TO MAKE $1000

TO MAKE $1000

Practical Suggestions, Based on Actual Experience, for Starting a Business

of Your Own and Making Money in Your Spare Time

Edited by
F. C. MINAKER
Published by The Greenleaf Groups, LLC, PO Box 92664 Austin, TX 78709

Copyright © 2016 Clinton T. Greenleaf III All rights reserved in new materials. Previously published
by Dartnell Press FIRST EDITION 1936 SECOND EDITION 1937 THIRD REVISED EDITION 1940

No part of the copyright-protected materials in this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1942148-01-2
Printed in the United States of America

TreeNeutral®

those pioneers in American business who had the wisdom and tenacity to
stay on their course until they arrived, this book is dedicated

Publisher’s Note
O

ne thousandWays to Make $1000 was first published in 1936 by The Dartnell

Corporation. For many years, the book has been out of print and difficult to
find. Yet Warren Buffett, and his biographers, credits it with shaping his
business acumen at an early age. So in 2008, we decided to make the book
available again. Working from the 1940 edition, we made every effort to
reproduce the content as it was originally presented.
Since 1940, the business world has changed dramatically, yet the core
concepts in this book still hold true today.

contents
page
chapter I—hoW to start your oWn BusIness 13

The story of money—the first step in making money—how to begin making

money—raising money to start a business—the story of the cash register—
how J. C. Penney made his first $l,000—the story of “Morning Glory”
tomato juice—how the great Wanamaker business started—Mrs. MacDougall
turned $38 into a million— how Otto Schnering made his first $1,000.

chapter II—sellIng as a BusIness 27

Qualifications of a good salesman—getting the name on the order blank—

deciding what to sell—every woman is a hosiery prospect—overcoming price
objections—how to sell “tailored-tomeasure” suits—the right and wrong way
to sell nursery stock— selling frocks brings back prosperity—a good way to
sell radios—a storeless shoe business—James Horner became a “premium
specialist”—$1,000 from selling fire extinguishers—a business selling
mending fluid—selling protection against death—unique cigarette dispensing
humidor—selling printing specialties to business men—bringing the store to
the customer—how Cord earned his first $1,000—using old customers to get
new ones—antiques are coming back—Sullivan’s collection system portfolio
—how the Waffles sell moth tabs—possibilities of industrial uniforms—five
dollars starts stamp exchange—a “killing” on carded merchandise—“taking a
chance” on soap wins for Fitze—every man wears shirts—gifts for young
men to give to girls—greeting cards made money for Ettinger.

chapter III—MakIng thIngs to sell 71

Free training in handicrafts—suiting your product to your markets—Billy B.

Van and his “Pine Tree” soap—Knapp specialized in pressed chicken—
handkerchiefs for the Chinese– start a pie bakery–$l00 per month with felt
work—starting a food specialty business—making money from worn-out
tires— community marketing of handicrafts—an architect for the birds—
building a business on homemade fudge—where to sell candied popcorn—
ivory carving proves remunerative— potato chips made Hibbard independent
—doll hospital pays for operation—brown bread and beans pay the taxes—he
made “snake snaks” popular—what you can make from clam shells—
Tosdale sisters saw Paris on fancy pillows—makes miniature

chapter III—MakIng thIngs to sell (Cont.)

reproductions of antiques—a rattling good income from rattlers— he

specialized in “hamburgers”—etched bottles and boxes sell easily—the
vogue for wrought iron house numbers—James Mack’s sandwich bar—
doughnuts bring profits—motor-driven chairs for invalids—100 other things
easy to make.

chapter IV—raIsIng thIngs to sell 107

He cultivates violas for the market—a map salesman learns how to raise and
sell broilers—Mrs. Fox’s mink ranch—goat dairying—a coming business—a
different kind of poultry farm— selling “fighting” fish by mail—breeding
dogs for fun and profit— bee keeping for profit—there’s a big demand for
ornamental birds—-a smart way to market broilers—raising rabbits for their
wool—“glad” garden brings joy and profit—making money from an herb
garden—raising goldfish for premiums—-cleaning up on turkeys—raising
Irish terriers—quick profits from mushrooms— advertising makes farm pay.

chapter V—thIngs to InVent and patent 137

What goes with a patent—the cost of taking out a patent— improvements are
the most salable patents—Bert Pond’s hobby ended up in a business—
electrical toy sells out State Street— funeral flags and insignia—toy
automobile puzzles onlookers—profits from whittling—a shoe pain-killer
builds a new business—Coleman made his $1,000 with polish—Mrs.
Royeton’s button-eyed lambs.

chapter VI—startIng a roadsIde BusIness 153

Good profits from a “sale barn”—a roadside tire repair business— a target
green for iron practice—selling bait at a roadside stand— making a “stop and
sock it” range pay—a roadside bookstore.

chapter VII—storekeepIng as a BusIness 161

Deciding what kind of store to open—choosing the best location—what

makes a store successful—keep merchandise moving—starting a stamp shop
—making a grocery store pay—-the “ins and outs” of running a gift shop—
how to become a corsetiere—start a second-hand magazine shop—quality
sells—-even hamburgers—butter-and-egg stores can be easily started—the
hosiery bar—the fat men’s shop—open a drug-less drug store— “dollar
pups” make pet store pay—cashing in on the tropical fish vogue.

