Everybody loves the aroma of fresh roasted coffee, but it is so seldom they have an opportunity to inhale it when it is fresh, that, when they do, it comes as a most delightful sensation, and makes them want coffee—real, genuine, fresh roasted coffee.
A coffee-roasting machine, almost automatic in its action, has been perfected to such a degree that it retains all the aroma and flavor of the coffee, and places it, freshly roasted, in the hands of the consumer, who thus “gets all the good out of it.”
A young man purchased one of these machines, rented a small corner in a meat and vegetable market, where no groceries were kept for sale, bought a few pounds of the best green coffee, and started his machine, which was run by electricity, and gas for fuel. In the window he placed a neatly painted card, saying: “Fresh Coffee, Right Out of the Roaster,” and awaited results. Soon the delicious aroma pervaded the entire establishment and was wafted to the crowds on the sidewalk.
The smell of good coffee is an excellent advertisement and brings customers. But this enterprising vender of fresh roasted coffee realized that even the best brands of coffee would prove a failure if not properly made, so he put every pound he sold into a paper sack containing the following directions, plainly printed, and urged every purchaser to pay particular attention to it.
“Use one heaping tablespoonful of the ground coffee to each cup of cold water, not warm or hot, and let it steep in the cold water for five minutes or more, as this greatly improves the flavor. Then put over a slow fire and slowly bring it to the boiling point, boiling it for just three minutes, but no longer. Take off the fire and let it stand for four or five minutes before serving, and you’ll find you have the finest flavored cup of coffee you ever drank. But always use fresh coffee, never using the grounds more than once.”
The plan was successful.
A young man, attending college in a small town, secured the agency for a leading laundry in a near-by city, and in that way made enough to pay for his entire course. The laundry company paid him 40 percent for all the work he sent in, and one-half of the express charges besides, so that he was at practically no expense in conducting the business.
He soon demonstrated that he was representing a laundry that did good work and made prompt deliveries, and it was an easy matter to secure orders from all the students. The city laundry did better work than the local concern, and the prices were also lower, so most of the students, and many residents of the town as well, were glad to have their work done where satisfactory service was assured. In order to overcome the feeble competition offered by local barber shops and store agencies, the young man further strengthened his claim to patronage by offering a premium for each $10 worth of laundry work sent in through him, and by that means came out ahead in the volume of paying business secured.
It took but little of his spare time and did not interfere with his studies, and at the same time gave him a good income.
A former merchant in a small town, who had lost his entire stock by fire, and had been unable to collect the insurance, conceived the idea of starting a co-operative store, without capital, and the plan worked so well that in a few years he was in a better condition financially than before the fire.
Fully realizing that the average store in the small town charges higher prices for inferior goods than the city stores ask for the better grades, and knowing the people of his community would be glad to be better served at a lower cost, he visited a wholesale house in the city, made arrangements for purchasing groceries and kindred lines at wholesale prices, when taken in considerable quantities. He then formed a sort of club or co-operative society of from 75 to 100 members, among his acquaintances and former patrons, agreeing to supply them with the better grades of goods at prices considerably less than those charged by the local stores.
He opened a little store room in the town for the distribution of these goods, each member paying cash for every item purchased, and, there being no necessity for bookkeeping or collections, he made a good profit on everything sold in this manner, suffered no losses, and in a short time controlled practically all the grocery trade in his town and the surrounding country. He often remarked that the fire which destroyed his former store was the best thing that could have happened to him, besides the benefit it brought to those in the community who co-operated with him in his enterprise, while he started on nothing.
It was a doctor’s wife who, with a husband broken in health and purse, originated a plan that was successful and put the couple financially “on their feet”.
The husband, an able physician and surgeon, in a western city, with failing health, decided to move to a country town. His finances were at a low ebb, it soon became necessary for him to resume his practice in this rural community. But he was not physically able to make calls at long distances from town, especially at night and in bad weather, and his wife decided to carry out her long-cherished plan of opening a hospital, even if it had to be done on a small scale.
The house next door being vacant, the doctor’s wife engaged it at a low rental, paying for the first month in advance. Then, when a telephone call came for the doctor from a farmer whose wife was ill, the wife told him the doctor was not able to go, but suggested that the farmer bring his wife to town, where his wife would have a pleasant room, the care of an experienced nurse, and the medical services of the doctor.
The doctor himself was astonished when he overheard this conversation, and entered a vigorous protest, but the wife told him not to worry.
Having engaged the only nurse in the town, which was herself, with the assistance of a couple of farmer’s boys she moved the furniture from the three upper rooms of her own residence into the next house, where she fixed up three rooms very comfortably, and awaited the coming of results.
Early in the afternoon the farmer brought his wife and she was installed in one of the rooms, under the care of the nurse. Later others came, and it soon became known all over the community that the “new doctor,” having more patients than he could visit, had fitted up a nice place in town where his patients could come to him, and where women from the country could “stay over night,” or as many days and nights as were necessary, and where they could be nursed and “doctored” in a proper manner. It was not long until further rooms had been tastefully fitted up, another nurse engaged, and the doctor was kept busy with his patients every minute of the day.
With the assistance of a maid, the doctor’s wife served meals to the patients in their own rooms, and the charges for all these accommodations, room, board, nursing and treatment, were very reasonable. The people of the town and vicinity soon saw the advantages afforded by this plan, and the patronage increased until there was a long waiting list. The reception or social room that had been fitted up was supplied with magazines, newspapers, and other means of entertainment for the patients and their friends who called upon them, and was a much appreciated resting place for country women who came to town with their husbands.
