The term "Relocation Consultant" is an all-encompassing business that involves everything that has to do with transferring people. The task of a relocation consultant may include any or all of the following activities and services that generally come with moving to a new location:
- Select a moving company.
- Selling the old house .
- Finding and buying a new home or renting a new apartment.
- Suggesting schools, churches, etc.
- Spouse job placement counseling
Of course you choose which services you want to include in your repertoire. However, on a joint-effort with other professionals in your area, you can really offer an extensive menu of services.
Relocation consultants do not own moving companies. They hire moving companies for and on behalf of the client. As a relocation consultant, you also deal with real estate agents, travel agencies, and career consultants. You control the middle ground where all these services merge to fulfill the needs of your client.
SHELTER IS #1
The most important issue in any relocation is where your client will reside in their new city or state. Some clients buy a home in the new city before they move. Others prefer to rent, giving themselves enough time to become familiar with the area before buying a house. Most relocation consultants receive their commission from the real estate agent. However, if your client wants to rent, as opposed to immediately buying a home, the company relocating your client will more than likely pick up the tab, usually equal to one month's rent.
Some rental properties, however, will pay a relocation consultant a commission equal to one month's rent.
CORPORATE FIELD
You can do a real volume business by targeting large corporate accounts. Companies in high-technology related products and services are the growth markets in relocation.
Contracts for technical top-guns range 3 to 5 years, so you can expect excellent turn over in the high-tech industry. Concentrating on a specific industry gives you credibility and lots of referrals.
Finders Make 6 Digit Income
Millions of people dream about being self employed with a business they create and own for themselves.
The desire to be your own boss and to have the blissful freedom to set your own hours is a powerful force for just about anyone.
But what most often bursts the bubble of those who dream of self-determined financial independence are the immediate road blocks that present themselves. The most common barriers are:
* The need for large amounts of start-up money.
* The need for a special skill or educational level.
* The need to find a business that can support you as well or better as your current job.
* The need to find a business in a field that is not already crowded with competition.
* The need for a business that does not require special and expensive equipment.
* The need to find a business that can be done anywhere in the country, namely, where you live.
Most often one or a combination of the above keep people where they are - in the rut of their current dreary, low-paying job, or unemployed.
That's why we went searching for a kind of business that leapfrogs all of the above, and which just about anyone can start right away with little or no star-up cash, and do it no matter where they live or what their level of skill or education.
A job that fits the bill is to become a Finder.
What is a Finder?
It was the brilliant scientist Albert Einstein who once said: "It takes a genius to see the obvious."
That axiom is true for the job of being a Finder. This is a concept for making big self-employment money which is incredibly simple and lucrative, but perhaps so simple that most have overlooked it because it is so obvious.
Ask any marketing expert about the best way to make money in America, and he or she will tell you to isolate a problem or need, and then find a way to solve that problem or fulfill that need.
A problem and need which millions of people have is that they need to find something. Millions of people need to find the perfect apartment. Millions are looking for the perfect spouse or mate. Millions of people are looking for a roommate. Millions of people are looking for more clients to build their businesses. Millions of people are looking for special items, like rare books, antiques, classic automobiles, baseballcards, famous signatures, the best trout streams in America, the best restaurants in New York - the list is absolutely without limit.
The bottom line is this: You can help people find what they need, and they will pay you for it. You can start your own business as a professional finder, and never be without clients, cash flow or financial security ever again.
Whether you decide to be a finder of husbands for lonely women, or rare beer cans for collectors, the fundamentals of being a finder are generally the same. First, let's look at two examples of successful finding businesses, and then go on to a more general discussion of how to set up a finding business.
Classic Car Finding Service
Thousands of people are in love with automobiles, especially classic models. You can tap into this trade instantly with a few small classified ads in auto magazines, and also in general upscale magazines with a wealthy subscribers list.
Your ad could simply say: "We find rare and classic automobiles. For fast, experienced service call: 555-5555."
When your ad breaks, you'll start getting calls. To each person who inquires, send a single sheet of paper which outlines your fees, and perhaps a business card. You need nothing more elaborate than that. Ask for a minimum of $100 to $500 per search. You can get from $2,500 to $5,000 if you score a find on a rare model.
As a rule, you can claim from 5 to 10 percent commission on the car you find. For example, a stainless steel Delorian prices at $20,000 will netyou $2,000 if you match up an owner with a buyer.
To be successful, you'll spend time developing something few other people have - the inside track on where all the rare, classic and high demand automobiles are. If you are a car nut, this task will be a sheer pleasure for you. It means a lot of time poring over specialty car journals, attending trade shows, and getting to know dealers and even manufacturers.
Sometimes you can double your money on each transaction by collecting from both buyer and seller. Why not? You'll be doing each of them a service, and most will be happy to pay a middleman to get what they want.
That's it! Now let's take another example.
Roommate Finding Service
It's a fact of life that rental increases continue to out-pace wage increases, especially in large cities like New York and Los Angeles. Add to that the fact that many apartment complexes are being converted into expensive condominiums and you have a problem for millions of people who just need an affordable place to live.
While it may difficult to find cheap housing for people in this housing climate, you can save people thousands of dollars by finding them a roommate to share the rent.
Start out with ads in your local newspaper. They should be short, direct and simple:
Save thousands on rent! We'll find you the perfect roommate! Call: 555-5555.
When calls start coming in, ask for a $25 registration fee to get your cash-flow started right away.
Take a polaroid snapshot of each client. Have each person fill out a form indicating the kind of roommate they can live with, that is; smoker/nonsmoker, male/female, drinker/nondrinker, age category, and so on.
Before long you will amass a large file of people looking for a roommate. Your job, then is to match up your clients with the kind of people they have indicated they can live with. When you make a match, charge an additional fee of 10 to 15 percent of their first month's rent.
If you sign up just 200 people a month, you are already earning $5,000 amonth. With the fee you get from each successful roommate match made, your income will easily double. Can you earn $100,000 a year with a roommatefinding service? Absolutely! Furthermore, anyone can do it, it takes no special education or skill, just a sense of organization, good people skills and persistent advertising.
If People Want it, Find it for Them
Now, you may know nothing about cars, and perhaps you do lot live in a major urban area where rent is high and roommates are in high demand. In that case, the above two examples do you little good.
But the job of finding is not limited to cars and roommates. You can become a finder for just about anything, Consider:
* Finding new clients for professionals, especially dentists, doctors and lawyers. Professionals compete heavily for clients in each specific region. If you can help your local doctor increase his patient load, you can collect a fee for each patient found.
* Finding antiques and collectibles for collectors. Need we say more about this. Some people will pay top dollar for a rare beer can, an oil lamp orrare comic books. Pick a collectible category and start finding!
* Finding rare coins and currency. The fact is, one of the hottest businesses in America is coin and currency collecting. It's called numismatics. Today, there are thousands of full-time numismatics professionals whose sole purpose is to buy, sell and trade coins every day. If you can help these folks find the items of currency they want, you'll cash in every time.
* Finding items of historical interest for large corporations. A Michigan man recently spotted a car company ad in a rare old magazine dated 1890. He sent a copy to the auto giant's headquarters, and soon received an offer of several hundred dollars for the original magazine. This is not limited to magazine ads. Anything you can find - from an old plow to cigar boxes -may be worth a lot of money to the corporations who produced the products years ago. Such items are valuable for public relations and advertising purposes, as well as office and lobby decorations.
* Finding used and rare books. Many people make a lucrative full-time living by finding books that are either out-of-print or hard to find. Take out classified ads in literary and writer's magazines, and you'll soon get requests for books that people want you to find.
* Finding second or third mortgages for people who need money. Many people take out second, third even fourth mortgages on their homes. You can start a service in which you act as an agent between lending institutions and the people who need loans. You can collect 5 to 10 percenton each mortgage you secure for a client.
The list is endless. You can find anything from food stuffs, to rare metals. All you need is an entity willing to pay a fee for what they need found.You can also set up shop as a sort of "general" finding service. Run an ad that says:
"We find anything for you! Call 555-5555." One kind of finding often leads to another.
Becoming a finder is something anyone can do with next to no start-up capital needed, and where your competition is likely to be nonexistent.
If you are looking for a top-notch self-employment opportunity, we urge you to consider your own finding service. You may soon find yourself self-employed, financially secure and free of the bonds of you boring day job.
The desire to be your own boss and to have the blissful freedom to set your own hours is a powerful force for just about anyone.
But what most often bursts the bubble of those who dream of self-determined financial independence are the immediate road blocks that present themselves. The most common barriers are:
* The need for large amounts of start-up money.
* The need for a special skill or educational level.
* The need to find a business that can support you as well or better as your current job.
* The need to find a business in a field that is not already crowded with competition.
* The need for a business that does not require special and expensive equipment.
* The need to find a business that can be done anywhere in the country, namely, where you live.
Most often one or a combination of the above keep people where they are - in the rut of their current dreary, low-paying job, or unemployed.
That's why we went searching for a kind of business that leapfrogs all of the above, and which just about anyone can start right away with little or no star-up cash, and do it no matter where they live or what their level of skill or education.
A job that fits the bill is to become a Finder.
What is a Finder?
It was the brilliant scientist Albert Einstein who once said: "It takes a genius to see the obvious."
That axiom is true for the job of being a Finder. This is a concept for making big self-employment money which is incredibly simple and lucrative, but perhaps so simple that most have overlooked it because it is so obvious.
Ask any marketing expert about the best way to make money in America, and he or she will tell you to isolate a problem or need, and then find a way to solve that problem or fulfill that need.
A problem and need which millions of people have is that they need to find something. Millions of people need to find the perfect apartment. Millions are looking for the perfect spouse or mate. Millions of people are looking for a roommate. Millions of people are looking for more clients to build their businesses. Millions of people are looking for special items, like rare books, antiques, classic automobiles, baseballcards, famous signatures, the best trout streams in America, the best restaurants in New York - the list is absolutely without limit.
The bottom line is this: You can help people find what they need, and they will pay you for it. You can start your own business as a professional finder, and never be without clients, cash flow or financial security ever again.
Whether you decide to be a finder of husbands for lonely women, or rare beer cans for collectors, the fundamentals of being a finder are generally the same. First, let's look at two examples of successful finding businesses, and then go on to a more general discussion of how to set up a finding business.
