in
strips 1 inch wide and 4 inches long, pointing one end in the shape of a
chisel. Have a label printed to cover about one-half the stick, giving
the name and uses of the stick, with directions as follows: “To use as a
mucilage, wet slightly and apply. To use as cement, dip in boiling
water, coat the parts heavily and press firmly together.”
Making up a good supply of these sticks, he placed them on sale with
dealers, delivering as sales were made. He then employed agents to
canvass from house to house, and sold a great many in that way. Later he
made it a mail-order proposition, and through a series of ads. in local
papers published within a radius of 500 miles, he built up a good sale.
PLAN No. 378. ICELESS REFRIGERATOR
Especially during the hot summer months does the refrigerator become an
imperative necessity, yet there are thousands of homes to which the
prices of the ordinary kinds are beyond their means, and thousands more,
especially in the country, where ice is unobtainable.
A man living in a western city, who had learned the secret as well as
the value of the water bag, while traveling across the desert, applied
his knowledge of evaporation to the construction of an iceless
refrigerator in his own home, with such good results that he began
manufacturing them and found a ready sale for all he could make. And the
making was a very simple and inexpensive matter.
Procuring some mill ends, or short pieces of boards, 1 inch thick and 3
inches wide, he made a frame 3 feet high, 18 inches deep and 15 inches
wide, letting the long, upright pieces extend about 3 inches below the
lower part, to form legs for it to stand upon.
Next he covered the frame with a strip of wire screen, and upon the wire
he placed a piece of outing flannel to fit well over it, tacking it at
the corners to hold it in place, but letting the cloth extend several
inches above the top of the frame, and cutting it at the upper corners
so that it would fold over on the top and lie in a pan or jar which was
to be placed there and kept constantly supplied with water.
Inside the frame he nailed cleats to hold shelves made of strips or
lath, strong enough to bear the weight of milk bottles, butter dishes,
meats, etc. The door he made of a frame covered with the wire screen,
using light hinges and a catch to hold it in place, and letting part of
the outing flannel form the covering for the door.
The refrigerator was then complete, except the placing of a large pan or
jar on top of it filled with water. The top parts of the outing-flannel
cover which had been laid in the pan, quickly absorbed the water which
was carried down all sides, and it was the evaporation which then took
place that kept the contents of the refrigerator as cool and fresh as
though they were in one of the high-priced ice refrigerators.
The entire cost of the material for making one of these refrigerators at
the beginning did not exceed 75 cents, but later, when he bought in
regular quantities, the cost was very materially lessened, and they sold
as fast as he could make them for $3 each. He could easily make seven or
eight a day, and at a profit of $2.25 each he did very well.
A few ads. in the papers circulating through the country, as well as the
smaller towns, were all he needed to create a demand, for when farmers
found they could buy a refrigerator at that price, which would do the
work without a pound of ice, they sent in their orders by the scores.
Besides, hundreds of city people bought them as well, because they saved
ice bills, and kept foods in good condition.
PLAN No. 379. RAISING BELGIAN HARES
Few people realize the profits to be derived from raising Belgian hares,
when the small amount of capital and labor involved is considered.
But a 16 year-old boy in the northwestern part of the state of
Washington had a very good idea as to what could be made in this small
industry, and he went to work in a systematic way that his seniors might
well imitate.
Starting with one male and three does, he was surprised to learn that
under ordinary circumstances a doe will produce six litters in a year,
with an average of six young in each litter, and that usually one-half
of them are does, or eighteen does a year from one animal. It was still
more surprising when he found that the three does of the first litter
had three litters the first year, while two litters may be expected from
the second litter. At this rate, there were sixty-three does at the end
of the first year, as well as sixty-three bucks all from one hare; and
multiplying this by the three does he started with, it gave him a total
of 878 hares from the four he began with.
His 189 bucks averaged eight pounds of meat each, or 1,512 pounds, which
he sold at 10 cents per pound, or $151.20, and he still had the 189
young does, the three old ones and the original buck.
He had selected the Golden Bay strain in purchasing his original stock,
as that is generally recognized as the best of all strains, and his
judgment proved correct, for, no matter how many of these hares he
raised, he had calls for more than he could supply.
PLAN No. 380. LIQUID GLASS--THREE IN ONE
Of course you’ve heard of liquid glass as an egg preservative; but did
you ever know it has no equal as a paste for making labels stick to tin
cans, or that it is the principal ingredient in the best glue on the
market for mending china, crockery, glassware, etc.?
A bright young fellow, who had a small drug store in a western town,
knew all these things, and also knew where liquid glass could be bought,
in quantities, as low as 20 cents per gallon. He bought five barrels of
it, just as a starter, for he had large plans.
The liquid glass solution for preserving eggs is made by mixing one
gallon of it with nine gallons of cold water, placing the eggs in a
barrel, bucket or stone jar, and completely covering them with the
solution. Place a cover over the receptacle containing the eggs, and set
it in a cool place. At the end of six months or a year the eggs are as
fresh as when newly-laid, and at the rate of $1 a gallon for the liquid
glass the cost is about one-half cent per dozen eggs.
As eggs were plentiful in that locality, the young druggist bought 1,000
dozens, strictly fresh, direct from the neighboring ranchers, at 15
cents a dozen, and put them away in the liquid glass solution, so as to
be able to supply the demand during the winter months, when they would
go up to 60 cents a dozen. These he packed in barrels and set them in
the basement of his store. Then in December he advertised in the city
papers offering strictly fresh eggs, prepaid by parcel post, at the
price named.
He received so many orders that he was obliged to employ a reliable boy
to pack and ship the eggs to his city customers. Then he figured up the
results. The 1,000 dozen eggs cost him $150; the liquid glass for
preserving them cost him $1 for the five gallons; the wages of the boy
who did the packing were $25; the parcel post charges were $10, a total
of $186. He received $600 for the eggs, making his profits $414. That
was a good start, and the next year he did four or five times that
amount of business, increasing his profits proportionately. But by this
time the farmers and poultry raisers of the community had learned of his
success and began preserving large quantities of eggs themselves. In
order to preserve them, however, they had to have liquid glass and
gladly paid him a $1 a gallon for that which cost him but 20 cents a
gallon.
There were several canneries in the city, to which the druggist shipped
his eggs, and all of them were experiencing great difficulty in getting
their labels to stick to the tin cans. The druggist promptly came to the
rescue by offering them a paste fully guaranteed to stick, and readily
sold considerable quantities of the liquid glass to them for $3 a
gallon, being careful not to tell them what it was.
A little later he procured 2,000 2-ounce bottles, adorned with fancy
labels proclaiming the merits of a superior glue, guaranteed to mend
broken articles, and this he sold at 25 cents a bottle, or several
thousand per cent profit on this remarkable three-in-one commodity.
PLAN No. 381. SHARPENING RAZOR BLADES
It isn’t every machine made for sharpening safety razor blades, or every
person operating even a good machine, that can do this work as it should
be done. In fact, most of the blade sharpening now being done is very
poor, and only a few really know how to do it.
A Seattle woman, who had merely a little room between two buildings on a
prominent street, not only knew exactly how to perform this delicate
task, but also had procured one of the very best makes of machines for
that purpose.
The regular charge for sharpening single-edge blades is usually 25
cents, and 35 cents for those with double edges, but she made
arrangements with a number of cigar stores in different parts of the
city to keep one of her showcards in the window, and take orders as they
came in, on a commission of 7 cents per dozen on all blades so received.
Through small ads. in the classified columns of the daily papers, asking
people to mail their blades to her, she found, inside of three months,
that she must remove to larger quarters and employ an assistant, in
addition to the boy who made daily collections of dull blades, and
deliveries of sharpened ones, at the various cigar stores.
This business, small as it may seem, brought in a net profit of $50 to
$60 a week. It is often the case that the good profit is in the small
articles.
PLAN No. 382. FUMIGATING HEN-HOUSE STRIPS
A chicken fancier in a small western town, who had used fumigating nest
eggs to good purpose, was aware that the roost was fully as favorable to
the propagation of chicken-lice as is the nest, and concluded that a
fumigating strip along the top of each roost would destroy or rout the
vermin from there also.
The composition of which these fumigating strips are made is much more
lasting and effective than either liquid or powder preparations, and
therefore less expensive. The formula is as follows:
Naphthalin or tar camphor, 1 pound; standard oil of tar, ¹⁄₂ pint; fine
pine sawdust, 3 pounds; plaster of paris, 14 pounds. Mix the first three
well together, then put in the plaster. Take about 2 pounds of the
mixture at a time, add enough water to make it a stiff paste, and,
working rapidly before it sets, roll or mold it into egg-size balls or
pour into a mold several feet long to make the strips. Drive nails into
the bottom of the mold about one foot apart, so as to leave nail holes
in the strip and prevent it from breaking when nailed on. When well
hardened nail the strips to the tops of the roosts and they can also be
used in lining the nest boxes, the sides of the chicken house, etc.
Through a little advertising in country weeklies and farm and poultry
journals he received many orders for both fumigating eggs and strips,
the eggs selling for 10 cents each singly, or $1 per dozen, and the
strips at 10 cents per foot, or ten feet for 80 cents. They did the work
of ridding the hen-houses of vermin. He found it paid him to make it a
regular business during the spring months, for it was nearly all profit,
and he averaged $100 a month net from this very simple but very
effective plan.
PLAN No. 383. SELLING LIMES BY MAIL
Fully as delicious and healthful as lemons, if not more so, limes are
not nearly so well known or in such general use as they should be.
Dispensers of fancy drinks, however, know their value, and will pay good
prices for them.
A Seattle man who knew considerably about the prices charged by
wholesale and commission houses for limes, and the dilatory manner in
which they filled small orders, wrote to a New York importer of limes
asking their lowest quotation on limes in barrel lots, and was surprised
to learn that they could be bought for 80 cents per hundred, prepaid,
whereas the wholesale houses charged $1.25 per 100, and the buyer paid
transportation charges.
He bought fifteen barrels of the limes at that price, and then wrote to
several soft-drink dispensers whose names he had obtained, offering them
fresh limes at $1.25 per hundred, prepaid, and agreed to fill the order
the day it was received. A large number of orders came as a result of
this letter, as the saving of transportation costs was quite an item,
and he filled the orders so promptly and satisfactorily that he soon had
200 regular customers. His net profits amounted to 25 cents per hundred,
after buying his limes, packing, and prepaying parcel-post charges to
his patrons.
Although he still retains his position with a railroad company, and
draws a good salary, this little side plan of selling limes by parcel
post is netting him a good weekly income.
PLAN No. 384. TRAINING SCHOOL FOR OFFICE BOYS
Not that office boys are scarce, by any means. It is only the good ones
who are scarce, and it was for the purpose of making all office boys
good ones, that a former professor in a prominent Chicago business
college took up the idea of an office boys’ training school.
A year or two ago he interviewed a number of leading business men in
Chicago on the subject, and found them enthusiastic in their support of
the plan, as they had suffered many inconveniences through the tendency
of office boys in general to quit just about the time they were broken
in to their special duties. The Y. M. C. A. also appreciated the
seriousness of the situation, and hailed the proposition as the only
remedy.
He asked the business men to outline the requirements of the position,
the special qualifications necessary, the routine of their work, and the
means through which the interest of the boy could best be obtained.
