Introduction
There's
nothing so powerful as a recession to convince people
that
perhaps the very best way to protect themselves against the
ravages
of future downturns in the economy is to set up in
business
for themselves. This might not offset the chances of a
lower
income as customers cut back on their spending when times
are
hard, but self-employment remains perhaps the only way to
protect
the individual and family against those other scourges of
recession,
namely unemployment, redundancy, layoffs, reduced
overtime,
and so on.
And yet the fact remains that many business
advisors and
entrepreneurs alike consider recessionary
times the least
suitable for establishing a business. Others
will argue the
opposite, and many will point to a cluster of
businesses
renowned for surviving even the worst of
recessions. In fact,
some enterprises seem to positively flourish
during the most
prolonged of economic downturns. This manual
is dedicated to
an
analysis of just a few of those businesses.
Profiting
from Dreams
Something most people never lose sight of are
dreams and
ambitions. In fact the need to hang on to a
virtually
impossible dream might assume greater
importance during a long
recession. Whether the dream is realistic, for
instance the
chance to obtain a new and exciting job, or
whether it is
unlikely to ever materialise, as for example
might be a major
pools jackpot win, for the astute entrepreneur
a great deal of
profit can be made in this area. In this
manual we shall of
course consider only ethical business
opportunities and leave
to one side the many opportunities to earn
vast sums from the
misfortunes of others. Dreams and hopes which
might
materialise with a little outside intervention
are a different
matter
entirely.
In the home publishing field one finds
numerous opportunities
to help customers achieve their ambitions.
Think for instance
of writing and selling - or else acquiring the
rights to sell -
such magnificent titles as 'How to Win the
Pools', 'How to Win
Prize Competitions', 'How to Get the Job you
Really Want', 'How
to Earn as Much Money as you Like from Home',
'How to Travel
the World Free', 'How to Get a Job Abroad',
and so on. Writing
and self-publishing your own manuals and
information products
is not the difficult task it might seem to the
newcomer to
writing. The quality of information is the
factor for which
your work will be purchased; not the way in
which you write it.
So, think of a good title, one suited to times
of recession, do
your research in the local reference library,
type it up, read
it through for errors and omissions, then
offer it for sale by
mail order. See the later section 'Home
Publishing' for
details of how to begin your own publishing
venture, one that
will prove all the more profitable from
selling your own
exclusive
products.
Employment
Services
Also falling somewhat within the 'dreams'
category, the
employment agency along with related ventures,
can find itself
able to survive the most prolonged economic
downturn, as more
and more redundancies and business failures
swell the ranks of
the unemployed. Services and types of
employment agencies you
can offer vary tremendously, and might range
from those
requiring personal contact with clients, to
those in which all
communications
will be carried out by post.
Some employment agencies, including such as au
pair placement
bureaus and temporary secretarial agencies,
require an
operator's licence from the Department of
Employment, for which
the entrepreneur will receive an annual
inspection from the
Department's
officers.
Also within this category are a number of
other operations for
which contact with and responsibility for
clients will be
significantly reduced. Think for instance of
writing and
selling an overseas employment bulletin, a
homework advisory
service, or else providing a range of job
application and
interview books and perhaps video or audio
cassettes. Other
related services include CV production (see
special section
later), assistance in completing job
applications and interview
training
sessions.
Selling
Bric-a-Brac and Inexpensive Collectors' Items
In times of recession, when money is hard to
find, people begin
looking around for bargains wherever they can
be found.
Bric-a-brac and second-hand items are
consequently available
from a wide variety of sources, ranging from
traditional retail
outlets, to car boot sales, indoor
fleamarkets, market stalls,
and
sometimes mail order.
Amongst the items falling within this
category, the following
is
but a very small sample:
Bric-a-brac. Some say this is just
another name
for jumble. Nevertheless, a good income
can be
generated from selling old jewellery,
ornaments,
tools, books, magazines, pictures,
frames, toys,
tablecloths, early items of clothing,
craftwork,
and
so on.
Toys and dolls, this time of the older
and
cherished variety. Not perhaps the rare
and prized
variety you will discover at specialist
doll and
toy fairs and better antiques fairs, but
certainly
not the toys of yesterday in the most
literal
sense. Here we find trains, cars, Dinky
specimens,
all in their original boxes, some never
even
considered
as playtime material.
Prints, paintings and pictures,
sometimes tinted
and framed for sale, restored, reframed,
occasionally
offered in their original state.
Stamps.
Books.
Jewellery.
Pottery, high quality glassware and
china items,
figurines Victorian tea sets and
delicate domestic
items too numerous to mention. Many
dealers in
this type of stock rotate between the
collectors'
fairs and the more up-market antiques
fairs, which
all goes to prove the moneymaking
potential of
humble
collectors' fairs and fleamarkets.
Militaria
and all things wartime related.
Early
clothing.
Linen.
Etc.,
etc., etc.
A stall at suitable venues is extremely easy
to arrange. All
worthwhile collectors' fairs are advertised
extensively in
order
to draw the necessary crowds of customers.
Either telephone the organiser to reserve a
stall on a
particular occasion, or much more preferably,
visit one of
their venues as a customer yourself before
booking a stall.
You will then see whether the organiser's
advertising is
drawing sufficient customers, or whether as
some unfortunately
do, the organisers are pocketing the traders'
stall fees in the
hope that sufficient customers will be
attracted by road signs
set
up to direct interested parties to the event.
Obtaining stock for these fairs is not the
problem it is in
acquiring suitable items for more up-market
antiques fairs.
Private sales, auctions, car boot sales,
jumble sales and
charity shops, are just a few of the very many
sources you will
discover for the replenishment of your stock.
'Wants ads' in
local newspapers, shop windows and in
specialist magazines can
be
extremely rewarding too.
Curriculum
Vitae Services
This rather ominous-sounding title may at
first be a little
off-putting, and I wouldn't blame anyone
tempted to skip this
proposition in favour of more
familiar-sounding business
ventures. But think again, for here we have an
excellent
opportunity to earn up to 25 each time a
conversation takes
place with the potential customer and the
details of that
conversation are put to paper. And remember,
in recessionary
times, with many individuals being made
redundant and entering
the job market perhaps for the first time in
years, the need to
create a good first impression on potential
employers is
crucial. A good CV service can therefore find
itself actually
growing
in strength as times become harder.
A curriculum vitae is nothing more than the
biographical
details - personal and career-related - of
persons wishing to
change jobs, seek advancement, and undergo
virtually any change
in their working lives, which necessitates
them giving
interviewers, employers, and college heads
sufficient details
to
make a full and accurate assessment of the candidate.
At one time the humble application form was
the order of the
day, requiring one to neatly present personal
data in little
boxes
on the employer's or whoever's individual forms.
But forms presented several problems, not the
least being that
their designers, who like the rest of us are
not infallible,
often asked ambiguous questions, or else
allowed no space for
the inclusion of information which those
labouring over the
form considered of vital importance. In the
latter case, the
astute applicant would add a typed or hand
written addendum to
the application before submission. On too many
occasions
though, even the experienced applicant could
be left with that
niggling feeling of, albeit inadvertently,
answering a question
'not quite accurately' or inadequately, or
wishing that extra
space
had been available for more detailed information.
