If you handle your own advertising correspondence, work with layout artists and write your own ads, it’s well worth your while to set up your own in-house ad agency and save a ton of money.

Even if you don’t create your own ads, you can profit from setting up your own agency and placing the ads that bring sales directly to you.

If you have somethings to sell – especially by mail order – advertising is they way to make that product reach people. Although advertising agencies produce excellent ads of all types and sizes with every demographic appeal, they also charge for it. That’s why they’re ready to claim the fifteen percent discount usually granted for placing ads.

You can learn how to create and design your own ads – with no background in copywriting or art. And, you can set up your own ad agency to place these ads where THEY’LL MAKE MONEY FOR YOU.

Do you have a product that you’re ready to sell? Now’s the time to find out the best angles to use and the tricks of the trade to putting money in your pocket.

STARTING YOUR BUSINESS

Do you have a mail order business? Maybe you sell clothing, camping supplies, or information through ads to the mail order trade. Perhaps you’ve run classified ads for years and are ready to branck out into larger display ads.

Not only small home businesses, but larger mail order companies and hundreds of major advertisers everywhere set up their own in-house agencies to produce and place ads. Even magazines create in-house departments under another name to get the agency discount.

What might set advertising agencies apart from homemade operations is the appearance of the letterhead and the ad form. They must look sharp and professional.

Start with a name for the ad agency you want to establish. It can be anything, but must be different from the name of the company that will be using the space. Then register the name with the county clerk. Check first to be sure you’re not using a company name already in business.

Desiging letterhead is easier than you think. You don’t have to create an elaborate or clever logo – the initials of the company will do. You can choose the mark – the special type style – at a printers, or use one of dozens of press-on letter styles available at art supply stores.

Using photo offset, digital camera, an instant printer can run off a thousand sheets at a very low price. If you go to a printer, check and compare the total printing costs. Typesetting can be expensive and there’s a minimum charge. You may want to wait to get all your typesetting and printing done at the same time – letterhead, ad form, ad copy and any sales literature you may be preparing. Investigate ways to get by with the lease expense.

Establishing your own ad agency is so easy that the most important part is the form you send in when you place ads. Although there are no federal restrictions for in-house ad agencies, some publications may quibble. If your form looks as good as the rest, you’ll have no problems.

The following page is a representation of a sample ad order form. Just copy this form and have your company design or logo printed on top. You can choose a color paper to have the forms run off on – they’ll be more noticeable. Then all you do is send in a copy of the ocmpleted form with your check and final artwork for your ad – and claim a big discount for being your own agency.

Address

To the publisher of: __________________________________________________

Organization______________________________________________________

Your name_______________________________________________________

Address__________________________________________________________

City__________________________________State________Zip____________

Phone (____)_________________

Please mark your desired ad size in a box below:

q 1/3 page $30 (5.5” x 2.75”)

q 1/2 page $45 (5.5” x 4.25”)

economy is very inventive when it come to starting a new business, and doing it on a very frugal

budget is the the way to go. Over-head cost can be cut by starting your business at home, but what if your situation won’t allow you to use your home.

The primary reason businesses start at home, or with a meager P.O. Box is

because, renting an office can be very expensive.

On top of your basic rental, you will have to worry about buying and setting

up tables and chairs, and bother yourself with a lot of moving-in blues when

you should actually be concentrating on one thing: Making Money.

Therefore, for many start-ups, the kitchen table offers a “ready-to-go”

alternative which is also rent-free. But what if there’s an office “Cube”

with a desk, a phone, access to a copy machine, fax machine and computer?

What if it has a common secretary receptionist who can type your letter and

charge you only based on the amount of work done? What if this office were

to rent out at $200 a month? Would you take it?

INCUBATOR

Many profitable businesses are born and raised in incubator situations. A

mini office is just that – a slightly bigger mailbox where you can physically

show up and do your work.

It’s an ideal breeding ground for start-ups with limited capital, yet need

legitimate workspace that neither the kitchen or a mailbox can offer. This

is where you come in.

THE LAYOUT

Picture this mini office in a middlerange commercial location. The ideal

space for you to rent would be around 1,800 square feet. You can build

wall-to-wall cubicles that are about 5 x 5 each. Including common areas

and a small corner for your secreetary, computer, fax and copy machines, you can have

30 Cubes that can each rent out for $200 to $300 a month.

If all your cubes are rented out, this will give $6,000 to $9,000 in gross rental

revenues. If you can lease your space for around $0.75 per square foot, your

1,800 sqft space will cost you $1,350 a month.

Add to this the salary of the secretary, and your margin can still be at

around 50% of your gross rental revenue, or roughly $3000. In addition to

your rental revenues, you will also make money on copies, faxes and

secretarial functions.

BIGGER SPACES

The “office cube” concept can be applied to nearly any combination of size

and location and the extent of service you want to offer your tenants. In

this age of entrepreneurship, the one-person business is very common, so it

will not be difficult to find start-ups looking for an office situation like

yours.