chaper VIII—proMotIng a sMall BusIness 187

Showmanship in business—promoting a business with premiums—direct-

mail advertising—contest for increasing a store’s list—how to make
newspaper advertising pay—how Harding built a restaurant business—a
change in policy started a laundry—on the road to leadership—Milo Jones
started his sausage business with a $30 advertisement—restaurant which
caters to children— bridge prize puts over home library—returnable
containers pep up sales—an advertising adventure blazed the path of success
for Weber’s bakery—how $150 a month advertising built a $10,000,000
business—open-air market brings added profits—mixing a good time with
good food—using one product to sell another.

chapter IX—sellIng thIngs By Mall 203

Essentials of a mail-order business—importance of repeat orders—writing

“copy” to sell by mail—what can be profitably sold by mail—making your
letters pull—the mechanics of a good sales letter— too much “you” is worse
than too much “we”—testing chart for letters—let the other fellow shout your
praises—ask for the order—a spare-time business became the world’s largest
mail-order house—a one-man business with a million customers— reaching
the smoker by mail.
chapter X—sellIng your serVIces 223

Training gave Chapin a start—a flower-a-day service—rug washing is a

quick-profit business—starting a package delivery system—sewing for the
“hard-to-fit” woman—an airplane junk yard—a business in organizing
archery clubs—ghost writing is a business—snapshots pay vacation bills—
style scouting with a camera—walking the dog—what one man did with an
old truck— Trader’s Exchange does a national business—boys’ club proves
profitable—meals for dogs is a business now—how to start a postal card
advertising service—bringing the show to the audience— trucking fruit from
Florida—how money can be made in cemeteries—turning ashes into gold—a
club truck garden—planning “little dinners” for restaurants—a “fix-it” shop
on wheels—starting an art academy on a “shoestring”—catering to school
children—“nickelin-the-slot” pool tables—turning a natural flair to profit—
how to get the doctor—specializing in dog sketches—-a new slant on the
“grab bag” idea—service to mothers becomes a business—-put a billiard
table in a store—-a profitable auto travel business—a new slant made this
circulating library a suceess—a clipping service for artists—starts printing
business at sixty-five—be a “free lance”

chapter X—sellIng your serVIces (Cont.)

photographer—selling sales information—making money with a portable

duplicator—hunting rare coins—a handy shop in your home—a country store
on wheels—“penny-weight” scales lure pennies—a shrimp fisherwoman—
specializing in social printing— servicing beer coils a new industry—renting
tires solves sales problem—fifty-two money-making ideas for women.

chapter XI—payIng for a college educatIon 287

Taking pictures in the street pays college expenses—Venetian blinds provide

school money—Martha Hopkins’ exchange helps pay tuition—five dollars a
day stenciling house numbers on curbstones—there’s a good market for
sports pictures—making college expenses with an ice cream machine—
students earn money as proxy parents—collar specialty pays profits—Mrs.
Fenton’s canned vegetable business—“pinch hitting” for housewives solves
college problem—a college education from walnuts—earns tuition by
polishing cars—wooden dogs pay student’s expenses—a hundred and one
ways to earn college expenses.

chapter XII—raIsIng Money for charIty 307

Baby shows go over big—white elephant sales are exciting— home

furnishing lecture series—sample night for local merchants—Christmas
pudding sales—chain luncheons and card parties—Florentine fair—a mile of
pennies—a year ’round thrift shop—put on a dog and pet show—country
fair’s are always good—a prune and apricot drive—-progressive luncheon
and style show—spring garden carnival—“days of forty-nine” celebration—
spring garden tours—“double-your-dollar” contest—“most treasured
possession” exhibit—Hostesses, Incorporated.

chapter XIII—Beyond the fIrst thousand 319

Good advice from a veteran financier—you can’t beat the “kitty”—a concrete
illustration—the best investment for a business man—an anchor to
windward.

appendIces 325 IndeX 401

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
By John caMeron aspley Publisher, aMerIcan BusIness
N

EVER in the history of the United States has the time been so favorable for a
man with small capital to start his own business as it is today.

For some time now the world has been slowly but steadily recovering from
the disruptions and economic shocks that came in the wake of the World
War. The ratio of debts to incomes is rapidly being equalized. Farsighted
monetary reforms, especially in the sterling group of countries, have been
made. While we are by no means back in the hectic prosperity days of 1929,
and there still exists considerable unemployment, even the most pessimistic
man must concede that the last two or three years have put us all on a firmer
footing. In fact, a great number of companies have managed to reach their
sales peak since the black days of 1935. Business does exist for the man who
will work and plan for it.

Here in the United States, legislation has been enacted that is particularly
favorable to the small business man. Obstacles, inadvertently put in his way
by early activities of the administration, have given way to a sincere desire to
help the small business man, who is the real backbone of American industry.
Agencies have been set up especially to protect and help him. He is the
“white haired” boy of the new order of things.

We have all heard a great deal about the opportunities of bygone years. We
envy the men who discovered and settled the West. We wish that all the
railroads were not built so that those opportunities would still be open. Why,
the opportunities of yesterday are as nothing compared with the opportunities
that await the courageous, resourceful man today! There are fortunes to be
made that will make those of Astor and Rockefeller seem picayune.