The rent of the building was $15 a month, the nurses were paid $1.00 a day and board, $3 for taking care of a patient at night, and farm produce was purchased at very low prices, or taken as part payment for services.
At the end of the first year these people had cleared $5,000 over all expenses, and on the fourth anniversary of the launching of the plan, the doctor, now restored to health, handed his wife a check for $8,000, to repay her, as he said, for “thinking of such a splendid plan.”
She was a druggist’s wife, and had some excellent ideas of her own, besides, she knew how to put them to practical use.
While the prescription business of the store was large and profitable, the soda fountain, a fine large one with every modern feature of equipment, was not making good, and there were seven other soda fountains in the town of some 2,000 inhabitants. Here was the wife’s opportunity.
The drug store was a large and attractive place and she decided upon the following plan of action: She installed four private booths, covering the partitions with green burlap, with burlap curtains on the outside. Putting wire over the top of each booth, she covered them with paper flowers, which she made herself. The covering of one booth was of yellow roses, one of American beauty roses, one of pumpkin blossoms and one of lilies. In the center of each booth she placed an electric light, with a shade to match the flowers of the ceiling, also an electric bell.
This novel and attractive arrangement proved very popular, and rapidly brought a large number of patrons who preferred to have sodas and ice cream served in the privacy of the tastefully decorated booths rather than to sit at tables in the open store. However, she was continually planning on some new feature to make the place talked about, and she turned her attention to the fountain itself. She built a large canopy over the fountain, and covered it with 300 crepe-paper oranges and 3,000 leaves, which produced a very striking and pleasing effect. To still further stimulate interest, she issued neatly designed and printed circulars, particularly when she had some novelty to give away, and thus kept it constantly before the public.
That the idea was a good one, is shown by the fact that, whereas, the receipts from the soda fountain had formerly ranged from $6 to $10 a day, the carrying out of her new plan increased its revenue from $18 to $30 a day, and placed the store far in the lead of all the other drug stores in the town.
A husband and wife had lost their money and all they had left was $500 in cash, a moving-picture camera, and a good supply of courage.
Selecting a location in a prosperous residence district they opened a moving-picture theater with a seating capacity of 400 people.
The city every year had a local fiesta or carnival, lasting about two weeks, and the wife suggested the idea of taking daily motion pictures of the parades and showing them on the screen as an additional attraction. This greatly increased the attendance for a time, but when the fiesta was over there was a “slump” in the receipts. The wife then suggested that the husband present films of local interest.
Whenever such a picture was taken, they would advertise: “Come and see yourself and your friends in the movies,” and it brought good returns. In fact, this plan proved so popular that they were obliged to enlarge their hall, all of which was due to the working out of an original idea—that everyone wants to see himself or herself on the screen.
Every man who is a clerk would be very glad to be promoted to superintendent. But it isn’t every clerk who has a wife with the energy and the initiative to assist him.
With the arrival of the second baby, the husband began to realize that he must have more money, but how to obtain it was the question. He could not ask for more salary, because he was already the best-paid shipping clerk in the establishment.
Although without practical experience in the conduct of a large business, his wife intuitively realized that the difference between employer and employe was not because the employer did more work, but because he knew more about the business itself and how to direct others to do it to the best advantage of the employer.
It was a hard thing to do, but after long and earnest reasoning with her husband she maintained that if he left more of the details of the work to his assistants, and devoted more of his time to planning improved methods, it would mean the recognition of his ability and his consequent advancement.
He accepted his wife’s suggestion, acted upon it at once, and greatly profited by it, for he began to see the work through his employer’s eyes. Gradually the idea grew upon him, until he evolved a plan for the complete reorganization of his department in such a manner as to entail less cost and labor and yet bring better returns.
In a dispute with the man next in authority over him, he won the approval of the general manager, because he was right. From that time on his advancement was rapid, and today he is superintendent of the entire business, due largely to his wife’s forethought.
A lawyer in a western city had only a small practice but his wife possessed good business judgment. They had just cash enough to purchase a small house, with a good-sized lot, in a modest side street occupied mainly by the homes of working men. This lady possessed good taste in the matter of furnishings and decorations, and exercised her talent in this direction by turning this property into an attractive little home. By a most skillful arrangement of the furniture, and not having too much of it, she gave all the rooms the appearance of being much larger than they really were, while dotted Swiss curtains admitted sufficient light to impart a most cheerful atmosphere. Everything was made to contribute to the coziness of the place, and give it a homelike air that was very inviting. In a few months they were offered $350 more than the property cost them, and they accepted the offer.
Plan No. 82. Industry has its rewards
They next bought an older house, that was badly in need of repairs, gave it two coats of white paint, added green shutters, and the wife improved the interior with home-made book-cases, window seats and kitchen conveniences of many kinds, and put blue and white lace paper on the pantry shelves. A retired farmer and his wife, who wanted to move to town, was greatly impressed with the pattern of that paper as well as with the large back yard, where quantities of garden products could be raised, and readily paid them $500 more than the cost of the place.
They then bought a nine-room house, converted it into two apartments, that rented for $45 a month each, and a little later sold it at a profit of $1,150, making their total profits in two years $2,000.
Thousands of men and women who complain of “hard times” and bemoan the fact that they “can’t get anything to do,” could live comfortably by following the plan which an almost invalid husband and his wife so successfully carried out, at a time when everything looked very dark.
They were in debt, through the illness of the husband, a mill worker, whom the doctors had told to get into some line of work that would give him plenty of outdoor exercise.