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These are growing in popularity. They usually consist of short scenes of

important high school events, such as sports, clubs, candid “people scenes,”

still photo montages, and other memorable items for the students. A well-

edited hour-long video, dvd should be able to be sold for $35 to $80, depending

upon the editing complexity of the video and the size of the school.

The larger the school, the more you can expect to sell. You should first

contact the school administration with this idea. Put together a good

presentation for them, explaining your services and how your video yearbook

will work with the regular yearbook as an added remembrance. A good idea

is to offer to donate a portion, $2 for example, per tape sold to a school

fund or student-supported charity. After the administration, you will

probably need to speak to the school board, principals, and school yearbook

sponsors. This work will be worth it, though.

Try to include in your tape, from time to time, current events or subjects

which will remind the viewers about what was going on at the time they were

in school. One caution, though. Be careful about including copyrighted

items, such as popular songs, in your tape. You will need to get permission

from the copyright holders or risk legal action.

The best way to sell your dvd is to obtain permission to distribute a flyer to the

students in the school at the same time as the regular yearbook information is distributed.

Then, follow up later in the year, giving those who haven’t ordered yet another opportunity. Finally, give another chance at the end of the school year.

From time to time, go to the school and shoot material. Get sporting events,

clubs, quiz bowl tournaments, science fairs, special events, pep rallies,

ordinary day-to-day video, dvd and, of course, graduation. If you’re ambitious,

do a video yearbook for each class! That way, students can end their high

school years with a four-hd-dvd set, documenting that time of their lives from

start to finish!

DUBBING AND DUPLICATING

Here’s an easy service to offer. With a film-to-video transfer device,

commonly available for under $100, if you got VHS and a audio-video projector, you can put

customer’s old home movies on DVDs. There are a few different types

of transfer devices available. The best place to check would be your local

quality camera shop.

You should be able to charge around $20 per hour of film for this service.

A good idea is to add background music to the home movies. Copyright-free

music is widely available on CD. Check advertising and marketing magazines

such as Advertising Age for ads.

You can also offer a duplicating service for customer’s home videos, so

they can give relatives (or America’s Funniest Home Videos) a copy. You

can usually charge a flat fee for this service, depending upon the length of

the tape. Editing together still photos is also a good service to offer,

particularly to people who travel frequently.

There are many other areas just starting to be tapped _ video  on dvd resumes,

video postcards, even video wills. If you come up with a good original idea,

research the market for it. If you find a reasonable amount of people will

be interested in your new service, you may just have a winner on your hands!

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Ten years ago, businesses of this kind were serving only the affluent – homes of the wealthy people where women didn’t want to be bothered with the drudgery of house hold cleaning, and had the money to pay someone to do it for them. But times have changed,

and today the market includes many middle income families in every residential area across the entire country. The potential market among apartment dwellers is great also. All in all this is a business that has grown fast, and has as much real wealth building potential as any we can think of.

This is a cleaning service generally associated with women; however, men are finding that they can organize, start, and operate very profitable home and apartment cleaning businesses just as well as women. It’s an ideal business for any truly ambitious person wanting a business of his or her own, especially for those who must begin with limited funds. Actually, you can start this business right in your own neighborhood, using your own equipment, and begin making a profit from the first day.

Many enterprising homemakers are already doing this kind of work on a small scale as an extra income producing endeavor. There’s a growing need for this service. Organizing your efforts into a business producing $50,000 to $100,00 a year is quite pos

sible, and you can get started for $100 or so, always using your profits to expand and in crease your business.

Absolutely no experience is required. Everyone knows how to dust the furniture, vacuum carpets, make the beds and carry out the trash. But you must ask yourself if making a house clean and bright is important and uplifting work. If you look on it as

degrading or as drudgery, don’t involve yourself in this business.

Starting from scratch, you’ll need a telephone and an appointment book. You also need an advertising flyer, such as the following:

HOME OR APARTMENT CLEANING

We do the work – You relax and take it easy.

You get the best job in town, at rates you can

afford. Your satisfaction is always guaranteed!

For more details,

Call Sue: 123-4567 – ABC Cleaning Services!

You can either type this notice out or write it in long-hand with a pen. Either way, it’s going to be your first advertising endeavor, and bring in that first customer for you.

It would be a good idea to visit your stationery store to pick up a pad of “fade out” graph paper, a couple of sets of transfer (rub-on) letters, a gluestick, and if they have one, a Klip Art book.

Take these materials home and clear off your kitchen table. Take a sheet of graph paper, and temporarily tape the corners down on the table. Then take a pencil and a ruler, and mark a rectangle five inches wide by six inches long along the lines of the graph paper. This will be the overall size of your flyer when it’s finished.

Look for a Klip Art piece depicting a harried housewife engrossed with either cleaning tools or in the act of running a vacuum cleaner, or some other household chore. Cut this piece out, and with your gluestick paste it in the upper left-hand corner of your rectangle. Then take your transfer letters and make the headline: HOME OR CLEANING. Next, type out the body of the message on ordinary white typing paper. Be sure to use a relatively new ribbon, preferably a black carbon ribbon, and upper case letters. Cut this strip out, and paste it onto the graph paper, centered just below your headline. Then use some transfer letters that are about twice as large as your typewriter type, and paste up the action part of your message: For details, call Sue: 123-4567. Cut out a couple of border flourishes from your Klip Art book, paste them under your action line, and you’re ready to take it to the printer.