Through newspaper advertising, the distribution of circulars and the
employment of canvassers to call upon and interest the parents of the
boys, he soon had a sufficient number of enrollments to open the school,
where each was trained in the special line of work to which he was best
adapted. Boys were selected for real estate offices, law offices,
brokers’ offices, and all other lines where their services were
required, and shorthand, typewriting and book-keeping courses were given
to those who desired them in order to win promotion to better positions.
The average tuition required in each case was from $10 to $25, with more
for special cases, and this was paid partly by the boys themselves and
partly by the business men who were either sending their own office boys
to the school, or making selections from the graduates.
Where a boy was already employed in an office, his employer would allow
him to spend two or three hours each day in taking the training given at
the school, and the progress most of the boys made under this course
more than made up in efficiency for the loss of time and whatever
expense it involved.
While one man looked after the classes, another was busy on the outside,
interesting both business men and boys in the enterprise, and
approximately 500 boys were thus taken care of by the school each month.
The school netted a good profit, besides giving a great number of boys a
good start on the road to success.
PLAN No. 385. GAVE TALKING MACHINES AWAY
It isn’t every one who believes he could make a very large sum on an
investment of $100, but here is the story of a man in Los Angeles who
thought he knew of a way in which it could be done.
From a New York firm, he purchased twenty small but good
talking-machines, including disc records, for $2.50 each. He prepared a
very fine silver polish, put up in one-ounce envelopes, to be sold at 10
cents each. He next had printed a number of attractive showcards for
windows, and several thousand merchandise coupons, good for 5 cents each
in trade. He was then ready for business.
He called upon one of the most enterprising merchants in each school
district in the city, and made the following offer:
To place one of the talking-machines in his window, with a showcard
beside it announcing that the machine would be given free to the boy or
girl selling the largest number of packages of the silver polish, 500 of
the 10-cent packages to be left with the merchant for that purpose,
together with 25 cents’ worth of the coupons, and the contest to close
when the last of the 500 packages were sold. To every boy or girl
selling two of the packages, one of the 5-cent coupons would be given,
and the merchant agreed to redeem these by taking them in trade at their
face value.
The merchant was to collect the $50 from the boys and girls who sold the
500 packages of polish, award the talking-machine to the one selling the
highest number, pay the promoter of the plan $25, and keep the balance
which would be $17.50 net, after redeeming the 250 coupons, $7.50, upon
which he also realized a profit equal to the difference between the
wholesale cost and the retail price, and had received the benefit of a
lot of free advertising, which brought him many new customers as a
result.
PLAN No. 386. CIRCULATING MUSIC LIBRARY
We will call him John Smith--partly because that was not his name, but
mainly because it is short and easy to remember. John’s father had been
a piano tuner, and also sold phonographs, records and small musical
accessories, but he didn’t advertise, and his business fell off so that
at his death there was nothing left except his little music store and
the humble home--both of which, however, were paid for.
The son tried to revive the business through the mail-order route, but
failed, and was trying to sell out, when an idea came to him through the
remark of a casual acquaintance. The idea was: A circulating music
library!
As practically every family in his town and the surrounding country
owned a phonograph, and most of them were growing tired of the records
they had used so long, they were all anxious to get hold of new ones,
but most of them felt they could not stand the extra expense.
To these people John’s plan to organize a circulating music library,
with a membership fee of $1 a month, and supply the members with new
records for their phonographs, as well as new sheet music for those who
had pianos, came as an agreeable surprise, and it was almost no time
until 500 members were secured. The twelve records or six music rolls,
which each member received every month, aroused a new interest in that
music-loving community, and John was entrusted with many extra
commissions, which added considerably to his income. He paid the postage
when sending out the new records or rolls, while the members prepaid the
return charges, and as most of the members had old records of which they
were tired, he took these in and sent them to other members to whom they
were new, thus keeping them in constant use.
The monthly receipts from 500 members were $500. The expenses, including
the purchase of new records and rolls, were usually about $250, so that
his net profits from the plan were $250 a month.
PLAN No. 387. “KNOCK-DOWN” PICTURE FRAMES
In every home in the land are many valuable pictures that are lying
around loose, with excellent prospects of being soiled, torn or lost,
simply because the owners of them to do not feel able to pay the high
prices asked for frames already made, or made to order.
A Kansas City man, who thoroughly understood this condition, decided
upon a plan by which thousands of these pictures could be enclosed in
handsome and appropriate frames at comparatively little cost.
Being handy with tools, and having but little available capital, he
bought a modest stock of picture-frame mouldings of various styles,
sizes and grades, a mitre-box, a saw, a small mortiser, some tacks,
etc. He also provided himself with stationery and an illustrated
circular concerning picture frames, showing the difference in prices
between frames already made and those ready to put together, besides
cuts showing the different styles and prices of “knock-down” frames, and
the manner of putting them together, particularly emphasizing the saving
in cost by using those he advertised.
Through a local agency he placed ads. in a large number of newspapers
circulating mainly in the country, and from these he received several
hundred inquiries. In answer to these he sent his illustrated
circular--which must have been a good one for it brought orders by the
score--and these he filled with such satisfaction that he was soon busy
enough to hire a boy to make the frames, while he put up the orders. The
complete outfit, packed neatly in a box, contained the four sides of the
frame, the corners grooved so as to be put together with glue, four
small tacks for the corners, two screw eyelets and three or four feet of
picture wire; in fact, everything except the glass, which could be
obtained at any crossroads store.
And the business grew until its profits were several thousand dollars a
year.
PLAN No. 388. SANITARY HANDKERCHIEFS
An observing young woman who had noticed how often many people find
themselves without a clean, dry handkerchief, under certain critical
conditions, and how greatly they would appreciate an opportunity to
secure one, evolved a plan by which they could be conveniently and
economically supplied. This is how she did it!
Visiting a wholesale house, she learned that she could purchase a soft
laundered handkerchief of fairly good quality, in lots of 1,000 or more,
for 3 cents each. She also arranged for several thousand sanitary,
transparent envelopes, at 20 cents per hundred, to be taken in lots of
1,000, as needed, and got 200 showcards on which was printed, “Sanitary
Handkerchiefs, 10 cents.”
Placing one of the handkerchiefs in each envelope, she left them on sale
at drug stores, cigar stores, newsdealers, restaurants, department
stores, and elsewhere, to be sold on a commission of 2 cents each, and
kept a list of the places where they had been placed on sale.
All that remained for her to do was to visit the various places where
she had left the handkerchiefs, make collections on sales, and replenish
depleted stocks.
She derived a net profit of a little over 4 cents on each handkerchief
sold, and as the sales averaged considerably over 200 a day, they
brought her a good income the year round.
PLAN No. 389. A PARCEL-POST EXCHANGE
A young farmer in Illinois, who knew only too well that the city dealer
always sets the price upon the farmers’ products, as well as upon his
own goods, thought he saw an opportunity to help the producer get more
for what he had to sell, pay less for what he had to buy, and make some
money for himself besides.
He had about $1,000 in cash, and, removing to the city, he rented a
small store and got in touch with a large mail-order house that agreed
to sell him certain articles, especially for the use of farmers, at
considerably less than catalog rates, provided he ordered a certain
quantity.
He then prepared a circular letter, requesting those farmers who wanted
higher prices for their butter, eggs, chickens, fruit and vegetables, to
send them to him in exchange, by parcel post, for any of the articles on
the list he enclosed therewith, assuring them of from 10 to 20 per cent
higher prices than they could obtain from the regular commission
houses, while the prices he quoted on the merchandise he would exchange
for these were considerably lower than those of the mail-order houses
from which he bought them, and yet left him a fair margin of profit. At
the same time he addressed a circular letter to one thousand or more
families in the city, offering to supply them with strictly fresh farm
produce for much less than they had been paying in the city markets for
articles of uncertain age and quality.
The farmers and the city people were only too glad of such an
opportunity to save money on their purchases, and the young farmer with
an idea soon had established a business that yielded a good living every
year.
PLAN No. 390. GROUP-CIRCULARIZING
A wide-awake advertising man in a western city employed a plan for
sending out circulars that not only reached every farmer in his county,
and brought a large volume of trade to certain merchants in his own city
and surrounding towns, but netted him a regular income of over $2,000 a
year. And it cost him less than $250 to get the business started.
He traveled by automobile to each township in the county, and calling
upon the various township clerks he secured the name of every farmer,
with his correct post office address, paying the clerk a small amount
for his assistance in preparing the list.
With these lists all properly prepared, he called upon several
enterprising merchants in his home city, showed them what he had, and
offered to mail out their circulars for just half of what it would cost
them for postage alone, even if they had the names, and thus save them
the time and trouble of mailing the circulars themselves. To mail out
500 circulars would cost each merchant $5, besides the envelopes, 75
cents, and to have them mailed to a reliable list for $2.50 was a “snap”
but few would turn down, and it was no trouble at all to find ten
merchants who were only too glad to supply him with the circulars,
already printed and ready for mailing.
Placing these ten circulars in one envelope, he sent them to 500 farmers
on his list, at a cost of one cent for the ten envelopes, and received
$25 for doing so. This cost him $5, and he was $20 ahead on each batch
sent out, so that the merchants were pleased and he was profited. As he
managed to send out an average of two sets a week, he made $40 a week
clear, and saved his patrons considerable in postage.
PLAN No. 391. MADE COMMON PICTURES LOOK LIKE OIL PAINTINGS
Here is the way a man, who knew very little about drawing or painting,
made any ordinary picture look like an expensive oil painting, and made
a living by doing this work. He did it according to the following
instructions:
“Take common window-glass the size of your picture and clean it well;
take 6 ounces balsam of fir and 3 ounces turpentine; put them in a
bottle and shake well together until thoroughly mixed. Now give one side
of the glass a heavy coat of the mixture, then place the picture on with
face side down; press the picture firmly and evenly on the glass, then
give the back of the picture a heavy coat of the balsam mixture and rub
with the fingers until it adheres firmly to the glass and the face of
the picture is free from spots. After you have done this, put the
picture where it will be free from dust until it dries; it is then ready
for the paint.
“Brushes for painting the pictures should be artists’ round sable
brushes with long handles, Nos. 1 and 7. Paint the dark part of the
eyes first, dark or blue, as you may fancy; then color the cheeks and
lips; after the dark part of the eyes is dry, paint the white part.
Color the dress to suit your taste, but whatever part of the dress you
want to be white you must paint first. Paint gold ornaments with yellow
paint. Give the picture three coats of every color you use, letting each
coat dry separately, leaving the flesh color until the last, letting the
rest of the picture dry well before applying it, then give it three
separate coats.
“For making lighter shade or color, add the light paint to the color
drop by drop until you have the color you want. Paint on the back of the
pictures. Use small pictures to practice on until you get the knack of
it.”
PLAN No. 392. SOLD ANOTHER MAN’S SOAP
An agent who had been very successful as a house-to-house canvasser, but
was temporarily without a line of goods to handle, decided to try a new
plan with soap, and found it so profitable that he adopted it
permanently.
Visiting a large factory in his city, where special brands of soap were
made to order, he arranged to have made for him a first-class toilet
soap of the usual size, each cake to be neatly wrapped in a fancy
printed wrapper bearing the name of the soap and a company name he had
adopted for his own use. Three of these cakes he had packed in a neat
pasteboard box, upon which his own label also appeared.