In the residential section of the city, near by, were many back yards either sown in grass or covered with weeds, and utterly neglected and uncared for.
The wife visited many of the homes where these conditions prevailed, and offered to give their back yards thorough cultivation during the season, for one-half of what might be grown on them. Some of the people refused the offer but enough agreed to the proposition to keep both the wife and her husband constantly employed.
They raised a great deal more of all kinds of garden produce than both the families of the owners and the renters could use, and one-half of the excess they sold at good prices in the city, even selling some of it to the people who had refused them the use of their ground.
The next year they had offers of more back yards than they could cultivate, but their three boys helped them with the work, and together they succeeded so well that they not only lived better than they ever had before, but were entirely out of debt and had a bank account besides.
The husband in this case was a combination of stock-keeper and shipping clerk in a large machinery house, knew the details of the business thoroughly, and uncomplainingly shouldered the constantly increasing burdens and responsibilities that were placed upon him, with no intimation of a corresponding increase in salary. Finally he rebelled, and said to his wife that if he had a certain amount of capital he would go into business for himself.
His wife remarked that he did not need any capital, if he would write to a number of manufacturers of the lines with which he was familiar, detailing his experience, and giving other important data, he would no doubt be appointed manufacturer’s agent in that part of the country; and being of good presence and pleasing personality, he could soon create a volume of sales that would pay him well.
He acted upon the suggestion immediately, wrote several manufacturers, and was appointed resident agent by a number of them, on liberal commission basis. He resigned his position and went to work with not a dollar of capital invested. For a time he made his home his office, where his wife, having learned typewriting, proved a willing and valuable assistant.
That was seven years ago. Today the husband has a big office, with plenty of help, in a down-town office building, and is recognized as one of the best hydraulic engineers in the state.
A man who had considerable experience in theatre-program advertising decided that if some money could be made from publishing one program a great deal more could be made with several programs. The following experience proved his reasoning was right:
Visiting the managers of five leading motion-picture houses, he offered to furnish each with an attractive program twice a week, free of charge, provided he could have the bill three or four days in advance. He was to have all the money received from advertisements in the programs. They all accepted his proposition, and he called upon the printer, who usually set up his matter. He explained that there would be two editions of each program every week, those containing the bill for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday to be distributed at the various theatres on Wednesday, while that for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was to be distributed on Sunday, that all ads. were to stand for at least one month, while the bill was to be changed twice a week, and this, of course, enabled the printer to name a very low rate for the printing.
He gave each theater twice as many programs for each day as there were seats in the house, so as to reach both the afternoon and evening crowds, and added 200 or 300 to that number for distribution on Sunday, the big day of the week.
He selected the five theatres as near each other as possible, as most of the advertisers were in that vicinity.
He usually ran about sixteen pages of ads., though during the holidays he would have as much as twenty-four pages most of the time; and as he printed about 20,000 programs a week, he had no difficulty in securing good prices for the ads. The advertisers soon found it was well worth all it cost, and the originator of the plan realized many thousands of dollars from it.
It was a woman who originated the plan of establishing a messenger service to meet the needs of a large number of people who are not regular patrons of the larger messenger agencies and who often have special messages or articles requiring prompt and trustworthy delivery.
At a total cost of less than $30, she fitted up her kitchen as an office and as headquarters for the boys whom she engaged for this service, circulated a few hundreds cards, with her address and telephone number, among the class of business people she wished to reach, had blanks printed for the names and addresses of those to whom messages were sent, with space for their acknowledgement of the receipt of whatever was delivered, and inserted a few ads. in the local paper, announcing the beginning of her new enterprise.
She adopted a schedule of prices a little lower than those charged by the larger companies, and engaged the services of two good reliable boys of her acquaintance to make deliveries.
Patrons soon found the service satisfactory and her business grew with amazing rapidity. Within a year she was enjoying an income far in excess of what she anticipated. She is now more than pleased with the success of her novel plan for making a comfortable living.
Selling watch fobs for 5 cents each, and yet realizing a profit of $1.50 from the sale yourself, looks like one of those things that “can’t be done” and yet it is easily accomplished. This plan helped pay part of his college expenses.
He procures a quantity of ribbon representing the colors of the local football or baseball team and bearing a small nickel or silver-plated ornament, such as a horseshoe or football, and the one who gets the fob was entitled to have his name or any design engraved upon it free of charge.
The plan is usually worked in a cigar store, or pool hall as follows: Two fobs are attached to a card with the label “Win a Watch Fob for 5 cents,” and the game is played with dice in a set of five. Three throws for 5 cents is the charge, and the spots are counted and recorded with each throw. The highest possible throw in three shakes is 90, the lowest 15. The limit of entries of 60, and the highest and lowest scores in the series each receives a fob.
Sixty entries at 5 cents each is $3.00, and as the cost of the fobs do not exceed 25 cents each, the profit is $2.50. After settling with the clerk who keeps the tally and the middleman who placed the outfit, the originator of the plan realizes at least $1.50 on each transaction, and his profits are limited only by the number of games played.
A man who was state agent for a concern that failed, was left without money, and there were no positions open for him. In earlier life he had been a stenographer, while his wife had taught school for a number of years before their marriage. As a traveling man he had noted the incompetency of many stenographers, especially their ignorance of business principles, and often commented on this to his wife.