In essence, you have a professional advertising “billboard.” You can check around in your area, especially with the advertising classes at your local colleges, but generally they’ll do no better than you can do on your own, using the instructions we’ve just given you, and they’ll charge you $50 to $100.

Once you have this advertising flyer completed, take it to a nearby quick print shop and have about 200 copies printed. You should be able to get two copies on a standard 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, and running 100 sheets of paper through the press is going to cost well under $10. For just a few cents more, have the printer cut them in half with his machine cutter, so you will have 200 copies of the advertising flyer.

Now take these flyers, along with a box of thumbtacks, and put them up on all the free bulletin boards you can find – grocery stores, laundromats, beauty salons, office building lounges, cafeterias, post offices, and wherever else such announcements are allowed.

When a prospective customer calls, have your appointment book and a pencil handy. Be friendly and enthusiastic. Explain what you do – everything from changing the beds to vacuuming, dusting and polishing the furniture and cleaning the bathroom to the

dishes and the laundry. Or, everything except the dishes and the laundry – whatever you have decided on as your policy. When they ask how much you charge, simply tell them six to ten dollars an hour, but for a firm cost quote, you’ll need to see the home and

make a detailed estimate for them. Then without much of a pause, ask if 4:30 this afternoon would be convenient for them, or if 5:30 would be better. You must pointedly ask if you can come to make your cost proposal at a certain time, or the decision may be

put off, and you may come up with a “no sale.”

Just as soon as you have an agreement on the time to make you cost proposal and marked it in your appointment book, ask for name, address and telephone number.

Jot this information down on a 3 by 5 card, along with the date and the notation: Prospective Customer. Then you file this card in a permanent card file. Save these cards, because there are literally hundreds of ways to turn this prospect file into real cash, once you’ve accumulated a sizeable number of names, addresses and phone numbers.

When you go to see your prospect in person, always be on time. A couple of minutes early won’t hurt you, but a few minutes late will definitely be detrimental to your closing the sale. Always be well groomed. Dress as a successful business owner. Be confident and sure of yourself; be knowledgeable about what you can do as well as understanding of the prospect’s needs and wants. Do not smoke, even if invited by the prospect, and never accept a drink – even coffee – until after you have a signed contract in your briefcase.

Actually, once you’ve made the sale, the best thing is to shake hands with your new customer, thank him, and leave. A little small talk after the sale is appropriate, but becoming too friendly is not. You create an impression, and preserve it, by maintaining a business-like relation ship.

When you go to make your cost estimate, take along a ruled tablet such as those used by elementary school students, carbon paper, a calculator and your appointment book. Some people find it easier to work with a clipboard and ordinary blank paper with

carbon. Later on, you may want to have general checklists printed up for each room in the house, with blank lines or space for special instructions.

Whatever you use, it’s important to appear methodical, thorough and professional, while leading the prospect through the specifics he or she wants you to take care of: “Now, you want the carpet vacuumed and all the furniture dusted and those two end

tables, the coffee table and the piano polished as well, I assume?”

Simply identify the specific room at the top of the sheet of paper, then lead your prospect through the cleaning steps of each room, covering everything in it. Your implications of putting everything in “ready for company” shape will cause the customer to

forget about the cost, and hire you to do a complete job. Always have a carbon paper under each piece of paper you’re writing on, and always look around each room one more time before leaving it; then ask the prospect if he or she can think of any special instructions you should note for that room.

Finally, when you’ve gone through each room in the house with the prospect, come back to the kitchen and sit down at the table. Take out your calculator and add up the time you estimate each job in each room will take to complete. Total the time for each room.

Be liberal, thinking that if you can do the carpet job in 15 minutes, it will usually take the ordinary person 30 minutes. Convert the total minutes for each room into hours and tenths of hours per room. Add the totals for each room to arrive at your total hours to clean the entire house.

Talk with your customer briefly, wondering how she can ever find the time to get everything done at home, especially when holding down a full-time job. A little bit of small talk, a quick mental evaluation of the customer’s ability to pay, plus your knowledge that you can get everything done in four hours, instead of the six hours it would take most people, and you summarize by saying:

“Well, Mrs. Johnson, you’ve certainly got enough routine cleaning work to keep you busy all day every day of the week! I certainly don’t know how you do it, but any way, we’ll take this whole problem off your shoulders, save you time, and actually give

you time to relax. We can do it on a regular basis, every other week for $120 per month, or the one single time for $75.