Classic Car Finding Service
Thousands of people are in love with automobiles, especially classic models. You can tap into this trade instantly with a few small classified ads in auto magazines, and also in general upscale magazines with a wealthy subscribers list.
Your ad could simply say: "We find rare and classic automobiles. For fast, experienced service call: 555-5555."
When your ad breaks, you'll start getting calls. To each person who inquires, send a single sheet of paper which outlines your fees, and perhaps a business card. You need nothing more elaborate than that. Ask for a minimum of $100 to $500 per search. You can get from $2,500 to $5,000 if you score a find on a rare model.
As a rule, you can claim from 5 to 10 percent commission on the car you find. For example, a stainless steel Delorian prices at $20,000 will netyou $2,000 if you match up an owner with a buyer.
To be successful, you'll spend time developing something few other people have - the inside track on where all the rare, classic and high demand automobiles are. If you are a car nut, this task will be a sheer pleasure for you. It means a lot of time poring over specialty car journals, attending trade shows, and getting to know dealers and even manufacturers.
Sometimes you can double your money on each transaction by collecting from both buyer and seller. Why not? You'll be doing each of them a service, and most will be happy to pay a middleman to get what they want.
That's it! Now let's take another example.
Roommate Finding Service
It's a fact of life that rental increases continue to out-pace wage increases, especially in large cities like New York and Los Angeles. Add to that the fact that many apartment complexes are being converted into expensive condominiums and you have a problem for millions of people who just need an affordable place to live.
While it may difficult to find cheap housing for people in this housing climate, you can save people thousands of dollars by finding them a roommate to share the rent.
Start out with ads in your local newspaper. They should be short, direct and simple:
Save thousands on rent! We'll find you the perfect roommate! Call: 555-5555.
When calls start coming in, ask for a $25 registration fee to get your cash-flow started right away.
Take a polaroid snapshot of each client. Have each person fill out a form indicating the kind of roommate they can live with, that is; smoker/nonsmoker, male/female, drinker/nondrinker, age category, and so on.
Before long you will amass a large file of people looking for a roommate. Your job, then is to match up your clients with the kind of people they have indicated they can live with. When you make a match, charge an additional fee of 10 to 15 percent of their first month's rent.
If you sign up just 200 people a month, you are already earning $5,000 amonth. With the fee you get from each successful roommate match made, your income will easily double. Can you earn $100,000 a year with a roommatefinding service? Absolutely! Furthermore, anyone can do it, it takes no special education or skill, just a sense of organization, good people skills and persistent advertising.
If People Want it, Find it for Them
Now, you may know nothing about cars, and perhaps you do lot live in a major urban area where rent is high and roommates are in high demand. In that case, the above two examples do you little good.
But the job of finding is not limited to cars and roommates. You can become a finder for just about anything, Consider:
* Finding new clients for professionals, especially dentists, doctors and lawyers. Professionals compete heavily for clients in each specific region. If you can help your local doctor increase his patient load, you can collect a fee for each patient found.
* Finding antiques and collectibles for collectors. Need we say more about this. Some people will pay top dollar for a rare beer can, an oil lamp orrare comic books. Pick a collectible category and start finding!
* Finding rare coins and currency. The fact is, one of the hottest businesses in America is coin and currency collecting. It's called numismatics. Today, there are thousands of full-time numismatics professionals whose sole purpose is to buy, sell and trade coins every day. If you can help these folks find the items of currency they want, you'll cash in every time.
* Finding items of historical interest for large corporations. A Michigan man recently spotted a car company ad in a rare old magazine dated 1890. He sent a copy to the auto giant's headquarters, and soon received an offer of several hundred dollars for the original magazine. This is not limited to magazine ads. Anything you can find - from an old plow to cigar boxes -may be worth a lot of money to the corporations who produced the products years ago. Such items are valuable for public relations and advertising purposes, as well as office and lobby decorations.
* Finding used and rare books. Many people make a lucrative full-time living by finding books that are either out-of-print or hard to find. Take out classified ads in literary and writer's magazines, and you'll soon get requests for books that people want you to find.
* Finding second or third mortgages for people who need money. Many people take out second, third even fourth mortgages on their homes. You can start a service in which you act as an agent between lending institutions and the people who need loans. You can collect 5 to 10 percenton each mortgage you secure for a client.
The list is endless. You can find anything from food stuffs, to rare metals. All you need is an entity willing to pay a fee for what they need found.You can also set up shop as a sort of "general" finding service. Run an ad that says:
"We find anything for you! Call 555-5555." One kind of finding often leads to another.
Becoming a finder is something anyone can do with next to no start-up capital needed, and where your competition is likely to be nonexistent.
If you are looking for a top-notch self-employment opportunity, we urge you to consider your own finding service. You may soon find yourself self-employed, financially secure and free of the bonds of you boring day job.
Making Money At Home
How many times have you heard that phrase, pitch, advertisement, or whatever? Lots, I'm sure. It is used so much because marketers know that staying home and making money is the fondest dream of millions of people.
And why not? Did you know that the majority of fatal heart attacks happen at 9 a.m. Monday morning? It's true. It seems a lot of people would rather die than get back to the old grind after a weekend of freedom.
So when someone offers an opportunity or plan for you to take your job and shove it, yet still make enough money to live and pay all your bills, it sounds blissfully irresistible.
Of course, bliss and reality are always two different things. Is it really possible to run a business from your own home that is more than a hobby or source of part-time income? Can you get rich working out of yourown home? Can you really trade your cubical and necktie for blue jeans and the comfort of your own den?
Well, for your information, home-based businesses are one of the fastest growing kinds of enterprises in America today. As this is being written, some 40 million Americans are doing at least some form of work out of their homes, and the numbers are rising rapidly. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, as many as 70 million people will be working out of their homes by the year 2005. Government studies have indicated that asmuch as 75% of all work done in this country could eventually be movedhome.
The overwhelming majority of home workers, however, are not exactly getting rich. The average work-at-home American earns less than $15,000 per year. That may not be bad as a supplement to a spouse's full-time income, but let's face it, fifteen grand in and of itself is not much better than poverty.
As master marketer and author Dr. Jeffrey Lant said: "Frankly, I never saw any benefit to staying home and being poor." Lant, without so much as a business card, became a work-at-home millionaire, and is a perfect example of what truly can be achieved if you are serious about chucking your day job, staying home, and not settling for peanuts in exchange for your freedom. You can have it all -- you can stay home and make as much -- and more -- money than your current job provides you.
In this report, we are going to outline and discuss five key rules on how to work at home and make big bucks, no matter where you live. After these five rules, we'll talk about the most important aspect of any business, whether it be home-based or a giant factory -- cash flow. Starting yourown business out of your home is all about attitude and inspiration, but all the attitude in the world won't help you without money!
1. It Takes Commitment: Is it any secret in America that most people detest their jobs? Study after study proves that most people simply dread going to work Monday morning, and they live for the freedom of the weekend. But even that freedom is not pure because we know that it is only temporary. It's hard to enjoy a Sunday evening when the Monday morning alarm clock is just a few hours away.
It makes sense that people hate their jobs. Everyday, there is a lot of butt kissing that needs to be done. There are endless meetings which usually accomplish nothing. There are pointless interruptions, a lot of drifting this way and that, and lot of idiot supervisors who do nothing but waste your time and then dog you for not accomplishing your share of work. There are co-workers you hate, and who would stab you in the back in a minute if it meant a raise for them instead of you.
When you work for someone else, you live a regimented life. Your body may not want to get up at 7 a.m., but you have to be at work by 8 a.m. so you lurch out of bed with a head full of sleep.
People who choose to work at home are doing more than just escaping the yoke of their master; they have made a deep, firm, life-altering decision which says that health, happiness and prosperity depend vitally on the freedom to work for ourselves, and in doing so in the comfort of the home.
We want to really emphasize that fact that to be successful in a work-at-home situation, you have to be nothing less than a fanatic; a zealot, who is utterly committed to making work-at-home not only a successful venture, but a profound commitment for life. You must be convinced that a return to an outside office job would be the equivalent of a spiritual death sentence.
Many people hate their office jobs, but they have made an inner compromise with themselves. They have convinced themselves that their job is "not so bad," pays the bills, and that they can stick out because they have to.
If you want to be truly successful at quitting your day job, there cannot be any room for such compromises in your soul. You have to take the attitude that to work any longer at your hateful job is akin to fouling your inner being with a spiritual cancer the will sicken and kill you.
2. Eliminating the Home-Office Mentality: To move our work home, however, does not mean we eliminate every single thing about the traditional American office. Rather, we should select what is useful and what is not.
It's a mistake to quit your job and go home with a "home-office" mentality. By this we mean thinking small, and believing that you will automatically sacrifice a decent income in exchange for your freedom. Please! Do not think small!
To quote Jeffrey Lant again: "Too many home-based practitioners fail to understand the benefits that accrue because of the professional style they have selected. They focus on the "home" part of the business rather than the "business" portion, and as a result are doomed to small incomes." Working at home provides many benefits. We can save a lot of time because we don't need to commute and we have more control over our schedule. We can save a lot of costs because we don't have the overhead requirements of larger businesses. We can cut our stress -- and so have more energy --because we avoid many of the characteristic problems of life in the late 20th-Century office. We must work these advantages to our profit.
3. Your International Headquarters: The German philosopher Immanuel Kant said that if you sit at home alone at your empty kitchen table, eventually, the "whole world will come to you."
Well, today you don't need the great mind of a philosopher to make the entire world come into your living room. What you need is a phone jack.
We live in a unique time in history. Satellites, fiber optics, the integrated circuit and other communications miracles means that you can be just about anywhere in the developed world and establish communication with anyone.
The telephone, the fax machine, the computer, the modem -- all of these are not only affordable by any middle-class citizen; they are the key to eliminating your need to drive a hectic freeway everyday to get to a place of business outside your home.
With these devices at our disposal, we should allow ourselves to "think globally." Too often, home-based businesses focus on the narrowest market, the neighborhood, the county, the city or state. This is fine if you are providing a local service and are content with a certain moderate level of income. But if you want the big bucks, you should not think small. Also, you should not believe that, just because you are home-based, you cannot compete with the big guys.