In their dilemma, the wife suggested the establishment of a shorthand and business school combined, but they had no capital as a basis upon which to begin operations. The husband still had the small office he had used as state agent, in which were two desks, a few tables, chairs, etc., and the wife suggested that these could be used to begin with in a small way. She at once began taking shorthand lessons from her husband, took up typewriting at which she made rapid progress.
They secured two or three students by personal solicitation, and the wife began teaching them shorthand and typewriting, though she was only one lesson ahead of them, a fact of which the students remained blissfully ignorant. The husband took charge of the practical business course of instruction, and the pupils made rapid progress, for they were being taught along right lines.
In the meantime, the wife did her own housework, took care of the children, sewed, cooked, and performed all the household duties, while looking after the progress of her pupils, attending to her husband’s correspondence, etc. By using practical methods of instruction, they turned out very competent classes, and soon found it necessary to increase their facilities by moving to larger quarters and adding to their equipment, besides hiring additional teachers in the various departments. Today they have a prosperous business and shorthand school.
A young woman in an eastern city, being in poor health and having an invalid mother to support, decided to open a shop for mending and fine sewing, as she was very skillful in the use of the needle.
She rented a small ground floor apartment in a good location, and put out a neat sign announcing the opening of a “Mending and Darning Shop. Fine sewing of all kinds.” She made a specialty of fine damask, hemming table cloths and napkins and darning old ones, and did her work so neatly that her services soon became in great demand among the housewives of the community. She distributed her business cards throughout the neighborhood, and these brought her in a great many orders.
Finally a large department store offered to add a mending and darning department to its activities, and place her in charge at a good salary. She accepted the offer, and has made such a success that she is now the head of this department, with several girls doing the greater part of the work under her personal direction. Just a little plan of her own, but it brought her independence.
A California man who had formerly been in the wall-paper business and found himself entirely wiped out by a fire, decided to make another start by using his home as the basis of operations for supplying his patrons with wall paper at very much less than the usual prices, the profit in that community being sufficiently large to permit great reductions in even the best grades.
A large manufacturer gladly sent him a book of samples of all kinds of wall paper, and with this he visited hundreds of homes, where he exhibited the various styles. The prices he named were far below those of the down-town stores, as he had no rent or clerk to pay. He took a surprisingly large number of orders, and realized a handsome profit on each sale. Many of his customers felt they could put on the paper themselves, but in those cases where he did this work for them, he charged a fair price, and soon found he had all the work he could possibly do. As his patronage increased, he found it necessary to employ a young man to do the papering in those cases where it was required, while his entire time was devoted to the taking of orders. He had excellent taste in the matter of harmonious decorations, and made many sales through showing the housewives the artistic effects that could be produced by selecting the design best adapted to the furnishings of the home.
At the end of the first year, he found his profits were much greater than those of any year he had conducted his store, and this without the investment of a single dollar.
A young woman living in a town of a few thousand inhabitants, where there were many fraternal societies, all having large memberships, found she had an opportunity to make a good income by catering to these societies.
She was not only a very skillful cook, but had excellent taste in the preparation and arrangement of repasts, and at the same time possessed an exceptionally pleasing personality.
She distributed among the officers and members of all the lodges in her town a number of handsomely designed and printed cards announcing she was prepared to serve light luncheons for their social meetings, at a certain price per plate, and would assume full charge of the entire entertainment.
Her first engagement was for a large gathering of lodge people, on the occasion of a visit from one of the supreme officers of the order, and so well did she carry out the elaborate program, and so exquisite was the luncheon and its service, that this gave her a good reputation for this work. After that no social affair of the fraternalists was considered without first engaging her to take charge, and the income she derived from this source made her a good living each year.
If you have a cellar that is not in use, you have the foundation for a good living in the growing of mushrooms.
Dig up the space you desire to use for this purpose, digging it deep, and pulverize the earth thoroughly. Then add a quantity of fine, black dirt, rich in phosphates, with a liberal amount of some good fertilizer. Then water the prepared bed thoroughly, and put in the spawn, which you can buy very cheaply almost anywhere. Your mushrooms, when well started, will produce a crop every month, but from September to May is the season when they bring the highest prices, ranging from 75 cents to $1.50 per pound, at hotels, cafes, etc. Give them considerable attention, especially at first, keeping them well watered and giving them plenty of air, but not too much light, and keep the temperature at from 60 to 70 degrees the entire time.
One person we know of, from a bed of 4 feet long by 3 feet wide, and three bricks of spawn, eight weeks after starting, produced two and one-half pounds of mushrooms every two days, or about nine pounds a week. At an average price of $1.00 per pound, this brought an addition of $9.00 a week to his regular income, and required but a few hours of his spare time in the growth of the product. By doubling his space, he could have doubled his profits from this source, and $18 a week from a “side line” is a sum not to be despised, especially when it involves so little labor and time, requires no capital and carries with it no risk of any kind.
Basket making is one of these simple, easily-learned, easily-operated and profitable occupations, so well adapted to women, that it is a wonder more of them do not engage in it.
The country women at Aitken, S. C., make thousands of pretty and useful baskets from pine needles, and sell them at good prices.
A lady who was visiting there learned the art of making these baskets, and later her sister moved out west, where she learned how the Indians made the baskets for which they are so famous. Some of the materials used, including certain kinds of grasses, she sent back to her sister at home, and these were made into baskets of various pretty patterns, which sold readily, at good prices, to florists and others. In fact, her basket-making business grew into such proportions that she was obliged to employ a number of girls to assist her in turning them out as fast as they could be sold.