“I can well imagine how tired you are when you get home from work. If you’re at all like me there are times when, faced with all this housework, you want to run away someplace and hide. Now, we’ll take care of everything for you – keep the house spic and

span, ready for company, allow you to forget about housecleaning chores, and for a lot less than it’s costing you now in time, work, and worry. And we guarantee that our work will more than satisfy you. So, would you like to try our cleaning service one time for $75 or do you want to save $15 a call and let us take over all these chores for you on a regular basis?” (These prices are just here to give an Idea)

Here you begin finding a place in your appointment book, and tell her: “Actually, I have an opening at 8:30 on Tuesday morning. We could come in every other Tuesday at 8:30, clean the whole house and have it done before you get home from work.”

The customer agrees that 8:30 on Tuesdays will be fine. Then you ask her if she prefers to be billed with the completion of each house cleaning session or on a regular monthly basis. Point out to her that by engaging you on a monthly basis , she picks up

a free house cleaning every three months.

Now that you have your first customer, you want to fill in every day of the week, each week of every month with regular jobs. Once you have one week of each month filled with regular jobs, it will be time for you to expand.

Expansion means growth, involving people working for you, more jobs to sell, and greater profits. Don’t let it frighten you, for you have gained experience by starting gradually. After all – your aim in starting a business of your own was to make money,

wasn’t it? And expanding means more helpers so you don’t have to work your self to death!

You can operate this business quite successfully from the comfort of your home, permanently, if you choose to. All you’ll ever need is a telephone, a desk, and a file cabinet.

So, just as soon as you possibly can, recruit and hire other people to do the work for you. The first people you hire should be people to handle the cleaning work. The best plan is to hire people to work in teams of two or three – two for jobs not including dishwashing and laundry – three for those that do.

You can start these people at minimum wage or a bit above, and train them to complete every job assignment in two hours or less. Just as soon as you’ve hired and trained a couple of people as a cleaning team, you should outfit them in a kind of uniform with your company name on the back of their blouses or shirts. A good idea also would be to have magnetic signs made for your company and services. Place these signs on the sides of the cars your people use for transportation to each job, and later on, the sides

of your company van or pick-up trucks.

Each team should have an appointed team leader responsible for the quality and over all completeness of each job assigned to that team. The team might operate thus: One person cleans the bathroom, makes the beds, and carries out the laundry , while the

other person dusts and polishes the furniture and does the vacuuming. On jobs where you do the laundry and the dishes, the third person can pick up the laundry and get that started, and then do the dishes and clean the kitchen. By operating in this manner, your work will be more efficient and the complete job will take a lot less time. However, it is important that each person you hire understand that the success of the business depends on the “crew” doing as many complete jobs as they can handle each day – not on how much they get paid per hour working for you.

Your team leaders will check with you each afternoon for the next day’s work assignments and gather the team together, complete with cleaning equipment and material, on the next day. Your team leader should be supplied with a stack of “hand-out” advertising flyers to pass around the neighborhood or within the apartment building before leaving each job site. A good supply of business cards wouldn’t be a bad idea for them either, in order to advertise your services to others they come in contact with.  Run a small ad in your home Town newspaper and with the internet gaining on local advertising you could advertise in your online business directory, city guide and local online classifieds and get more bang for your dollars

 The only other form of advertising you should go with would be a display ad in the yellow pages of your telephone directory.

Design on paper a system of clean-up operation that can generally be applied to any situation, then drill your teams on speeding up their activities to make the system work even better. Just as firemen practice and practice, you should drill your people as a team in their cleaning activities.

Probably the biggest time-waster in this business will be in the travel from job to job. For this reason, it’s important to spread advertising circulars to the neighboring homes when you’re doing a job, or to the apartments on the same floor when you’re in

an apartment building. As the organizer, and person assigning teams to jobs, it will behoove you to locate, line up, and assign jobs as close together as possible. Keep up efforts to cut the time it takes for your crews to travel from one job to the next. Work at lining up jobs all in one block, or in one apartment building.

Your equipment needs will really be minimal: Cleaning and polishing rags, mops, a couple of plastic buckets, and furniture polishes. Most people will have the necessary cleaning materials, including vacuum cleaner, soaps and cleansers. But it wouldn’t hurt to have these items available just in case you get a job in a home or an apartment without these tools. As your business grows, you’ll be able to purchase all your needs at huge discounts, and these are the sources of supply to cultivate as you grow.

One of the most important aspects of this business is asking for, and allowing your customers to refer other prospects to you. All of this happens, of course, as a result of your giving fast, dependable service. You might even set up a promotional notice on the back of your business card (to be left as each job is completed) offering five dollars off their next cleaning bill when they refer you to a new prospect.

This is definitely a high profit business, requiring only an investment of time and organization on your part to get started. With a low investment, little or no over head requirement, and no experience needed, this is an ideal business opportunity with a growth curve that accelerates at an unprecedented rate. Think about it. If it appeals to you, set up your own plan of operations and go for it! The profit potential for an owner of this type of business is outstanding!.

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your newspaper. What do you see EVERY day? Coupons. It seems like coupons

multiply like rabbits. Why? Prices are rising, unlike a majority of

people’s incomes.

Coupons only make good financial sense. But what if you discovered that

someone’s making money from coupons? They are, and so can you, by selling

a special type of coupon.