The purpose of any business is to seek assess and seek out every possible market for its products and services, to ascertain whether these markets have the ability to buy these products/services, to determine whether there is sufficient profit in these markets to warrant approaching them, and, once positive assessment has been made, to launch a sustained marketing campaign that gets a significant percentage of this market to purchase the product or service in question.
Your home telecommunications machines will not only enable you to do this, but they can also help you overwhelm larger, more cumbersome traditional businesses that are your competition.
As a home-based entrepreneur, you will not have all of the disadvantages of your more traditional competitors: no office rent, equipment or expense; no employees to pay salaries and fringe benefits for; no time wasted on meetings, employee problems, paid sick leave, etc.
All the money your competitors spend on heating the office and buying furniture could better be spent on the actual marketing itself.
As a home-based business, you will be already positioned where the traditional business is currently struggling to move: toward the lowest possible overhead and the greatest possible concentration of dollars on products/service development and product/service marketing.
So, a home-based business takes full advantage of three major goals of modern business success:
(1) Vastly reduced overhead
(2) Easy access to a global market
(3) Full advantage of telecommunications
To not have the basic telecommunications toys -- computer, modem, fax, and telephones is impossibly stupid. Still, even in this day and age, many of people strongly resist the one element that is undoubtedly the heart and brain of any successful home business -- the computer. The computer is soimportant in fact, we have made it a category all itself.
And remember, learning to use a modern computer is easier than learning to drive a car, so you have no excuse not to plunge forward.
4. The Computer: You should pay close attention to what computers can do for you in your plans to escape your job and make your work-at-home dreams come true.
People who want to run a home business usually have a very small staff -- infact, a staff of one -- yourself! The rest of your needs are handled by independent contractors, depending on the kind of business you are in and the services you need.
To run a serious, truly global home business, a computer is as necessary as oxygen is to life on earth. Those who try to fool themselves into thinking they will ever make a serious go of their home-based business without a computer are sadly mistaken.
Computers give you two primary advantages:
(1) They enable you to store large amounts of data and to sort by datafield so that you can easily get the information you need.
(2) They enable you to develop a pattern document for every situation you'll ever be in in your business. To run a home-based business successfully, you must anticipate just what situation will emerge and prepare accordingly.
A business is based on a characteristic series of situations and a characteristic set of things that happen -- or that do not happen. You must be prepared with the proper document for each situation. Once you have established all the protocols, and have experienced all the situations associated with your kind of business, the time will come when running your business is, in large part, a repetition of certain key tasks. Computers are all about handling repetition swiftly and efficiently.
But the computer is much more. Today, by connecting a computer to the phone line with a modem, your machine becomes more than a data storage system and repetitive task handler. It becomes a multi-task, multi-level communications processing center that connects you to the globe.
Such things as e-mail, on-line services, the Internet, the Web and more can't help but revolutionize the way business is done. If you do not become a part of it today, you certainly are going to suffer for it greatly in the near future.
If there is an effective way to market products on the Internet or any other on-line venue, no one has truly discovered it yet. The only people making money on Internet marketing are the people who are selling the concept of doing it. If you have a product or a service and expect to reach millions of buyers through computer screens, you are sadly mistaken.
And why not? Did you know that the majority of fatal heart attacks happen at 9 a.m. Monday morning? It's true. It seems a lot of people would rather die than get back to the old grind after a weekend of freedom.
So when someone offers an opportunity or plan for you to take your job and shove it, yet still make enough money to live and pay all your bills, it sounds blissfully irresistible.
Of course, bliss and reality are always two different things. Is it really possible to run a business from your own home that is more than a hobby or source of part-time income? Can you get rich working out of yourown home? Can you really trade your cubical and necktie for blue jeans and the comfort of your own den?
Well, for your information, home-based businesses are one of the fastest growing kinds of enterprises in America today. As this is being written, some 40 million Americans are doing at least some form of work out of their homes, and the numbers are rising rapidly. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, as many as 70 million people will be working out of their homes by the year 2005. Government studies have indicated that asmuch as 75% of all work done in this country could eventually be movedhome.
The overwhelming majority of home workers, however, are not exactly getting rich. The average work-at-home American earns less than $15,000 per year. That may not be bad as a supplement to a spouse's full-time income, but let's face it, fifteen grand in and of itself is not much better than poverty.
As master marketer and author Dr. Jeffrey Lant said: "Frankly, I never saw any benefit to staying home and being poor." Lant, without so much as a business card, became a work-at-home millionaire, and is a perfect example of what truly can be achieved if you are serious about chucking your day job, staying home, and not settling for peanuts in exchange for your freedom. You can have it all -- you can stay home and make as much -- and more -- money than your current job provides you.
In this report, we are going to outline and discuss five key rules on how to work at home and make big bucks, no matter where you live. After these five rules, we'll talk about the most important aspect of any business, whether it be home-based or a giant factory -- cash flow. Starting yourown business out of your home is all about attitude and inspiration, but all the attitude in the world won't help you without money!
1. It Takes Commitment: Is it any secret in America that most people detest their jobs? Study after study proves that most people simply dread going to work Monday morning, and they live for the freedom of the weekend. But even that freedom is not pure because we know that it is only temporary. It's hard to enjoy a Sunday evening when the Monday morning alarm clock is just a few hours away.
It makes sense that people hate their jobs. Everyday, there is a lot of butt kissing that needs to be done. There are endless meetings which usually accomplish nothing. There are pointless interruptions, a lot of drifting this way and that, and lot of idiot supervisors who do nothing but waste your time and then dog you for not accomplishing your share of work. There are co-workers you hate, and who would stab you in the back in a minute if it meant a raise for them instead of you.
When you work for someone else, you live a regimented life. Your body may not want to get up at 7 a.m., but you have to be at work by 8 a.m. so you lurch out of bed with a head full of sleep.
People who choose to work at home are doing more than just escaping the yoke of their master; they have made a deep, firm, life-altering decision which says that health, happiness and prosperity depend vitally on the freedom to work for ourselves, and in doing so in the comfort of the home.
We want to really emphasize that fact that to be successful in a work-at-home situation, you have to be nothing less than a fanatic; a zealot, who is utterly committed to making work-at-home not only a successful venture, but a profound commitment for life. You must be convinced that a return to an outside office job would be the equivalent of a spiritual death sentence.
Many people hate their office jobs, but they have made an inner compromise with themselves. They have convinced themselves that their job is "not so bad," pays the bills, and that they can stick out because they have to.
If you want to be truly successful at quitting your day job, there cannot be any room for such compromises in your soul. You have to take the attitude that to work any longer at your hateful job is akin to fouling your inner being with a spiritual cancer the will sicken and kill you.
2. Eliminating the Home-Office Mentality: To move our work home, however, does not mean we eliminate every single thing about the traditional American office. Rather, we should select what is useful and what is not.
It's a mistake to quit your job and go home with a "home-office" mentality. By this we mean thinking small, and believing that you will automatically sacrifice a decent income in exchange for your freedom. Please! Do not think small!
To quote Jeffrey Lant again: "Too many home-based practitioners fail to understand the benefits that accrue because of the professional style they have selected. They focus on the "home" part of the business rather than the "business" portion, and as a result are doomed to small incomes." Working at home provides many benefits. We can save a lot of time because we don't need to commute and we have more control over our schedule. We can save a lot of costs because we don't have the overhead requirements of larger businesses. We can cut our stress -- and so have more energy --because we avoid many of the characteristic problems of life in the late 20th-Century office. We must work these advantages to our profit.
3. Your International Headquarters: The German philosopher Immanuel Kant said that if you sit at home alone at your empty kitchen table, eventually, the "whole world will come to you."
Well, today you don't need the great mind of a philosopher to make the entire world come into your living room. What you need is a phone jack.
We live in a unique time in history. Satellites, fiber optics, the integrated circuit and other communications miracles means that you can be just about anywhere in the developed world and establish communication with anyone.
The telephone, the fax machine, the computer, the modem -- all of these are not only affordable by any middle-class citizen; they are the key to eliminating your need to drive a hectic freeway everyday to get to a place of business outside your home.
With these devices at our disposal, we should allow ourselves to "think globally." Too often, home-based businesses focus on the narrowest market, the neighborhood, the county, the city or state. This is fine if you are providing a local service and are content with a certain moderate level of income. But if you want the big bucks, you should not think small. Also, you should not believe that, just because you are home-based, you cannot compete with the big guys.
The purpose of any business is to seek assess and seek out every possible market for its products and services, to ascertain whether these markets have the ability to buy these products/services, to determine whether there is sufficient profit in these markets to warrant approaching them, and, once positive assessment has been made, to launch a sustained marketing campaign that gets a significant percentage of this market to purchase the product or service in question.
Your home telecommunications machines will not only enable you to do this, but they can also help you overwhelm larger, more cumbersome traditional businesses that are your competition.
As a home-based entrepreneur, you will not have all of the disadvantages of your more traditional competitors: no office rent, equipment or expense; no employees to pay salaries and fringe benefits for; no time wasted on meetings, employee problems, paid sick leave, etc.
All the money your competitors spend on heating the office and buying furniture could better be spent on the actual marketing itself.
As a home-based business, you will be already positioned where the traditional business is currently struggling to move: toward the lowest possible overhead and the greatest possible concentration of dollars on products/service development and product/service marketing.
So, a home-based business takes full advantage of three major goals of modern business success:
(1) Vastly reduced overhead
(2) Easy access to a global market
(3) Full advantage of telecommunications
To not have the basic telecommunications toys -- computer, modem, fax, and telephones is impossibly stupid. Still, even in this day and age, many of people strongly resist the one element that is undoubtedly the heart and brain of any successful home business -- the computer. The computer is soimportant in fact, we have made it a category all itself.
And remember, learning to use a modern computer is easier than learning to drive a car, so you have no excuse not to plunge forward.
4. The Computer: You should pay close attention to what computers can do for you in your plans to escape your job and make your work-at-home dreams come true.
People who want to run a home business usually have a very small staff -- infact, a staff of one -- yourself! The rest of your needs are handled by independent contractors, depending on the kind of business you are in and the services you need.