Here the curriculum vitae comes to the rescue,
offering the
candidate the facility to include in the
application all of
those details which he and the intended
recipient feel
necessary for a realistic analysis to be made.
It contains all
of the information required on a standard
application form as
well as additional points peculiar to the
individual applicant.
But how does the inexperienced applicant or
those with
insufficient time or inadequate facilities go
about the task of
preparing this ostentatiously named document
in a neat, orderly
and professional manner? The answer is they
don't - they get
someone more experienced to prepare the document
on their
behalf!
This service, much needed in today's
competitive jobs and
education market, has led to the emergence of
many specialist
'CV' enterprises. Fees range from 20 to 25 and
more, and all
for what essentially amounts to handing over a
few copies of a
short
document.
Some offer the document in 'designer' folder,
often with the
customer's name and address gold-leafed on the
front. 'Very
nice' you might think, and yes it is - and
very expensive too.
To my mind such glossing over is also highly
unnecessary. The
documents will not be forwarded to the
intending employer in
their glamourous cases, and surely, the more
costs are kept to
a minimum whilst still providing a reliable
and accurate
service, the more competitive will be the
price asked of the
customer,
and the more customers will thereby be attracted.
The person who decides to enter this lucrative
business must of
necessity possess two prime qualifications: an
ability to put
his or her customers at ease as personal
details are elicited
as fully and accurately as possible, and,
access to a good
typewriter or if all possible, a word
processor or typesetting
facilities. The end result is professional,
and in the
majority of cases where word processors are
used, also
completely
free of typing and spelling errors.
Should this business present an attractive
proposition for you
to consider starting out in, then send off to
several existing
CV agencies for details of their services,
obviously presenting
yourself as someone likely to require their
services. You will
then be able to judge for yourself what
documentation and
advertising is employed by the better firms,
as well as taking
the undoubted advantage of incorporating the
better points of
all
agencies into your own.
Home
Publishing
Home publishing has been credited with the
virtually unique
honour of being able to survive recessions;
even flourish when
the downturn gathers momentum and more and
more individuals
seek information regarding starting up in
business from home,
or else look for other ways to increase their
present income.
Home publishing is also one of the most
lucrative businesses
ever, one requiring very little in the way of
starting capital,
yet one which provides anything from 1000% to
4000% profit on
each
and every sale the publisher makes.
Just how much home publishers make each and
every week depends
entirely on the time and effort they put into
their businesses;
into the analysing of advertising trends and
techniques; into
selecting suitable titles to offer their
customers; into
establishing a good and regular list of
customers who, being
satisfied with past purchases, will continue
to buy from them
in
the future.
'Publishing', loosely defined, is the
preparation and
distribution of printed material, from which
we can conclude
that a 'home publisher' is a home-based
entrepreneur, needing
no special business premises, and requiring no
stock other than
one master copy of each publication he or she
intends offering
for
sale.
Some home publishers deal exclusively in
publications relating
to one particular hobby or interest such as
consumer
competitions or stamp collecting. Others deal
in a wide range
of subjects, from leisure interest, to
self-improvement, and on
to perhaps the most profitable line of all,
namely that of
information concerning business and income
boosting
opportunities.
Basically, the publisher selects and acquires
those titles that
form his or her stock, decides upon the means
by which they
will be advertised for sale, and subsequently
places
appropriate advertisements to which
prospective customers are
invited
to reply.
He or she then forwards the publication or
publications, where
cash in advance has been requested, or else
provides the
potential customer with a detailed sales
leaflet from which the
inquirer will decide whether or not to order
the publication.
The publisher usually takes the opportunity to
include details
of several other publications in which the
potential customer
might be interested. If the original enquiry
does not result
in a sale, there is every chance that one of
these other
publications
will appeal to the inquirer.
Customer manuals and folios may be produced as
photocopied
versions of the master document, or in
professionally printed
form if the publisher desires. By shopping
around for the best
rates in photocopying, or else installing a
photocopying
machine at home, the cost of manuals can be
kept extremely low,
thereby
making for far higher profit margins.
The market for information is vast, some would
suggest
unlimited, and the means of reaching potential
customers are
similarly many and varied - and perhaps best
of all
inexpensive. Without costly business premises
and similarly
prohibitive overheads, the publisher can
afford to concentrate
his or her efforts and financial resources
into reaching that
vast clientele awaiting each and every
publication brought onto
the
market.
To build and maintain a good customer list you
must of course
offer only quality information, and for this
reason the prudent
publisher will always choose the titles that
form his stock
with the utmost care. It's surprisingly easy
to acquire a
good, extremely saleable title for anything
from 10 to 40 for
reproduction rights; more of course for sole
copyright, the
latter affording an enviable situation indeed
for the publisher
to find himself in, for he alone will have
authority to offer
the
copyrighted manuscript for sale.
Your titles may come from one or more of
several sources;
direct from the writer or his agent in the
case of copyright;
from the writer or agent, or other publishers
in the case of
reproduction
and resell rights.
Reproduction rights as the name implies, allow
you to produce
and sell as many copies of the document as you
wish, often at a
price you yourself decide. If these rights
come with 'resell
rights' you may also transfer reproduction and
resell rights to
other publishers, thereby making very handsome
profits indeed,
and usually allowing you to recoup the cost of
your own outlay
with
your very first order.
With exclusive copyright you might quite
rightly so, feel
reluctant to share your market with other
publishers, which of
course would happen if you decided to sell
reproduction rights,
with or without resell rights. Many publishers
jealously guard
their copyrights, especially for titles much
in demand. Such
titles could well continue selling to the
public for many years
to come. With copyright the profits are
entirely yours; pass
on reproduction rights and the chain grows
rapidly, until after
just a few transactions your title is shared
by many
publishers. If selling by direct mail,
remember too that the
very same people contacted by you will almost
certainly have
been approached with the same title by several
of your
competitors
- a huge waste of time, energy and money.
Home publishing is one of many sub-sections
falling under the
umbrella of mail order, and as such those
rules, tips and
techniques that make for increased profits in
mail order apply
equally
to home publishing.
Arm yourself with as many books and manuals as
you can on the
art of advertising, direct marketing
techniques, and standards
of mail order professionalism in general.
Remember to keep
abreast of the times, never stop learning, and
never ever stand
still! Success in home publishing is virtually
yours for the
asking,
whatever the prevailing economic climate!
List
Broking
This is one big business proposition that
requires an absolute
minimum of capital, but nevertheless offers
extremely high
rewards to the operator. Another business well
suited to
recessionary times, mail order operators - in
particular
direct mail specialists - will work hard to
increase their
share of the market for mail order goods and
services. Here
the
list broker's services come to the fore.
'It's not what you know that counts, it's who
you know', or so
they say. In the business world this is indeed
the case. Some
firms survive very nicely from dealings with
only passing
trade, or with customers drawn into their
premises as a result
of effective local advertising campaigns. Many
firms though,
and primarily those with no obvious business
premises for
customers to visit, depend heavily upon postal
contacts to
sustain
an adequate level of trade.
In this category we find mail order traders
and those dealing
in specialised products for particular
sections of the public.
There are also firms for which business
premises might be
wholly unnecessary, perhaps because they
operate in short-term
undertakings, as would be the case for someone
seeking to rent
out sales and promotion pitches at once-off
exhibitions. What
these businesses need above all are lists -
lists of potential
customers who might otherwise remain unaware
of their
existence.