The beauty of it is that her expenses are next to nothing, as her home is her factory, the material is not expensive, no advertising or printing of literature is necessary, and the proceeds of the output, aside from the wages of the girls, are practically all profit.
As this lady lives in a city, she also derives a very neat income from teaching the basket-making art to other women, and these in turn, make a good living from their work, without glutting the market, for as long as florists have calls for flowers, they need these pretty baskets to put them in—and that means an additional profit on the flowers.
With a husband who was sick and without money, a new England woman, living in a small city, found it incumbent upon herself to do some planning to supply the family with food.
Having an intimate knowledge and special aptitude for making exceptionally fine potato chips and doughnuts, she decided that if she could once succeed in getting people to try her products she would be assured of a ready sale for them, and immediately went to work to prepare a small quantity of each, put up in her own style. Packing them neatly in a clean, new basket, she called at a number of well-to-do homes and asked the lady of the house to try a sample order. Nearly all these ladies were willing to do so, and were so greatly delighted with the superior manner in which they were made that upon her next call she was given a large number of orders to supply families regularly with what they regarded as positive delicacies.
In nine weeks she had made a net profit of $80 on her potato chips and $90 on her doughnuts, and from that time on she was so busy filling orders that she was obliged to employ a boy with a bicycle to make her deliveries.
There are thousands of other women who can do just what this woman did, and rise from a condition of actual want to one of plenty, and without asking favors of anyone. If they will make it a matter of strict business, they may succeed as she did.
Plan No. 94. A Happy Group
As a means of educating a boy regarding business principles, and teaching him practical ways of making money, nothing is better than the raising of poultry in a small way, but according to correct methods.
A man in Ogden, Utah, gave his 10-year-old boy $5.00 and told him to invest it in whatever enterprise best suited him, and what promised the best returns upon the investment.
The boy, who was healthy, energetic and enthusiastic, bought a young rooster and two pullets, all pure-bred fowls, and turned them into the back yard of his home.
During February, the two pullets laid twenty-nine eggs, which he put into an incubator, and on March 22nd, he had twenty lively young chicks. He kept these until August, taking the best of care of them, when he sold four pullets for $1.50 each, and four roosters at $2.00 each, making him already $9.00 ahead of his original investment, with five pullets and three cockerels left, besides the three he started with.
His first two pullets laid thirty-two eggs in March, and these he sold for hatching purposes, at 15 cents each. In the next month he got only twenty-three more eggs, as one of the pullets had become broody, and those that were laid in April and May he put under scrub hens for hatching, while his two blooded pullets were kept laying. The boy was learning, and his father was giving him valuable advice in business methods.
On December 1st, the boy figured up the results of the season’s operations, and found that his expenses had been $30.73, of which $19.25 was for feed, and that his cash receipts and stock of chickens on hand amounted to $141.15, so that he had made a net profit of $110.42 on an investment of $5.00 a few months before.
And where is the boy, if he is of the right sort, and tries, who cannot equal this record?
You may think you have heard of all kinds of insurance, but have you ever heard of watch insurance? This Pittsburgh man never had, but he figured out a plan of insuring watches against breakage, loss or theft, and thought it out with such perfect precision and detail, that he soon had a profitable and permanent business of his own.
In the policy he issues he agrees that in case the watch insured is broken, he makes complete repairs by sending it to some jeweler, to be selected by the assured, upon receipt of a full statement of the nature and extent of the breakage, and to pay all the costs of such repairs.
In case of the loss of the watch, he is to pay the assured, or owner of the watch, one-half its value, as stated in the policy if the watch is not found again, and the same amount if the watch is stolen and not recovered.
The policy holder is required in all cases to send full details concerning the breakage, loss or theft of the watch, and if upon investigation it appears that the watch is not, or cannot be found or recovered, he sends his check for one-half of its value as above stated.
His charges for insuring watches vary from $1.00 to $5.00 per year, according to the value of the watch, the greater the value the higher the premium; and, being a man of good standing in his community, he finds most people willing to pay the small amount required to guard them against the damage, loss or theft of their favorite timepieces. He has made it a good-paying business, and many others can follow the same plan with profit.
In the office of clerks of the court in the United States are thousands of dollars in unclaimed witness fees, and this offers an opportunity for thousands of men all over the country to collect them for the parties on a large percentage basis——say, one-half the amounts collected.
A man living in a county seat in a western state made a small fortune in this manner, because he hit upon the right plan.
All public records are open to the inspection of any person, and his method was to make a thorough examination of these records and obtain a list of all witness fees paid in but not called for by the parties, who had probably forgotten all about them, or, after calling for them several times, found the records were not completed, so that their witness fees could not be paid. He noted the title of each case, the date of the trial, the name and address of the witnesses, the number of days of attendance and the amount of the fees due him.
Then he would call upon or write to the former witnesses, stating that a certain amount was due him, which he had failed or forgotten to call for, and that he would collect the same on a 50 per cent basis, as he was in a position to make the collection. He enclosed, or handed to the party if seen personally, an order on the court clerk as follows: “You are hereby authorized to pay to (collector’s name here) the sum of ——— dollars and ——— cents, the same being due me as witness for ——— days attendance in the case of ————— vs. —————” with blank for signature of the witness. His letter bore the names of several well known men in his town as references, and in most cases the paper came back duly signed, the money was collected, one-half sent to the former witness, and the balance belonged to the man who thought out the plan.
A young man who owned a small printing office, had a reputation for the skillful and artistic manner in which he did the work that came to him, dropped into a hotel that ran a café in connection, and said to the proprietor: “Would you like to have me double your business for you, at but very little cost?” “I certainly would,” replied the hotel man, “and if you can do that you are the very man I am looking for.”