Ever since the beginning of time the world has made way for the determined
man with a real idea for serving his fellow men. In ancient Egypt, in classical
Greece, in legalistic Rome, as in every succeeding stage of civilization,
society has rewarded those who served it best. It will continue to do so for
many thousands of years to come.

So if you have the urge to go into business, or to lay the foundation for a
future business by capitalizing your spare time, delay no longer. If you wait
for conditions, conditions may leave you in the lurch. Determine upon some
plan of action that will enable you to render a needed service to your
community. Put your whole heart and soul into rendering that service. Face
the disappointments that go with starting in business resolutely and
courageously. Cultivate courtesy and consideration of others. Work as you
never worked before, and you will succeed. But you cannot possibly succeed
until you start. Nor can you succeed unless you serve.
Good luck to you in the most fascinating game in all the world—the great
game of business.
chapter one
HOW TO START YOUR OWN BUSINESS
W

HEN Gustavus Swift, a youngster in knee breeches, dressed and sold his first
calf to the fisher folk of Cape Cod, he laid the foundation of the largest meat
packing business in the world. The desire to make money—to have a
business of his own—was a driving force in the make-up of young Swift. In
Barnstable he was known as a chap with a lot of “get up and go” to him. So it
was not surprising that when he felt the desire to make money, he didn’t
waste his time wishing, but took his courage in his two hands and started in
the dressed beef business in his dad’s back yard.

No doubt there were other young men in Barnstable who wanted to make
money too. But while they were wondering how they could make it, Gus
Swift cut the Gordian knot. It meant work for him. It was not a pleasant way
to make money. There was the possibility of his not being able to sell his calf
after he had dressed it. He had to walk miles in order to market his veal, for
Cape Cod in those days was a “spread out” sort of place. But Swift didn’t
care. He wanted the money. The work, the walking and the adventure were
fun. And because he regarded making money as fun instead of work, he later
was able to come to Chicago and start the great Swift packing business. How
different from the average young men of today! They are usually more
interested in having a good time than they are establishing themselves in a
business of their own. Being in business is so confining! So they concentrate
on enjoying themselves, serene in their philosophy that tomorrow is another
day. If these people, and they are not all young people either, worked half as
hard at making money as they do at having a good time, they would be rich.

Then there are people who are willing to work and do work hard at making
money, but they are not successful because they lack a target. They are like
the chap who hunts big game with a shotgun. They do a lot of shooting, but
they bag very little game. Next to being willing to pay the price of success in
hard work, the most important thing is to have a definite, clear-cut objective.
Since it is necessary to crawl before you walk, it is suggested that you make
that objective $1,000.

Now you may say, why stop at $1,000? Why not make it $100,000? While
there is merit in the idea of setting up your sights high, there is such a thing
as shooting at the moon. Set an objective that you know you can attain.
Having attained your first objective, you can then consider what your next
objective will be. Remember that after you start in business you are going to
run afoul of many discouragements. While it looks easy now, it may not two
months from now. If you have as an objective a mark that you can almost
reach out and touch, it will help you to carry through this period of
discouragement.

The Story of Money

Since this is a book about making money, and money will be mentioned
frequently, it might be in order to get it clearly fixed in our minds what
money is. Money itself is no good. You cannot eat it. You cannot wear it.
You cannot use it for much of anything except to exchange for things which
you need. That is why it is called a “medium of exchange.” Money can be
anything. In the early days of the West whiskey was used for money. A farm
was advertised as being worth so many barrels of whiskey. Beads were used
by the Indians as a medium of exchange. The island of Manhattan was
bought from the Indians for a few beads. The first use of coins as money
antedates Christ. To save people the trouble of having to weigh each coin to
determine its value, the government stamped them with its mark. They could
then be passed in exchange without using scales, although even today the
banks in Great Britain weigh all gold coins presented to them to determine
the wear.

One of the first countries to use credit money as a medium of exchange was
England. People took their silver to the Exchequer and received in exchange
a tally stick. Notches were cut in this stick according to the number of
“pounds” of silver loaned to the government. These tally sticks were about
three-quarters of an inch square and about ten inches long. After being
notched, the stick was split in half, and one-half was hung in the Exchequer,
and the other half given to the person loaning the silver. At first these tally
sticks were used as receipts only, but after a time people exchanged them for
things they needed. Then the Exchequer issued tally sticks notched for even
number of pounds of silver—one pound, five pounds, twenty pounds and so
forth. These were much more convenient than carrying around the actual
silver. Eventually the tally stick was superseded by paper receipts, the
forerunner of our present paper money. The big advantage of the tally stick
was that no two sticks were notched in the same way, so that when the owner
of a tally stick called at the Exchequer to collect, the notching on his tally
stick certified to his ownership of the silver. It remained for John Law, the
eminent Scotch banker, to carry money to its next stage of development—
pieces of paper secured by various kinds of assets, and too often by nothing at
all.

It is important to know how our present system of money grew, so you will
understand its true place in our scheme of business. When you determine to
make $1,000 you are not thinking of ten one-hundred-dollar bills so much as
you are thinking in terms of what you can buy with those bills. And the same
is true of those from whom you get money. You both talk about money as
though money was all important, but actually you are exchanging services.
So your success in making your first $1,000 will depend upon your ability to
make or do something, of definite value to society, which people want more
than they want the money it will cost them.