Having acquired this list of potential
customers, they
themselves contact the firms and individuals
concerned, usually
by post, in contrast to normal business
procedures where it is
more often the customer who arranges approach
the appropriate
sellers
or service industries.
For firms requiring such contacts, the task of
compiling lists
for themselves would no doubt be so arduous
and time-consuming
a task as to leave little or no time for
normal business
obligations.
The specialist list broker therefore collects
or co-ordinates
all necessary information, and either sells
his list outright,
or
more likely hires out the addresses for once-off use only.
But it's not just potential business customers
who may be
contacted by means of appropriate lists.
Addresses can be
similarly
compiled for:
* Private individuals requiring set
services and products
* Specific businesses, eg undertakers,
grocers, hotels,
etc
* Schools
* Persons involved in particular sports or
hobbies
* Craftworkers
I have personally seen offers to sell or rent
lists of people
who take an active interest in entering
consumer competitions,
people who collect antiques and books, stamp
collectors, even
people interested in contacting pen pals or
being entered onto
dating
agency files.
The person involved in the mailing list
business can compile
lists from scratch, (a time consuming
exercise), or else he or
she can act as the middle man or woman for
other people's
lists, renting the list at one price and
subsequently hiring it
out
at another obviously higher price.
The middle person or broker often buys or
rents very many large
lists which are then split for hiring or sale
to firms unable
to afford the larger lists, or not requiring
vast quantities of
names
and addresses.
Ideally, the names and addresses are offered
on self-adhesive
labels to facilitate easier usage by the buyer
or hirer, and
also to lessen the temptation to use a rented
list more than
once, thereby breaking the usual conditions
upon which the list
is
supplied.
Lists should be kept 'clean', that is free of
people no longer
living at the stated address, or perhaps no
longer active
members of that group to which they purport to
belong. This
cleaning exercise can be done by making frequent
mailings
yourself, or else by analysing the results of
someone else
using the list and removing from the list all
communications
returned as gone away or non-deliverable for
whatever other
reason.
Prices vary greatly for these lists and it is
not unusual to
sell or rent the same list several times each
year at a price
ranging
from 25 to 125 or more every time.
Secretarial
Services Agency
One of the main features of a recession, is of
course the need
to shed staff as costs begin to rise and
profits start to fall.
Secretarial staff are not immune to this
familiar cost-cutting
exercise, and many businesses subsequently
look for part-time
secretarial and office staff to fill the gaps
left by
redundancies. Consequently, for those who can
turn out neat and
accurate typing within set deadlines, a
regular and often very
high income awaits them. This might not be a
business with any
place in the 'get rich quick' category, but
certainly it will
provide extra cash for family commitments, and
for offsetting
the
burdens of unpredictable interest and inflation rates.
Running a freelance typing or word processing
service can also
be an ideal business opportunity for those who
must of
necessity spend most of their time at home. We
find this
business extremely popular with mothers, the
disabled, even
'failed' or 'discouraged' writers who
nevertheless have
equipped themselves with the typing skills
their preferred
profession
would have benefited from.
A business such as this takes time to build up
in terms of
clientele, and your own reputation for good,
efficient work, as
well as ability to meet customers' deadlines.
You might in the
very early days consider the whole thing
anything but
worthwhile; perhaps you are spending more on
advertising than
you are recouping in custom. Keep at it
though, for all
businesses relying so heavily on advertising
need time for
what's on offer to filter through to the
ultimate customer,
often from the shop floor of a large
corporation to the upper
echelons
of its management structure.
Regular advertising leads to a faith in your
ability to produce
the goods. You are as yet a faceless quantity,
and one that
can vanish as quickly as it appeared if your
work is
unsatisfactory. But someone whose service has
been advertised
for some time gains a position of trust in the
minds of those
whose custom they seek to attract. One hit
wonders and those
who can't stand the pace are unlikely to meet
often tight
deadlines most businesses work to. Gain
customers' trust and
you will find yourself the recipient of
regular custom. Repeat
custom and word of mouth advertising from
satisfied customers,
could find your business growing to full-time
status, even
perhaps find you needing to sub-contract work
out to other
efficient sources, or perhaps looking to
employ adequate
emergency
staff yourself.
Naturally, you wouldn't start a venture such
as this without
the physical ability to produce good type. You
need not be a
highly qualified typist to offer such a
service; you might not
need any qualifications at all; some of the
best typists are
self-taught. I have known some keyboard
operators who, falling
into the latter category, could batter the highly
qualified
ones into submission when their accuracy,
presentation, speed
and professional abilities are put to the
test. Don't offer
what your can't deliver though. If you are
accurate but your
speed requires improvement, don't offer to
deliver a huge
report at breakneck speed, when you know full
well your speed
will need to be boosted to such a degree that
your accuracy
will suffer. Wait until you can produce work
at the speed such
work necessitates before you make rash
promises. At the very
best you'll be paid, but you'll almost
certainly lose the
customer concerned and suffer adverse word of
mouth publicity
at
his next meeting with counterparts in the business world.
As to the gadgetry you will need, there are
many types of
typewriter and word processor on the market,
ranging from the
humble manual, to the electric version, and on
to that most
wonderful of all inventions - to my mind at
least - the word
processor. Which you choose to operate with
will depend
largely upon finances available, and will no
doubt be
influenced by what equipment you have so far
been accustomed
to. Each has its advantages, though for the
manual typewriter
I am at somewhat of a loss to find more than
its need for a
cheap energy supply from tired typists'
fingers. Energy of the
electrical variety leads to a better, more
even type and
requires far less effort on the part of the
user. 'Sorry' to
advocates of the manual, but today - unless
you prove to the
contrary - I think it fair to say that the
manual typewriter
has
long since outlived its usefulness.
An electric typewriter will not set you back a
great deal and
purchasing one is something you should
seriously consider if
your work is to be of a consistently high
standard. Equipment
necessary to the running of a business can be
set against
Income Tax liabilities, so contact your local
Inland Revenue
office
for advice.
But, if you really want to create a stir in
your new business
venture, you can forget the word 'typing' and
substitute in its
place the highly respectable concept 'word
processing'. Little
more than a computerised typewriter, the word
processor renders
typist correction fluid a thing of the past,
and dirty carbon
residue need never again soil the typist's
hands or the
precious
newly-typed documents they come into contact with.
At first, the thought of using a word
processor can frighten
the typist rigid, but within weeks he or she
will be using it
like an expert. No photocopiers and carbon
papers are
necessary, since the machine's memory banks
store work for as
long as the operator wishes, thereby allowing
him or her to
churn out copies of past work at the mere
touch of a button or
two. Work can also be produced virtually error
free; any
errors that do remain are due usually to lack
of observation,
since errors can be rectified before the
document is ever
produced on paper. Typing appears on a
computer screen and
errors can be corrected immediately.
Additional software
allows your spelling to be checked by the
machine, thereby
alleviating one of the great problems of many
an otherwise
accurate
typist, or now word processor operator.
All of these benefits of the word processor
can lead to a
doubling or even trebling of your output.
Never again need you
start afresh on a document that fails to come
up to standard.
The machine will adjust layouts for you, alter
typefaces,
remove errors, change spacing, etc., etc.,
etc. Remember too,
you are effectively able to offer the customer
something of a
back-up filing system, merely because his or
her work will
remain
on disk, if necessary and convenient to both parties.
