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.