In the years gone by, there was money in making and selling carriages. Based
on figures alone it might seem like a good thing to start in the carriage
business. But even the most casual investigation will show the folly of doing
so. The public today needs low-priced aeroplanes, automobiles operated with
fuel oil, and similar things. So other things being equal, if two men started in
business today, one making carriages and the other making Diesel
automobiles, it is probable that while the man making carriages might make a
bare living out of his business, he would never make any “big” money. He
might be every bit as smart, even a better business man, but society is not
willing to exchange money for better horse-drawn carriages. But it will for
automobiles which will run one hundred miles to the gallon of crude oil!
The First Step in Making Money

It is easier to make money in some localities than in others. There is, for
example, the Ogden hardware merchant who became rich selling shovels
during the California gold rush. He was quick to see that with people pouring
into the West digging everywhere for gold, they would need a lot of shovels.
So he wrote back east and bought all the shovels he could get. It was no trick
to sell them. All he had to do was to advertise that he had shovels to sell, and
the prospectors took them away from him at fancy prices. That kind of
merchandising does not require any skill. Neither does it require any
knowledge of business principles. But the gold rush is over. The West has
been settled. To be successful in business today you need more than a stock
of merchandise. You have to know how to sell goods at a profit. Nine out of
every ten men who start in business today fail because they cannot measure
up to those requirements—especially the last part of the formula.

So the first step in starting a business of your own is to know something

about it. You need not know all about it. But you must know something about
it. Fortunately much of the knowledge you need may be found in books and
trade periodicals. The manufacturers of the equipment which you will need to
get started are usually able to furnish you with essential information. The
federal and state governments have publications of value to you. This is all
experience which you can buy very inexpensively, yet it is experience that
has cost others much time and money. So read everything published about the
business you intend to start, to get the combined experience of others, and
begin your plans where they left off.

You will find many people who will laugh at the idea of learning how to
make money in books. They will tell you that business success depends upon
inherent trading ability and action. They will cite men who never read a book
in their lives and still made lots of money in business. Do not be influenced
by these views. No man ever started in business for himself, who did not
short-cut the time it took him to become established, by reading about what
others had done. When you read a book about business it is just as though
you were invited into the home of the author and sat down with him and
talked over your problems. Only those who think they know all there is to be
known—and more besides—consider such an exchange of ideas foolish.
Why spend hundreds of dollars to find out that a business idea or plan will
not work, when another who has tried the plan tells you in a book or a
magazine article exactly why it is not a good idea? At the end of this volume
you will find references to books, pamphlets and magazines which may be
consulted for further information on some business problem. Consult those
references. They may save you much grief and loss.

But understand this: Reading alone won’t enable you to succeed in business.
The best idea ever conceived for making money is utterly worthless until
somebody puts it to work. You, no doubt, know many brilliant men, fellows
with more ideas for making money than a dog has fleas, yet who never get
enough money together to buy a second-hand automobile. What is wrong
with them? They are probably like the inventor who never stops inventing
long enough to make and sell his invention. One good idea, at work making
money, is worth a thousand ideas just buzzing around in the head of the
smartest man in America.

How to Begin Making Money

The way to begin making money, is to begin. That may sound foolish. But
the hundreds of thousands of people in this country who would like to make a
lot of money are not making it because they are waiting for this, that, or the
other thing to happen. Some are waiting for business to get better. Others are
waiting for the right moment. For the most part, however, they are waiting
for no reason in the world except that it is easier to put off until tomorrow
those things which should be done today. Business is a game of “put and
take”—you can’t “take out” until you “put in.”

People often put off starting in business for themselves because they cannot
see clearly ahead. So they go to friends for advice. It is characteristic of
people, when advising friends, to be super-conservative. Benjamin Franklin,
you will remember, asked his friends what they thought of his chance to
succeed in publishing a newspaper in Philadelphia. Without exception they
advised against it on the grounds that there were already too many
newspapers. They did not take into consideration Franklin’s ability nor his
capacity to succeed. Had they stopped to analyze the situation they would
have advised him to go ahead by all means. The fact that there were so many
newspapers made the opportunity for a better newspaper that much greater!
As a rule most of the advice to those contemplating a business venture is
“don’t.” If you ask the advice of enough people you are almost sure to end up
by doing nothing.

The only person really qualified to advise you as to what you can do is
yourself. You know yourself better than any one else does. You, and you
alone, know how determined you are to make a success of the undertaking.
And in the last analysis, about 90 per cent of being successful in business is
that indefinable thing which for lack of a better name we call “guts.” If you
have the “guts” to work eighteen hours a day if need be; if you have the
“guts” to go without pocket money in order to carry your business over the
rough spots; if you have the “guts” to stick when others say you are just
wasting your time, it is a pretty good bet that you will succeed, because that
is the stuff from which success is made.

So do not be overconcerned with the real and imaginary difficulties that loom
up so large at the outset. It is not necessary that you see the harbor at the
other end of your course before setting sail. If you sail straight, and keep
moving, you will get to your destination. But you won’t get there, or
anywhere, unless you start. Once you have started, most of the difficulties
will give way before your enthusiasm and determination to succeed. You
may end up in an entirely different business from the one you started. You
may have to change your plans a number of times. But what does that matter?
The all-important thing is that you have started.