Advertising your service as one of 'word
processing' instead of
'typing' can also create a more professional
image, thereby
leading
to greater customer interest.
There are several ways to bring yourself and
your business to
the attention of potential customers, but
remember that you are
offering something of an artistic service, and
your first
communication with prospective customers must
be one of total
professionalism. A tatty business card in the
local fish and
chip shop window will lead the reader to
wonder if your typing
will
be prone to a similarly ill-thought out standard.
Take your business cards with you everywhere.
Nothing looks
worse than a hastily scribbled telephone
number on a tatty
piece of scrap paper when a potential
customer's interest is
aroused. That would likely be the last you'll
see of him or
her, since subconsciously that person will
convince him or
herself that your work is likely to be of a
similarly
unprofessional
standard.
Business cards are not limited to personal
delivery. They can
be left in any suitable place where those requiring
your
services are likely to congregate. Your card
can be pinned in
most places where custom might be attracted:
business clubs,
job centres (for curriculum vitae and job
application forms),
in youth clubs and on college notice boards
(students need
their
theses typing to a professional standard), etc.
You can also have postcards printed to
advertise your business
and A5 handbills are invaluable for popping
through the
letterboxes of businesses old and new. Deliver
them before the
summer holidays begin and you might find
yourself inundated
with work that would normally have gone to
agency temps when
staff shortages necessitate an additional pair
of hands. You
might even address a letter to company
managing directors
informing them of your services at holiday
times and at other
times when staff shortages are likely to
exist. Such an
approach shows initiative - something usually
much admired in
today's
fast moving business world.
You can if your capabilities and other commitments
allow, offer
an emergency service, with collection and
subsequent delivery
of documentation. But never put another
client's work to one
side for the purpose of attracting higher
fees, unless you are
already ahead of any predetermined deadlines
for that other
customer. In gaining the gratitude of one, you
may well lose
the
respect and repeat custom of another!
Local newspapers and freesheets are excellent
places in which
to advertise your services. The same people
who place their
advertisements in these publications are in
all probability the
same people who will need your services at
some time in the
future. Temporary secretarial agencies are
expensive
propositions; once the middle man is cut out,
your business
becomes a much more inviting financial
proposition to
businesses large and small, almost all
suffering under the
weight
of high running costs.
Advertise in the classified section until you
are able to
withstand
the higher charges of display advertising.
Always be on the lookout for new business
groups, and make sure
you are the first typing agency to get that
all important foot
in the door. Many specialist business and
self-help groups
exist, some under government auspices; others
created by men
and women for the promotion of their own
business interests.
You will find entire buildings devoted to
small workshops and
retail outlets, the businessmen themselves
often working under
Enterprise Allowance Schemes. Other buildings
are sub-divided
into units, by groups of private individuals
for their own use,
or else for sub-letting to other usually
smaller concerns.
Craft shops flourish in such environments, as
do antique shops,
printing establishments and book shops. Almost
all such
entrepreneurs at some time will have need of a
typing facility,
and you should therefore advertise your
business by
distributing individual handbills, or having a
postcard
advertisement placed on any communal notice
board you might
find.
Never under-estimate job centres and colleges
when it comes to
seeking out custom for your secretarial
service. Wherever
students congregate, whether for educational
or social needs,
you have a large and ready made market for
your skills.
Students, not all of whose lessons include
typing, require
their theses to be presented in a manner that
will create a
good impression for the assessment body
responsible for grading
the
work concerned.
In colleges and job centres you will also find
one of your
largest and most regular sources of business,
namely in the
constant demand for newcomers to the jobs
market to have their
curriculum vitae (CV) and application forms
neatly prepared, if
they are to stand much chance of entering the
highly
competitive
world of work.
Obtain permission from college officials to
have your
advertisement placed on suitable notice
boards. Many schools,
colleges and universities, have student
magazines which again
would
provide an invaluable advertising opportunity.
As soon as you are aware of a new business
coming to your area,
or one that is opening additional premises,
have your
advertisement delivered through its door. You
might discover
many people who otherwise would seek full-time
or part-time
staff to cater for their needs, but who would
infinitely prefer
to relinquish the responsibilities of employer
status in favour
of a freelance service which will involve
payment only in
respect of work done and doesn't include
payment made to staff
when
no work is available.
Mail
Order Gift Service
Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly,
during the worst
of economic downturns, people continue to seek
out expensive
and novel gifts with which to surprise their
friends and
relatives. A mail order gift service might
exist to fulfil any
of several requirements, not all of them much
to do with
finding and providing the ideal gift for the
recipient. For
many, the sheer ease of ordering is the
deciding factor; for
some it's the opportunity to offer something
unique; for others
it's status that proves the deciding factor
when we discover a
service so expensive and outlandishly
ostentatious (messages
trailing behind light-powered aircraft;
thousands of balloons
released into the air; bottles of ever so
unashamedly expensive
champagne delivered to the door). For others,
the mail order
gift service simply allows guaranteed delivery
at a distance
and
overrides the possibility of forgetting the occasion.
Amongst those to have discovered the potential
of the mail
order gift trade and exploited it to the full,
are flower
specialists Interflora, now a nationwide
concern that allows
the donor to place his or her order by means
of a telephone
call
to provide necessary delivery details.
Those coming into the arena a little later
include as varied an
assortment of businesses as one is ever likely
to imagine: the
teddy delivered to the recipient's door
(sometimes he or she -
the teddy - wears clothing emblazoned with appropriate
and
highly individual message); baskets of
individually selected
items just as much expensive as they are
appropriate to the
needs and interests of the recipient; original
copies of the
'Times' or other national and provincial
newspapers published
on the actual day the recipient was born;
hand-embroidered
quilts in which each patch portrays some event
or item of
importance to the recipient, and so on.
Usually a quick look
through some of the more up-market women's
glossies is
sufficient to convince the reader that here is
a market
worthwhile penetrating, particularly if he or
she can come up
with something just that little bit different
to what is
already
on offer.
Multi-Level
Marketing (MLM)
It's not so much a business suited to a
recession, as one able
to generate a sizable income at any time, to
which multi-level
marketing owes its entry in this manual. The
reasons for its
inclusion will shortly become clear as we
analyse the profit
accumulating
powers of multi-level marketing.
Multi-level marketing is but an everyday
marketing method,
though a highly ingenious one at that, and a
method renowned
for creating more multi-million business
fortunes than any
other.
Multi-level marketing might best be explained
by its
similarities to catalogue selling. 'Great
Universal',
'Littlewoods' and many others operate on
similar principles to
those upon which MLM is based. Agents are
recruited to sell
from the catalogues provided for them, and
from which orders
they will earn varying degrees of commission.
Those who extend
their efforts a stage further into the
recruitment of other
agents, avail themselves of a further source
of commission,
often in the form of gifts and discounts.
Multi-level
marketing, working in much the same manner,
with a product or
service at the heart of the operation, brings
usually much
higher commissions for sales and recruitment
of other agents to
the scheme. The agent earns not only from
sales made, and
commissions from the recruitment of fellow
agents; he or she
also earns commission on the sales of all of
those other agents
in his or her 'downline' - a pyramid of agents
all working hard
towards
similar wealth-creating objectives.