To run a serious, truly global home business, a computer is as necessary as oxygen is to life on earth. Those who try to fool themselves into thinking they will ever make a serious go of their home-based business without a computer are sadly mistaken.
Computers give you two primary advantages:
(1) They enable you to store large amounts of data and to sort by datafield so that you can easily get the information you need.
(2) They enable you to develop a pattern document for every situation you'll ever be in in your business. To run a home-based business successfully, you must anticipate just what situation will emerge and prepare accordingly.
A business is based on a characteristic series of situations and a characteristic set of things that happen -- or that do not happen. You must be prepared with the proper document for each situation. Once you have established all the protocols, and have experienced all the situations associated with your kind of business, the time will come when running your business is, in large part, a repetition of certain key tasks. Computers are all about handling repetition swiftly and efficiently.
But the computer is much more. Today, by connecting a computer to the phone line with a modem, your machine becomes more than a data storage system and repetitive task handler. It becomes a multi-task, multi-level communications processing center that connects you to the globe.
Such things as e-mail, on-line services, the Internet, the Web and more can't help but revolutionize the way business is done. If you do not become a part of it today, you certainly are going to suffer for it greatly in the near future.
If there is an effective way to market products on the Internet or any other on-line venue, no one has truly discovered it yet. The only people making money on Internet marketing are the people who are selling the concept of doing it. If you have a product or a service and expect to reach millions of buyers through computer screens, you are sadly mistaken.
The Internet is definitely where a lot of innovative things are happening. It's a great place to exchange ideas, find out what hot, what's not, and stay on the cutting edge whatever your particular business is.
5. Your Business Hours: If you've been paying attention to the first four points, you're well on your way to becoming a successful home-based business owner. Now we don't want you to blow it by thinking you can keep banker's hours.
The global market is a 24-hour per day market, and a 365-day per year market. Let the others sleep late on Saturdays and take Sundays off. Those times could be your day to move and corner loads of customers that the others miss.
You should get up earlier and quit work later. You should be open for business on holidays and be available 24-hours a day either personally or through your answering service.
"But wait a minute!" you might be thinking at this point! "I thought that working at home was all about freedom and an end to drudgery. This sounds like nothing but endless work!"
Well, here's the thing. For most of you who quit your regular jobs to go to work for yourself, you'll discover something magical. You'll discover that when you are working for yourself, when you are building your own business, a lot of does not seem like work at all.
The great writer Jane Roberts said, "Inspiration is its own motivator. "
Running your own business is all about being inspired 24-hours-a-day. When you stop selling your body and soul to some company or corporation and start giving your energy to yourself, work has a way of turning into inspiration and play.
The perfect work for you is that which you don't think of as work, yet doing it makes money and provides you with the bread and shelter of life. You'll see what it's like if you make a true commitment to being self-employed, put all your energy into it, and stick with it for the long run.
The global market is a 24-hour per day market, and a 365-day per year market. Let the others sleep late on Saturdays and take Sundays off. Those times could be your day to move and corner loads of customers that the others miss.
You should get up earlier and quit work later. You should be open for business on holidays and be available 24-hours a day either personally or through your answering service.
"But wait a minute!" you might be thinking at this point! "I thought that working at home was all about freedom and an end to drudgery. This sounds like nothing but endless work!"
Well, here's the thing. For most of you who quit your regular jobs to go to work for yourself, you'll discover something magical. You'll discover that when you are working for yourself, when you are building your own business, a lot of does not seem like work at all.
The great writer Jane Roberts said, "Inspiration is its own motivator. "
Running your own business is all about being inspired 24-hours-a-day. When you stop selling your body and soul to some company or corporation and start giving your energy to yourself, work has a way of turning into inspiration and play.
The perfect work for you is that which you don't think of as work, yet doing it makes money and provides you with the bread and shelter of life. You'll see what it's like if you make a true commitment to being self-employed, put all your energy into it, and stick with it for the long run.
Buying and Selling Used Cars
Today, with the average consumer now spending up to $16,400 for a new car, consumers realize the importance on investing in lower priced used cars. With millions of buyers entering the used vehicle market every year, a wealth of opportunities exist for anyone looking for extra income, or a new and lucrative full-time career. They key to making a lot of money in this business is to buy low, and sell at a huge profit. This report will show you how to get started down the road to riches as a used car dealers.
The goal of many people is just to make a little extra income. If you consider $1,000 to $3,000 or more for a single sale in one month to be "extra income" you could easily make that in your spare time without much effort.
On the other hand, you may be one of those people who want to be their own boss. While it's true that the risks are often greater than if you just worked for someone else, it's just as true that risks and rewards go hand-in-hand. If you're willing to take the plunge, the potential returns are also greater. If you have a bit of the adventure-some spirit and some confidence in your own skills and abilties, operating your own used car business may be the ideal way for you to make big, big money!
The opportunity to express your own ideas and do things exactly as you want is among the primary advantages of operating your own business. The challenge and excitement of running your own operation also ranks high on the list. Another big advantage is that you will receive all the profits generated by your time and efforts. The potential exists to develop a part-time business into a full-time career that produces an income you never thought possible.
The same type of personal skills that are necessary to successfully work for someone else are also required to be successful in working for yourself. Personal skills involve being conscientious, dedicated, determined and persistent. Good human relation skills are also important.
There is also another type of skill that is necessary: It involves the ability to manage and organize your activities and possibly those of others, if you hire salespeople to work for you. This skill should be taken very seriously because organizational ability is what can make the difference between huge success and total failure.
Finally, you will need technical skills. These are the skills that include the knowledge to perform activities invloved in the used car business. It is this combination of technical, personal and management skills that will make your operation successful.
Whether you are operating your business on a part-time or full-time basis, people will expect you to provide the type of service any consumer expects. They will also associate the type of service they can expect with the image you create for your business. This image will be the impression you make on others.
For example: Will people perceive you as handling high-medium, or low-priced vehicles? Will your used cars appeal mostly to the rich, the poor, or the middle class? Do you sell something for everyone or do you specialize? (Just pick-ups, just vans, etc.)
Any positive image is fine as long as you are consistent in everything you do within the scope of that image. The image you create will largely set the tone for all your business activities, including selection of a business location, types of vehicles handled, prices charged, etc.
If you are going to buy one or two cars at a time for resale on a part-time basis, then working right from your home shouldn't pose a problem for you. However, if you intend to eventually have a large, full-time business operation, the most important ingredient in your success or failure could be your location. What constitutes a good location varies with the type of business. But in the used car business it means being highly visible in a high traffic area, and being situated so that driving customers can get to you. In many cases, the location you consider ideal may not be available, or if it is, the cost may not be practical. In that event, you will simply have to select the next best location you can find and that is affordable. Then you will have to have strong advertising and promotional work to make customers aware of who you are, and what you are selling, and where they can find you.
Whether you select a location at your home or in a business district, you must make certain you are operating within city and county zoning ordinaces. Zoning ordinances are regulations specifying what each parcel of land within a community can be used for. In the location you decide on is not zoned for the type of business you want to start, you can appeal to the zoning commission to obtain a "zoning variance." If approved, you would be allowed to use the property for your business.
To get started in the "Buy Low, Profit Selling" used car business, you will have to locate suppliers. In some cases you will be able to buy directly from individual car owners. At other times, you will go to independent auction houses, attend Government Auction Sales or Police Auctions where you can often purchase vehicles for pennies on the dollar.
An independent auction houses vehicles owners who have auctioneers sell their vehicle by getting buyers who are at the auction house to bid against one another. Generally, there is a minimum bid set. The person who offers the highest bid over the minimum set has the winning bid. The seller, however, also has the right to sell the vehicle below the minimum bid if he chooses. Incredible bargains can be found at independent auction houses.
A wide variety of personal property either no longer needed, or seized by the Federal Government or Police is periodically placed on public sale. As items become available for public sale. catalogs and other types of announcements are distributed to people who have expressed an interest in bidding on thetypes of property being offered.
Sales generally are on a competitive bid basis, with the property being sold to the highest bidder. Among the many thousands of items sold are automobiles and other vehicles of every imaginable make and model. In fact, tens of thousands of vehicles are sold by the government at public auctions throughout the country every year.
How can there be so many vehicles for sale? Because the government is so huge that it's difficult to even comprehend just how much property is amassed for resale. In fact, the government seizes, confiscates and forecloses on property that results in many millions of pieces of property every year, and that number continues to grow.
Incredibly, the government isn't a private business that is interested in making a profit on the items it sells. The government is mostly interested in eliminating enormous stockpiles of seized and surplus vehicles and other properties. As a result, many thousands of vehicles are offered to the public through government auctions at a fraction of their actual value. This is where you can buy just about any model of vehicle you want at super-huge savings and make gigantic resale profits.
Both the Government Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Defense maintain mailing lists on persons interested in seized and surplus property sales. People on these lists are sent catalogs and other sales annoucements in advance of sales and give the opportunity to inspect the vehicles and submit bids.
For information on Government Auctions write to or visit your locate Service Bureau, courthouse, Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, Police Station or City Hall.
City, county, state/provincial and/or federal licenses or permits are often required before entering a particular business or service operation.
Licensing is also used as a method of regulating the competency of those entering a particular field and to protect the publicfrom shady operators. In some cases an exam is administered, and moral andfinancial requirements may need to be met as well.
In the used-car business, most states/provinces require that you obtain a dealer'slicense if you are buying and selling vehicles for the purpose of making a profit. However, you are not required to apply for a license if you only make an isolated or occasional sale. You are not considered to be in the business of selling motor vehicles in that event. "Isolated or occasional sales" in many states/provinces means the sale, purchase, or lease of not more than five motor vehicles in a 12-month period.
Once you begin to sell more vehicles for profit that is allowed by your state/provincial law on an annual basis, you should apply for a Dealer's License by contacting your state/provincial/federal department of public safety or department of motorvehicle.
Check with your attorney or other city officials to determine what licences and permits are needed. Simply start up a business without having the proper authorizations can result in severe penalties, and you could beforced to discontinue operations.
Many states/provinces and some cities and counties require that sales taxes be collected. The state/provincial sales tax permit is available from the State/Provincial Department of Revenue. City and county permits are available from the tax department in those jurisdictions.