Manufacturers use coupons primarily to attract new customers. The money

savings entice people to try products they might otherwise not have. The

same can be true of  local businesses in your area. Sure, they put coupons

in their newspaper ads.

But you can give them the opportunity to get their coupons into the hands of the

exact customers they need, and at a far better price than the local newspaper.

You can produce a Local Business Coupon Book easily, inexpensively, and profitably, i

f you follow the steps outlined here.

The first step in running a successful coupon publishing business is to

find the businesses that will advertise with you. Any business that relies

on local advertising is a good prospect.

Here is a short list of businesses you should consider:

Theaters;

Hair Salons;

Fast Food Restaurants;

Record

and CD Stores;

Dry Cleaners;

Supermarkets;

Car Washes;

Muffler Shops;

Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt Shops.

Basically, any store that could reasonably use a coupon to draw in new customers is a prospect.

You may want to specialize in one area, such as fast food restaurants. Or, cover the whole gamut. Look through your phone book for businesses you might not have

thought of.

When you approach these businesses, target a group within a five mile

radius. It will be more time-efficient for you, and you can use the area

grouping in your sales pitch. Stress the fact that around 80 percent of

their business will come from that five mile radius. Tell them that you

plan to distribute the coupon book within that radius, so it will draw the

best results.

To be really profitable, you should get at least 15 – 25 businesses in the

book. The more, the better.

How much to charge? That depends on how many books you will be distributing, and what your costs are. One coupon book producer charged $100 for a coupon going to 1,000 people in an eight mile radius. His total cost was $300, and he sold 11 businesses coupons. This gave him an $800 profit in one week!

The second step is to create the coupons. If you have a computer, the job

of designing the coupons can be quite easy with some of the word processor/

graphics packages available. If not, talk to your printer. He or she will

more than likely have some ready-made templates for coupons. You can just

fill in the blanks.

Be sure to put YOUR business name on the coupon (in small print, so it

doesn’t distract). Subconsciously, people will remember your business name

and associate it with saving money. In any case, you will need to put the

advertising business’ name, address, phone, logo (if any, many businesses

will have them ready made for you to use), the amount of the discount, any

conditions they may have, and an expiration date. Your printer can help you

with the layout, if you are inexperienced, or you can find easy to use

layout boards at an office supply or art store.

Assembling the coupon books can be done in a number of ways. The easiest,

and recommended, way to start is by simply stapling them together. Only

one staple will be necessary, on the left side of the stack of coupons.

Make a cover coupon with your business name and the name you’ve chosen for

the coupon book. Put that on top of the stack before you staple. Other

methods are perforating/padding, and perforating/perfect binding. Your

printer should be able to provide pricing information on these and other

binding methods.

The third step is distributing. You have already identified the radius

within which you will distribute your coupon books. There are two methods

of delivery you can use. You can either deliver them by car or foot, or

you can bulk mail them.

Bulk mailing is infinitely easier and more efficient, but requires a bit of

paperwork and registration fees. If you are delivering in one zip code

area, you can use either five digit presort mailing, or carrier route

presort mailing.

You should check with your postmaster regarding rules and fees. As soon as

you have mailed the coupons, deliver a copy of the coupon book to each

business that has advertised in it, so they know that customers will now

be bringing them in.

The fourth and final step is follow up. You need to know how your coupon

books are doing. Ask the businesses that advertise in your book to write

the amount purchased by the coupon-bearing customer on the back of the

coupon, and to hold them for you.

Stop by at least once a week and pick up the redeemed coupons. Besides

giving you purchase totals that you can refer to in future sales to new

customers, this also gives you a chance to talk to the businesses about

purchasing coupons in new books. You can show them right then and there

the results they have gotten, and they should be enthusiastic about signing

back on.

It is important to maintain a good relationship with the businesses who

advertise with you. Show them that you are committed to helping them

increase their business. If you care, so will they. This is a fun

business that can be started part-time, and can easily move to full-time.

Remember the man who cleared $800 his first week in this business. He was

just starting out, and you can do that, too!

Garner NC City Guide Business Directory

Now is the ideal time to get started with your own Video Taping Service. Purchasing and learning how to operate, as well as maintain the necessary equipment is easy. The technological improvements built into the equipment, and the operating pro-

cedures have been so simplified that almost anyone with the ability to read, can study a video instruction manual for a couple of hours and immediately produce professional quality, highly marketable video tapes. Without a doubt, video tape technology has replaced Super 8 home movies as the most-desired memory-saving system.

One- and two-person video taping services around the country are reporting gross earnings of $50,000 to $100,000 per year. One operation we looked into, reported an in come figure of $800,000 during the preceding 12-month period. They were accepting taping jobs from all quarters and keeping 4-hired teams busy.

Marketing imagination, organization, and attention to detail are the keys to success in operating this business. Ideas and requests for new things or events to tape and pre serve for later playback/viewing, are coming in faster than one can list. Then, there are so many things to remember and minor details to take care of, that the only way to operate successfully is with a series of checklists… for the person selling the service as well as the man or woman on the recording camera.