“All right,” said the printer, “I am ready to show you.”
He went into the café, secured the menu for the various meals of the following day, together with the general or short-order menu, and hurried back to his printing office. There he proceeded to work out an attractive design in border and type effects that would draw attention anywhere, and took them to the hotel, where he submitted them to the proprietor.
The hotel man was delighted with the artistic appearance of the cards, and suggested that they be taken into the café at once.
“No,” said the printer, “only enough of these to be placed at each table are to go into the café. The others are to be put up in the guest rooms, one of each to every room in the house, and see how it works.”
The proprietor had never thought of that, but realized at once the value of the plan, and right there gave the printer a standing order to print all the menu cards the house could use in the manner suggested, willingly paying a good round sum for the service. The young man extended the plan to the other hotels of the town, and was soon the busiest printer in the town, for it really doubled the business of each house.
That churches, as well as commercial and other enterprises, could derive great benefits from the publication of a weekly paper devoted to the interests of all the churches in a community, was the firm conviction of a young man living in a western city, and having had considerable newspaper experience, he concluded to try it and see if it would prove a success.
He attended a meeting of the ministerial association and submitted the plan to them. Every one of the ministers, representing all the various denominations, at once became very much interested in the proposition, and each promised it his hearty endorsement and support.
Each pastor in the city agreed to furnish the news, as well as the various announcements of his particular church each week, so there was comparatively little in the way of editorial work for the young man to do.
Having made arrangements to have the paper printed in an attractive form, on a good quality of paper, the young publisher called upon a large number of business men, particularly those belonging to the various churches of the city, and soon had enough subscriptions and advertisements to more than pay the cost of printing the paper.
The Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., the W. C. T. U., and other religious organizations, all contributed to its columns and helped to increase its circulation, while pictures of the churches and portraits of the pastors and leaders in religious work gave it a most attractive appearance.
Plan No. 99. Now I have a Cow—Everybody Bids Me Good Morrow
Next to having a prospective purchaser come to your place to see any animal you may have for sale, the best means of giving him a good idea of it is to take a good photograph of the animal, properly posed, and send it to him by mail, or use it in advertising.
A farmer’s wife, who had bought a camera for pleasure, soon learned to adapt it to business purposes and made many sales of valuable animals through this means alone.
This lady had three pure-bred collie dogs, from which she sold about $400 worth of puppies every year, and she found that a majority of those sales were made to persons to whom she had sent photographs which she made easily and cheaply with her camera.
She knew the secret of having an animal correctly posed in order to show it to best advantage in a picture, and knew exactly how best to attract its attention at the critical moment of opening and closing the shutter. The result was that the fine points of the animal were made very prominent.
Her husband was so impressed with the results of her skill in this respect that he asked her to take the pictures of some pure-bred Berkshire hogs he had for sale, and readily disposed of them by this means. Horses and cows were also photographed with equal success, while many of the best animal photos were sent to agricultural papers, and were in most cases accepted at good prices.
The use of the camera in this way not only paid its first cost many times over, but brought in a good revenue each year, besides the pleasure it afforded the family when used for other purposes.
A lady living in a small western town was the mother of two boys to whom she wished to give a good start in life. She had very little money, but many original yet practical ideas, and from these she formulated some excellent plans for earning the money she needed for her boys and herself.
One after another she adopted a number of good plans, made a success of them, and was thus enabled to bring up her boys in the manner she desired. Her plans are here given in separate detail, and it should be noted that each and every one of these plans could be used with great profit by any other woman who wishes to use either one or all of them, as she chooses.
Well knowing the predilection of most people for sweet things, her first efforts were directed toward making and selling a very superior grade of stick candy, according to the following formula: Over a hot fire place a kettle containing a quart of water, ten pounds of white sugar and one teaspoonful cream tartar. Let it boil until it will snap, then put it into cold water and pour out on marble slab or tin cooler, well greased. As it cools, turn outer edge to center, and when cool enough to handle, pull it until it is white as snow. Leave a small piece unpulled, and color this red by adding a few drops of cochineal. Now roll your batch of candy into a ball, pull the red candy into a long strip, cut in three or four pieces, lay them on top of the white and roll it out, commencing at one end, pulling and rolling it at the same time, which throws the stripes in a twist around the stick. Keep rolling until hard enough to prevent sticks from flattening out, then tap the sticks lightly with the edge of a knife, and break them into any lengths desired.
In making this, as in all her products, she used only the purest ingredients, so that the candy was perfectly safe for children, and she sold great quantities of it, because it was “so good.”
This taffy candy, which proved an excellent seller, yielding large profits, she made as follows:
White sugar, 10 pounds; water, 3 pints; cream tartar, one teaspoonful, and when nearly cooked add one-fourth pound of butter. Add any kind of flavor preferred, by pouring it on while rolling. This candy should be cooked to the snapping point, but do not stir while cooking, or the sugar will granulate.
This was one of her most popular products, and was made as follows: white sugar, 5 pounds; best maple syrup, one pint; water, one pint; butter, 1 tablespoonful; cream tartar, 1⁄4 teaspoonful. Cook same as in making above described taffy candy, and put in one teaspoonful extract of vanilla while pulling.
This was also a great favorite with the children, and she sold a great deal of it, as well as her other candies, by visiting the different schools during the noon hour or at recess, on certain days of each week. The peanut crisp she made as follows: White sugar, 5 pounds; water, 11⁄2 pints; cream tartar, one-half teaspoonful. When nearly cooked, add one pound parched, hulled peanuts and one tablespoonful soda. Cook until it will snap.