Even though a certain amount of "red-tape" must be tolerated to obtain some licenses and permits, this is usually a one-time occurrence. Then, it's just a matter of submitting an annual renewal fee.
The goal of many people is just to make a little extra income. If you consider $1,000 to $3,000 or more for a single sale in one month to be "extra income" you could easily make that in your spare time without much effort.
On the other hand, you may be one of those people who want to be their own boss. While it's true that the risks are often greater than if you just worked for someone else, it's just as true that risks and rewards go hand-in-hand. If you're willing to take the plunge, the potential returns are also greater. If you have a bit of the adventure-some spirit and some confidence in your own skills and abilties, operating your own used car business may be the ideal way for you to make big, big money!
The opportunity to express your own ideas and do things exactly as you want is among the primary advantages of operating your own business. The challenge and excitement of running your own operation also ranks high on the list. Another big advantage is that you will receive all the profits generated by your time and efforts. The potential exists to develop a part-time business into a full-time career that produces an income you never thought possible.
The same type of personal skills that are necessary to successfully work for someone else are also required to be successful in working for yourself. Personal skills involve being conscientious, dedicated, determined and persistent. Good human relation skills are also important.
There is also another type of skill that is necessary: It involves the ability to manage and organize your activities and possibly those of others, if you hire salespeople to work for you. This skill should be taken very seriously because organizational ability is what can make the difference between huge success and total failure.
Finally, you will need technical skills. These are the skills that include the knowledge to perform activities invloved in the used car business. It is this combination of technical, personal and management skills that will make your operation successful.
Whether you are operating your business on a part-time or full-time basis, people will expect you to provide the type of service any consumer expects. They will also associate the type of service they can expect with the image you create for your business. This image will be the impression you make on others.
For example: Will people perceive you as handling high-medium, or low-priced vehicles? Will your used cars appeal mostly to the rich, the poor, or the middle class? Do you sell something for everyone or do you specialize? (Just pick-ups, just vans, etc.)
Any positive image is fine as long as you are consistent in everything you do within the scope of that image. The image you create will largely set the tone for all your business activities, including selection of a business location, types of vehicles handled, prices charged, etc.
If you are going to buy one or two cars at a time for resale on a part-time basis, then working right from your home shouldn't pose a problem for you. However, if you intend to eventually have a large, full-time business operation, the most important ingredient in your success or failure could be your location. What constitutes a good location varies with the type of business. But in the used car business it means being highly visible in a high traffic area, and being situated so that driving customers can get to you. In many cases, the location you consider ideal may not be available, or if it is, the cost may not be practical. In that event, you will simply have to select the next best location you can find and that is affordable. Then you will have to have strong advertising and promotional work to make customers aware of who you are, and what you are selling, and where they can find you.
Whether you select a location at your home or in a business district, you must make certain you are operating within city and county zoning ordinaces. Zoning ordinances are regulations specifying what each parcel of land within a community can be used for. In the location you decide on is not zoned for the type of business you want to start, you can appeal to the zoning commission to obtain a "zoning variance." If approved, you would be allowed to use the property for your business.
To get started in the "Buy Low, Profit Selling" used car business, you will have to locate suppliers. In some cases you will be able to buy directly from individual car owners. At other times, you will go to independent auction houses, attend Government Auction Sales or Police Auctions where you can often purchase vehicles for pennies on the dollar.
An independent auction houses vehicles owners who have auctioneers sell their vehicle by getting buyers who are at the auction house to bid against one another. Generally, there is a minimum bid set. The person who offers the highest bid over the minimum set has the winning bid. The seller, however, also has the right to sell the vehicle below the minimum bid if he chooses. Incredible bargains can be found at independent auction houses.
A wide variety of personal property either no longer needed, or seized by the Federal Government or Police is periodically placed on public sale. As items become available for public sale. catalogs and other types of announcements are distributed to people who have expressed an interest in bidding on thetypes of property being offered.
Sales generally are on a competitive bid basis, with the property being sold to the highest bidder. Among the many thousands of items sold are automobiles and other vehicles of every imaginable make and model. In fact, tens of thousands of vehicles are sold by the government at public auctions throughout the country every year.
How can there be so many vehicles for sale? Because the government is so huge that it's difficult to even comprehend just how much property is amassed for resale. In fact, the government seizes, confiscates and forecloses on property that results in many millions of pieces of property every year, and that number continues to grow.
Incredibly, the government isn't a private business that is interested in making a profit on the items it sells. The government is mostly interested in eliminating enormous stockpiles of seized and surplus vehicles and other properties. As a result, many thousands of vehicles are offered to the public through government auctions at a fraction of their actual value. This is where you can buy just about any model of vehicle you want at super-huge savings and make gigantic resale profits.
Both the Government Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Defense maintain mailing lists on persons interested in seized and surplus property sales. People on these lists are sent catalogs and other sales annoucements in advance of sales and give the opportunity to inspect the vehicles and submit bids.
For information on Government Auctions write to or visit your locate Service Bureau, courthouse, Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, Police Station or City Hall.
City, county, state/provincial and/or federal licenses or permits are often required before entering a particular business or service operation.
Licensing is also used as a method of regulating the competency of those entering a particular field and to protect the publicfrom shady operators. In some cases an exam is administered, and moral andfinancial requirements may need to be met as well.
In the used-car business, most states/provinces require that you obtain a dealer'slicense if you are buying and selling vehicles for the purpose of making a profit. However, you are not required to apply for a license if you only make an isolated or occasional sale. You are not considered to be in the business of selling motor vehicles in that event. "Isolated or occasional sales" in many states/provinces means the sale, purchase, or lease of not more than five motor vehicles in a 12-month period.
Once you begin to sell more vehicles for profit that is allowed by your state/provincial law on an annual basis, you should apply for a Dealer's License by contacting your state/provincial/federal department of public safety or department of motorvehicle.
Check with your attorney or other city officials to determine what licences and permits are needed. Simply start up a business without having the proper authorizations can result in severe penalties, and you could beforced to discontinue operations.
Many states/provinces and some cities and counties require that sales taxes be collected. The state/provincial sales tax permit is available from the State/Provincial Department of Revenue. City and county permits are available from the tax department in those jurisdictions.
Even though a certain amount of "red-tape" must be tolerated to obtain some licenses and permits, this is usually a one-time occurrence. Then, it's just a matter of submitting an annual renewal fee.
The Garage Sale Business
One man's junk is another man's treasure!
This is so true. Just take a look around. People everywhere are looking for that one great find. You know, that stuff you just can't stand looking at anymore. The boxes that are accumulating in the basement, garage, every storage area possible in the house and you don't even remember what's in them.
If I have learned anything about organizing it's that I don't purge enough. And I know I'm not the only one. But all that stuff you have packed away, that you don't even remember having or haven't used in more than a year could give you a pretty nice paycheck for one weekend.
Garage sales have many advantages to both the seller and the buyer so making money on what you consider junk isn't very difficult. An average weekend garage sale can make one person an easy $600. Not bad for a few hours of cleaning storage areas, setting everything up and then watching everyone flow in to discover your hidden treasures.
How about those of us that don't have the time, patience or desire to do the who garage sale thing but would love nothing more than to benefit from this same system? That where someone like you, someone who enjoys making the sale, helping others comes in. Your enterprises is the never-ending garage sale.
To make this a truly profitable business adventure you need to do a little educating. Start buy selling what you have around your house already. This is a good introduction to potentional customers and clients. To further your selling and buying knowledge visit other locate garage sales. While there you will get a good basis of what items are selling for and the need.
Now that you have a pretty good idea as to what is out there, start talking to family and friends about your intentions. Ask for donations, offer consignment or see if they have anything you could buy to resell. Ask your family and friends to spred the word.
Should you do things on consignment have a clear idea as to your percentage cut. Most consignment stores run a 40/60 or 50/50 split. Be fair and your customers will keep coming back. Make sure you have a good log book so that you can record who the consignment contract is with and what it is that you sold for them. A good way to do this is assign a number to each of your consignment customers and place the number on the price tag. When the merchandise is purchased, record it next to the appropriate consignment customer using the tracting number. Make sure you document how much the item sold for so that your consignment customer will be certain you are not ripping them off. It is also good to have a contract written up.
Advertising need not be difficult. You already started the advertising with your word of mouth by asking family and friends for items and letting them know what you are intending to do. The next best thing to do is run an ad in your area newspaper and shopper papers advertising the sale, where it is and the hours of operation. Be sure to keep your ad up-to-date, especially once things are running on a full-time basis.
Another great way to ad is using the old-fashioned "sandwich board" sign displayed in front of where ever you are having the sale announcing that you are open for business. This will attract your neighbours as well as people driving by. Setting sandwich boards up at key traffic intersections, not too far from the sale destination, will attract more drivers or pedestrines your way. Even use two pieces of cardboard and tack them up on poles about 200
metres apart will do the same job. (Check local ordinances to see if this is permitted in your area)
By all means, search out and use all the free bulletin boards in your area. It's better, and usually much more profitable, to take the time to make up an attention grabbing circular you can post on these bulletin boards than just using a written 3 by 5 card announcement.
To do this, pick up some "transfer lettering," go through your newspapers and old magazines for interesting illustrations, graphics and pictures, then with a little bit of imagination, makeup an 8.5 by 11 poster type announcement of your sale. When you've got it pasted up, take it to any quick print shop and havethem print up 50 to 100 copies for you. The cost should not come to more than six or seven dollars.
If you make this "circular/poster" up with versatility and long-time usage in mind, you can use it over and over again, simply by pasting a new date. In case you were puzzled when we talk about "pasting" this is simply pasting another piece of paper on to the overall page. Say you have a circular with a date of Wednesday March 1st, and you want it to read Thursday, July 16th. Rather than do the whole thing over, simply write out thenew date with your transfer letters on a separate sheet of paper, cut it out to fit in the space occupied by the old date, and paste the new date over the old date. A good paste to use for this purpose is rubber cement. That's
all there is to it; the printer does the rest.