But don’t let mentioning of details to remember, scare you off. On the contrary, you’ll find video equipment easy and inexpensive to practice on, especially when compared to attaining a comparable degree of expertise with film. You can use the same tape over and over again, and this is definitely a business where the phrase “practice leads to perfection,” applies without qualifications or reservations.

To start a video taping service, you’ll need a video “porta-pack” recorder, and at least a half dozen tapes or sd mmc cards Check around in your area. Start by “reading up” on all the available equipment used for video taping. A trip to your public library and a few hours browsing through the periodicals on video equipment should give you added interest and a basic indoctrination. Next, check out the suppliers listed in the Garner NC City Guide online  directory. A few phone calls to those places listed, plus a few in-personal visits, should supply you with enough catalogs and “idea material” to keep you plenty busy for a week or more. These elementary learning steps are necessary as the foundation of your

business.

You should be able to buy a good quality video Cam recorder for about $350, with blank tapes for $20 or less and SD Cards from $15 to $80.   When you buy, always dicker with the dealer – explaining to him that you’re in the process of establishing a video taping service, and

if he will include a supply of tapes with the recorder, or at least give you an especially good price on them, you’ll probably buy all your tapes from him. It may not be your regular way of buying things, but when you’re starting a business, every dollar counts, so always shop around for the best prices.

Once you have your video recorder, take it home and start practicing with it. Think of yourself as being on a job for a homeowner or an insurance company, taking a photographic inventory of the house and/or the occupant’s possessions. Practice by

making a tape record of your own household furnishings. Make a tape, then play it back and critique your work. Then do it again, and again, until you have a tape you can use in sales presentations to homeowners and insurance companies. Video tape recordings of this kind are becoming extremely popular with homeowners and insurance companies alike.

Then, look through your weekend newspaper and make a note of the girls announcing wedding dates. Open your telephone directory and call these girls on the phone. Ask them if they’d mind if you came to their wedding and made a video tape of it, without any obligation to them of course.

So you go to the wedding, introduce yourself and practice making a video tape of the wedding ceremony. Take the tape home and critique it. Keep this up until you have a tape you’re reasonably proud of, and then call the bride. Ask to come over and let her see the tape. Explain to her that you’re just getting started in the business, and you simply want her comments and suggestions. Chances are, when she sees the tape, she’ll want to

buy it.

While you’re in this learning phase of your new business, visit an apartment building and arrange with the manager to make a video tape of her showing the apartment to you as a potential renter. Contact a couple of property management and real estate firms, and do the same thing with condominiums and houses for sale.

You might want to listen in on the police radio frequency, and make tapes of auto accidents, particularly those involving injuries. Another idea might be the taping of golfers practicing at the local driving ranges. Other ideas include any kind of sports practice session, birthday parties, special anniversaries, baptisms, bar mitzvah’s, publicity stories, sales presentations, and “fireside chats” by company presidents or general managers.

These are just a few idea suggestions you might want to pursue. You may find a certain kind of video taping assignment especially enjoyable and want to specialize in that area. Or you may want to leave the door open for any kind of assignment and handle each as the opportunity presents itself.

Whatever you decide, there are a few “sure success” points to keep in mind as you begin to sell your services. Remember, the idea of having a video Cam corder  in one’s home, is gaining in popularity every day. There are already some 8-million video Cam recorders in American Homes, with an estimated 100,000 being sold to new customers every month. Further estimates indicate that by 2008, at ]east one half of all U.S. households will own either a videocassette recorder, Digital Cam Recorder, DVD or a videodisc player. All of this means your market is growing and is expected to continue growing through the end of this decade.

Virtually everyone would like to see himself as a star in a home movie. Thus, when you show him a video tape of himself in the starring role, he’ll either buy the tape on the spot or want you to make a similar tape for him. Regardless of false modesty, everyone likes to show pictures of himself, and explain to his friends the different highlights of his or her life. With this understanding about your prospect in mind when you make a sales presentation, your closing rate should be quite close to 100 percent.

The best way to sell your services is to run a regular ad in your area newspapers. Such an ad might be similar to this one:

VIDEO TAPING SERVICES…

Whatever your idea or assignment, we can handle it for you! No job too large or too small! We’re experts at taping weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties and other special occasions. Commercial assignments also welcomed. Your satisfaction is guaranteed, so give us a call – 123-4567, right now!

When you receive calls in response to this ad, your objective will be two-fold: Find out what kind of taping job they have in mind, and set up an appointment to show them an example of the kinds of tapes you can produce for them. Show them an example of your work. Once you’ve met with them, and sown them a demonstration tape, you should have the sale in your pocket.

Never meet with a prospect in a selling situation without some sort of demonstration tape to show him. Try to match the tape you show them, as closely to their wants and needs as possible. Wedding tapes you have made for prospective wedding clients, and shots of golf practice or instruction to golfing prospects.

Besides an ad in the newspapers, online directories, online classifieds ads and the yellow pages of your telephone directory, make copies of the ad and get it up on the bulletin boards in your market area. Send news and publicity releases to all the media in your area, definitely whenever you’ve got an unusual or special kind of assignment.