The price to him of this soap, thus wrapped and packed, was $7.20 per
gross, or 5 cents per cake, and this price also included one gross of
“sample” cakes of one ounce each, but unwrapped, for free distribution.
Placing the 144 sample cakes in a handbag, with circulars detailing the
merits of the soap, he started to canvass the residence districts. At
each house he left a sample cake of the soap and one of the circulars,
with a request for the housekeeper to use it, and he would call the next
day with a supply of the full-sized cakes in boxes. When he called the
next day and showed the lady the beautifully wrapped cakes, which he
assured her sold regularly for 15 cents each, but upon which he had
placed an introductory price of 25 cents for a box containing three
cakes, he made a sale at almost every house he visited. He usually sold
seventy-two boxes in a day’s canvass, and his profit of 10 cents a box
netted him $7.20 for one day’s work. He often did better than this, so
that his first year’s business showed a clear profit of $3,500, as he
also sold through agents and to dealers.
PLAN No. 393. MAKING RAISED-LETTER SIGNS
A young man in Detroit, with an invalid mother and two small sisters to
support, found it difficult to earn sufficient to meet necessary
expenses, until a friend of the family told him of the opportunity
afforded for good returns through the making of raised-letter signs by
means of an air-pencil outfit. He even loaned the young man $2.50 with
which to purchase one of the outfits, and assured him he needed no
experience, as a little practice would enable him to become proficient
in the work.
These raised letter signs are easy to make, can be produced in any
color, in gold, silver, bronze and metallics, are more attractive than
embossed work, and can be made and sold at a profit for considerably
less than painted signs, as they cost only 1 to 3 cents and sell readily
at 10 to 25 cents each, made on cardboard of any color. With a little
practice anyone can easily make 50 to 200 of these signs in a day.
The young man took the advice of his friend, bought an air-pencil
outfit, and practiced until he had acquired considerable skill in the
making of signs. Then he went among the merchants of the city and soon
had orders for all the work he could do, at prices that brought him a
good income. He closely followed these instructions which come with the
outfit:
Mix in a cup or saucer the dry powder and liquid medium which comes with
each outfit, to the consistency of thick paste. Use a knife or flat tool
in mixing, to crush any lumps that may be in the powder. Unscrew the
tube from the bulb--holding the bulb in a vertical position--placing
over the opening the funnel, compress the bulb, and while compressed
fill the funnel to any desired extent with the paste, then allow the
bulb gradually to expand to its natural shape until the paste is drawn
in. Remove the funnel and replace the tube and the air-pencil is ready
for use. To insure good work, the pencil should not be allowed to touch
the article to be decorated.
After using the instrument the tube should be unscrewed and thoroughly
cleaned. The bulb should be cleaned by placing it in a basin of water
and allowing it to soak until the compound is dissolved. The tube can be
cleaned with a small wire.
PLAN No. 394. MONEY IN CEREAL COFFEE
Through making a cereal coffee from pure ingredients, which proved an
excellent substitute for ordinary coffee, and was free from the
injurious alkaloid of the coffee of commerce, a young married woman in
St. Louis built up a modest yet ample business for herself, and earned
the praise of thousands of customers besides. The cereal coffee she made
was prepared as follows:
Rye, 12 pounds; horse beans, 1 pound. Roast in a big oven pan over a
quick fire, greasing the pan with a little butter. When roasted as you
would ordinary coffee, grind in a coffee mill together with ¹⁄₄ pound
cassia buds. Mix 1 pound ground chicory with the ground cereals, and it
is ready for use in the same manner as ordinary coffee.
She introduced this at first by asking her friends and acquaintances to
try it, and they were so well pleased with both its taste and its
effects that they recommended it to others, so that orders began to come
in rapidly. Many dealers began to receive inquiries for it, and to
supply these she went among the retail stores of the city and took
orders for it in large quantities. The product soon had a large sale and
she established a small factory where she could turn it out as rapidly
as occasion required.
PLAN No. 395. GIRL EARNED A COLLEGE EDUCATION
How a young lady entered Oberlin College with $60, and came out at the
end of three years with a good education and $50 besides.
She earned her board, tuition and incidental expenses by canvassing,
working in a dining-room, clerking in a store, assisting at class
receptions, doing housework, tutoring, and working in the college
library.
PLAN No. 396. WOMAN OBTAINS MUSICAL EDUCATION ON $45
A young lady who wished to become a music teacher went through College
nicely on $45 cash--and a lot of hard work to make up the deficit.
Registering at a well known conservatory of music in an eastern city,
she secured work in the dining hall connected with the home department.
This paid for her room and board, piano rent, medical attention and $15
tuition in any study she might select. She added to this by accompanying
voice pupils while practicing, and by playing accompaniments at
receptions, assisted in physical culture exercises in the gymnasium,
also gave lessons to boys and girls. Then she addressed envelopes, sewed
bindings on skirts, shampooed hair, wrote college letters to newspapers,
played light classics at a mountain resort, won a scholarship by taking
subscriptions for a woman’s publication. Through the above services
rendered by her she defrayed all college expenses.
[Illustration: Plan No. 396. Her First Music Lesson]
PLAN No. 397. A WOMAN GETS AN EDUCATION AND $500
Very few girls can expect to go to a university with $50 in their
pockets and come out not only with the education they were seeking and
$500 in cash besides. But there was one girl who did this.
Being a good stenographer and typist, she soon had plenty of work. She
took up mimeographing, which paid well, and later was engaged to help
one of the professors prepare the matter for a book he was writing. This
gave her a desk of her own in the economics department, where she helped
to complete the book, read the proofs, and kept well up with her studies
at the same time.
When she graduated, all her expenses were paid and she had an even $500
left over.
PLAN No. 398. RAISING GOLD FISH
Two women, living together, built in their yard a shallow pond of rocks,
cemented together so as to hold water, surrounding this with a second
row of rocks, not cemented, and filled the space between with earth, in
which were set mosses and delicate plants, thus giving the pond a broad
rim of dainty growing things.
Then they bought six goldfish--the pretty, dumpy sort, with long flowing
tails--and placed them in the pond which was about two feet deep in the
center. This was in the spring, and in the following August they noticed
dozens of tiny young fish in the water. The next spring they sold one
hundred of these for 25 cents each, keeping the rest for breeding
purposes.
In the five years since starting the fishpond they have realized a neat
sum from their aquarium. The fish require almost no care whatever, as
the little fellows live on insects in the water, while the larger ones
are given regular fish food, which can be bought cheaply at any bird or
drug store.
At spawning time, anywhere from May to August, the water in the pond is
not changed for fear of losing the young fish, but is replenished and
aerated by spraying the surface frequently with the hose until the pond
is full. Growing plants or a few tree branches placed in the pond afford
a place upon which the fish may deposit their spawn, and the water
should be kept as near the same level as possible, so the eggs will not
be exposed and dry out, thus preventing them from hatching.
PLAN No. 399. WOMAN GRADUATED WITH $400 DEBTS PAID
A girl who entered an eastern university on $400, borrowed money, made
$120 the first year as an accompanist in an orchestra; $160 by giving
piano lessons; $45 by reading aloud in French to two old ladies; $400 by
tutoring; earning $735 in all during her sophomore year. She easily paid
back the $400 she had borrowed, paid all her expenses, including
tuition, and was just even with the world when she graduated at the end
of the third year.
PLAN No. 400. TAUGHT DANCING IN SPARE TIME
A young man in a New York town, who had become an expert dancer, while
attending college was asked to take the place of the local dancing
master in his town during a temporary illness.
Not feeling quite equal to the task, he went to the city, attended a
first-class dancing school, learned all the intricate details, the
system, etc., and came back to his home town ready to accept the
position tendered.
When he showed his pupils the superiority of his methods over those of
the local teacher, they organized a large class and placed themselves
under his charge. The pupils made remarkable progress, and the hall he
had rented for the purpose was occupied by classes nearly every evening
during the week, while he gave a number of private lessons at 75 cents
each. His earnings from the few spare hours he was able to give to
dancing lessons netted him about $20 a week, in addition to a good
salary he was earning during business hours.
PLAN No. 401. MONEY IN TOY BALLOONS
A man who had for years been a clown in a circus, but desired to change
to something more dignified and more profitable, chose toy balloons as
his source of revenue, and the results proved he had made a wise
choice.
Being fully aware of the passion children have for toy balloons, he
decided to follow along with the same old circus, for a while, and laid
in a stock of non-inflated toy balloons, which cost him $20 per
thousand, or 2 cents apiece. With the air out of them, they took up but
little room, and when he arrived at a place where the circus was to stop
for a day, it required only half an hour to inflate a few hundred,
enough for one day’s business.
Starting out early in the morning, before the parade, he traversed the
streets that were already beginning to be lined on each side with people
waiting for the great event, and made scores of sales in that way. After
the parade was over, he made still more, and at the conclusion of the
afternoon and evening performances he reaped a harvest of dimes from
those coming out to see the show.
Later he attached himself to a carnival company, that stayed two or
three days, or a week, in one town, and literally filled the places with
his toy balloons, clearing 8 cents on every one sold. A sale of 800
balloons meant a net profit of $24 a day, which was almost as much as he
had formerly earned in a week while acting as a clown.
In the fall of the year he visited county fairs all over the country,
and cleared up enough money to keep him in comfort all winter.
PLAN No. 402. MOTION PICTURES IN SMALL TOWN CHURCHES
A former motion-picture operator, who had moved to a small Iowa town for
the benefit of his wife’s health, believed the churches of the place
would be glad to have films of religious subjects shown in their church
buildings on weekday evenings and, having secured the consent of the
trustees of one of the leading denominations, he put up his outfit,
which he had brought with him, and gave movie shows three evenings a
week, paying a small sum for the use of the church on these occasions.
The other churches, seeing the crowds that attended these
entertainments, also asked that the films be shown in their buildings,
and in a short time there was to be found a motion-picture show in one
or the other of those churches every evening of the week except Sundays.
Scenes in Palestine, the Passion Play, and similar subjects, were the
main part of the entertainment, and the movie man made a nice living
from the business, while providing amusement and instruction for the
people of the town, who were not often able to attend the movies in the
city.
PLAN No. 403. A CHAFING DISH ANNEX
A young lady who had graduated from college was compelled to find a way
to support herself and sister. She was a good cook, and finally decided
to open up a chafing-dish annex in her own home.
In her front room she displayed angel food, raisin tarts, fudge, cake,
warm sugared crullers, and puddings. She put out posters informing the
public that warm biscuits, muffins, roast chicken, meat loaf and salads
would be prepared to order.
She was successful in establishing a first-class, paying bakeshop around
the original idea of a chafing dish.
PLAN No. 404. CRYSTALLIZED FRUITS AND NUTS
Nothing is more delicious or more profitable to put up for sale than
crystallized fruits and nuts, and a young woman in California, who went
into the business on an extensive scale, had that discovery fully
confirmed. Her recipe for the crystallization of dainties was as
follows:
Put in an iron kettle 1 teacupful of granulated sugar, 1 tablespoonful
or less of butter, 3 tablespoonfuls of water. Boil until it syrups and
becomes brittle.
The fruits and nuts treated with this were put into the shells of the
same, or into boxes containing the name of the delicacy and her own name
as originator. Making up a quantity she placed them on sale at the
woman’s exchange where they sold rapidly at a good profit. She also had
many calls for them to be used on special occasions, such as St.