Now let's talk about the 'insider secrets" of drawing people into your sale, and merchandising "gimmicks' that will result in maximum sales and profit for you. First, call attention to your sale. Don't be shy, bashful, or self-conscious about letting everybody for miles around know that you're having a garage sale. Some sharp operators do the next best thing to having the Goodyear blimp overhead: They rent miniature blimps, send them up above the housetops, and tether them there on their sale days. Of course this giant balloon or miniature blimp has some sort of sign on the side of it, inviting people to the garage sale! This is one of the strongest
available advertising ideas for pulling "traffic' to a sale.
You have to give your sale some flair. Put some posts up across the front of the property and run some twisted crepe paper between them. Even better than crepe paper, run some brightly colored ribbons. Invest in some colorful pennants and fly them from temporary flag poles. And don't forget the balloons!
Make your garage sale a fun kind of event with clusters of balloons anchored to your display tables and racks. Be sure to "float" them well above the heads of your customers as they are browsing through your merchandise displays. Cover your display tables with colorful cloths. Don't hesitate to use bright colors with busy patterns. Regardless of what you sell, effective display is still predominately essential! You cannot "dump" items haphazardly on a
table, sit down and expect to realize great profits. The people doing the most business---making the most sales--are the ones with interesting displays, action and color. Try to have as wide a selection of colors as possible in your clothing racks, and mix them for a rainbow effect. Make sure that your jewelry items shine and sparkle. Arrange them in and with jewelry boxes, jewelry ladders and other items sold for the purpose of showing off jewelry while keeping it neatly organized. Think about it, and then study the methods of display used by "rack jobbers" in
the stores in your area. These are the wire racks that usually hold card packaged items. Keep these things in mind, and build your individual displays as part of the whole; make it pleasing to the eye as well as convenient for your customers to browse through and select the items that appeal to them.
Look for some kind of interesting and unusual item to call attention to your sale--something you can set up or park in front of your house during your sale. Some of the displays we've seen along these lines include a horse-drawn surrey, a restored Model T, and old farm plow. But anything of an unusual and interestingnature will do the trick for you. One couple we know put up a display using a mannequin dressed in an old time farm bonnet, long dress and apron. The display depicted a farm woman of old, washing clothes with a scrub board and two steel wash tubs. You have to believe this drew crowds and made people talk!
Where ever your imagination takes you, you have to be different and distinctive, or you'll get lost in the hundreds of garage sales going on all around you. If you'll take the time to employ a bit of imagination and set your sales up with the kind of flair we've been talking about, you'll not just draw the crowds, you'll end up being the one holding the most profits.
It's almost a compulsion of many women to go shopping, to search for the interesting and sometimes rare and valuable items. This fact will keep you as busy as you'll ever want to be--staging andholding garage sales. The market is so vast, and the appetite so varied, that anything from a brass bedstand to a used diary of somebody's long-forgotten grandmother will sell, and sell fast at garage sales. Put it all together, use a little imagination, and you'll easily make all the money you want!
This is so true. Just take a look around. People everywhere are looking for that one great find. You know, that stuff you just can't stand looking at anymore. The boxes that are accumulating in the basement, garage, every storage area possible in the house and you don't even remember what's in them.
If I have learned anything about organizing it's that I don't purge enough. And I know I'm not the only one. But all that stuff you have packed away, that you don't even remember having or haven't used in more than a year could give you a pretty nice paycheck for one weekend.
Garage sales have many advantages to both the seller and the buyer so making money on what you consider junk isn't very difficult. An average weekend garage sale can make one person an easy $600. Not bad for a few hours of cleaning storage areas, setting everything up and then watching everyone flow in to discover your hidden treasures.
How about those of us that don't have the time, patience or desire to do the who garage sale thing but would love nothing more than to benefit from this same system? That where someone like you, someone who enjoys making the sale, helping others comes in. Your enterprises is the never-ending garage sale.
To make this a truly profitable business adventure you need to do a little educating. Start buy selling what you have around your house already. This is a good introduction to potentional customers and clients. To further your selling and buying knowledge visit other locate garage sales. While there you will get a good basis of what items are selling for and the need.
Now that you have a pretty good idea as to what is out there, start talking to family and friends about your intentions. Ask for donations, offer consignment or see if they have anything you could buy to resell. Ask your family and friends to spred the word.
Should you do things on consignment have a clear idea as to your percentage cut. Most consignment stores run a 40/60 or 50/50 split. Be fair and your customers will keep coming back. Make sure you have a good log book so that you can record who the consignment contract is with and what it is that you sold for them. A good way to do this is assign a number to each of your consignment customers and place the number on the price tag. When the merchandise is purchased, record it next to the appropriate consignment customer using the tracting number. Make sure you document how much the item sold for so that your consignment customer will be certain you are not ripping them off. It is also good to have a contract written up.
Advertising need not be difficult. You already started the advertising with your word of mouth by asking family and friends for items and letting them know what you are intending to do. The next best thing to do is run an ad in your area newspaper and shopper papers advertising the sale, where it is and the hours of operation. Be sure to keep your ad up-to-date, especially once things are running on a full-time basis.
Another great way to ad is using the old-fashioned "sandwich board" sign displayed in front of where ever you are having the sale announcing that you are open for business. This will attract your neighbours as well as people driving by. Setting sandwich boards up at key traffic intersections, not too far from the sale destination, will attract more drivers or pedestrines your way. Even use two pieces of cardboard and tack them up on poles about 200
metres apart will do the same job. (Check local ordinances to see if this is permitted in your area)
By all means, search out and use all the free bulletin boards in your area. It's better, and usually much more profitable, to take the time to make up an attention grabbing circular you can post on these bulletin boards than just using a written 3 by 5 card announcement.
To do this, pick up some "transfer lettering," go through your newspapers and old magazines for interesting illustrations, graphics and pictures, then with a little bit of imagination, makeup an 8.5 by 11 poster type announcement of your sale. When you've got it pasted up, take it to any quick print shop and havethem print up 50 to 100 copies for you. The cost should not come to more than six or seven dollars.
If you make this "circular/poster" up with versatility and long-time usage in mind, you can use it over and over again, simply by pasting a new date. In case you were puzzled when we talk about "pasting" this is simply pasting another piece of paper on to the overall page. Say you have a circular with a date of Wednesday March 1st, and you want it to read Thursday, July 16th. Rather than do the whole thing over, simply write out thenew date with your transfer letters on a separate sheet of paper, cut it out to fit in the space occupied by the old date, and paste the new date over the old date. A good paste to use for this purpose is rubber cement. That's
all there is to it; the printer does the rest.
Now let's talk about the 'insider secrets" of drawing people into your sale, and merchandising "gimmicks' that will result in maximum sales and profit for you. First, call attention to your sale. Don't be shy, bashful, or self-conscious about letting everybody for miles around know that you're having a garage sale. Some sharp operators do the next best thing to having the Goodyear blimp overhead: They rent miniature blimps, send them up above the housetops, and tether them there on their sale days. Of course this giant balloon or miniature blimp has some sort of sign on the side of it, inviting people to the garage sale! This is one of the strongest
available advertising ideas for pulling "traffic' to a sale.
You have to give your sale some flair. Put some posts up across the front of the property and run some twisted crepe paper between them. Even better than crepe paper, run some brightly colored ribbons. Invest in some colorful pennants and fly them from temporary flag poles. And don't forget the balloons!
Make your garage sale a fun kind of event with clusters of balloons anchored to your display tables and racks. Be sure to "float" them well above the heads of your customers as they are browsing through your merchandise displays. Cover your display tables with colorful cloths. Don't hesitate to use bright colors with busy patterns. Regardless of what you sell, effective display is still predominately essential! You cannot "dump" items haphazardly on a
table, sit down and expect to realize great profits. The people doing the most business---making the most sales--are the ones with interesting displays, action and color. Try to have as wide a selection of colors as possible in your clothing racks, and mix them for a rainbow effect. Make sure that your jewelry items shine and sparkle. Arrange them in and with jewelry boxes, jewelry ladders and other items sold for the purpose of showing off jewelry while keeping it neatly organized. Think about it, and then study the methods of display used by "rack jobbers" in
the stores in your area. These are the wire racks that usually hold card packaged items. Keep these things in mind, and build your individual displays as part of the whole; make it pleasing to the eye as well as convenient for your customers to browse through and select the items that appeal to them.
Look for some kind of interesting and unusual item to call attention to your sale--something you can set up or park in front of your house during your sale. Some of the displays we've seen along these lines include a horse-drawn surrey, a restored Model T, and old farm plow. But anything of an unusual and interestingnature will do the trick for you. One couple we know put up a display using a mannequin dressed in an old time farm bonnet, long dress and apron. The display depicted a farm woman of old, washing clothes with a scrub board and two steel wash tubs. You have to believe this drew crowds and made people talk!
Where ever your imagination takes you, you have to be different and distinctive, or you'll get lost in the hundreds of garage sales going on all around you. If you'll take the time to employ a bit of imagination and set your sales up with the kind of flair we've been talking about, you'll not just draw the crowds, you'll end up being the one holding the most profits.
It's almost a compulsion of many women to go shopping, to search for the interesting and sometimes rare and valuable items. This fact will keep you as busy as you'll ever want to be--staging andholding garage sales. The market is so vast, and the appetite so varied, that anything from a brass bedstand to a used diary of somebody's long-forgotten grandmother will sell, and sell fast at garage sales. Put it all together, use a little imagination, and you'll easily make all the money you want!
Furniture Business At Home
Do you have a nache for seeing the beauty in a piece of neglected old furniture? Can you take something old and make it look new again? Are your friends and family coming to you to help them repair, refinish or restore "that great find" or personal hierloon? Or have you simply wondered what it would be like to do something like that. Why not turn that hobby, pass time, nache into a business of your own?
All you need to have is a garage or work building and are willing to learn or a knowledge of a craft, upholstering, re-upholstering and/or furniture refinishing and you have an excellent home business. The investment is comparatively small, especially if you already have the tools needed, there is always a market for these skills and the products they yield.
If you do not already know how to upholster or refinish wood, the first priority is to learn how. If you are experienced, you can begin with small projects then work your way up to the more complex, better paying jobs. In the case of a husband and wife, one could specialize in each to provide a complete service!