In the following pages you will read about hundreds of people who, like
yourself, had the urge to make a thousand dollars. Some earned it making
things, and others selling things. Some made it quickly and others slowly. But
you will find one thing true of every story in this book. Each person began
making money when he or she started. Had these people not come to a
decision, and started in a business of their own, they would never have made
any money. Their success began with their decision to start— and so will
yours.
Raising Money to Start a Business

Many a man with a good idea hesitates to start in business because he lacks
capital. Capital is important, and it cannot be denied that a lack of it is one of
the principal reasons for business failures. However, lack of capital need not
hold back a determined man. The old saying, “Where there’s a will, there’s a
way” still applies.

Sometimes a money-making idea is so good that men who have capital will
“grub stake” you in starting your business. Many famous businesses were
started in just this way. Hires root beer is a case in point. Charles E. Hires
discovered the formula for his root beer in a farmhouse back in 1877. One
morning George W. Childs, publisher of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, sat
down beside Mr. Hires in a street car. “Mr. Hires,” he said, “why don’t you
advertise that root beer of yours?”

“How can I advertise?” said Mr. Hires. “I haven’t any money.” “Advertise to
get money. Come around to the Ledger office and I’ll tell the bookkeeper not
to send you any bills for advertising until you ask for them.”
Mr. Hires was a man of action. He knew that without venture, nothing could
be gained. He accepted Mr. Child’s offer. An inch advertisement ran daily
from that time on in the Public Ledger. Slowly, but steadily, it began to pull.
When at last the profits from the advertising were sufficient to justify Mr.
Hires’ asking for his bill, it amounted to $700. But it was a good investment.
It provided the capital upon which the Hires’ business was founded. For ten
years Mr. Hires plowed all his profits back into advertising, keeping only
enough out for a bare living for himself. He became one of the largest
national advertisers in the country, with annual appropriations amounting to
more than $600,000.
When a product has good repeating qualities it is sometimes possible to
interest advertising agents in extending credit in order to get a business
started. If an idea offers mass advertising opportunities, some of the larger
agencies may accept stock in a company to offset the advertising bills.
Among the well-known products now on the market which have been started
in this way, or which are partly owned by advertising agencies are:
Pepsodent, Barbasol, Bon-Ami, Sapolio, Palmolive soap and Van Camp’s
beans. It will be noticed that all these products have two things in common:
(l) They are articles which can be sold to the general public, and (2) they
repeat quickly. This last qualification is important, because generally you
have to spend an amount equal to the selling price of the first purchase in
order to induce a person to try a product. Your only chance, therefore, of
making a profit on your advertising is the repeat factor of the article. It must
have real merit, and it must have an outstanding feature that will lend itself to
mass exploitation, either over the air or through the press.
Another way to finance a business is to organize a stock company and sell the
stock to friends and local business men who have surplus funds to invest. In
following this plan, it is important to keep the voting control yourself,
otherwise you may find that after you have the business out of the red and
into a money-making position, you have been eased out of the picture.
Incorporate your company for twice as much as the capital required, and keep
51 per cent of the common or voting stock in payment for the idea or the
patents or whatever it is that makes the business attractive. It is better,
however, to finance a business out of its earnings, on a payas-you-go basis,
rather than to organize a stock company. The reasons for this are: (1) When
you sell stock to others you are in effect taking them in as partners. The more
partners you have, the less control you will have over the policies of the
business, and the greater the danger of dissension. (2) Minority stockholders,
unless they are employees, contribute little to a business beyond the initial
capital. There is no reason why they should be given 49 per cent of the
profits. They are entitled to a “rental” for the use of their money, and the risk
they take, but in the case of a successful business, common stock dividends
often represent a return of several hundred per cent a year.
The best way of raising the money you need to start your business, and the
way which in the long run will prove most profitable to you, is to find
something that you can sell. Let the commissions accumulate in a bank until
the balance is enough to enable you to start in a small way. Then, by the
simple process of putting back the profits into expansion, as Mr. Hires did, let
your business grow. In this way you will keep control and will not have to
share an unduly large proportion of its earnings with others.
In this connection you will find on pages 341 to 359 of this book a number of
suggested items which you can sell. If you lack the necessary capital to start
in business, you will probably find something described in that chapter which
can be successfully sold in your community. By this plan you can soon
accumulate a thousand dollars or more for business capital.

The Story of the Cash Register

O

NE of the outstanding examples of American business successes is the

National Cash Register of Dayton, Ohio. It is a monument to the genius of its
founder, John H. Patterson. It is a demonstration of what a man with an idea
and a lot of determination can accomplish, because probably no product ever
made had such poor prospects for success as the cash register when it was
introduced in 1884 by Patterson. That it was a useful invention no one
denied, but because its value depended, so it seemed, upon the assumption
that a business man’s employees were dishonest, it encountered terrific
opposition from retail clerks.

Mr. Patterson’s success was due in a large measure to taking what seemed to
be an insurmountable objection, and turning it into a reason for buying. Cash
register salesmen were taught to turn the opposition to their advantage by
pointing out to employers that when they put temptation in the way of their
clerks, they shared the guilt of any clerk who pilfered the cash drawer. They
brought the issue to the proprietor of the business by pointing the accusing
finger at him rather than at his clerks. And as so often happens, once the right
approach to the selling problem was found, the business began to grow. Even
to this day, the leadership which this great company enjoys in the field of
selling all over the world, can be traced to its policy of turning objections into
reasons for buying. In the words of a famous cash register salesman: “Sell
your man with the weapons he hands you.”