Valentine’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, weddings,
etc., and for these purposes she charged very high prices, for she knew
they were well worth all she asked for them, and were all the more
appreciated.
In a short time she received many orders and found it was necessary to
employ a number of young ladies as skilful assistants. Her profits the
first year were sufficient to pay for a neat little bungalow she had
always admired, and which is now her home.
PLAN No. 405. SHELLING AND SELLING NUTS
A Texas man makes an excellent living by gathering pecans and nuts of
all kinds that grow in immense quantities in his neighborhood, and
shelling them with a machine invented for that purpose. A bushel of the
nuts, when shelled, make fourteen or fifteen pounds of the meats or
kernels, and he sells them to people in the city at prices that net him
between $5 and $6 per bushel. And considering that he handles several
hundred bushels of the nuts in a single season, one may judge as to the
amount of his net profits.
PLAN No. 406. SPIT-FIRE BOTTLE
A young man who thought he could afford amusement for many people at a
good profit to himself, went to a wholesale drug store and bought a
pound of metallic sodium. This he removed from the can and soaked it in
lamp oil until soft, then dried it on a glass surface, and with a piece
of lead pipe rolled it out into sheets about ¹⁄₈ of an inch thick. These
he cut into sticks 3 inches long, and 3¹⁄₂ inches wide, and put two
sticks into a dram glass vial, labeled “Spit-Fire.” Moistening causes it
to burn.
Taking one of these vials into a barber shop, a hotel lobby, a cigar
stand or a crowd of people at a park, or a picnic, he would take a small
piece of it and lay it on top of a pipeful of tobacco, then spit on it
and the tobacco would light. A small particle of it dropped into a glass
of water or into acid will burn. He offered this at 15 cents per bottle
and sold them by hundreds to people who liked novel means of amusement.
He also mounted the vials on cards containing a dozen each, and sold
them to dealers for 75 cents per card.
One pound of metallic sodium is enough for 1,000 bottles, and the cost
for vials, labels and corks is about $3.75, while the metallic sodium is
not expensive. For 1,000 bottles, at 15 cents each, he received $150, so
you can see the amount of profit in this plan.
PLAN No. 407. HOME SCENES FOR CALENDARS
A Spokane young man, who owned a good 5x7 camera, and knew how to use
it, got the lowest quotations from publishing houses, on medium-size
calendars of artistic designs, and from the samples sent him selected a
line well adapted to the purpose for which he intended to use them.
Next, he took pictures of all the prominent business houses in the city,
showing the names of the merchants occupying the ground floors, as well
as the signs on some of the upper windows, with names and business of
the occupants. Then pasting one of these photos on one of the calendars,
he called upon the merchant, as well as all the other tenants of the
building, and took orders for any number they required. These made an
excellent advertising medium, and he received orders for many thousands
of the calendars.
Later he went into the best residence districts and took pictures of all
the homes, and, pasting a picture of each house on a calendar he called
at the various places and sold them by the hundreds. Often he was called
upon to take special pictures showing home scenes, such as children at
play, on the lawns, family groups on the front veranda, interiors of
homes, etc., and within a very few months his net income was over $50 a
week.
PLAN No. 408. BRICKMAKER FOR U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 409. A MEDICAL GARDEN
Garden vegetable products having medical properties made a large income
for a widow with several small children, and though it required
considerable care, the returns were more than satisfactory, for the
druggists bought all she could raise, at high prices.
Larkspur, for instance, the seed of which brings $1.50 to $2 per pound,
was one of her successes. This she planted in rows about 18 inches
apart, and, when 4 to 5 inches high, she thinned it to 5 inches apart in
the rows, and harvested it like buckwheat.
She also grew parsley, as the seeds and roots find a good market as
drugs, and the roots bring 90 cents per pound. An oil is obtained from
the seed.
Ginsing is another profitable product of a medical garden, and brings
approximately $5.40 per pound.
She obtained reliable information regarding these plants, without cost,
by writing to the bureau of plant industry, at Washington, D. C.
PLAN No. 410. AUTO-BUILDER FOR U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 411. SILVER FOX SKINS
When it is known that a silver fox skin is worth $2,500 in London, it
will be seen that some capital is required to begin the raising of the
animals.
A western man, who knew something of the business, organized a small
company with which to purchase two or three female foxes and one male.
The bureau of animal industry, at Washington, D. C., sent full
information, free, on request, concerning this particular industry, and
following the instructions received from that source the company made a
remarkable success. One mother silver fox frequently rears eighteen
young animals in three years, so the profit can be figured from this. Of
course, the first cost was considerable, but this was amply justified by
the returns.
PLAN No. 412. PERCENTAGE COLLECTIONS
A couple of young fellows in Salt Lake City started a collection agency
by first opening a small office and calling upon all the merchants for
their old, outlawed or hopeless accounts, on a commission basis ranging
from 25 to 50 per cent of the amounts collected. By arranging with a
good local reporting company, so as to learn the standing and financial
condition of debtors, and associating an active attorney with them, they
were able to write a form of letter that brought good returns. The
reporting company saved them much time. These old accounts brought them
in touch with good claims from time to time until in a few months the
business was of sufficient size to give them a good living.
PLAN No. 413. COLLECTING ON A SALARY
A young man in Ogden, Utah, who had a particularly winning way in
approaching people, employed this talent to excellent advantage by doing
the collecting for a number of firms at so much per month from each. His
tact and agreeable manner won in countless cases where bluffing or
threats would have been unavailing. He had made the discovery that
“politeness pays” to the extent of $200 a month, or more.
PLAN No. 414. RAISING PANSIES FOR THE MARKET
That pansies can be raised with profit, and made a regular business
during a certain part of the year, was proven by a young woman in a
middle-west city, who possessed a great love for flowers, and had more
time than money.
She started her seed bed in the latter part of July, and in September
she set the plants in rows five inches apart. These plants she protected
with coarse straw until almost the first of April, when she uncovered
the bed. Then she replanted in 2-quart wooden baskets, eight to each
basket. The retail price of these baskets was 15 cents each, or $1.25
per dozen baskets wholesale. She sold to both wholesale and retail
dealers in plants and flowers, and realized a neat sum from their sale.
PLAN No. 415. MEMBERSHIP COLLECTION AGENCY
A number of merchants in a western city were induced by a young man of
that city to organize themselves into a mercantile collection agency,
the membership fee to be $30 a year and to entitle them to have all
their accounts collected free, even though litigation should become
necessary to enforce the collections.
When collections were made for those not members, the charges were 20
per cent on all amounts under $40; 15 per cent on all accounts from $40
to $100; and 10 per cent on accounts over $100.
The young man engaged a live-wire attorney to look after the legal end
of the business, and drew a good salary as manager of the agency,
besides sharing in the profits of the business after all expenses were
paid.
It proved a good thing for the merchants as well as the originator of
the plan, and made collections much easier than under the ordinary
methods, besides being more economical for the members.
PLAN No. 416. RAISED RHUBARB IN HER CELLAR
A Chicago woman raised rhubarb in boxes of rich dirt in her cellar
during the winter months. It required but little attention, aside from
irrigating it frequently with luke-warm water. In January, when
everybody was longing for fresh green garden sauce, she sold it for 25
cents per pound, and made many dollars in that way. And rhubarb, besides
being exceedingly healthful, is practically all profit.
PLAN No. 417. CABBAGE AND TOMATO PLANTS
Raising cabbage and tomato plants in boxes indoors during the late
winter and very early spring, and later transplanting to beds out of
doors, covering them from frost, and using good, rich soil, enabled a
Kansas City woman to sell thousands of these plants for 10 cents per
dozen, at a time when others were just beginning to sow the seed. Her
receipts from this source alone amounted to $150 or $200 every spring.
PLAN No. 418. SWEET POTATO PLANTS
The raising and selling of sweet potato plants alone, in boxes of highly
fertilized dirt, enabled an Ohio woman to send her daughter to business
college from the proceeds, even though she received but 25 cents per
hundred. But the thousands of plants she raised brought a very handsome
sum in the aggregate.
PLAN No. 419. MADE APPLE BUTTER
A Missouri woman, in whose orchard hundreds of bushels of fine apples
were going to waste, made several hundred dollars each fall by
converting them into apple butter, of which the storekeepers never could
get enough to supply the demand, for she had apple butter reduced to the
finest kind of a domestic science, and her product brought the highest
prices. This is how she made it: Cider, 30 gallons; apples, 10
bucketfuls; sugar, 20 pounds; ground cinnamon, 10 cents’ worth. Add
sugar about an hour before taking off the stove.
PLAN No. 420. ATTORNEY TOOK EQUITIES FOR $400 FEE AND MADE $7,875
A young lawyer in a northwestern city had a client who owed him a fee of
$400 for legal services. The client had no cash, but held equities in
certain properties which he turned over as full payment for the fee.
These included a 5-room house with a $600 encumbrance; an 8-room house,
with $2,250 encumbrance; a clear lot in British Columbia and three clear
lots in a small Montana town, which he was glad to throw in for good
measure, as the equities in the other properties were of no value to
him, since he could not pay off the indebtedness.
With all this property on his hands, the lawyer got busy. Over the
long-distance phone he called up a bank in the British Columbian town
where the clear lot was located, offered it at $250, and the offer was
at once accepted. That left the two city houses and the three Montana
lots out of which to realize the remaining $150 of his fee.
The 5-room house was in fairly good condition, so he moved into it with
his family, and improved its general appearance by making a few needed
repairs himself, and adopting the theory that a man’s property is
dignified by his occupancy, and its selling possibilities increased. He
then looked for a buyer or a trade.
A southern family, living across the street, greatly admired the little
cottage, and offered in exchange for it a 160-acre farm, not far from
the city, valued at $3,000, but encumbered for $330, provided he would
pay cash $300 in addition. The lawyer made the trade on this basis,
though in making this deal, as in all others, he adhered to his
established rule never to assume an encumbrance upon a piece of
property, but to take it subject to the mortgage, the purpose being not
to be made personally responsible for the mortgage obligations.
Immediately upon securing title to the farm, he obtained a loan of
$1,250, out of which he paid off the encumbrance of $630, and still had
$620 in cash from the proceeds of the loan. Therefore, as a result of
this deal, he had paid out $680, and had $620 in cash, and an equity in
the farm which he sold for $2,700.
Then he moved into the 8-room house, which was in need of cleaning and
painting, and at a total expense of $100 he made it look like a new
house. And it was close to the business section besides.
Not long after moving into this place, he was offered another farm of 80
acres, valued at $6,000, which was later sold for $5,000, but encumbered
for $1,500, for the 8-room residence, and he accepted that offer also,
taking the farm subject to the $1,500 mortgage.
The paying off of the mortgage on this house, added to the $100 spent
for painting, etc., required an outlay of $575, and by giving a mortgage
for $2,000 on the farm, he cleared off the first mortgage, and had $500
in cash left to pay the $575.
When he figured up the totals he found that for a $400 attorney’s fee he
received more than $3,500 inside of eight months.
This attorney adopted the plan of accepting equities considered of no
value in other people’s hands, in lieu of small cash fees and found a
use for the property which enabled him to deal.