Where multi-level marketing's unique
wealth-creating potential
comes to the fore is in this very networking
concept that finds
the agent earning commissions from his or her
own sales as well
as
those of often several hundred fellow agents below him.
Those members recruited by the original agent
form that latter
person's downline, and as we have already
discussed, can bring
in handsome rewards once the snowball effect
begins. Consider
for instance the case of a multi-level
marketing scheme in
which the individual is allowed to recruit
just five other
members, who in turn can recruit up to five
members, the
process continuing down to four levels. Should
all of those
members who subsequently form your own
downline each recruit
five
members, then your downline would look as follows:
YOU
First
level = 5 member + yourself = 6
Second
level (5 x 5) = 25 members + first level = 31
Third
level (25 x 5) = 125 members plus 31 in 'upline' = 156
Fourth
level (125 x 5) = 625 members plus 156 = 781
Now you can see for yourself the sheer potency
of that
multiplication principle lying at the heart of
the network.
Consider the case should each agent sell just
one product a
week, from all of which sales you receive 1,
and you will
surely realise how profitable a proposition a
well organised
multi-level
marketing programme can be.
Of course, not all multi-level marketing
schemes are
successful. Some products are infinitely
superior to others
for promotion by MLM; consequently one finds a
wealth of health
and beauty products sold by this method, along
with magazine
and business plan subscriptions, security
products and
services,
music and audio products, and so on.
Essentially to be successful for promotion by
MLM, the product
should be in constant and high demand; offer
something a great
many people require; something that does not
prove a whim or
fad product; something which is available
inexpensively and
hopefully exclusively from the MLM company
concerned; a product
that might require constant replenishment, and
also one that
has spin-off products and services which
customers might also
be
interested in.
A good, reliable and more usually established
firm, is that to
which the newcomer to multi-level marketing
should turn his or
her early attempts at selling by this method.
Companies that
have stood the test of time are worth the
individual's
attention in the early days. He or she might
subsequently
acquire that talent for recognising the
potential of a firm new
to the field of MLM, and in entering the
scheme at the very
beginning the multi-level marketing enthusiast
will come to
enjoy those riches for which early entry to a
scheme is
renowned.
Not a complex subject in which to gain
proficiency, much has
been written on the subject of multi-level
marketing, many such
books available in public libraries as well as
from mail order
publishers whose advertisements appear
regularly in 'Exchange
and Mart', as well as the many business
opportunities magazines
available
today.
Running
Antiques and Collectors' Fairs
Mention the word 'antiques' to some people and
it immediately
evokes images of costly, rare items passed
carefully from
well-clad vendor to a small assembled group of
equally affluent
prospective customers. And yes, in some
antiques circles this
is in fact what happens. But it isn't always
the case, and the
word 'antiques' can take on entirely different
meanings for
many different people. Collectors' items;
bric-a-brac;
ephemera; old clothes; toys and dolls;
militaria; postcards and
stamps - all might fall far outside the
accurate definition of
'antique' but all will be found offered for
sale at the many
collectors' fairs and fleamarkets operating
virtually every day
of
the week in all parts of the country.
Taking a stall at one of these events requires
little more than
turning up and making your intentions known to
the fair's
organiser - often that person taking the
entrance fee as you go
in
to whatever hall or hotel the event is being held in.
But the fact that some traders make a very
good living from
turning up to sell at antiques fairs and
fleamarkets, is
overshadowed by one virtual certainty - what
they make is
nothing compared to the profits earned by the
organiser whose
income is generated not only from money taken
at the door, but
is also swelled quite considerably by the
stall fees requested
from sometimes several hundred traders on the
day. The astute
fairs organiser can in fact make more in a
good day than some
of his antiques traders make in a month. We
mustn't however
run away with the idea that organising an
antiques fair,
fleamarket or whatever is easy money - it
isn't - a lot of
careful planning, dealing with difficult
customers and traders,
transporting tables, lifting and setting out
dealers' pitches,
setting up signs to the event, placing
advertisements in the
press, and so on, are essential for a
well-organised and
well-patronised event. If the event isn't
professionally
organised then few traders will turn up to
support the
organiser.
For the public, even when times are hard and
money is in short
supply, these regular events nevertheless
provide an excellent
day out for the family; for the trader a great
deal of passing
trade is generated, and profits from even
small purchases will
culminate
in a good day's takings.
But if you don't fancy the itinerant life as
an antiques stall
holder, how about organising the event
yourself? Let's take a
look
at what's involved.
The most obvious venues are of course those in
densely
populated areas: town halls, sports centres,
civic halls, large
auction halls, and sometimes schools in larger
towns and
cities. The organiser approaches the local
Council for
permission to hire the hall or whatever. Most
are quite happy
to oblige, providing all trading laws are
complied with and the
organiser will not prove a hindrance to the
normal functioning
of the premises. The organiser is normally
allowed to enter
the premises the previous evening to set up
stalls and tables
which are sometimes provided on site;
sometimes not.
Permission from the Council and Police
authorities must also be
obtained in order to set up signs and
directions on route to
the event. For a fee, motoring specialists -
AA and RAC - will
set up directions for you, saving you time and
trouble, and
often providing a more professional service
than might be
available
elsewhere.
Once directed to the venue, the visitor is
usually welcomed by
a number of large and often flashy signs
indicating that they
have arrived at their intended destination and
pointing the way
in. Sheets of white or fluorescent card
available from most
stationers are all that is required, to which
you simply add
appropriate details, direction indicators,
cost of entry, and
so
on.
But you won't of course find many people
directed to an event
you haven't publicised sufficiently well. Most
such happenings
are notified in the local press; the larger
ones in the
national press and specialist collectors'
magazines, trade
publications and sometimes advertising
magazines such as
'Exchange and Mart'. Other ways to bring your
event to the
attention of the public include handbills to
notify visiting
customers of future events; notices in shop
windows, and
leaflets delivered door-to-door in the
locality. Notices and
posters in libraries and community centres
also prove effective
and
best of all, inexpensive.
Lights, or at the very least power points,
must usually be
provided by the organiser, who will discover
that only
up-market jewellery and fine arts dealers can
usually be relied
upon
to provide their own sources of illumination.
On the day itself, traders begin to arrive
several hours ahead
of opening time, to be followed soon after by
non-attending
dealers who are traditionally allowed a sneak
preview of items
on offer, a privilege for which they do not
usually expect to
be
charged an entry fee!
Once opening time arrives a steady queue will
have built up,
ready to hand over their entrance fees to
whoever you have
assigned the responsibility of organising
admission and handing
out handbills advertising future events. Always
remember this
excellent source of 'free' publicity to a
virtually captive
audience.
Established organisers normally collect fees
from traders
sometimes towards late afternoon, the
intention being to allow
them to take sufficient to pay you in cash!
This, perhaps an
ideal mutual arrangement between established
organisers and
stallholders, is not one best suited to new
traders. A high
absenteeism rate amongst new traders might
well find you having
several empty stalls which for appearances
sake must be offered
free to those traders who have taken it upon
themselves to
honour their obligations. To protect against
an often hefty
slice taken from your projected profits in
absenteeism, it
might be best to do what most experienced fairs
organisers do
and
charge new traders in advance of attendance.