Learning these crafts starts with reading, then practicing. If possible, get a job working in the field to learn direct from the professionals. Otherwise, there are schools, courses and hundreds of books covering every possible aspect of furniture upholstery and refinishing. During your preparation, you may decide to specialize --modern, antiques or just chairs and sofas for example. When you are ready for customers, have a sign made and place an ad that announces your services (be specific). Put signs on your car or truck so people can see them when you pick up or deliver furniture. When you bring in jobs that are badly in need of repair, take"before" pictures of them -- to compare with "after" pictures when they are finished. Post the best of these in a photo album (portfolio) to show prospective customers and for possible future use in ads or brochures (you may need well contrasting black and white photos for these.) Arrange your album with good examples of each major type of work that you do and include a short (no more than 3 line) title and explanations for each. This way, if you are busy, customers can browse through them while waiting. These pictures will not only show what fine work you do-- they will also suggest other jobs to the customer. Use a good camera for these pictures (hire a photographer if necessary), so the pictures will accomplish their mission.
Plan your shop according to the work you are going to do in it. You will need more room to refinish tables, stands to do smaller items and a dust free section for the application of wood finishes. Upholstering takes less room, but the area must be safe from mice and moths -- especially your storage areas. When operating a business like this, you will be asked to recommend finishes, fabrics and methods. As a professional, you are often in a better position to answer these questions than your customers, but be careful not to routinely recommend those things that bring you the most profit. Remember that they may also ask someone else! It is OK, however, to point out things that are easier (therefore, cheaper) to work with. You will find that in the long run, honestly really is the best policy!
Pricing in a business like this is very difficult, and you have to give estimates on most of our work. If you see the cost is going well over your estimate, give the customer a call before proceeding. The rule here is "never surprise a customer with bad news". If the cost is slightly more, and your "estimate" was pretty firm just absorb the cost as the price of a "lesson" in how to estimate. Your pricing of course, will be based on the cost of materials, labor and utilities plus your profit. Note that labor and profit are two entirely different categories. Labor is the amount you would have to pay someone to do the job; profit is your "override" on the labor plus your profit on the materials (usually 25-40%). A fully qualified upholster or furniture refinisher should not earn less than $10 (gross) per hour -- and in some areas, $25 per hour may not be out of line for top quality work. When making your estimates, add a little "padding" (perhaps 5%) to cover unforeseen costs. Always figure your estimates and prices with good quality materials -- when you use lower quality materials, usually to save money, let it be your customer's decision.
The fastest way to learn if you want to get into the furniture refinishing or upholstery business to redo some of your own. Take a chair or table, set up a practice area and try your skill. Use BIX finish remover (available at most hardware stores) to remove paint (a second coat will also remove the stain), clean thoroughly, sand and apply the new finish. The secret is not to get in a hurry! Let the wood dry between operations; take the extra few minutes for a first class sanding job; wait another day for the finish to dry enough for the next cost, and go over the surface with fine steel wool (if recommended) and wipe thoroughly between coats. In a business, you will have several pieces in different stages of completion, so the temptation to rush will not be so great.
Another way to help expedite your "education" is to hire an experienced helper -- for both the assistance and "lessons". In addition to your signs, have a good quality 3 or 4 line rubberstamp made to custom print your own invoices and even business cards. If funds are scarce, get some duplicate ticket books at the local stationery store and stamp your name on each original ticket to get "custom printed" invoices. As long as your business is not too professional, you can place 3x5 cards with your name and services on supermarket bulletin boards. Keep an ad in the local paper, but change it a little every so often (like a new special every month), to help stimulate interest. When you are ready for more business, put an ad in the yellow pages.
Whenever business lags, you can always contact rental agencies (both real estate and furniture) to either buy used (but good quality only) furniture that needs repair, or to do their repair work. The profits will be lower, but low profits are better than NO profits. Also, bear in mind that refinishing and re-upholstering other people's furniture is not your only option. You can also buy things to restore -- from auctions, garage sales, foreclosures (business furniture is a whole new market!) and from individuals who answer your "will buy" ads. The item you buy to refinish must bring at least double its cost PLUS a fair return for your labor and materials to restore it. For this reason, buy only high quality or antique furniture, so you will "have something" when it is completed.
One possible pitfall in the refinishing and upholstery business is unpaid bills. People sometimes really want to have a couch recovered and visualize how nice it would look with a nice, quality (expensive) fabric. Trouble is, while the couch is being covered they spot a new item at half what they owe on the old couch -- and buy it! This leaves the upholsterer with $100 worth of material cut and sewn onto a $50 couch. The message here is to protect yourself; get enough down to ensure the recovered couch will be worth your investment should the customer "disappear".
All you need to have is a garage or work building and are willing to learn or a knowledge of a craft, upholstering, re-upholstering and/or furniture refinishing and you have an excellent home business. The investment is comparatively small, especially if you already have the tools needed, there is always a market for these skills and the products they yield.
If you do not already know how to upholster or refinish wood, the first priority is to learn how. If you are experienced, you can begin with small projects then work your way up to the more complex, better paying jobs. In the case of a husband and wife, one could specialize in each to provide a complete service!
Learning these crafts starts with reading, then practicing. If possible, get a job working in the field to learn direct from the professionals. Otherwise, there are schools, courses and hundreds of books covering every possible aspect of furniture upholstery and refinishing. During your preparation, you may decide to specialize --modern, antiques or just chairs and sofas for example. When you are ready for customers, have a sign made and place an ad that announces your services (be specific). Put signs on your car or truck so people can see them when you pick up or deliver furniture. When you bring in jobs that are badly in need of repair, take"before" pictures of them -- to compare with "after" pictures when they are finished. Post the best of these in a photo album (portfolio) to show prospective customers and for possible future use in ads or brochures (you may need well contrasting black and white photos for these.) Arrange your album with good examples of each major type of work that you do and include a short (no more than 3 line) title and explanations for each. This way, if you are busy, customers can browse through them while waiting. These pictures will not only show what fine work you do-- they will also suggest other jobs to the customer. Use a good camera for these pictures (hire a photographer if necessary), so the pictures will accomplish their mission.
Plan your shop according to the work you are going to do in it. You will need more room to refinish tables, stands to do smaller items and a dust free section for the application of wood finishes. Upholstering takes less room, but the area must be safe from mice and moths -- especially your storage areas. When operating a business like this, you will be asked to recommend finishes, fabrics and methods. As a professional, you are often in a better position to answer these questions than your customers, but be careful not to routinely recommend those things that bring you the most profit. Remember that they may also ask someone else! It is OK, however, to point out things that are easier (therefore, cheaper) to work with. You will find that in the long run, honestly really is the best policy!
Pricing in a business like this is very difficult, and you have to give estimates on most of our work. If you see the cost is going well over your estimate, give the customer a call before proceeding. The rule here is "never surprise a customer with bad news". If the cost is slightly more, and your "estimate" was pretty firm just absorb the cost as the price of a "lesson" in how to estimate. Your pricing of course, will be based on the cost of materials, labor and utilities plus your profit. Note that labor and profit are two entirely different categories. Labor is the amount you would have to pay someone to do the job; profit is your "override" on the labor plus your profit on the materials (usually 25-40%). A fully qualified upholster or furniture refinisher should not earn less than $10 (gross) per hour -- and in some areas, $25 per hour may not be out of line for top quality work. When making your estimates, add a little "padding" (perhaps 5%) to cover unforeseen costs. Always figure your estimates and prices with good quality materials -- when you use lower quality materials, usually to save money, let it be your customer's decision.
The fastest way to learn if you want to get into the furniture refinishing or upholstery business to redo some of your own. Take a chair or table, set up a practice area and try your skill. Use BIX finish remover (available at most hardware stores) to remove paint (a second coat will also remove the stain), clean thoroughly, sand and apply the new finish. The secret is not to get in a hurry! Let the wood dry between operations; take the extra few minutes for a first class sanding job; wait another day for the finish to dry enough for the next cost, and go over the surface with fine steel wool (if recommended) and wipe thoroughly between coats. In a business, you will have several pieces in different stages of completion, so the temptation to rush will not be so great.
Another way to help expedite your "education" is to hire an experienced helper -- for both the assistance and "lessons". In addition to your signs, have a good quality 3 or 4 line rubberstamp made to custom print your own invoices and even business cards. If funds are scarce, get some duplicate ticket books at the local stationery store and stamp your name on each original ticket to get "custom printed" invoices. As long as your business is not too professional, you can place 3x5 cards with your name and services on supermarket bulletin boards. Keep an ad in the local paper, but change it a little every so often (like a new special every month), to help stimulate interest. When you are ready for more business, put an ad in the yellow pages.
Whenever business lags, you can always contact rental agencies (both real estate and furniture) to either buy used (but good quality only) furniture that needs repair, or to do their repair work. The profits will be lower, but low profits are better than NO profits. Also, bear in mind that refinishing and re-upholstering other people's furniture is not your only option. You can also buy things to restore -- from auctions, garage sales, foreclosures (business furniture is a whole new market!) and from individuals who answer your "will buy" ads. The item you buy to refinish must bring at least double its cost PLUS a fair return for your labor and materials to restore it. For this reason, buy only high quality or antique furniture, so you will "have something" when it is completed.
One possible pitfall in the refinishing and upholstery business is unpaid bills. People sometimes really want to have a couch recovered and visualize how nice it would look with a nice, quality (expensive) fabric. Trouble is, while the couch is being covered they spot a new item at half what they owe on the old couch -- and buy it! This leaves the upholsterer with $100 worth of material cut and sewn onto a $50 couch. The message here is to protect yourself; get enough down to ensure the recovered couch will be worth your investment should the customer "disappear".
Party Planner
Mardigras -- Chinese New Years -- Who Done Its -- Chuckles the Clown -- any theme, any time. The only restrictions are in your imagination and the client's budget. Party planners put together parties for newborns to seniors. Customers can be found in any arena: corporations, conventions and just plain folks. Magic, fantasy and entertainment are possible starting points and the sky's the limit!
There are no-pre-set definitions for party planners and there are very few party planners companies in existence (perhaps as few as five hundred across the country). If you live in an area that lends itself to parties and/or conventions, there is probably room for you to join the fun. The background and experience needed to start a party planning business is as varied as the services it provides.