PLAN No. 421. ADS. IN COUNTRY WEEKLIES
An advertising man in a western city made $1,000 within a few months by
purchasing a certain amount of space in the “patent insides” of a number
of weekly papers supplied by a newspaper union, at 3 cents per inch, and
selling it to city merchants and other advertisers at 5 cents per line.
By signing up contracts for three or six months or a year, and filling
the space with the ads. so contracted for, he derived a regular income
from this source that enabled him to live well. This plan required sales
ability plus hard work to make it a success.
PLAN No. 422. SPECIAL DIRECTORIES IN “PATENT INSIDES”
A Middle-Western man, with some newspaper experience, arranged with a
newspaper union supplying “patent insides” to handle a certain amount of
space in a stated number of weekly papers using their ready-print
sheets, at a rate of 3 cents per inch.
Then he had illustrated two-column heads made for several lines of
business, such as: “Where to Eat When in Town,” followed by a list of
restaurants, cafes, etc., each occupying two inches of space; “Where to
Stop When in Town,” for hotels, rooming-houses, etc.; “Where to Buy When
in Town,” for merchants in all lines.
He had but little trouble in filling these spaces with ads. that paid
good prices, and made a handsome profit on the plan.
PLAN No. 423. BOOSTING HOME INDUSTRIES
A special writer in a northwestern daily introduced a novel feature for
the paper, upon which he was working on a commission basis, by
conducting a manufacturers’ page, to appear on a certain day each week.
He had a zinc etching made, showing a large manufacturing plant, with
heavy, black smoke pouring from several tall chimneys, and with every
indication of great activity about the place. Under this cut, in heavy,
black type, were the words: “Buy Home Manufactured Goods.” Below this
appeared write-ups and small display ads. of the various manufacturing
enterprises in the city, and in the center a strong argument favoring
the patronizing of home industries, in order to encourage the growth of
those already established, induce others to come, and thus keep the
money of the home people at home, where everyone would have a chance to
get some of it back through the increased prosperity that would ensue as
a result of this commendable course.
Each manufacturer was asked, and generally consented, to run a certain
number of lines or inches of space in this department, and it was not
long before the manufacturers’ page was one of the most prominent
features of the paper. Not only that, but the commissions of the young
man who started and conducted this department amounted to more than the
salary of the highest-paid man on the paper.
PLAN No. 424. COPYING ADDRESSES
In the offices of the leading public stenographers in almost every city
are thousands of names and addresses to be copied for the use of
advertisers or other patrons and a Seattle young lady who was an expert
typist, besides owning a first-class typewriter, secured all the work in
this line she could do, by keeping in close touch with the public
stenographers, directory publishers, and others.
This work paid her well, and there was always plenty of it for her to
do.
PLAN No. 425. ADS. ON BARBERS’ MIRRORS
A regular patron of a barber shop, while having his hair cut one day,
conceived an idea. He proposed to the boss barber to install a row of
mirrors, 2¹⁄₂ feet wide, along the wall of the shop, about four feet
above the floor. These mirrors he would put in free, with the
understanding that he was to reserve the lower left-hand corner of each
for advertising purposes.
As the mirrors then in the shop were rather dingy and old-fashioned, the
barber was glad to make this arrangement, and the new mirrors were duly
installed. Then the man who had thought of the idea went out and got
enough advertising in one day to fill the reserved spaces, at prices
that seemed extravagant, yet they were well worth the money. Ads. that
were of special interest to men who frequent barber shops were taken for
the most part, and these advertisers must have been pleased with the
results, because they renewed their contracts each year. The first
month’s receipts more than paid the cost of the mirrors, and after that
it was most all clear profit.
PLAN No. 426. MADE STOVE POLISH
Making a self-shining stove polish of finely powdered graphite, at a
cost of 2 cents for a 2-ounce box, and selling it for 5 cents a box, was
the way a hustling youngster at Bellingham, Washington, “got his start.”
This polish he called “Lusterine,” and put on each box a label saying it
was “Best and cheapest. No mussy mixing. Makes old stoves look like new
in two minutes. Produces an instantaneous polish that will not burn off.
Apply with a damp woolen rag, then go over the stove with a dry cloth.”
He sold immense quantities of this polish to the hardware stores all
along the coast, at 8¹⁄₂ cents per box, thus clearing 1¹⁄₂ cents on
each, and also sold a great deal of it himself for 5 cents per box, or a
profit of 3 cents. It gave him a good living.
PLAN No. 427. PEANUT VENDING MACHINE
A Baker City, Oregon, young man made a nice living and a surplus by
buying several peanut-vending machines and placing them on prominent
corners of his town, as near the moving-picture shows as possible. The
machines were of the penny-in-the-slot order, and yielded a small
handful of peanuts when a cent was inserted and a button pressed.
Of course, others in his town also sold peanuts, but he had a novel way
of treating his, and soon secured the peanut trade. He bought his
peanuts in considerable quantities from wholesale grocers in a large
city, and prepared them by placing a small amount of butter in a large
dish, then put the peanuts in. The butter would boil up and cover the
peanuts, and roast them to perfection. This butter could be used
repeatedly. Then he would stir a teaspoonful of glucose in a bushel of
peanuts, and throw on the necessary amount of salt, the glucose causing
the salt to stick.
A neat card calling attention to the superiority of his special brand of
peanuts did the business, and he was kept busy roasting the peanuts and
filling the vending machines.
These machines paid him a net profit from $35 to $50 a week.
PLAN No. 428. MAKING HOLIDAY AND BIRTHDAY PRESENTS
An old lady in an Illinois town, who had always been very skilful in the
use of the needle, was able to earn a very comfortable living by making
sofa pillows, pin cushions, jewel trays, lamp shades, book-marks, waste
and work baskets, catch-bags, etc., and selling them to people who
wanted to make Christmas or birthday presents of them, yet could not do
the work.
After the holiday season was over, she would insert a small ad. in the
local paper, saying she was prepared to make appropriate presents for
birthdays and other occasions, and her excellent work soon became so
well known that she had all she could do. Her prices were rather high,
but were justified by the character of the work she did, and people
cheerfully paid them, as they realized the worth of her work.
PLAN No. 429. KEEPING A FLOWER BED
For several months in the year, an energetic woman in a northern city
paid the family grocery bills from the proceeds of a small flower bed in
the back yard of her home.
She took especial care of this flower bed, as she realized that most of
her neighbors were negligent in such matters, and would be glad of an
opportunity to buy flowers from her later in the season. And she guessed
right, for they were soon coming from all directions to buy her flowers.
She had all varieties, which showed the effects of careful culture, and
she charged good prices for them. For weddings, funerals, etc., she made
up special designs, and sold them for several dollars each.
Among the rare flowers she raised were orchids, which brought very high
prices in the winter, and she felt well paid for the labor and care she
had bestowed upon her small flower bed.
PLAN No. 430. REPRESENTING COUNTRY WEEKLIES
An advertising man in the Pacific Northwest recently called upon the
publishers of forty weekly newspapers, within a radius of 200 miles of
the city in which he lived, and entered into contracts with each of them
whereby he was to solicit advertising for them in the city and
elsewhere, on a basis of 25 per cent, after receiving $100 worth of
advertising space in each paper as a bonus. This $4,000 worth of space
he sold at regular advertising rates, and in addition was paid 25 per
cent on the business he secured and forwarded to the papers.
In this way the local weeklies furnished him the capital to make his
start and they gave him a good profit on future business.
PLAN No. 431. BAND LEADER M. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 432. GATHERING OLD MAGAZINES FOR SALE
Living in a city where a great many magazines were taken, an old
gentleman, who had no regular means of making a living, made a business
of his own by gathering up old magazines from a large number of homes,
and selling them at good prices to dealers. By calling regularly at the
homes, he was given many of these magazines, mostly in good condition,
and carried them to his home in a little cart. When he had accumulated
enough for a good load, he got a friend of his with an express wagon to
haul them to the dealers for a small charge, and received enough income
in this way to supply him a living.
PLAN No. 433. A HOT-BED FOR PLANTS
A country woman who had constructed a hot-bed out of some second-hand
material she had gathered from time to time, made quite a neat profit by
raising plants and selling them to her neighbors, as well as sending
them to a market in the city, when it was too early in the season to
obtain these in the regular way.
Tomato, pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, egg plant, celery, and all sorts
of flowers, were given a good start in the hot-bed, and brought good
prices for all she could raise.
PLAN No. 434. MARKETING EGGS, BUTTER AND MILK
Of all the numerous opportunities afforded the country woman for making
money, none present so many possibilities as do the supplying of many
real luxuries to people who need and want fresh eggs, butter and milk.
A farmer’s wife, who lived near a large city in Illinois, saw in these
unsatisfied wants her opportunity for mutual benefits, and having a
large number of chickens and milk cows on the farm, she set about
utilizing these products in a way that meant a great deal for scores of
city people, and for herself as well.
Through the insertion of just a little ad. in the classified columns of
a city paper, she received replies from over one hundred city people who
were interested in the prospect of buying these products, and she
thereupon hired a good woman to help with her housework and marketing.
Through the parcel post, she sent to the city every day the freshest of
eggs, butter, milk and cream, and was soon in receipt of an income that
paid all her own personal expenses, the wages of her assistant and the
tuition for one year of her daughter who wanted to enter college.
PLAN No. 435. A FARMER’S WIFE AND HER CHICKENS
The wife of a Nebraska farmer, who knew how to raise chickens with
profit, made this industry pay by adhering to a few simple rules.
First, she weeded out all the “scrub” poultry on the place, and kept
only the best specimens of the best breeds, as they eat no more than
common stock, and bring much better returns.
Then she insisted on keeping her poultry yard absolutely clean, free
from vermin and rats, and giving the fowls proper food in sufficient
quantity to keep them in good condition.
She raised chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys, and, owing to her
excellent methods of caring for them, had very little bad luck with
them.
She made one or two trips to the city, secured enough permanent patrons
to take all her surplus products off her hands the year round, at prices
considerably in advance of regular market quotations, and sent her eggs,
butter, young chickens and other fowls by parcel post, and cleared over
$200 every season, with but little extra labor or expense. And $200 is
quite a sum to a country woman, especially if she earns it herself and
saves it all.
PLAN No. 436. JAMS AND JELLIES
A farmer’s wife, who lived more than ten miles from the city, and
realizing that it was not possible for her to market her strawberries,
and other garden products by driving that distance, only to find the
market over supplied for that day, resolved upon another plan for
handling these berries profitably. She knew that by putting them up in
the form of delicious jellies and jams, home-made she could get good
prices for them long after the fresh berry season was over, so she
obtained a large number of jars, glasses, etc., and made vast quantities
of all kinds of jams and jellies.
Her judgment was confirmed the following winter, for when the city
people learned of these home-made delicacies, through a little want ad.
in the city papers, she sold the entire lot in less than two days, at
prices she considered very high. The next year she doubled the quantity
of jams and jellies put up, which doubled her profits as well.
PLAN No. 437. BEE HANDLER--U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 438. KEEPING PIANO KEYS WHITE
This is a woman’s discovery, and a valuable one, too, for it not only
kept the keys of the piano white, but made her a good profit. She
introduced it by asking her friends to try it on their piano. She made
it of the following ingredients, the proportions given being enough to
make 96 4-ounce bottles of the preparation, and as a cleaner and
whitener of piano keys it has no equal. The entire cost of making it,
bottle, label and all, is only about 5 cents per bottle, and it sells
rapidly at 50 cents for a 4-ounce bottle. This is the formula:
Grain alcohol, 1 gallon; water, 2 gallons. Mix. She learned by
experience that this preparation prevents discoloration of ivory piano
keys, and restores faded, yellow keys to their natural whiteness and
gloss. With each bottle, properly labeled, she gave the following
directions: Dampen a piece of chamois with the preparation, apply to the
keys, and after fifteen minutes rub over with a dry piece of chamois.