We've considered the publicity that attracts
customers to the
venue, but how do we bring our enterprise to
the attention of
prospective stallholders? One easy, and just
as traumatic
option, is to visit other fairs and hand out
bills to dealers
in attendance. The traumatic element is the
fact that such
'poaching' will not find you receiving a warm
welcome from the
organiser whose custom you are attempting to
channel into your
own enterprise. By all means do it this way,
but keep it
quiet. Another very effective way of making
your intentions
known is to place handbills under the
windscreen wipers of all
cars in the vicinity of the fair, thereby
ensuring you'll reach
most
traders and a fair percentage of customers too.
Mobile
Catering
One thing we all need, even in the depths of
economic gloom, is
food. Okay, so this might not be the best time
to splash out
on fulfilling that ambition of opening a high
class restaurant
in an area of high unemployment, but it might
be just the time
to
set up an inexpensive catering or fast food service.
One excellent means of entering catering
without high and
ongoing overheads is in the sector of mobile
catering, and not
just the type offered in old caravans and
buses parked in
laybys to which drivers and long-distance
travellers are
directed for a fast, inexpensive and usually
anything but
comfortable
meal.
Recent years have witnessed a spate of firms
providing
equipment and sometimes complete business
packages for those
wishing to take their mobile catering service
to all manner of
events, large and small. Ice cream vans, hot
dog vans, mobile
fish and chip shops are no longer the order of
the day. Today
we find hot and cold snacks of all types, to
suit all tastes
and most budgets, available at virtually every
outdoor event
you could care to name. Horse shows, dog
shows, fairgrounds,
village fetes, gymkhanas, sports events,
markets, pop concerts,
steam rallies, car boot fairs, outside
antiques fairs venues,
and many other well-visited events, usually
provide sufficient
custom to make a full-time income from just a
few days work
each
week.
The type of food you offer might well be left
to the locality
to dictate. Seaside resorts might prove ideal
for fish and
chips and seafood dishes for instance, but are
unlikely to
offer a lucrative income to purveyors of
novelty dishes such as
banana fritters on a stick, pork roasted on a
spit, or any of
the other more novel dishes currently
available from mobile
caterers.
A number of firms provide standard and
sometimes custom-made
trailers and motorised vehicles for intending
outside caterers.
Most can be contacted via advertisements
placed in catering
magazines, business opportunities magazines,
and in specialist
advertising publications such as 'Exchange and
Mart', 'The
Trader',
'World's Fair', and so on.
Amongst the many benefits put forward for a
mobile catering
service, we find: low start-up costs (most
equipment is
available for just a few thousand pounds);
high turnover and
high profit ratio; no rent, rates, premises
and fixed overheads
usually involved; no cash-flow problems;
business when and
where you want it, and usually working hours
to suit the
operator.
If you don't fancy the travelling life, then
you can opt for a
permanent pitch, perhaps in that layby we
referred to earlier,
where doubtless you will find a steady and
regular stream of
customers
attracted to your more up-market 'premises'.
Legalities include having the trailer
inspected and passed by
local Environmental Health Department
officials, and obtaining
a street traders' licence from your local
authority or that in
which
you intend to trade.
Running
a Market Stall
Starting out in business on one's own account
often comes hand
in hand with a need to convince sceptical bank
managers of the
need for that loan requested, and might also
find the
entrepreneur asked to submit profit and loss
forecasts and
business plans as prerequisites to financial
assistance. And
there is usually a need to acquire business
premises, employ
staff, and carry out a number of other
formalities confronting
the
first time entrepreneur.
Market trading though is a different matter
altogether. It's
an ideal one-man business, one which might
allow the
individual to work when and where he or she
pleases, and one
which normally provides a sizable income
virtually from the
very beginning, whilst requiring surprisingly
little capital to
start out in. In fact, with the exception of
those intent on
selling designer jewellery, items of silver,
porcelain or other
precious materials, pricey ornaments or whatever,
it's likely
that the newcomer to market trading will get
by with just a
few
hundred pounds available for stock.
Other essentials include transport - can be
hired in the
initial stages - and of course display
equipment, packaging
materials, scales where appropriate, and a few
other basic
items appropriate to the goods or service the
trader intends to
offer.
And we must of course point out at the very
beginning that
market trading need not necessarily be
confined to the regular
outdoor markets dotted around many towns and
villages up and
down the country. There are also the indoor
markets to be
considered, including those operating as a
permanent feature of
the locality, as well as more intermittent
events such as
fleamarkets, antiques fairs and collectors'
fairs. Add to the
benefits we shall shortly consider, the fact
that in
recessionary times, the public takes to
bargain hunting and the
additional fact that impulse purchases remain
relatively
constant, and we begin to understand what
makes market trading
a
very profitable and popular venture.
Perhaps the greatest benefit to the market
trader is one of
minimum capital injection usually being
required to make a
concerted attempt in business. Usually there
will be no need
to contact bank managers or loan companies for
assistance with
the purchase of stock. Their intervention
might however arise
where the trader does not currently have
suitable transport,
but even so it's unlikely that the operator
will have to
possess, or acquire, more than a few thousand
pounds for start
up
costs.
Perhaps next in the scale of advantages comes
the fact that the
operator can choose his or her own working
hours, even plan the
entire week around markets, purchasing
expeditions, days off,
and so on. The trader can in fact choose to
work only
part-time hours, maybe working just one or two
days a week on
the markets, with a day or so each week set
aside for
purchasing stock, preparing for the next
venue, carrying out
administrative tasks, and seeing to whatever
other jobs might
be
outstanding.
But for many market traders, the initial
attraction is one of a
business requiring no premises, no heavy
capital outlay for
fixtures
and fittings, and no need to employ staff.
The question of what to sell must of course be
carefully
considered. Too many selling one particular
item or range of
items, for instance fruit and vegetables, may
well mean traders
sharing the profits to a point which might
eventually prove
anything but profitable. Choose something too
different or
specialised and you might instead find there
is no demand for
what
you offer.
When deciding what to sell, the trader must
never ignore the
power and profitability of impulse buying on
the part of
passing customers. Passing trade can represent
the main part of
the stall's customers, drawn from the ranks of
people out for
the day or on their way to somewhere else, but
diverted to the
market and to your stall, they might buy
something, perhaps
several items they had no intention of buying
earlier when they
left home. Good impulse buys are such as
household
knickknacks, toys, small novelty items and
giftware
commodities. Offered at a price of around 5,
and no more than
10, these items can represent a fairly hefty
slice of your
day's
takings.
Various trade magazines and advertising
publications also
include a wealth of information concerning
wholesalers and
sources of stock for market traders as well as
the less mobile
retailer. Wholesalers, the lines they stock,
and the services
they offer, can of course vary from one area
to another. You
might find yourself dealing with a few,
perhaps several local,
or
long-distance wholesalers. You might need only one.
Don't forget car boot sales, local craftsmen
and women,
auctions and such. remember also bankrupt and
surplus stocks,
end of line clearance sales, bulk offerings of
old products to
make
way for new lines, and so on.
If you already have a venue in mind, perhaps a
local market you
might have attended as a customer for some
time, there might be
very little to do but contact the market
manager or
superintendent at the venue concerned,
whereupon you can make
enquiries of him or her as to how to commence
trading. Most
organisers will need to know that what you
propose selling is
ethical and of course lawful. Foodstuffs, toys
and clothing
for instance are covered by certain rules and
regulations
usually concerning safety standards, with
which the trader must
comply. The Trading Standards Department of
your local
authority will be able to help in this
respect, so make a visit
to one of their officers a priority before you
begin trading.
