One of the easiest of all businesses to
establish, publishing
shopping
center papers-- CAN MAKE you very rich--almost as fast
as
finding gold, or inheriting an oil well.
Revenue and profits come from two main
sources: The businesses
in
the shopping center your paper serves, and the people reading
the
paper. It doesn't matter that there's already a "Shopper's
Paper"
in your area, or that you know nothing about the
publishing
business and don't own a printing press.
The first thing is to understand the specific
needs of your
market.
The stores, shops and businesses in the downtown area
advertise
to reach all the people, and thus, they're hurting from
the
competition of similar stores, shops and businesses in the
neighborhood
shopping centers closer to where the people actually
live.
Yet, these shopping center stores, shops and businesses
ONLY
SERVE CUSTOMERS LIVING WITHIN A 5-MILE RADIUS OF THEIR
BUSINESS
LOCATION!
So, the thing to do is organize a plan, and
then work that
plan.
Contact the store owners or managers of the stores in each
shopping
center in your area.
You can include stores or shops and
businesses not in the
shopping
center itself, but clustered within the same immediate
area.
However, it's important that your emphasis be placed on the
individuality
of each shopping center.
Explain to each of these business people that
you're starting a
"shoppers
paper" that will carry advertising only for businesses
in
that particular shopping center. With this kind of "local
advertising
media," the competition, nor have to bear the
advertising
costs of city-wide circulation.
The second selling point in your distribution
or circulation
system.
Take a section of your city street map; draw a 5-mile
circle
around each shopping center; then take it to your local
quick
print shop, and have him give you several printed copies
blown
up to twice the original size.
Then as you're selling each business owner,
show him the
shopping
center location on your map with the 5-mile circle
around
it. Explain that your door-to-door distributors leave a
copy
at each home or apartment within that circle only. This
means
you'll have to estimate how many homes or apartments are
within
each shopping center's customer circle.
Getting your papers out to all of these homes
and apartments
needn't
be that big a problem. Simply talk with the 7th and 8th
grade
counselors at the schools within the service circle.
Arrange
to pay the counselors $15 per thousand papers delivered
for
you. The idea is to get the counselors to line up the
students
to do the delivering for you, and pay them a percentage
of
the total you give him. The same plan can be worked with boy
scout
and/or girl scout troops. You might even contact the youth
organizations
at the churches within the service circle, and
propose
your delivery operation as a fund-raising project.
At the bottom line, the businesses gathered
in or near each
shopping
center will buy advertising space in your paper because
your
rates will be cheaper; you'll be carrying advertising for a
specific
location only; and your distribution will be direct to
their
customers only.
You can begin, and handle all phases of your
business operation
single-handedly,
but after the first couple of editions, you'll
make
much more money by hiring others to do the selling for you.
Simply
run an ad in your weekend newspapers, promising big
incomes
to commission type advertising sales people. Word your ad
so
that those interested call you on the phone.
When they call --get their name, address and
phone number. Then
explain
that you're looking for just a few top-notch go-getters
who
can handle several thousand dollars a week in advertising
commissions
from individual merchants located in neighborhood
shopping
centers. Ask them to tell you a little bit about
themselves,
and then invite them to get acquainted meeting in the
banquet
or meeting room you've reserved in a local restaurant or
motel.
Give them the time, and date, then tell them you'll see
them
at the meeting.
As the meeting, show them a prototype or
dummy of one of your
papers.
Tell them they'll each be assigned a territory that
includes
3-shopping centers. You then explain/teach them the
reasons
why there's big money in shopping center papers just as
I've
explained to you.
Explain your advertising rates---$10 per
column inch for a
press
run/circulation of 5,000; $15 for 10,000 and/or $20 for
15,000
copies distributed---and that you pay 50% for each sale.
Each paper has room for $1,400 worth of
advertising as a single
8
1/2 by 11 sheet printed on both sides; double that for an 11 by
17
sheet folded in half; or 4-times that much as two 11 by 17
sheets.
Multiply the salesman's commission of &700 per paper
times
three for each of them to make $2,100 per week--assuming
that
you publish your papers on a weekly schedule.
Remember, your basic idea should be to create
an individual
"shoppers
paper" for as many different shopping centers as
possible.
Because of the closeness of prospective advertisers in
a
shopping center, a good salesman will be able to sign all the
stores
in at least three different shopping centers in a week.
Once you've explained the marketing
philosophy behind your
papers,
and the money potentials available, you should have all
the
eager salesmen you care to sign on. Remember, each sales
person
is assigned 3-different shopping centers--you give him a
dummy
of your paper for each of his shopping centers, with the
space
availabilities marked--send him out to fill those spaces
with
paid advertisers--and you'll both be home free!
Whenever possible, ask for and get your money
up-front or at
the
time of the sale. In many instances, this won't be possible,
so
you'll need some sort of standard contract. A short visit to
your
local community college advertising department, or your
local
public library for a look at a few instruction books on how
to
draw up a space advertising contract, will give you a form to
copy
and use as your own. Billing your advertisers at the end of
30-days
will bring in lots of sales, but it will also require a
bookkeeper/secretary
and statements as well as letterhead
envelopes
and postage.
Allowing your advertisers to buy now and pay
later will also
require
that you allow your salesmen to "draw" against the
commission
they have coming. This too will present some special
problems,
namely a need for operating capital. Most of the time
you'll
be able to sell or factor your accounts receivable for
about
80% of the total due. When you do this, you'll be giving up
another
20% of your gross income, but you will have immediate
cash
available. The thing you must do is weigh your operating
costs
against the overall benefits and make your decision based
upon
these factors.