Repeat the treatment weekly, always using the same pieces of chamois,
and you will always have white, glossy, beautiful piano keys.
She first sold this through agents, then to music houses, and later made
it a mail-order proposition by advertising, and sold so much of it that
she finally devoted her entire time to making and selling it.
PLAN No. 439. MENDING BROKEN CHINA
A young lady in a western town of 25,000 people, where there were
several studios for decorating china, was surprised to learn of the
large number of beautiful and expensive pieces that were broken, through
carelessness or accident, and decided to try her hand as a mender of
this broken ware. Having the formula for making a mending glue to be
found in this book, she called at one of the studios and asked for
permission to take one or two of the cheaper broken pieces home with
her, to see what she could do with them.
She at once prepared the glue very carefully and, with infinite patience
and skill, devoted one hour to the permanent putting together of a
broken vase she had brought with her from the studio. When it was
completed, she was greatly surprised to find that only by the closest
scrutiny could she herself detect where the break had been, and letting
it dry until the next day, she took it back to the studio.
The proprietor was amazed to see how perfectly the broken parts had been
put together, and at once gave her a number of the more expensive vases,
pitchers, etc., to mend, naming a price for the work that surprised her.
She mended these with the same skill and success that attended her first
efforts, and now she is making a living doing this work for studios, as
well as for many wealthy families in the town.
PLAN No. 440. BIOCHEMICAL--U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 441. PURE COUNTRY TOMATO SAUCE
To make a small quantity of real country tomato sauce, to be used as a
sample, a farmer’s wife in a section of country noted for its highly
flavored fruits and vegetables, used the following ingredients:
Four pounds of ripe tomatoes; 2 pounds of peeled onions; 5 ounces light
brown sugar; 4 ounces of salt; 2¹⁄₂ pints cider vinegar; 1 teaspoonful
black ground pepper; and 3 teaspoonfuls red pepper.
She ground the tomatoes through a grinder, and then added the onions by
running them through the grinder also. She then added the other
articles, and boiled in a porcelain kettle for about two hours, stirring
it quite often to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. She then put
it up in 6-ounce bottles, that would sell for 20 cents each, and
submitted samples of her product to a wholesale grocery house. The
president of the company was so impressed with its excellence that he
offered to incorporate a company and erect a manufactory for the purpose
of producing the sauce in quantities, under the direct personal
supervision of this woman. She accepted the offer, was elected treasurer
of the company, and is to-day drawing a salary of $4,000 a year, besides
receiving dividends that amount to as much more.
PLAN No. 442. BIOLOGIST--U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 443. BLACKSMITH FOR U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 444. BOILERMAKER FOR U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 445. BOOKBINDER FOR U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 446. BOOKKEEPER FOR U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 447. A SIMPLE DANDELION DESTROYER
Having discovered a simple yet effective method of destroying dandelions
without digging up the roots, injuring the grass or otherwise
disfiguring the lawns, a middle-aged landscape gardener in an eastern
city made a great deal of money by taking contracts to destroy these
perennial pests in hundreds of lawns, being frequently offered $100 by
a wealthy householder if he would successfully eradicate them from the
premises.
All he used for this purpose was sulphate of copper, which he bought by
the barrel at less than 5 cents per pound, but which he sold at 25 cents
per pound to those who wished to apply it themselves, though in most
cases property owners preferred to have him do the work himself, and
while there was no great labor involved, it usually paid him at the rate
of $2.50 an hour, the material used costing about 20 cents, as one pound
of the sulphate will make about four gallons of the solution, which is
applied with a sprayer, sprinkling the tops of the plants liberally.
This effectually destroys the dandelion, while the blue grass or clover
of the lawn is not injured in the slightest degree by its application.
PLAN No. 448. MADE FEATHER COMFORTERS
The wife of a Norwegian farmer, living in northern Minnesota, where the
winters are very cold, had brought with her from the old country many
excellent ideas of real comfort, and among these was the idea of feather
comforters.
They had a large flock of geese and ducks, and thus the raw material for
making these wonderfully comfortable comforters was easily available and
plentiful. But she did not make them bunchy and unwieldy, but light in
weight, neat, pretty--and extremely comfortable. The following is her
method of making them:
The feathers are held in small sacks, made like long, narrow
pillowslips, of cheese cloth or regular ticking. For each sack a strip
of ticking about 20 inches wide and as long as the desired width of the
comforter is used. This strip is stitched together up the side and
across the end just as a pillowslip is made; then turned and filled with
feathers and the opening is hand sewed. The thickness of the comforter
will, of course, depend upon the amount of feathers put into each sack.
An exactly equal weight must be used in each to insure a uniform
thickness of the comforter. About twelve of these sacks, each measuring
about eight inches across when filled, will be required for a comforter
of ordinary length.
The covering for the comforter may be of calico, sateen, flannel, or
even of silk. The top and bottom covers are held together by basting,
then lines of stitching are run across the width far enough apart to
admit of the long feather sacks being drawn through from side to side
like tape through a hem; then the edges of the comforter are bound and
the comforter is complete. It is warm and elastic, there is no bunching
up of the feathers, and the whole is easily cleaned by opening the two
sides of the covers and pulling out the sacks of feathers to be
dry-cleaned or hung on the line to sun and air while the covers are
being washed or new ones provided.
When these feather comforters were made in the manner above described,
they sold readily for $20 to $30 each, and, inasmuch as she made as high
as twenty to twenty-five of them in a single season, her income from
goose and duck feathers may easily be estimated. A comforter made from
the breast feathers of ducks alone often brought $40.
PLAN No. 449. BOTANIST FOR U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 450. MAKING GAS MANTLES PAY
In an eastern town, where gas is still used for lighting stores, a
little lame old man is said to make from $60 to $75 a week by taking
contracts to keep gaslights in stores and offices supplied with mantles,
which he makes himself, and by cleaning and polishing the fixtures. His
charge is 50 cents a month per light, and he has many hundreds of these
to look after, sometimes having as high as forty or fifty in a single
store.
PLAN No. 451. BUSINESS MGR. FOR U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 452. ONE GOOD SELLING PLAN
Mail-order people have many different selling plans, most of which bring
good returns, but an agent in Ohio made quite a success of the plan
briefly outlined as follows:
Selecting from the articles offered by a mail-order supply house one
that usually retailed at 15 cents, but which cost him 8 cents, including
postage, etc., he had a neat circular letter printed describing the
article in detail, its uses and advantages, and offering it at 9 cents,
if ordered within a certain time. These letters he sent to all those
names he had secured in former mail-order transactions, explaining that
every once in a while he offered special bargains in some article or
other, and that this was one of those occasions. As most people already
knew it was really a 15 cent article, he received a large number of
orders, and when sending the article he enclosed another circular
letter, quoting the prices on the other lines of articles, on most of
which there was a fair but not extravagant profit. These also brought
many orders from new customers, and by continually enlarging his list,
and quoting his articles as close to cost as possible, he gradually
built up a permanent and profitable business.
PLAN No. 453. EARNED HIS WAY THROUGH COLLEGE
Two young men in a northwestern city wanted to be lawyers, and both
wanted to go to Ann Arbor, Michigan. One had some money, the other had
not. The one with money loaned his friend $100 and with $50 saved he had
a total capital of $150.
By the time Ann Arbor was reached and the preliminary expenses defrayed,
there was just $15 left of the $150, and the young man who had it
realized the importance of adding to that as speedily as possible.
Therefore, during his vacation, he devoted his time to selling books.
Arriving in a city in central Illinois with a bicycle, a prospectus, and
just enough money to stay over night at a cheap hotel, he struck out
into the country the next morning, pushing his bicycle through the
black, heavy and sticky mud of that rich agricultural section, until he
came to a farmhouse. Calling there, he showed the prospectus of the
book, explained its merits in a carefully prepared talk, and when the
farmer’s wife wavered between yes and no, he clinched a sale by offering
to deduct 25 cents from the price if they would let him take dinner.
They did, and he sold.
That afternoon he sold another book by offering 50 cents off the price
for supper, bed and breakfast, and from that time on he needed no
expense money, because he paid for his meals and lodgings by selling
books to farmers and deducting the charges for them from the price of
the book. And that made many a sale which he would not otherwise have
made. At the end of ten weeks’ work he had made $350 as net commissions
on his sales.
The next summer he took the agency for another book, which he sold in
the towns and cities, thereby avoiding the strenuous work of wading
through mud, and that season he earned $400 net in commissions on his
sales, so that he had repaid the $100 loan, paid all his tuition and
other expenses in college and had some money left.
The third summer, still sticking to the book business, he employed
agents and assistants to make sales under his supervision, and made $500
through this work.
PLAN No. 454. A COMMERCIAL ART BUREAU
A young artist and a salesman joined forces and established an art
bureau, along commercial lines, and made it a success.
The artist could not have secured business by personal solicitation had
his life depended upon it, but he could draw--anything--anywhere. The
hustler made no pretensions of being an artist, but he could get
business whenever there was any, and very often where there wasn’t any,
to a casual observer. Therefore, they made a strong team.
Their first specialty was the drawing of designs for doctors, lawyers
and other professional men, the drawing containing the name of the
person, some special emblem or symbol of his calling, or any other
distinguishing feature he might select. From these drawings he could
have an engraving made and as many copies printed as he required for
bookmarks or other purposes. For these designs they charged from $10 up
and did a good business.
Then they began a systematic course of commercial art work, embracing
illustrations for advertisements, thus adding greatly to the
attractiveness of advertisements. This feature they extended to all
lines of business, and before long the advertising columns of the local
newspapers looked very much like a picture gallery, while the ads. were
eagerly looked for and carefully studied. They also made illustrations
for the works of young authors.
Within a year or two they had all the work they could do.
PLAN No. 455. A GOOD COLLECTION SYSTEM
There have been many forms of collection agencies designed, some being
good, some bad and some indifferent, but the system planned and worked
by a man in a northwestern city is certainly novel in its every detail.
It “gets the money,” and nets its promoter from $12,000 to $15,000 a
year. So the idea must be good.
This agency, incorporated, has the creditors sign a contract assigning
to it all the accounts, judgments and notes listed underneath, in
consideration of the services to be performed by the agency, and
authorizes the agency to use its discretion in settlements, to collect,
receive, adjust and discharge the same.
The names, last-known addresses and occupations of the debtors are
given, with the date of the last item, the amount due, name of employer,
etc., and on all of these accounts collected the agency is to receive a
commission of 50 per cent for the first $100, and 15 per cent on all
amounts in excess of that sum, except on notes, judgments and accounts
over three years old, all of which shall pay a 50-per-cent commission,
the commission to be due and payable to the agency whether the debtor
makes payment to it or to the creditor. On any account withdrawn from
the agency by the creditor, the commission to be considered as earned in
full, and be due and payable to the agency at once. The creditor is to
report promptly to the agency any payments made on the accounts after
being listed, and the refusal of the creditor to report shall be held as
a payment, the other accounts listed being considered as security for
the payment of commissions on claims withdrawn or paid, or refusal to
report. The contract to be enforced for six months, except as to
judgments, notes or accounts upon which payments have been made, suit
commenced in process of settlement, or secured in any manner. Creditor
not required to pay any advanced fees or retainer, except 10 cents on
each claim for address verification. In case the services of an attorney
are advisable, creditor agrees to employment of one and to pay 50 per
cent commission on amounts collected, where agency assumes
responsibility for costs and attorney’s fees.
