At the shop of each patron he left twelve sharp blades, taking twelve dull ones in their place and collecting $1.20, so that his first month’s receipts from fifty shops amounted to $60. In three months he had his entire investment back, and after that his $60 a month was all profit, but by doubling the number of his patrons he doubled his net income, and so on in proportion to the increase in the number of his orders. All the dull blades collected were re-sharpened and taken to his customers in exchange for more dull ones each month.
He also made considerable money through supplying his customers with new saw frames, knives, steels, etc., and in a few months had built up a profitable business of his own.
PLAN No. 110. SELLING FLAGS BY MAIL
A patriotic young lady in the East, realizing that many people do not have a flag, when every home should possess one or more of these emblems of liberty, decided upon a plan by which she believed she could supply this need, and do so at a neat profit to herself, especially as there are national holidays requiring the flying of the colors almost every month in the year.
She wrote an eastern manufacturer, asking the lowest wholesale prices on flags of all sizes and materials, together with collapsible flag-poles that can be sent by parcel post, rope holder, etc., all packed in a neat box and shipped direct from the factory to such patrons as she might secure in her city and neighborhood, leaving her nothing to do but to get the orders.
The prices quoted being satisfactory, she prepared a circular letter, to be sent to those who answered a small ad. in the local paper offering flags for sale at extremely moderate prices, and several hundred of these, tactfully written in a patriotic vein, were mailed out all over the country, giving full description, quoting prices, etc. In response many orders for flags were received, and these she sent, with the wholesale price of each, to the manufacturer, who shipped the complete outfit direct to the customer, under the young lady’s own label. This plan was successful, not only in furthering a good and patriotic cause, but brought her a neat sum in the way of profits.
PLAN No. 111. FREE MOVIES FOR CHILDREN
Nothing else you can offer a child appeals so strongly as does a free ticket to a motion picture theatre, and when you offer a dozen or more of these free tickets for a few hours’ work children will almost go through fire and water to get them.
A Portland man who had been a boy himself—long before the day of the movies—having made up a large amount of an exceptionally good silver polish, for which he had not found a very ready sale, concluded to let the boys and girls of the smaller towns sell it for him, and believed that free tickets to the motion-picture theatres would prove the most acceptable of all premiums to offer them for their activities.
He advertised in a number of small-town papers, asking for the names of all children who would like to see the movies free of charge, and received so many names that it was only a matter of selection from the great number replying.