John H. Patterson did not invent the cash register. His early experience had
been in the coal business. When he was 40 years old, he came to Dayton and
paid $6,500 for the controlling interest in the National Manufacturing
Company, which held basic patents on a cash register. It was a crude device
that functioned by punching holes in appropriate columns on a strip of paper.
There seemed to be no demand for the machine at all and Patterson’s
investment in the enterprise came to be a standing joke in the community. In
fact, Patterson’s old associates made so much fun of the cash register, he
offered the seller of the stock a bonus of $2,000 to release him from his
contract. However, the seller wouldn’t take it back as a gift! When his offer
was refused, Patterson made up his mind that he would go into the business
and make it a success.

Perhaps it was fortunate that Patterson knew nothing about manufacturing.

For, if he had, he probably would not have touched the proposition. He would
have known the difficulties of running a business without an established
demand for the product. But Patterson didn’t know that “it couldn’t be done.”
In December, 1884, he changed the name of the concern to the National Cash
Register Company and from then until his death at 78, he “slept, ate and
drank” cash registers. No one else could see a future for cash registers, but he
refused to change his vision just because others could not see ahead. He
started absolutely from scratch. He had to improve the cumbersome old
machine; he had to find and develop a market; he had to create advertising to
sell his product; he had to develop salesmen to do the selling. One might say
that he invented modern salesmanship, because until that time, most selling
was just order taking.

By 1888, the company was beginning to make itself a power. It weathered the
panic of 1893 and later depressions. Patterson worked day and night against
almost insurmountable odds. There were times when, had he admitted to
himself the possibility of being bankrupt, he would have failed. He wouldn’t
recognize failure—he could not fail. By constantly improving his product, his
sales methods, and his manufacturing facilities, he built up in Dayton a
world-wide business that has earned millions of dollars for the Patterson
family. It shows what a man with an idea and a lot of “guts” can do.

How J. C. Penney Made His First $1,000

AMES C. PENNEY’S first job paid him $2.27 a month. Thirty-two years
later, he was the successful head of a great business, with more than 1,000
partners. He was just the average small-town country boy. Was it luck? Not
at all. It was a combination of enthusiasm, vision, and singleness of purpose,
backed up by work. He admits that hard work alone will not bring you
success. But hard work and a definite goal will do the trick.

After clerking for some time in a store owned by T. M. Callahan and his
partner, young Penney was offered a chance to become a partner in the
business, with a new store to manage. His savings amounted to $500—not
nearly enough. But the two partners agreed to lend him the additional amount
needed at 8 per cent. However, Penney was shrewd for his years, so he
shopped around and found he could borrow the amount from a bank at 6 per
cent.

The new store opened April 14, 1902, with a capital of $6,000, a third of
which was Penney’s. It was a success from the start. The sales for the first
year amounted to $28,891.11 and Penney’s share of the profit was well over
$1,000. While the long hours and the incessant work connected with selling
customers and buying stock may have seemed like drudgery to many, it was
fun to Penney. Merchandising was his field. This was the work he wanted to
do, and here was the opportunity. All he needed was the energy to put the
business over, and he had plenty of that and to spare.

By 1904, J. C. Penney had opened his third store. It was about this time that
T. M. Callahan and his first partner decided to separate. They offered to sell
their interest in the three stores to Penney. He lacked the needed amount to
buy, but such was their confidence in him they accepted his note for $30,000.

The stores were known at this time as the Golden Rule stores. The unusual
idea J. C. Penney developed from the very beginning was the building of
managers. He built up his men and sent them out to open new stores. They in
turn likewise built up managers and sent them out to open still other new
stores. In this manner, each new store would accumulate enough capital to
start the next store. Each manager who opened a new store, of course, shared
in the profits of that store. Thus each man selected by J. C. Penney to branch
out developed not only business, but men to handle the business. Here was
the idea and the vision. One look at the recent sales figures, running well over
$250,000,000, shows it succeeded.

TheStoryof“MorningGlory” TomatoJuice

HE Snead family of Evanston, Illinois, were up against it, just as thousands

of other families were in the early days of the depression. Two sons ready to
go to Dartmouth and Father Snead out of a job. A less determined family
might have decided that “luck” was against them and let it go at that. But the
Sneads are not quitters.

So they put their heads together and decided to get the agency for some lime
drink which would mix with native gin, and see if it could not be sold to the
supposedly well-to-do people along Chicago’s North Shore. But the North
Shore did not get very much excited about the Snead family’s lime ricky.

One day when the Snead spirits were down close to zero a friend on a down-
state farm sent the family a case of very fine seed tomatoes. Not knowing
what better to do with them Mrs. Snead decided to convert them into tomato
juice. Being a good neighbor she sent a few bottles next door. The neighbors
made a great fuss over it. Mrs. Snead began to wonder if perhaps her husband
and the boys might not be able to do better selling tomato juice the way she
fixed it, than they were selling lime ricky. The family went into a huddle, and
since the lime ricky business was getting no better fast, they decided to try
Mother Snead’s idea. They would call it “Morning Glory” Tomato Juice—
because it made you feel glorious, regardless of how badly you may have felt
the night before.