The market superintendent might also wish to
satisfy himself
that you do not intend to trade in a line
already more than
adequately catered for, in which case you
might eat into the
profits
of already established traders.
Most markets are open from 9am onwards,
usually with traders
depleting in numbers as late afternoon draws
closer. 4pm is
the popular 'closing time' for most outdoor
markets; indoor
markets in shopping precincts might remain
open until the end
of normal retail hours. Setting out one's
stall can however
take a few hours, and most traders arrive
around 7am to begin
preparations
for the day.
Prices vary from one market to the next, and
from one region to
another. Organisers might charge a set fee for
a pitch they
provide and which remains static from one market
day to the
next; they might instead charge footage for an
area of ground
upon which you set up the stall you provide
and transport to
the venue. Even the success of the market and
its popularity
and profitability can have a marked impact upon
the fee you
will
be asked for the right to trade there.
Very little equipment is usually required,
although transport
is of course essential. Whether it is your own
or hired is
entirely irrelevant, as long as it is
reliable, safe and
properly
taxed and insured.
Warm weatherproof clothing also proves
essential to the
dedicated market trader who will still be
expected to trade in
bad weather just as when the sun is shining.
Other necessities
include weatherproofing for stock and stall, spare
change, a
cash apron or till, scales where appropriate,
refreshments
where not provided nearby, and help if
possible at regular
times of the day to provide cover should the
trader wish to
take a walk, visit the loo, or else just take
a well-earned
break.
You will of course be required to adequately
insure your
vehicle and stock against damage and harm to
others. Third
party insurance will normally prove sufficient
to cover what
accidents might occur. Most insurance
companies will be able
to assist, as will the National Market Traders
Federation
(NMTF), this being a form of traders' union
designed to
represent the interests of members, and able
to provide advice
on most aspects of trading. A small charge is
asked of members
to
the Federation which can be contacted as follows:
National Market Traders Federation, Hampton
House, Hawshaw
Lane,
Hoyland, Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
Amongst the many excellent publications
available to guide the
market trader at whatever type of venue, we
find 'Exchange and
Mart', in which a highly informative 'Stock'
section provides
information relating to a wealth of
wholesalers' names and
addresses, suppliers of bankrupt stock and
surplus lots,
jewellery and crafts products suppliers,
clothing and
accessories specialists, toy suppliers, and so
on. This
section also includes details relating to
suppliers of bags and
other items of use to traders of all types.
'Exchange and
Mart' is available from newsagents and is
published on Thursday
each
week.
Another excellent publication which includes a
wealth of
information regarding wholesalers and other
stock suppliers, is
'Trader', available monthly from newsagents,
or on subscription
from:
The Trader, Subscriptions Department,
Competition House,
Farndon
Road, Market Harborough, Leicester, LE16 9PU
'Wholesalers Gazette' is, in the words of
promotional
literature, "dedicated to the needs and
interests of buyers
throughout the UK'. Depending upon the amount
of stock you
purchase, it might be worthwhile taking out a
subscription to
this
monthly magazine. Further details are available from:
Wholesalers Gazette, Subscriptions Department,
Central House,
27
Park Street, Croydon, CRO 1YD
'Trading Place' is another very popular
monthly advertising
magazine, in which articles and news features
are also provided
for the retailer, market trader, car boot
specialist, etcetera.
'Trading Place' is available monthly from
newsagents or on
subscription
from:
Trading Place Subscriptions, 89 East Hill,
Colchester, Essex,
CO1
2QN
'World's Fair' brings with it access to the
weekly trade paper
'Market Trader', through which numerous
wholesalers might be
contacted. 'Market Trader' incidentally, also
carries news of
what's happening in the world of market
trading, including
updates on new and changing legislation, new
markets, markets
closing or undergoing changes, and so on.
'World's Fair' is
available
from your newsagent.
Selling
Ephemera (Paper Collectors' Items)
Britain is a nation of collectors, who when
they can't afford
to continue making their normal expensive
purchases of stamps
and other sometimes exclusive collectors'
items, will look for
some alternative collecting interest until the
good times
return. Ephemera - paper collectables - is
that collecting
interest which has recently grown in
popularity, and which
finds popularity with stamp collectors,
militaria enthusiasts,
local historians, family historians, and
various other groups
and individuals currently addicted to 'paper'.
If you thought
the term 'ephemera' included only matchbox
labels and theatre
programmes, think again! Just a fraction of
the average
ephemera
dealer's stock includes:
*
Old postcards
*
Magazines
* Old documents with a local history
flavour, eg.
shop letterheads, mortgage documents,
advertising
literature for shops long gone,
invitations to
special
events, etc.
* Full-page advertisements from early
magazines.
These look wonderful framed and can
command very
high prices. When you think that just
one magazine,
available for something like 5, can
yield up to a
dozen
such adverts, well - need I say more?
* Reproduction photographs of early
street scenes
and special events. Here the dealer
purchases the
original photograph, usually as a
collectors'
postcard, and then has it reproduced by
a
professional photographer. The initial
outlay for
the postcard and negative can cost up to 20,
but
subsequent copies are very cheap, and
sell like hot
cakes.
* Old advertising brochures, and
advertising
inserts many magazines had sandwiched
between their
pages. These were usually extremely
attractive and
very colourful indeed. They are worth 4
- 10 of
anyone's money and crop up regularly in
those old
magazine's lovingly retained by their
original
owners.
* Early greetings cards. Victorian
examples are
particularly
attractive and sought after.
*
Books
*
Guide and Travel books.
* Early newspapers, particularly those
reporting
some historic event such as the National
Strike of
1926.
*
Stamps.
*
Labels and product packaging.
* Prints of the topographical and
artist-drawn
varieties.
*
Sheet music.
*
Public notices and posters.
*
Cheques.
*
Receipts.
A
'Double Life' at Car Boot Sales
Not a world away from collectors' fairs,
fleamarkets and
bric-a-brac fairs, car boot sales offer a good
income to
traders prepared to offer reasonable stock at
realistic prices.
Here we have an excellent trading place for
the sale of
collectors' items, other than those of the
paper variety,
unless you manage to acquire an indoor pitch,
or else have your
stock safely tucked away, but still on view
within your
vehicle. Here we find sellers of jewellery,
silver, books,
even
stamps and ephemera, collectors' toys, and so on.
Some traders are clearly 'here for the day
only', to sell the
proceeds of an attic clearing session. The bug
might however
bite, and they will then set off in search of
suitable stock
for future excursions. For some, attendance at
car boot sales
is an ideal way of generating a little extra
money to help with
family finances; for others it's an ideal way
to earn from the
growing demand for bargains, second-hand
items, and other
inexpensive ways of purchasing essentials and
non-essential
items.
Stock must be selected with care. Some items
you will be
precluded from selling, notably livestock,
often food, and of
course anything which does not come up to
standard, and here I
would advise you to steer clear of electrical
goods which you
can not honestly vouch for the quality and
reliability of.
Your local Trading Standards Department will
be able to advise
you on those items excluded by law, whilst the
organisers of
the sale itself will identify those items they
themselves
disallow.
