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.