The creditor signs his name, with his business, the date and his
address, and lists below the names, etc., of those debtors he desires to
turn over to the agency, and for each name or account so listed he pays
10 cents to the solicitor who retains the entire amount as part of his
commission.
The solicitor then forwards or brings to the office of the agency the
lists thus secured, and the agency thereupon pays him 20 cents more for
each account so listed, making 80 cents in all. Therefore, a solicitor
securing 100 accounts in a day makes $30 a day.
This seems like pretty good pay for the man who solicits the accounts,
and it is, but when it is considered that the head of the agency, who
perfected this plan, collects practically 95 per cent of these accounts,
and retains one-half of most of these collected, it will be very
apparent that he can well afford to be liberal with the man or woman who
goes out and picks up this business for him.
As an indication of the magnitude of the business, he performs services
for 4,000 to 6,000 clients in a year, employs five girls as
stenographers and multigraph operators, and sends out thousands of
letters every month, most of which, bring tangible results.
It’s a big business, and there is a big field in which to work it.
The success of his plan lies in the rapidity with which he handles a
voluminous correspondence, and in this he is materially assisted by the
use of an electrically-propelled multigraph, rubber stamps, etc. His
business is conducted almost entirely through letter-writing and he has
hundreds of forms of original letters and follow-ups suited to all
classes of debtors, enabling him to make attacks from every angle.
PLAN No. 456. MADE AND SOLD SHOES
A Boston young man, some years ago, was traveling salesman for his
father, a wholesale dealer in shoes. His experience on the road proved
how hard it was to get dealers to push the sales of shoes of any make,
and he decided to go into the business of making shoes on an extensive
scale and selling them in his own stores. At that time he had no stores,
and all the large manufacturers ridiculed his idea, but he went ahead,
just the same, secured models of the most expensive shoes made, opened a
little store in Boston, began making shoes of excellent value, yet which
he could sell in his own store for $3 a pair--that was before the war,
of course.
He advertised these $3 shoes, first locally then nationally, and the
ads. brought a steady demand for the shoes, to which he had given a
dignified yet easily-remembered name, and it was not long until he had
more shoe stores, and still more. Now he has nearly 400 of them,
scattered over most of the civilized world.
PLAN No. 457. SELLING HAIR TONIC
Never mind what kind of hair tonic it was. There are many ways of making
various kinds, and those who wish to go into the business of selling
hair tonic can select the one that suits him best. But it’s the selling
idea you are after, and here is how one young man did it:
To avoid the necessity of sending a 12-ounce bottle by express, at a
cost to the buyer of 40 to 50 cents, he got a hair specialist to
condense it into one ounce, so he could send it in a common mailing case
for less than 5 cents postage, and pay that himself. All the buyer had
to do was to add enough water to the condensed preparation to make 12
ounces of good hair tonic, and to a list of names of people who had sent
letters to other hair-tonic advertisers he mailed a neat little booklet
telling all about his condensed hair tonic, and offering to send a
1-ounce bottle for 50 cents, also enclosing a fancy label for a 12-ounce
bottle.
Out of 4,000 such names, he sold 900 of the 50-cent bottles; then he
advertised and got more names, sent more booklets and got more orders.
However, in order to encourage sales of two bottles at a time, he
offered a neat, small purse, that cost him 10 cents in gross lots, and
offered this as a premium with each sale of two bottles for $1, and, as
most of those who wrote him were women, the purse brought the orders.
PLAN No. 458. BOUGHT HIS BRIDE A BUNGALOW
An Indiana man and his bride were returning in their automobile from a
trip to the country, and passed a beautiful rural bungalow on a small
farm, which the bride greatly admired. She told her husband she would
like to own that place.
Arriving in the city, he left his wife at her mother’s and drove to his
office. Hastily glancing over the letters on his desk, he turned to the
want ads. of the daily paper, and scanned them carefully until he found
one which announced that a man about to establish a dairy wanted to buy
any number of milch cows, up to fifty.
Suddenly he remembered that in a country paper, a few days before, he
had read an ad. of an auction sale of milch cows, to be sold at a place
about thirty miles from the city. He found the paper in his auto-coat
pocket and saw that the auction sale was to take place the next day, so
in the morning he kissed his bride good by, told her he would be back
that evening, jumped into his machine and drove away.
Arriving at the place where the cows were, he looked them over
carefully, saw they were of a good grade, looked at the sale
announcement again, and noticed it stated that any purchaser of one cow
could take the lot at the same price per head. Then he waited until a
poor, scrawny heifer was put up for sale, bid her in for $35, and
announced that he would take them all at that price. The owner and
several bidders objected, but the auctioneer pointed to the terms of the
sale, and, having the cash with him, our friend paid for the herd, hired
two men to drive them to the address of the man who wanted cows, sold
them at a profit of $1,000, and drove home that evening with the deed
made out to his bride for the bungalow and little ranch she wanted. This
is illustrative of the opportunity that appears when one knows both the
sellers’ and buyers’ wants.
PLAN No. 459. SELLING WATCHES ON INSTALLMENTS
An experienced salesman in an eastern city, having an idea that if other
kinds of goods could be sold on the installment plan watches could also
be sold that way, decided to try it out and see.
Beginning with a capital of less than $100, he first arranged with a
watch factory that turns out a fairly good timekeeper at a low price, to
supply him with a certain number of watches at from $3 to $12 each, to
be delivered to him in small lots at first, as he could pay for them;
and having expended the greater part of his $100 for these, he worked
it at first simply as a local proposition, doing the canvassing himself.
As the watches all contained an American movement, the cheapest of them
having a five-year guaranteed case, they gave good satisfaction, and the
monthly payments were promptly made, almost without exception.
It was not long until the business was paying him from $250 to $300 a
month, and at that time he began to make it a mail-order business,
advertising in a list of papers recommended by a reliable agency.
He aimed to sell every watch for at least three times what it cost him,
and as he required from 25 to 33 per cent as a cash payment, this
usually paid the wholesale cost of the watch, while subsequent payments
were practically clear profit.
To those replying to his ads. he sent a neat circular, with
illustrations of the various watches he had for sale, with prices,
terms, etc., and these brought a very large percentage of sales. He is
now averaging $500 a month net profit.
PLAN No. 460. DID DISTRIBUTING
An Illinois man, living in a city of 25,000 people, had noticed that
much of the distributing done in his town was very poorly executed. He
had seen boys entrusted with expensive and valuable literature, chuck
great masses of it under culverts, into sewers and other out-of-the-way
places, and then collect as though having done honest work.
He knew of several druggists, and retailers in various lines, who let
tons of advertising matter, sent them by manufacturers and wholesalers
for distribution, lie in the stores and go to waste because the
retailers were too busy or too negligent to have it properly distributed
where it would do the most good.
He therefore called upon these people and offered to do their
distributing in an honest and capable manner, at a very reasonable
price, assuring them that it was to their own interest to have this
advertising matter get before the public as early and as thoroughly as
possible.
Most of the firms, knowing him to be reliable, gave him their work, and
almost immediately noticed a marked increase in the calls for the
particular goods mentioned in the literature. Improvement came from
proper distribution, and they were glad to contract with him by the year
to do all that class of work for them, at a stipulated price per month.
Altogether, these contracts netted him nearly $100 a month, and left him
spare time for other kinds of work.
PLAN No. 461. A SUCCESSFUL SELLING PLAN
Many of the readers of this book will select one or more of the plans
herein set forth, and no doubt some of them will require local
canvassing to make a success. But a great many people, after having an
article ready for sale, will not know just how to start selling. In
order to aid these people in disposing of what they have for sale, we
give herewith the selling plan employed by a very successful salesman in
Buffalo:
He was selling a fine massage cream, nicely put up in a dainty jar, and
bearing a very fancy label. The jars held one ounce, and sold for 50
cents each. Instead of rushing up to a house and asking the lady who
answered the bell if she wanted to buy some good massage cream, he
provided himself with a nice premium, such as an ornamental clock, a set
of knives and forks, a silver spoon or bon-bon dish--something really
valuable, yet which at wholesale cost him only 60 or 75 cents, but would
retail at $1.50 to $2. He also carried a number of self-addressed
postal cards, with room on the back for ten names and addresses, under a
request from ten ladies to call upon each with a jar of the cream. He
also had several jars of the cream along with him.
When a lady came to the door, he would show her the premium first, and
inform her that he was giving it away. This, of course, interested her.
Then he would show her the jar of massage cream, give her one of the
postal cards, and tell her that if she would buy one of the jars of
cream, and have ten of her lady friends write their names and addresses
on the self-addressed postal, and mail it to him, he would give her the
premium. This caught nearly all of them, for the lady got the 50-cent
jar of cream and a $1.50 to $2 premium for 50 cents, and for getting ten
other ladies to sign an order for one jar each. Then when the ten orders
came in on the card, he called with the premium and another card for
each and made it a sort of endless chain. This isn’t canvassing, it’s
planning.
PLAN No. 462. COLLECTION AGENCY SOLICITING
Elsewhere in this book is an account of a party in a northwestern city
who made from $12,000 to $15,000 a year through establishing a
successful plan of collecting old accounts, mainly by means of letters.
Practically every merchant doing business anywhere has a large number of
accounts which he has been unable to collect, and it is from these
accounts that the solicitor can earn a good living.
Calling upon the merchants of his home-city first, he asked to be
allowed to take over these accounts, the merchant to pay him 10 cents
for each account so assigned, and, as he frequently listed as high as
200 accounts in a day, he derived $20 from this source alone as he was
allowed to retain the entire amount. Then, on receipt of the accounts at
the agency, he would be paid 20 cents more for each account, thus making
his income $60 for one day’s work. This was unusual, however, but any
good hustler can make a good living from this work.
PLAN No. 463. OPENED A “SURPLUS” MARKET
A man and his wife, who lived in a city surrounded by a good fruit and
agricultural country, and whose only possession was a horse and light
wagon, and less than $100 in cash, concluded to open what they called a
“surplus” market, where they disposed of a great deal of farm and
orchard products that would otherwise have gone to waste. They rented a
small stall in one of the city markets, and the wife took charge of
that, while the husband drove several miles into the country each day
looking for surplus products that could be had for little or nothing,
simply to get them out of the way. He was thus able to pick up in a day
a wagon-load of good, sound apples, peaches, pears, vegetables, berries,
small fruits, etc., at a total cost of $1 or even less--often for
nothing--and these he brought to the market stall and offered for sale
at just about one-half the prices asked by other dealers. To be sure,
the fruits were not wrapped and labeled, or the berries placed in boxes,
but their quality was fully equal to those that were.
Small as was this beginning, it gradually led to something larger and
better, and they now own one of the most profitable little fruit stores
in their city.