Stock is unbelievably easy to acquire whether
from your own
garage or the attics of friends and relatives;
from jumble
sales or other car boot traders, charity
shops, and private
sales in the classified pages of local
newspapers and
freesheets.
This is an area of business to which most
people could easily
become addicted since the hours are relatively
short, the
trader is his or her own boss, and there is
undoubtedly a lot
of money to be made by the conscientious,
prudent, and above
all
fair trader.
All you need do to start trading is turn up on
the day and make
your
presence known to the organiser.
We've talked at length about selling at these
well-visited
venues, but have you as yet considered the
enormous potential
of
actually organising the event yourself?
First and foremost, you require approval from
the local
authority in which you intend to operate.
Potential problems
of traffic congestion, public nuisance and so
on must be ironed
out before you simply advertise the event in
whatever field,
car park or building you have in mind. The
most successful
events tend to the those larger gatherings
held within easy
access of main roads and motorways; sometimes
in large fields,
in disused cinemas, auction rooms, sports
stadiums and leisure
centres, and such. Advertising your event is
very much similar
to that for the organiser of antiques and
collectors' fairs,
involving national (sometimes) press
advertisements; local
press releases and advertisements; leaflets
distributed
door-to-door; and including leaflets and
posters in shop
windows,
libraries and community centres.
Newsletters
Newsletters, particularly those that offer
some information of
particular use during times of recession, are
currently
enjoying great success. Various types are on
offer, ranging
from employment opportunities in Britain and
abroad, homework
opportunities, business and money making
opportunities, and so
on. And in a recent glossie women's magazine,
a report was
included on a couple who, facing economic
disaster as the
recession began, suddenly found themselves
unable to afford the
designer labelled clothing and accessories
they once took for
granted. Without an income of any description,
they began
their own newsletter, one dedicated to seeking
out acceptable
alternatives to the costly up-market products,
goods and
services with which they were once familiar.
Their newsletter
is distributed to a circulation of some 400
similarly recession
battered
individuals, a figure which is growing constantly.
Running
Pen Pal and Special
Interest
Clubs
'Lonely in a Crowd' they say, and perhaps
never was a truer
word spoken, if the number of 'lonely
gentleman' and 'lonely
lady' ads placed in the personal sections of
Britain's
newspapers are anything to go by. And again,
in times of
economic hardship, this is another business
ideally suited to
survival.
To the rescue of the many lonely and shy
individuals in Britain
alone, come a number of agencies, all
providing introductory
services: pen pal clubs, contact bureaus,
dating agencies -
whatever the name, the objective remains the
same - to put
people in touch with others with similar
needs, but without the
ability
to bring about such contact on their own behalf.
Many other reasons add up to a great need for
introduction to
suitable individuals, including the fact that
interests and
social pursuits take people away from their
cosy home
environment,
as do the wider horizons facing today's workforce.
Hobbies and interests also place people in
alien surroundings,
if not physically, then at least by virtue of
the fact that
often the enthusiast has no contact with
others of similar
persuasions
with whom to pursue that interest.
The enterprising businessperson now envisages
a demand that can
be fulfilled, without too arduous a day's work
being put into
the proceedings. Those seeking solace,
companionship, love, or
else just someone with whom to share their interests
may not
actively be looking for some go-between to
administer to their
requirements. But, place before them that
advertisement
whereby they will be provided with pen
friends, dating
partners, holiday companions and so on, and
you have your
demand
making direct contact with supply.
The entrepreneur often does little more than
collate details of
all requiring to be placed in touch with like
individuals,
checks records for suitable matches, then
advises the
individuals so matched as to the means of
carrying out the
proposed contact or communication. Penfriends
may of course
never meet, indeed they may never initially
intend to meet
whoever it is they are placed in contact with,
although in
reality such meetings do often take place
between people who
have communicated by letter for some time. The
world is after
all a relatively smaller place, thanks to
improvements in
transport
and other means of communications.
Dating agencies, by virtue of the service they
provide, will
undoubtedly be placing clients in personal
contact with one
another. Stricter methods of investigating the
personal
details of clients may therefore be considered
more vital than
for those seeking merely to write to one
another or attend
evening
classes together.
A fair degree of confidentiality enters into
the proceedings
when one is assessing the requirements of
those seeking
partners for potential dates and possible
marriage. Tact.
diplomacy, and on occasion a personal meeting
with one's
clients, are the order of the day for
enterprises seeking to
offer
such personal services.
There are also clubs for people with specific
interests; for
instance writing, consumer competitions, and
mutual hobbies and
leisure interests. Many such clubs have
members who meet
physically without the need for a coordinator
to circulate
details of their activities. Some though,
exist purely by
means of postal communications; others require
a middle man
only to facilitate the first meeting, after
which his services
are
no longer required.
An example of those clubs needing the
continuous services of
the organiser, are such as hobby groups which
exchange details
of members' wants via the medium of a regular
list issued to
all members. An example of that requiring only
once-off
services from the organiser, are such as
dating agencies and
lonely hearts clubs. In the latter respect
however, we may
find some members who, dissatisfied with their
date, will
continue their membership sometimes for many
years, until they
find that person to provide companionship and
possibly
marriage.
Many successful leisure interest clubs provide
an excellent and
regular source of income for the organiser.
Writing clubs for
instance, may be held either by post or by
actual meetings
being held. Members are required to pay their
fees to the
organiser, with usually higher fees for the
postal variety
which might also involve providing a regular
newsletter, as
well as an up-to-date list of members for
circulation to all
fellow
members.
Many hobbies have special clubs, often with a
regular
newsletter being provided to all members. Some
operate also as
commercial enterprises, perhaps selling items
for members'
needs and providing members with regular
newsletters, or at
least providing details of members and their
particular
interests.
One dealer in picture postcards also issues a
monthly magazine
dedicated to the interests of worldwide
collectors. Not
exactly a newsletter, this particular magazine
could easily
incorporate details of persons wanting to be
placed in contact
with one another for the purposes of
exchanging duplicates to
collections. As it is, the magazine carries
articles,
subscribers' advertisements, and details of
all fairs, events
and auctions to be held within the coming few
months. Similar
magazines are produced by dealers in cigarette
cards,
autographs,
and old bottles.
A coin dealer with whom I am acquainted runs a
club which
produces a list of all members for circulation
to all others.
In the list, produced in booklet form, all
members are allowed
to advertise, and details of everyone's
interests both as
collectors and dealers, are listed for the
purposes of
contacting
one another with suitable offers.
Another group, The Ephemera Society, exists
for those of us who
collect, or deal in, paper collectibles both
old and new.
Every year the list of members is up-dated and
circulated
amongst subscribers. A quarterly newsletter
'The Ephemerist',
contains articles, advertisements and details
of events shortly
to take place. Again, it appears there is a
business run
alongside that has little to do with
correspondence or mutual
interest clubs, but nevertheless I include
this society as an
example of what one could aspire to by placing
those with
specific
interests in contact with one another.
And
not forgetting.......
..... a number of other business opportunities
ideally suited
to survival during this or any other
recession. Think for
instance of pawnbrokers, stress consultants,
sleep consultants,
diet and exercise advisors and group leaders,
import and export
agents, party plan operators, office services
agencies, and
many,
many more.
The
Recession Could Well be the Very Best Thing that Ever
Happened
to YOU!
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