Have some impressive business cards printed, and hand them out to whomever, and as often as you can. The slogan on your business card might read: Have Video Cam Recorder – Available for ANY kind of assignment – You name it and I’ll tape it…

Radio and/or television advertising will probably be more expensive than the resulting job assignments will sustain, so be very cautious when considering this type of advertising. However, it will very definitely be advantageous for you to pursue guest in

ter views on just about any kind of broadcast talk show. Talk show appearances and free write-ups about your business in your local newspapers are promotional angles to reach for at every opportunity. Always be on the lookout for promotional ideas and gimmicks that will result in area-wide publicity for your services.

The bottom line is simply this: Don’t be adverse to creating a story or set of circumstances if it results in a talk show appearance or newspaper write-up for you.

How much should you charge for your services? Basically, the going rate in most large metropolitan areas is about $5O per hour you spend on the assignment. Thus, you’re going to have to learn to estimate pretty accurately just how long each job is going to take you to produce a quality recording. It’s always a good idea to check out what other video taping services in your area, or in a comparably sized city in your neighboring states are charging. Newsletters and trade publications serving businesses of this type are available, however, we don’t know of any that have attained national prominence as of the date of this report. Check with your equipment supplier on any that he might know of…

Success with a business of this kind does not require an office set-up or any special education or training. You can start it on a part-time basis from your home, and parlay it into a full time, very high profit profession. The prestige this business will afford you is similar to that of a doctor.

Starting with a young couple’s wedding, if you follow up on each sale properly, you’ll probably end up making tapes for the birthdays of each of their children, school graduations, anniversaries, more birthdays, family histories, last wills & testaments, and into a whole new cycle with each generation.

You will need imagination, an affinity for people and selling moxie. Imagination is important because in many instances, you’ll have to suggest an idea for your taping services. Although just about everybody would like to have a taped record of some event or part of their life to pass along to future generations of their family, most will not be able to decide what to tape until you suggest something to them. You’ll also find that almost no one is aware of even half your capabilities until you make suggestions.

Taking pictures of people requires an ability to get along well with people – get them to relax, and immediately feel comfortable in your presence. You’ve got to be persuasive while exercising a great deal of tact and diplomacy. Make friends easily and quickly. Be aware of, and understanding of wants, desires and ambitions.

Actually, selling and getting along with people, are almost synonymous. Life is an on-going program of selling yourself to achieve your own wants and ambitions. Read a few good books on the art of selling, such as: HOW TO SELL YOURSELF by Steve Girard; and HOW TO SELL ANYTHING TO ANYBODY by Tom Hopkins. Remember, selling is really just a matter or recognizing someone’s needs and then satisfying those needs with a product or service.

Your customers will automatically accept it as fact, that you have the professional knowledge and equipment to fulfill their needs. All you have to do is reassure them, listen to their reasons for these needs, and in closing the sale, become a good friend to them.

And that’s it – the plan that can enable you to get started with your own Video Taping Service. By following our suggestions, and with a bit of energy as well as persistence, you should be able to begin with very little start-up investment and quickly

begin to realize the fruits of your own profitable business.

If you have any questions, or run into special problems, please feel free to call me or drop me a line. Having laid it all out for you, the rest is up to you – Your future is in your own hands…this ad, your objective will be two-fold:

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A very important rule of the game to learn: Anytime you want to raise money, your first move should be to put together a proper prospectus.

This prospectus should include a resume of your background, your education, training, experience and any other personal qualities that might be counted as an asset to your potential success. It’s also a good idea to list the various loans you’ve had in the past, what they were for, and your history in paying them off.

You’ll have to explain in detail how the money you want is going to be used. If it’s for an existing business, you’ll need a profit and loss record for at least the preceding six months, and a plan showing how this additional money will produce greater profits. If it’s a new business, you’ll have to show your proposed business plan, your marketing research and projected costs, as well as anticipated income figures, with a summary for each year, over at least a three year period.

It’ll be advantageous to you to base your cost estimates high, and your income projections on minimal returns. This will enable you to “ride thru” those extreme “ups and downs” inherent in any beginning business. You should also describe what makes your

business unique – how it differs from your competition, and the opportunities for expansion or secondary products.

This prospectus will have to state precisely what you’re offering the investor in return for the use of his money. He’ll want to know the percentage of interest you’re willing to pay, and whether monthly, quarterly or on an annual basis. Are you offering a certain percentage of the profits? A percentage of the business? A seat on your board of directors?

An investor uses his money to make more money. He wants to make as much as he can, regardless whether it’s a short term or long term deal. In order to attract him, interest him, and persuade him to “put up” the money you need, you’ll not only have to offer him an opportunity for big profits, but you’ll have to spell it out in detail, and further, back up your claims with proof from your marketing research.