She employed many ways of selling the above and other specialties. She took pains to learn of approaching anniversaries, such as birthday, wedding, etc., and a few days preceding the event she would send an attractive letter of congratulation, incidentally suggesting a box of her home-made candies for the occasion. This made many sales.
In addition to her candy-making enterprise, this lady likewise engaged in the making of perfumes, and so well did she succeed that her income was more than doubled. She developed a method of extracting the attar of roses and other flowers, which enabled her to make a great variety of the most delightful as well as lasting perfumes, and the ladies soon came to know of their exquisite fragrance.
To extract the attar of any flower she procured a quantity of the petals, which she placed on thin layers of cotton, afterwards dipping them into the finest Florence or Lucca oil, then sprinkled a small quantity of fine salt on the flowers alternately, until an earthen vessel or wide-mouthed bottle was filled with them. Then she tied the top of the vessel closely with a piece of parchment or rubber cloth, and laid it in the heat of the sun for fifteen days, when a fragrant oil, equal to the highest-priced essences, and very valuable in the making of various kinds of perfumes, could be squeezed from the contents thus treated.
Many people who cannot afford the high-priced perfumes are very well satisfied with some cheaper kind, and to meet this demand, the lady put up a home-made cologne that gave very good satisfaction. This she made as follows:
To one gallon spirits of wine, add a teaspoonful each of the oils of lemon, orange and bergamot; with 40 drops of extract of vanilla. Shake until the oils are well cut, then add one and one-half pints of soft water.
This made a very fair grade of perfume, and, though it could be sold at a low price, it yielded a fair profit to the lady who produced it.
Very few are the boudoir accessories that are dearer to the feminine heart than a rose jar, properly made, and most women will pay almost any price for one of that kind. This lady knew exactly how to make a perfect rose jar, and added this to the already long list of her profitable industries.
She dried rose petals in salt for two weeks, then cleansed the salt from the petals and put them in a jar. She would leave the jar open for a few days, then put in 2 tablespoonfuls each of cloves, allspice and cinnamon, and added 10 grains of powdered musk, letting it stand a few hours. She then added 5 cents worth of oil of lemon verbena, and 5 cents worth of oil of lavender. This she let stand three days, added 15 cents worth of oil of rose geranium, and had a rose jar that would sell for just about any price she had the temerity to ask.
This preparation she found in great demand by the ladies, as it proved a wonderful beautifier of the complexion, and a fine remedy for chapped hands, rough skin, etc. This is the formula she used for preparing it:
To 4 ounces of blanched almonds she added the white of one egg, after beating the almonds to a smooth paste in a mortar, then add enough rose water, mixed with its weight in alcohol, to give it the proper consistency. She put it up in 2-ounce jars, pasted on a fancy label, and sold it at 25 cents a jar. Its actual cost to her, jar, label and all, was less than 7 cents.
Having suffered her full share of the losses and disappointments that fall to the lot of so many victims of the fraudulent “home-work” schemes through which many become well-to-do at the expense of poor women who are seeking to make an honest living a California woman perfected a really meritorious as well as profitable plan that can be carried out by other women with as great profit as it brought to her.
Instead of dealing with that class of utility articles which can be purchased ready made for less than the ordinary woman can buy the materials, she decided to specialize in something that appealed to the vanity of women who could afford to gratify individual taste, and chose as her particular specialty those dainty ribboned sachet puffies for the handkerchief case, shirt-waist box or bureau drawer, also those made in heart shape with beauty pin attached, which girls wear inside their waists, presenting a beautiful appearance, yet easy and inexpensive to make, and affording a nice profit at 10 cents each. In fact, the entire cost of the material, including the beauty pin, is only one and one-half cents each and the making is but a minute’s work.
Few people really know how to use sachet powder. They generally use entirely too much, and the scent is too strong, or it is adulterated with something like orris root and the scent is uneven. But this lady did know, and she placed fluffy cotton, or wadding, inside the bag, and sprinkled it lightly with the sachet, which gave an even, delicate and lasting perfume. She made up the bags of silkalene of various colors, using baby ribbon of colors to match for “drawing” the puffie. The silkalene will cost 10 cents per yard and one yard will make twenty-eight of the bags. Less material is required for the corsage puffie, but the beauty pin evens up the cost. Any woman who can sew can make one hundred of the puffies a day, at a cost of $1.50, and she can readily sell them for $10, and even more, thus making a profit of $8.50 a day for very light, pleasant work.
Having made up several hundreds of the puffies, in various styles and colors—the larger ones are round or oblong and the corsage puffies heart-shaped—she decided upon the “trust” plan as the best means of selling them. She sent out a number of boys and girls to sell them at 10 cents each, paying them $2.00 for each one hundred sold, and even at this figure she made a profit of $6.50 on each one hundred puffies. And they sold, too, for almost every woman or girl who saw them bought at least one and in some cases as many as half a dozen, so the sales were easy and rapid.
Having made so great a success in her home town, this lady extended it to other towns, and after covering the territory thoroughly she offered to sell complete instructions, with patterns for making them, for $1.00. To those purchasing this information she supplied the materials, which she bought at wholesale, and made a good profit in that way, so that in a few months she was enjoying a steady income equal to that of many other merchants in her town, yet she had only a few dollars—and a good plan—to start with.