The design, layout and production of your
paper should be quite
simple.
Visit a local stationary and/or office supplies
store---pick
up a blue printers pencil, some larger transfer
(rub-on)
letters (either 60-point or 72 point size should be
sufficient
for your needs), and also--pick up a pad of "fade out"
graph
paper and a roll or two of border tape.
Use the rub-on letters to print or write the
masthead or title
of
each of your shopping center's papers at the top of the graph
paper.
With your border tape and razor blade, make a U-shaped
frame
around the page, a half inch in from the outside edge of
the
paper.
If you're getting started from your
"kitchen table," and using
a
typewriter, make sure your type is "elite" or the small type.
Now,
measure the inside of your frame from the bottom of your
masthead
to the top of your border tape at the bottom of your
frame;
and from side to side, measuring from the inside edges of
your
border tape along the sides. You should end up with a space
9
1/2 inches deep by 7 1/2 inches wide.
Take these measurements to your local print
shop and ask them
for
the dimensions of a space 30% larger. This should amount to a
space
10 3/4 by 13 1/2 inches--so ask him for some 11 by 14 inch
paper.
Scrap paper that has a clean backside will do quite
nicely.
With your blue pencil, lay out a frame 10 3/4
by 13 1/2
inches--then
divide the 10 3/4 width into seven equal columns.
Run
the paper into your typewriter and type out the classified
ads
you have set. If you have a camera ready ad that's too large
for
your regular column dimensions, paste it into position on
this
sheet. When you have this page all "written" or pasted up,
take
it to your printer and have him reduce it to 70 % of its
current
size and run off a couple of copies for you. Cut out this
reduced
copy and paste it inside your master frame, add any
proper
sized camera ready ads and you're ready to take your paper
to
press.
Almost all shopping center papers start out
as one page
circulars
printed on both sides, and put together on the "kitchen
table"
as I've described here. Working alone and trying to start
from
scratch, you probably won't have all your available space
sold
when you go to press. If this is the way it works out for
you,
simply fill in the empty spaces with ads of your own.
Promotional ads inviting people to call you,
for example, for
ad
rate information, and to place their ads.
Also, some of your better mail order offers.
In order to give
the
impression of lots of ads from lots of different people,
enlist
the help of your relatives and friends--allow them to
advertise
a For Sale or Trade item free. It's important that you
seemingly
have ads from a lot of different people with lots of
different
phone numbers and/or addresses listed.
For these classified ads, you should charge
$1 per line, and
hence,
the name "dollar Papers." Don't forget, your second source
of
income will be garnered from people who have seen or read your
paper,
and place ads of their own as result.
Once you've got separate pages--a front and a
back--for your
first
paper ready, simply take it to your quick-print shop and
have
run off the number of copies you've promised to circulate
for
your advertisers. Have him print it on yellow or orange 20
pound
bond, or even recycled construction paper.
Until you really get rolling, you can hire a
couple of kids to
hand
out your papers to everyone as they drive into the shopping
center
parking lot, drop off a stack for check-out stand
giveaways
at each store or shop in the shopping center, and/or
persuade
a couple of newspaper carriers to include one with each
newspaper
they deliver. Another fast hand-out method is to hire a
student
to give one to each bus rider as he gets off the bus at
busy
"park and ride" locations.
As your shopping center papers become known,
you take on sales
people
to do the selling for you; when you have more space to
handle
the requests for advertising space, contact a larger
printer
who works with web presses and news-print paper. Look
around,
and you'll find one who'll handle all your typesetting,
layout,
printing and even bulk delivery to your distribution
pick-up
points. Expanding to tabloid production will lower your
production
costs, give you greater efficiency and result in more
profits
for your business.
Where there is really tough competition, many
publishers of
Shopping
center Papers include stories about the shopping
center---what
the land was used for before it was developed as a
shopping
center---profiles on the different store owners, where
they're
from and what they did before opening their store or
shop---and
news of community interest within the customer circle.
Many
increase their incomes by running mail order opportunity ads
from
dealers in all parts of the country.
Basically, shopping center paper is the same
as a mail order ad
sheet.
The big difference is that it serves as an advertising
showcase
for a small circle of merchants in a specific area, and
is
circulated among the people most likely to do their shopping
in
that specific small circle of merchants; each circle has a
need
for an advertising showcase of its own, and it will be to
your
benefit to turn away advertising requests from merchants
outside
that circle.
The only advertising you'll have to do is via
the quality and
image
you project with each issue or edition of your papers.
There
are a number of popularity-building promotions you can, and
should
run: Free ads for baby sitting and/or child care services;
$100
worth of free groceries if the shopper spots his picture or
name
in your paper; and free merchandise or service for solving
picture
puzzles. Don't look for much free publicity or help from
newspapers,
radio and/ or TV stations in your area--at least, not
until
you're very well established, because you are in direct
competition
with them.
As mentioned earlier, this is an easy
business to organize,
requires
no special education or training, and will pretty much
perpetuate
itself once you're beyond the start-up stages. The
important
thing of course, is the opportunity for at least one
such
paper in even the smallest communities. The profit potential
in
even small to medium-sized cities is almost beyond belief...
You have an idea, and I've provided the
organizational details
to
make it work for you--- it's working very profitably for a lot
of
entrepreneurs in a number of locations around the
country---the
only thing missing now, is action on your part. get
with
it, and start enjoying the fruits of your own success!
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