The idea of fresh, homemade tomato juice, squeezed from choice seed
tomatoes took hold in great shape. The Sneads charged more than the grocery
stores charged for tomato juice, but nobody complained. People are that way.
The late Colonel Simmons used to say: “The recollection of quality remains
long after the price is forgotten.” The Sneads were careful to keep the quality
up by making arrangements with a chap who grew tomato seeds, and
therefore had the choicest varieties. They took over his entire crop and
squeezed and seeded it for him. In that way they not only obtained juice that
had a superior flavor, but they got their raw materials at rock bottom prices.
Most important, however, it gave them a talking point—and a good talking
point may mean the difference between success or failure.

It was not long before the Sneads were selling all the tomato juice they could
make in their kitchen factory, and had to enlarge their facilities. They rented a
plant alongside the railroad tracks and began to think in terms of a nation-
wide market. They considered all the various ways of getting distribution.
They thought of selling through brokers, as so many food product
manufacturers do. But the brokers told them their price was too high. They
thought about employing college men to sell house to house. But that idea
would take too much capital. Finally, they determined to stick to the plan
they had so successfully used on the North Shore.

So they picked out a few social leaders in selected cities, people like the
Drexels and Biddles of Philadelphia, and wrote and told them about
“Morning Glory” Tomato Juice. The idea of serving tomato juice that was
made to order had a real appeal. The orders began to come in. When Mr.
Snead had the endorsement of these prominent people, he went to the
exclusive hotels in those cities and gave them the opportunity to serve the
same brand of tomato juice to their guests as the first families in the city
served on their breakfast tables. With the hotels lined up, the idea of serving
“Morning Glory” Tomato Juice was next suggested to the railroads. The
Pennsylvania Lines, always alert for something better, ordered a trial supply
and featured it on the menus of their crack trains. Next the Illinois Central fell
in line. In that way “Morning Glory” Tomato Juice got advertising worth
thousands of dollars, without the Sneads having to spend a thin dime. Before
long the Snead business was going “big guns.” Today, what started out as a
stop-gap during the worst period of the depression is now a full-fledged
business handling not only tomato juice but other food products as well. This
family’s hard-earned success simply proves the often overlooked truism that
to sell the masses, first sell the classes.

How the Great Wanamaker BusinessStarted

J

OHN WANAMAKER had saved $1,900; his brother-in-law, Nathan Brown,

had $1,600 that he was willing to risk in a partnership. “Why not begin?” said
Wanamaker to his brother-in-law. He figured that any time was a good time
to begin—provided you really did begin. Business conditions were bad—the
national depression, that had followed the closing of many banks in 1857,
had caused unemployment, low wages, and the demoralization of
manufacturers and wholesalers. Philadelphia, especially, was saturated in
gloom. It was 1861, the threshold of the Civil War. However, Wanamaker’s
mind had been made up and in February, 1861, he signed a lease that put his
store into business. At 23 he was ready to assume the responsibilities of a
business, regardless of national affairs, business conditions, or the well-meant
advice of friends who had tried to discourage him from the undertaking.

The store fixtures cost $375 and some clothing fabrics $739. The store
opened April 8, but little was sold for several days. Plenty of people passed
the store, but very few entered it. Then the books showed an entry of $24.67
worth of “gentlemen’s collars, cuffs and neckties,” sold April 18. In the
meantime the $3,500 which John Wanamaker and his brother-in-law had
scraped together was fast disappearing. It was just a question of how much
longer they could hang on.

Fortunately, there was an opportunity to buy the stock of a clothing

manufacturer who was nervous over the effect which the war might have on
business. Wanamaker took over the stock on thirty days’ dating and invested
all the money he had left—$24—in six advertisements in the Philadelphia
newspapers. This happened on April 27, 1861. The advertisements did what
was expected of them and the entire stock was sold in two weeks.

From then on the business grew, under the Wanamaker policy of putting
every dollar that could be spared into advertising. By 1869 Wanamaker &
Brown were the largest retail dealers in men’s clothing in the United States.
With the death of Nathan Brown, John Wanamaker & Company was
organized to do a general business. Today it is one of the great stores of the
world, and a monument to faith in advertising.
It was Wanamaker’s method to expand constantly and depend upon
advertising to fill in the open spaces. What his rivals called his foolhardiness
was grounded in a supreme faith in the power of advertising to build volume,
and the realization that volume attracted volume. When business came upon
any dull times or during a panic, it was always Wanamaker’s policy to
increase and expand his advertising appropriation as his sales increased.

Mrs.MacDougallTurned $38 into a Million

W

HEN Alice Foote MacDougall, of New York City, was left a widow in 1907,
with three little children to support, she turned to the only work she knew
outside of handling her household duties—coffee blending. With a capital of
$38, she decided to continue her husband’s coffee-broking business. It was
uphill work. There was much antagonism on the street, and coffee-men in the
business gave her just six months to last. However, she gradually became
established and the six months passed. Her little office included a borrowed
desk and a second-hand chair. Not only did she have to overcome the
prejudices against a woman in this business, but she had to learn the simplest
routine of running a business.

Most of Mrs. MacDougall’s accounts were clubs, hospitals and sanitariums.