PLAN No. 464. BOOSTED HIS HOME TOWN BY BOOKLET
A northwestern young man, who believed that more factories and other
valuable enterprises could be brought to his home city through stronger
literature than was being sent out by the local chamber of commerce,
prepared a brief summary of resources, supplies of raw materials of all
kinds, marketing conditions, power costs, and everything that could
possibly interest a manufacturer looking for a new location.
This matter was contained in an attractive booklet, concise and forcible
in style, and dealt only with established facts and figures, with data
that could not be questioned.
Then he advertised throughout the eastern cities and stated that he
would send this reliable publication on receipt of 50 cents per copy,
and received many answers containing enclosures.
Later he prepared another booklet of special interest to farmers and as
the matter it contained was so different from the ordinary literature so
widely scattered over the country by various corporations, it met with
great success, and brought a great many farmers to the surrounding
country.
PLAN No. 465. A HOME-INDUSTRY PAGE
When a new daily paper was established in a northwestern city a few
years ago, a young man who was an untiring hustler for business, and who
had had a great deal of experience in soliciting ads., proposed to the
publisher to conduct a page devoted to home manufactures, and make it an
important feature of the paper, on a commission basis of 40 per cent.
The publisher agreed to this, as he was confronted with very strong
competition, and every new feature he could add to his paper was just
that much more in his favor.
The young man therefore had a 3-column cut made, showing a large factory
in full operation and below was a prominent display line, “Patronize
Home Industries and Buy Goods Made in ------,” the name of his town.
Following this were the names of all products made in the home city,
alphabetically arranged, the name of the article coming first, with the
name of its manufacturer immediately following, so that anyone wishing
to buy a certain article had only to turn to this alphabetical list to
find the name of the article wanted, the firm or concern that made it,
and either phone for it or call in person to obtain it.
The page became so popular that the name of every manufacturer in the
city, with the name of his product, was listed in it, and exactly $5,000
was the revenue derived from it the first year. The manufacturers were
greatly benefited by it, the paper got $3,000, and the young man who
originated the plan drew $2,000 as his commission.
PLAN No. 466. REFRESHMENTS FOR SHOPPERS
A woman in Denver, who had often felt the need of some refreshments
while out for an afternoon’s shopping, and yet did not care to pay the
fancy prices asked at most of the swell cafés where it was “all style
and nothing to eat,” evolved a plan that she believed would be gladly
welcomed by the women, and at the same time yield her a good income.
Not having sufficient means to rent a choice store on the leading
street, or convenient to the shopping district, she went to the
proprietor of one of the leading department stores and made arrangements
to establish a little refreshment counter in his store, where she could
serve hot coffee, sandwiches, etc., to women during the day. The
merchant was glad to add this feature to his establishment, as it would
be a benefit to him in attracting trade, and to the women shoppers as
well as to the clerks in the store who would appreciate refreshments of
this kind, at a very moderate cost.
She made her own coffee, prepared her own sandwiches and the few
delicacies she served, and they were exceptionally good. She made a
reasonable charge for what she served, and, although the profit was not
large on any one article, it was a steady income and paid her well each
year, for her refreshment counter became a permanent and popular feature
of the store, drawing a large volume of trade, and no charge was made
for the space she occupied. In fact, the merchant would have been glad
to pay her to stay, if he could not have induced her to remain
otherwise.
PLAN No. 467. LAW AND FARMING IN THE NORTHWEST
A young law graduate was without funds so decided to go back to his
early work, teaching school. His work was not very profitable and,
besides, he wanted to marry, so he borrowed $150 to wed the girl he
loved and took her to Northwestern Canada. There he went into the real
estate business and formed a partnership with a man who thought playing
pool was his business. In February he decided to go by himself. In
Canada a book is issued giving the legal description of land for sale,
price asked and the commission to the agent. The only asset he had was
this book and a knowledge of the farm country. All through the cold
month of February his office paid him but 50 cents, but March was better
and in April he did a good business. That year his commissions alone
netted him more than $8,000. He could not practice law in Canada but he
could make out deeds and give advice which netted him a sufficient
income to save the $8,000. He purchased at a low price 1,000 acres of
wheat land. At the end of three years this poor lawyer-school-teacher
had 500 acres in good wheat, his land almost paid for, with his third
year paying him more than $10,000 in commissions.
When I knew him at college he was a fine fellow, but felt somehow that
the other fellows had a corner on success. Of recent years he has
changed--his dress, manner and his enthusiasm impress you at once on
meeting him. What he has done many will again do in the coming years
with as great results.
PLAN No. 468. COLLECTING BRASS TEAKETTLES
A woman made a comfortable living by collecting old brass teakettles and
old furniture from the homes of well-to-do people, second-hand dealers,
etc., and advertising them as antique wares. One room in her home was
used for displaying these articles, and many persons called to see them,
with the result that they were rapidly disposed of at a good profit.
PLAN No. 469. TAKING ORDERS FOR WALL PAPER
One woman, who has good taste in the matter of decorations, derives a
good income from taking orders for wall paper from the home-owners of
her community. She visits a home, notes the furniture, finishings, etc.,
and shows samples harmonizing with the same.
The effect is usually so pleasing that she is generally given an order
for wall paper or wall stains, of which she also carries samples
supplied by a reliable company, and every order means a handsome profit
to her. She often visits neighboring towns and takes many orders, as her
good taste is recognized and her samples are greatly admired.
PLAN No. 470. CABINET MAKER FOR U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217.
PLAN No. 471. TINSELLING POST CARDS
It was a mere boy who worked out this little plan of making money during
his spare time, and found it paid exceptionally well for the small
amount of time, labor and capital involved.
Possessing some artistic talent, he sent for a tinselling outfit, that
was advertised, and inserted a few small ads. in the local papers, to
the effect that he would tinsel post cards for 3 cents each, or ten for
25 cents, and do better work than could be obtained in the stores
selling the cards.
Many orders were received, and the work he did was so satisfactory that
orders were repeated in most cases, and it was not long until he had
cleared $87 on the work that required but a few hours of his spare time.
He has now decided to give his entire time to this line of work, as he
can easily make from $100 to $125 a month, which was good for a boy.
The best tinselling outfits can be purchased for about $1.50 each, and
very quickly pay for themselves, after which the returns are practically
all profit, although he tinsels up to five words on each card, all for 3
cents per card, while the stores charge 5 cents each, and then only put
on the name of the town desired.
PLAN No. 472. GETTING A START WITH INK POWDERS
A young man whose ambition was to build up a permanent business from a
small beginning, as he was practically without capital, concluded to
start on one item at first, and gradually add others as he could afford
it, so he chose inks--not one, but several kinds of inks. These inks he
purposed to put up in the form of powders, leaving only the hot water to
be added by the customer. But the different formulas were all so good
that from anyone of them an enterprising man could work into a
good-paying business, and they are therefore submitted herewith as
separate plans.
Here is the formula he used for producing a powder for a writing fluid
that is equal to the best inks on the market and better than most of
them. And the beauty of it was that he could sell enough of the powder
for 10 cents to make a full pint of the very best ink, and realize a
very good profit on it over that price:
Nigrosin, 1 ounce; soluble blue or water blue anilin, 2 ounces;
salicylic acid, 15 grains; dextrin, 1¹⁄₂ ounces.
This will make from one to two gallons of ink, when dissolved in hot
water, according to the shade desired--the more powder the darker the
ink. Fine for either ordinary or fountain pen, and sold well.
PLAN No. 473. BLUE INK POWDER
Many people prefer blue ink, and for them he made powders of an
excellent quality as follows:
Water-blue anilin, 1 dram; dextrin, 5 drams; or according to the
following formula:
Soluble Prussian blue, 1 dram; dextrin, 2 drams. Dissolve the powder in
hot water, varying the intensity of the blue shade as desired, by using
more or less powder.
This was a popular and profitable seller.
PLAN No. 474. GREEN INK POWDER
Green ink is a novelty, and for that reason many people like to use it.
He made the powders for green ink as follows:
Green anilin, 1 dram; dextrin, 4 drams. To use, dissolve in hot water,
using more or less of the powder as darker or lighter shades of the
green are desired.
Very easy and cheap to make; very easy and profitable to sell.
PLAN No. 475. RED INK POWDER
Red ink is always in demand, but many of the red inks on sale at
stationery and other stores are of a very inferior quality. Red ink made
from the following formula, as this man made it, gives universal
satisfaction in all cases where red ink is required:
Red anilin, 1 dram; dextrin, 1 dram. To use, dissolve the powder in hot
water.
These various ink powders are usually put up in packages of a sufficient
quantity to make a pint of ink, and this requires from a teaspoonful to
a tablespoonful of the powder.
Having no capital, the young man began with the direct selling plan,
canvassing from house to house and from store to store, and selling to
his acquaintances whenever possible. From the profits these sales
brought him, he was soon able to take up the trust scheme, sending
twenty-four packages of the powder, put up in small envelopes, to boys
and girls whose names he obtained in various ways, offering them a
premium of a watch, a camera, roller skates, silver spoons, or other
articles he could buy cheap in quantities, when each one had sold and
remitted for the twenty-four packages.
Later he inserted 25-word ads. in various papers, and made a large
number of sales direct by mail from that source. Today he owns the
largest and best patronized stationery store in his town.
HOW SEVEN BOYS EARNED MONEY
Seven boys, from 12 to 15 years of age, all pupils at the same city
school, and all close chums, adopted seven different ways of earning a
little money during vacation, and it is pleasing to know that all seven
succeeded. Here are the plans they followed, one boy to each plan:
PLAN No. 476. CANCELED POSTAGE STAMPS
One boy went to the large business houses and collected all the canceled
stamps he could find on envelopes received through the mails. Many of
these were from foreign countries and brought good prices when offered
to dealers or boys making stamp collections, while the domestic stamps
he sold for 25 cents per thousand. During the vacation period that year
he made over $50.
PLAN No. 477. BOUGHT A PRINTING PRESS
Another boy induced his father to help him buy a small printing press,
and cards of various sizes. He then took orders for the printing of
these cards for other boys and for men needing the cheaper grade,
charging 75 cents per hundred and cleared up nearly $40 above expenses,
besides paying for his printing press.
PLAN No. 478. PARLOR MAGIC
The next boy with a taste for entertaining, and being clever at
sleight-of-hand tricks, bought a book on parlor magic, and gave
entertainments at his own home and the homes of other boys, charging 10
cents admission. He performed these tricks so well that everyone felt
that he or she had received full value for the dime paid at the door,
and the youthful entertainer realized a net profit of almost $60 during
the three months of his summer vacation.
PLAN No. 479. DID SCROLL-SAW WORK
The fourth boy, being of a mechanical turn of mind, bought a scroll-saw,
with which he made a great variety of very pretty things, and for these
the neighbors were glad to pay good prices, especially where he made any
special design to order. He was very skilful in his work, and was kept
busy most of the time, so that his net earnings during vacation were
$37.
PLAN No. 480. A LEMONADE STAND
The fifth boy had a taste for merchandising, and set up a lemonade stand
in the front yard of his home, where many people passed every day. He
had various-sized glasses in which he put his lemonade, properly made
and tastefully displayed, and sold his product at 1 to 5 cents a glass,
according to size. He also had some very good ice cream which he sold in
small dishes at 2 to 5 cents a dish. Children were his principal
customers, but even at these low prices, he made a good profit on his
sales, and the business netted him a little more than $30 altogether.