Venture investors are usually quite familiar with “high risk” proposals, yet they all want to minimize that risk as much as possible. Therefore, your prospectus should include a listing of your business and personal assets with documentation – usually copies of your tax returns for the past three years or more. Your prospective investor may not know anything about you or your business, but if he wants to know, he can pick up his telephone and know everything there is to know within 24 hours. The point here is, don’t ever try to “con” a potential investor. Be honest with him. Lay all the facts on the table for him. In most cases, if you’ve got a good idea and you’ve done your homework properly, an “interested investor” will understand your position and offer more help than you dared to ask.

When you have your prospectus prepared, know how much money you want, exactly how it will be used, and how you intend to repay it, you’re ready to start looking for investors.

As simple as it seems, one of the easiest ways of raising money is by advertising in a newspaper, online business directories or a national publication featuring such ads. Your ad should state the amount of money you want – always ask for more money than you need so you have room

for negotiating. Your ad should also state the type of business involved (to separate the curious from the truly interested), and the kind of return you’re promising on the investment.

Take a page from the party plan merchandisers. Set up a party and invite your friends over. Explain your business plan, the profit potentials, and how much you need. Give them each a copy of your prospectus and ask that they pledge a thousand dollars as

a non-participating partner in your business. Check with the current tax regulations. You may be allowed up to 25 partners in Sub Chapter 5 enterprises, opening the door for anyone to gather a group of friends around himself with something to offer them in return for their assistance in capitalizing his business.

You can also issue and sell up to $300,000 worth of stock in your company with out going through the Federal Trade Commission. You’ll need the help of an attorney to do this, however, and of course a good tax accountant as well wouldn’t hurt.

It’s always a good idea to have an attorney and an accountant help you make up your business prospectus. As you explain your plan to them, and ask for their advice, casually ask them if they’d mind letting you know of, or steer your way any potential investors they might happen to meet. Do the same with your banker. Give him a copy of your prospectus and ask him if he’d look it over and offer any suggestions for improving it, and of course, let you know of any potential investors. In either case, it’s always a good idea to let them know you’re willing to pay a “finder’s fee” if you can be directed to the right investor.

Professional people such as doctors and dentists are known to have a tendency to join occupational investment groups. The next time you talk with your doctor or dentist, give him a prospectus and explain your plan. He may want to invest on his own or

perhaps set up an appointment for you to talk with the manager of his investment group. Either way, you win because when you’re looking for money, it’s essential that you get the word out to as many potential investors as possible.

Don’t overlook the possibilities of the Small Business Investment Companies in your area. Look them up in your telephone book under “Investment Services.” These companies exist for the sole purpose of lending money to businesses which they feel have a good chance of making money. In many instances, they trade their help for a small interest in your company.

Many states have Business Development Commissions whose goal is to assist in the establishment and growth of new businesses. Not only do they offer favorable taxes and business expertise, most also offer money or facilities to help a new business get

started. Your Chamber of Commerce is the place to check for further information on this idea.

Industrial banks are usually much more amenable to making business loans than regular banks, so be sure to check out these institutions in your area. Insurance companies are prime sources of long term business capital, but each company varies its policies regarding the type of business it will consider. Check your local agent for the name and address of the person to contact. It’s also quite possible to get the directors of an other company to invest in your business. Look for a company that can benefit from your product or service. Also, be sure to check at your public library for available foundation grants. These can be the final answer to all your money needs if your business is perceived to be related to the objectives and activities of the foundation.

Finally, there’s the Money Broker or Finder. These are the people who take your prospectus and circulate it with various known lenders or investors. They always require an up-front or retainer fee, and there’s no way they can guarantee to get you the loan or the money you want.

There are many very good money brokers, and there are some that are not so good. They all take a percentage of the gross amount that’s finally procured for your needs. The important thing is to check them out fully; find out about the successful loans or investment plans they’ve arranged, and what kind of investor contacts they have – all of this before you put up any front money or pay any retainer fees.

There are many ways to raise money – from staging garage sales to selling stocks. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the only place you can find the money you need is through the bank or finance company.

Start thinking about the idea of inviting investors to share in your business as silent partners. Think about the idea of obtaining financing for a primary business by arranging financing for another business that will support the start-up, establishment and development of the primary business. Consider the feasibility of merging with a company that’s already organized, and with facilities that are compatible or related to your needs. Give some thought to the possibilities of getting the people supplying your production equipment to co-sign the loan you need for start-up capital.

Remember, there are thousands upon thousands of ways to obtain business start-up capital. This is truly the age of creative financing.

Disregard the stories you hear of “tight money,” and start making phone calls, talking to people, and making appointments to discuss your plans with the people who have money to invest. There’s more money now than there’s ever been for new business

investment. The problem is that most beginning “business builders” don’t know what to believe or which way to turn for help. They tend to believe the stories of “tight money,” and they set aside their plans for a business of their own until a time when start-up money might be easier to find.

The truth is this: Now is the time to make your move. Now is the time to act. The person with a truly viable business plan, and determination to succeed, will make use of every possible idea that can be imagined. And the ideas I’ve suggested here should serve as just a few of the unlimited sources of monetary help available and waiting for you!your banker. Give him a copy of your prospectus and ask him if he’d look it over

You should consider the SBA for help in your business venture

This link above is in North Carilina, but you can find one near you.

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