While some party planners simply provide their clients with the idea for their party, others plan and execute the "do". In addition to coming up with the basic party theme, they put together the entire party including creating the props, arranging the location, sending out invitations, hiring the caterers, picking the menu, and finding the entertainment, just mention a few. When you're first getting started you will probably utilize the services of all types of subcontractors such as florists, balloon decorators and caterers. You can lease props from rental stores and hire a caterer who can provide servers and bartenders. It is also possible to hire free-lancers of all kinds. Again use your imagination. Hire local actors to be Keystone Kops and gangsters at a "Roaring Twenties" party. Use celebrity look-a-likes to M.C. an awards banquet. When negotiating the fees for your services make sure to ask for a large enough deposit to cover the what-ever-up-front costs you incur when contracting-out for all these services. Keep in mind, you'll have to meet the costs of deposits for all your subcontractors.
As your business takes off and if you feel you have the know-how, you may want to consider handling some of the standard party functions in-house. Many party planners also have catering capabilities or own and store props, tents, flatware, or coffee pots etc., in order to reap the increased profits derived from the rental fees. Whether or not, make a conscious decision to accumulate any of the above, during the course of operating your business, you will undoubtedly begin to acquire some props and miscellaneous equipment. Eventually you will probably have to have some storage space and you will need office space. Each facet of the operation you incorporate into your own business will increase profits because you will be keeping the profits you had been giving to your subcontractors.
Of course you can begin operations out of your home, but eventually you may want to set up an office as your base of operations and a showcase for potential clients. If you can create an atmosphere of fun and fantasy, it can be a strong selling point for clients coming to your office and the setting may help them visualize some of your ideas. As you grow, you will undoubtedly need vans to transport props and other accouterments to the party sight. These vans can be rolling billboards. One catering company in Washington, DC uses purple step-vans with their names written in distinctive script on the back and sides. Very few people in the DC area fail to recognize these vans on the road or at a party and the catering company realizes a huge amount of advertising from their unique color and design. Having a purple van parked at the kitchen entrance for a Washington, DC party adds a great deal of prestige to any event.
One of the best ways to get started in this type of business is by extensive networking. By calling the types of people in your area who make their living supplying services to parties, you can not only garner invaluable information, you can begin to make the contracts you will need as you begin operations. You may be able to formulate quid-pro-quo arrangements with photographers, caterers and florists. You use their services for your parties, they give your name to their clients, and everyone ends up with nicely scratched back. Many hotels have banquet managers so you can let these banquet managers know your available to enhance the services the hotel offers. Offer your assistance to convention planners or any of their exhibitors who may want to throw a party. Large corporations often hold private and office parties and may want to utilize your services. You will be able to do a more comprehensive job and get better prices for your clients if you get commitments for parties several months in advance.
Obviously, the larger and more elaborate a party will be, the more time and effort it will take to set up. You will probably determine your fees by working backwards. First you will ascertain what each part of the event will cost, from catering to balloons. When you have determined that figure, then tack on the costs for your services and overhead (keeping in mind what the market will bear). Think small in the beginning, and do a really great job. You will need excellent references and samples of your work before you begin to receive assignments to plan huge, expensive, elaborate parties. Accumulate a portfolio of pictures, letters of recommendations and samples of your work to show to prospective clients. If you need more material for your portfolio, perhaps you could offer your services to a charity event or offer to plan an exemplifying your creativity and abilities. And if you are fortunate enough to be well capitalized when you start your business, you could plan a gala affair of your own and invite the types of business people mentioned above including caterers, florists, hotel banquet managers, convention planners, and affluent members of your community.
Fun is the name of the game and making sure your events aren't forgotten is the key to referral and repeat business. Making your parties three dimensional and participatory will make your parties even more unforgetable -- having your servers dressed in the party theme -- serving drinks in coffee cups at a Roaring Twenties Party -- personalize the cups with the guests' names. Stir the guest's anticipation by soliciting their participation even before the event begins. Costume parties are one good way to build anticipation, but use your imagination and you will be able to think of others.
The bottom line for any event is what your client hopes to achieve. Use their interests, hobbies, goals and even pet peeves as the foundation for the event. Intermingle ideas. Perhaps one client's most outrageous idea, while not suited for that client's party, would be perfect for the next client. Keep records and don't discount any possibility. You want to mesh with your client's needs, be wild and crazy when the occasion calls for it, but quiet and discrete under other circumstances.
Since no event ever goes exactly as planned and there are always unexpected glitches, you'll have to be able to improvise and think on your feet. You'll be dealing with a myriad of details and many different organizations and personalities. It could rain on an outdoor wedding, and the souffle could fall when a delivery man slams the door, so you will have to be able to keep 100 balls in the air at the same time. Remember ... flexibility and creativity are absolutely essential for a successful party planning enterprise. If you break into a cold sweat when you are faced with planning your only child's fifth birthday party, then party planning probably isn't for you. But if you find the idea of planning a Golden Wedding Anniversary, a graduation, a daughter's wedding and the Democratic Convention all on the same day, challenging and exciting, you are probably destined to be a party planner. Relax, have fun, and let the good times roll.
There are no-pre-set definitions for party planners and there are very few party planners companies in existence (perhaps as few as five hundred across the country). If you live in an area that lends itself to parties and/or conventions, there is probably room for you to join the fun. The background and experience needed to start a party planning business is as varied as the services it provides.
While some party planners simply provide their clients with the idea for their party, others plan and execute the "do". In addition to coming up with the basic party theme, they put together the entire party including creating the props, arranging the location, sending out invitations, hiring the caterers, picking the menu, and finding the entertainment, just mention a few. When you're first getting started you will probably utilize the services of all types of subcontractors such as florists, balloon decorators and caterers. You can lease props from rental stores and hire a caterer who can provide servers and bartenders. It is also possible to hire free-lancers of all kinds. Again use your imagination. Hire local actors to be Keystone Kops and gangsters at a "Roaring Twenties" party. Use celebrity look-a-likes to M.C. an awards banquet. When negotiating the fees for your services make sure to ask for a large enough deposit to cover the what-ever-up-front costs you incur when contracting-out for all these services. Keep in mind, you'll have to meet the costs of deposits for all your subcontractors.
As your business takes off and if you feel you have the know-how, you may want to consider handling some of the standard party functions in-house. Many party planners also have catering capabilities or own and store props, tents, flatware, or coffee pots etc., in order to reap the increased profits derived from the rental fees. Whether or not, make a conscious decision to accumulate any of the above, during the course of operating your business, you will undoubtedly begin to acquire some props and miscellaneous equipment. Eventually you will probably have to have some storage space and you will need office space. Each facet of the operation you incorporate into your own business will increase profits because you will be keeping the profits you had been giving to your subcontractors.
Of course you can begin operations out of your home, but eventually you may want to set up an office as your base of operations and a showcase for potential clients. If you can create an atmosphere of fun and fantasy, it can be a strong selling point for clients coming to your office and the setting may help them visualize some of your ideas. As you grow, you will undoubtedly need vans to transport props and other accouterments to the party sight. These vans can be rolling billboards. One catering company in Washington, DC uses purple step-vans with their names written in distinctive script on the back and sides. Very few people in the DC area fail to recognize these vans on the road or at a party and the catering company realizes a huge amount of advertising from their unique color and design. Having a purple van parked at the kitchen entrance for a Washington, DC party adds a great deal of prestige to any event.
One of the best ways to get started in this type of business is by extensive networking. By calling the types of people in your area who make their living supplying services to parties, you can not only garner invaluable information, you can begin to make the contracts you will need as you begin operations. You may be able to formulate quid-pro-quo arrangements with photographers, caterers and florists. You use their services for your parties, they give your name to their clients, and everyone ends up with nicely scratched back. Many hotels have banquet managers so you can let these banquet managers know your available to enhance the services the hotel offers. Offer your assistance to convention planners or any of their exhibitors who may want to throw a party. Large corporations often hold private and office parties and may want to utilize your services. You will be able to do a more comprehensive job and get better prices for your clients if you get commitments for parties several months in advance.
Obviously, the larger and more elaborate a party will be, the more time and effort it will take to set up. You will probably determine your fees by working backwards. First you will ascertain what each part of the event will cost, from catering to balloons. When you have determined that figure, then tack on the costs for your services and overhead (keeping in mind what the market will bear). Think small in the beginning, and do a really great job. You will need excellent references and samples of your work before you begin to receive assignments to plan huge, expensive, elaborate parties. Accumulate a portfolio of pictures, letters of recommendations and samples of your work to show to prospective clients. If you need more material for your portfolio, perhaps you could offer your services to a charity event or offer to plan an exemplifying your creativity and abilities. And if you are fortunate enough to be well capitalized when you start your business, you could plan a gala affair of your own and invite the types of business people mentioned above including caterers, florists, hotel banquet managers, convention planners, and affluent members of your community.
Fun is the name of the game and making sure your events aren't forgotten is the key to referral and repeat business. Making your parties three dimensional and participatory will make your parties even more unforgetable -- having your servers dressed in the party theme -- serving drinks in coffee cups at a Roaring Twenties Party -- personalize the cups with the guests' names. Stir the guest's anticipation by soliciting their participation even before the event begins. Costume parties are one good way to build anticipation, but use your imagination and you will be able to think of others.
The bottom line for any event is what your client hopes to achieve. Use their interests, hobbies, goals and even pet peeves as the foundation for the event. Intermingle ideas. Perhaps one client's most outrageous idea, while not suited for that client's party, would be perfect for the next client. Keep records and don't discount any possibility. You want to mesh with your client's needs, be wild and crazy when the occasion calls for it, but quiet and discrete under other circumstances.
Since no event ever goes exactly as planned and there are always unexpected glitches, you'll have to be able to improvise and think on your feet. You'll be dealing with a myriad of details and many different organizations and personalities. It could rain on an outdoor wedding, and the souffle could fall when a delivery man slams the door, so you will have to be able to keep 100 balls in the air at the same time. Remember ... flexibility and creativity are absolutely essential for a successful party planning enterprise. If you break into a cold sweat when you are faced with planning your only child's fifth birthday party, then party planning probably isn't for you. But if you find the idea of planning a Golden Wedding Anniversary, a graduation, a daughter's wedding and the Democratic Convention all on the same day, challenging and exciting, you are probably destined to be a party planner. Relax, have fun, and let the good times roll.
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