There
is a big money business that can be started for next to nothing, with
low
risk, that involves giving away special cards.
These cards are DISCOUNT
CARDS,
wallet-sized cards that allow the bearer to receive discounts at
participating
businesses. These businesses pay to have
their advertisement
on
the card. They profit from the increased
exposure and from gaining new
customers
who come in for the discount and become return customers.
The
card-holders benefit from the discounts they can receive.
And
YOU benefit from the profitable advertising you sell!
This
is a relatively simple business to explain.
Here's an overview:
1)
Design your card.
2)
Figure your expenses and set your ad prices.
3)
Contact businesses that frequently use discounts or coupons (potential
advertisers for you) either in person or by mail, with an information package.
4) Gather the ads (and the money!) and
print them together on wallet-sized cards. 5)
Distribute the cards to the public.
That's all there is to it. Of course, there are more details you need to
know, and those will be covered in this
report. This business works
especially well if there is a college in your
town, or any large number of
people who either vacation there or move to
town, but it can be run
successfully in any area. The best part (besides the money) is that you
can run this business from your kitchen
table! Here's exactly what you
need to do to make great profits in the
discount card business.
First, think up a name for your card. A catchy name that has words like
DISCOUNT, SAVER, MONEY, BUCKS, BIG, FREE or
other dollar-saving words will
stick in people's minds. If you (or a friend) have artistic ability,
design a logo, either with your card's name,
or a picture conveying the
money-saving feature of the card.
Next, design how your card will look. It should fit easily into a wallet,
so stick to credit card size. On the front, your logo should appear, along
with, at most, six ads, in three columns of
two. The back should be
divided into, at most, twenty ad spaces,
again in three columns (7 on the
sides, 6 in the middle). This might sound like a lot, but they will be
readable.
Don't forget to put your business name, address and phone on the
front or back, at the bottom of the card.
You should also put together a poster with
your logo and information about
the card.
Leave space for a list of locations where the card can be
obtained, and for a list of the advertising
businesses. This poster will
be inexpensive for your printer to produce,
and can be produced on your
computer, if you have one, reducing your
expenses even further.
Now figure your costs. The major cost to you will be printing, so
check
with a number of printers for price
quotes. You will want a one or two
color glossy card, with price quotes for
quantities for 1,000 - 10,000
cards.
Find out at what quantities significant price breaks occur. This
can help determine exactly how many cards you
want to produce and
distribute.
This number will be important when it comes to contacting
your advertisers.
Don't be put off by how much the cards will
cost! You won't have to
worry about laying out a lot of money for the
production of the cards,
because you should require that advertisers
pay at least half of their
advertising price at the time they decide to
advertise, the remainder when
cards are distributed. Some businesses will
prefer to pay 100% upfront,
which is just fine! You shouldn't deal with businesses that won't
pay
anything upfront, unless you have some desire
to deal with collection
headaches.
You should be thinking about how to
distribute these cards. If there is
a college in your town, here's a few
ideas. Contact the admissions
department at the college, explain your
discount card, and see if they
would consider putting a card into the
orientation materials each incoming
student gets.
Also, find out places where you may put a stack of cards
for students to take. Prime locations are cafeterias and dining
halls,
snack bars, libraries and any other places
where students group.
For
the general public, great distribution spots are similar to the college
spots. Restaurants, grocery stores, theaters,
apartment buildings, anywhere
where
there are large groups of people. Don't
forget that you can give a
good
supply to each advertiser, to give free to their customers. All you
need
to do is a few good, persuasive phone calls, and your distribution will
be
taken care of easily. Stress to the
person you're speaking with that
making
the cards available to their customers will be good business for them,
even
if they don't advertise on the card, because their customers will
appreciate
being given these discounts and will look upon the business as
their
friend for doing so.
Now
that you have your printing quotes, determine how much you can charge for
advertising. Estimate what your phone, advertising,
driving and postage
expenses
will be. Lump these all together and you
have an idea of what your
costs
will be. Now, multiply that figure by
five. Divide that figure by the
total
number of advertisers you will have on your card. The number you end
up
with is the average price you could charge per ad. Does this sound
reasonable,
considering the number of cards you'll be distributing? If so,
it
should make a good starting point.
For
example, if you are planning to distribute 8,000 cards with 26
advertisers,
and your estimated expenses will be $1200, the formula is
($1,200
x 5)/26, or $230.77 average ad price ($28.85 per thousand), and your
profit
would be $4,800. Considering the
benefits the advertiser will get
from
the cards (they will be kept and used for a long time, usually 3 to 6
months,
and 5,000 people will be exposed to their ad repeatedly over that
period
of time), this will probably be reasonable.
You need to consider the
economy
in your area, the size of your area, and any competition you might
have,
as this can effect what you may be able to charge.
When
you decide how much to charge for ads, here are a few things to keep
in
mind. Ads on the front of the card
should be much higher priced than on
the
back, and, as a result, should be slightly larger. On the back, you can
set
two different ad rates by putting using "boxed ads." An ad with a black
box
around it will be noticed more than one without, so it can be slightly
higher.
A good example of ad prices corresponding to the above average ad
price
would be $200 for a plain ad on the back of the card, $230 for a boxed
ad
on the back, and $260 for an ad on the front of the card.
Now's
the time to contact potential advertisers.
Here's a short list of the
types
of businesses that will be most likely to take advantage of your
service: Restaurants, particularly fast-food and
snack establishments +
Theaters
+ Printers + Dry cleaners + Oil change and auto parts businesses
+ Travel agencies + Clothing stores + Hair salons +
Formalwear stores
This
is not a complete list, but it should give you an idea of the types
of
businesses you need to contact.