An enterprising young man in San Francisco, who knew that the saw blades used by butchers require frequent sharpening and also knew that it costs the average butcher about $3.00 a month to keep them sharpened, figured out a way to save more than half that expense, and make a good thing for himself at the same time.
He heard of a firm in New York that manufactured a machine for automatically sharpening hand- and meat-saws, at the rate of two hundred and fifty blades a day.
He ordered one of these machines at a cost of $60 and set it up in the family woodshed. He also bought 600 new saw blades at 20 cents each, or $120 more, a total investment of $180. Then he started out to round up the butchers of the city, and when he showed them that he could supply each of them with twelve sharp blades a month, at 10 cents each, or $1.20, instead of the $3.00 a month they had been paying, everyone of them gave him an order.
At the shop of each patron he left twelve sharp blades, taking twelve dull ones in their place and collecting $1.20, so that his first month’s receipts from fifty shops amounted to $60. In three months he had his entire investment back, and after that his $60 a month was all profit, but by doubling the number of his patrons he doubled his net income, and so on in proportion to the increase in the number of his orders. All the dull blades collected were re-sharpened and taken to his customers in exchange for more dull ones each month.
He also made considerable money through supplying his customers with new saw frames, knives, steels, etc., and in a few months had built up a profitable business of his own.
A patriotic young lady in the East, realizing that many people do not have a flag, when every home should possess one or more of these emblems of liberty, decided upon a plan by which she believed she could supply this need, and do so at a neat profit to herself, especially as there are national holidays requiring the flying of the colors almost every month in the year.
She wrote an eastern manufacturer, asking the lowest wholesale prices on flags of all sizes and materials, together with collapsible flag-poles that can be sent by parcel post, rope holder, etc., all packed in a neat box and shipped direct from the factory to such patrons as she might secure in her city and neighborhood, leaving her nothing to do but to get the orders.
The prices quoted being satisfactory, she prepared a circular letter, to be sent to those who answered a small ad. in the local paper offering flags for sale at extremely moderate prices, and several hundred of these, tactfully written in a patriotic vein, were mailed out all over the country, giving full description, quoting prices, etc. In response many orders for flags were received, and these she sent, with the wholesale price of each, to the manufacturer, who shipped the complete outfit direct to the customer, under the young lady’s own label. This plan was successful, not only in furthering a good and patriotic cause, but brought her a neat sum in the way of profits.
Nothing else you can offer a child appeals so strongly as does a free ticket to a motion picture theatre, and when you offer a dozen or more of these free tickets for a few hours’ work children will almost go through fire and water to get them.
A Portland man who had been a boy himself—long before the day of the movies—having made up a large amount of an exceptionally good silver polish, for which he had not found a very ready sale, concluded to let the boys and girls of the smaller towns sell it for him, and believed that free tickets to the motion-picture theatres would prove the most acceptable of all premiums to offer them for their activities.
He advertised in a number of small-town papers, asking for the names of all children who would like to see the movies free of charge, and received so many names that it was only a matter of selection from the great number replying.
To each of these he sent twenty packages of the silver polish with instructions to sell them at 10 cents each and remit the money to him, when he would send each boy or girl an order on the theatre manager for twelve tickets to a 5 cent house or six to a 10 cent house. He had previously sent the manager a draft sufficient to cover the cost of all the tickets, and in most cases it made it easy for him thereafter to secure tickets in quantities at great reductions, thus adding considerably to his net profits.
His sales under this plan netted him over $5,000 the first year.
A young man in Salt Lake City made money by giving away live alligators.
A certain man in Florida where alligators of a hardy and harmless kind are numerous captures these young alligators by the hundreds and sells them at 40 cents each, in lots of a dozen or more.
This young fellow was making and selling—or trying to sell—a number of small articles, such as sheet bluing, silver polish, and some other things, but his sales were slow, and he realized that he must do something to boost his business.
He sent for twenty-five of these little alligators, and advertised in a number of country weeklies that any boy who would sell a certain number of his specialties, at 10 cents each, and remit the entire receipts to him, would receive free a real live alligator as a premium for his work. In a week he received many inquires, and as fast as the names of boys came in he sent packages of his goods to them to be sold. The boys must have been good salesmen or unusually enthusiastic, for inside of two weeks more the remittances began to arrive and to each boy so remitting a live young alligator was sent by express, charges collect; and, as they made very interesting little pets, absolutely safe to play with, every boy who received one became the envy of the neighborhood, so that every other boy wanted one too, and a little effort soon brought him one of his own.
A New York man who had a nicely equipped office was asked one day by a western customer how much he would charge for the privilege of having some of his mail come to his address, as he wished to place on his stationery the words, “New York office, No . . . . Building.” He thought it would add prestige to his business standing.
The New York man named a small amount, and then this idea came to him: Why not make the same arrangement with a lot of other out-of-town people, none of whom would be in the office more than once or twice a year, and all he would have to do would be to forward any mail that came for any of these various parties?
Afterwards he bought small, cheap desks at auction, installed them in his office and advertised desk room for rent at $1.00 to $5.00 a month. Many people called, to whom he explained that $1.00 a month would entitle a man to call once a day for his mail, while those who transacted any amount of business there each day would be charged $5.00 a month.
He also advertised in leading western dailies that persons could have their New York address at his office for a certain amount, and the plan worked so well that the rentals so obtained much more than paid his own rent and all his other office expenses besides. But he insisted upon references in every case, and never let anyone have this privilege unless he proved to be honest and reliable.
Other men in various eastern cities have since adopted this plan with success.