In the beginning, she solicited orders by mail, but she realized that she would
have to make personal calls to secure more business. She mapped a radius of
seventy-five miles from New York and traveled this territory for several
years. Two years after she started in business, she was taking in $20,000 a
year. However, the profit on this amount was small as the net profit on each
pound of coffee was only about four cents. Several years later, having built
up a reputation for good coffee, she opened a small coffee shop in the Grand
Central Terminal, serving coffee and simple foods.

Within a year from the time the shop opened, she was serving 8,000
customers a month. Gradually this shop led to a chain of six eating places,
each patterned after a typical European scenic spot. Mrs. MacDougall was a
success; people flocked to her restaurants. They liked the leisurely, foreign
atmosphere. Her tea rooms at this time earned as high as $1,684,000 a year.

Then came the depression! In 1932 like many another, Mrs. MacDougall
went broke. The six restaurants went into receivership. Mrs. MacDougall,
however, had fought business difficulties before and came out ahead. She
didn’t cry “stop” now. At the age of sixty-five, she made a comeback and is
now the mistress of a chain of three restaurants. She is again stressing
“atmosphere” in her restaurants and the public is once more putting its stamp
of approval on her undertaking by giving these restaurants its patronage.
Once more Mrs. MacDougall is on her way to making an outstanding
success.

How Otto Schnering Made His First $1,000

T WAS back in 1914 that Otto Y. Schnering, then twenty-one years old,
went into business for himself. He had only a few dollars capital. He rented a
little office and established himself as a manufacturers’ agent, struggling
along against unpredictable odds, but gaining business experience. Then
came what he thought to be his real “break.” In 1916 he learned of a
candymaking machine he could buy for $100. “Fortunes have been made in
the candy business,” thought Schnering, so he bought the machine.

The first day the machine was delivered, he put it into operation. He worked
until midnight and made a batch of what he believed to be very fine candy.
The next day he took this candy and arranged with a few shopkeepers to sell
it for him on consignment. Then he returned to his office and made up a
second batch. He was to discover that his candy did not go well. When he
made his second call, very little of it had been sold. This did not discourage
him. He had embarked upon a career as a candy manufacturer. The thing to
do, he figured, was to find out why his candy didn’t sell, and then make
candy that would sell.

Unwittingly, Schnering had made a mistake that thousands of others have

made when they decide to go into any kind of manufacturing business. He
made a product that he liked, instead of one the public liked. There are
thousands of manufacturers today who are slowly going bankrupt because
they do not follow this simple principle. They often try to force their ideas on
the public, when it would be so much easier to make something that the
public actually wanted.

It did not take Schnering long to discover his mistake. He found out that three
types of candies sell best, namely, chocolate, caramel candies and candies
containing peanuts. He concentrated on making candies of this type, and his
candies sold, though not as well as he anticipated.

Schnering then experimented with many kinds of candy bars. It took him
three years before he had hit upon the ideal combination, one blending
chocolate, caramel, and peanuts, and the way the candy-public took to this
bar justified his experiments. He later decided to call the bar “Baby Ruth,”
because the word “baby” was familiar to every small child and adult, and
because the common name, “Ruth,” was easily pronounceable by man and
child. He priced it at five cents. The success of this bar was immediate.

To make a candy bar that will sell successfully does not require a
candymaking machine. You can start in your own kitchen, and by following
the principles outlined above, may, in a few days, work out the formula for a
successful selling bar. Candy formulas are not subject to copyright, but the
trade name of the product may be registered in the Bureau of Patents and
Copyrights, and its use denied to anyone but yourself. The experience of
every candy manufacturer, however, would indicate that the best kinds of
candy to make would be candies made from chocolate, since chocolate
candies are always in demand. Kitchen-made candies, chocolate creams, dip
caramels and other types sell better because they are fresher, and there is an
unlimited demand. A market is always ready in the local stores, where goods
placed on consignment, that is, with the understanding that you will take
them back if not sold within a specified time, are generally accepted.

chapter tWo
SELLING AS A BUSINESS
I
N LOGGING camps the cook shouts, “Come and get it.” In the army the
bugler sounds mess call. In either case a horde of hungry men come running
for their meals.

In business it would be simple if a manufacturer or a merchant could bring all

his customers within earshot, shout, “Come and get it” and be rushed by a
crowd of customers eager to buy his product. However, as we all know,
people are not that anxious to buy. They must be educated, persuaded and
shown how and what to buy. That is the job of salesmen and saleswomen.

There is always a demand for people who can sell. Salesmanship draws its
manpower from every other profession and trade. Lawyers have closed their
law books and turned to selling; some have grown rich. Surgeons have put
aside their white coats and become salesmen. Bankers, grown tired of sitting
on tall stools, or behind fancy desks have thrown up their jobs and turned to
the more satisfying job of selling. Farmers have walked away from their
plows to take up salesmanship; men from machine shops, from schools,
churches, stores and offices have sought the greater freedom and wider
opportunities for profit offered by a career in salesmanship.

There are many reasons why so many men desert other types of work to take
up salesmanship. One of the first reasons is that you can write your own
ticket when you become a salesman. You do not have to wait until the boss
gets ready to grant you a raise; a good salesman can give himself a raise in
pay almost any time. You do not have to work long, dreary hours, Sundays
and holidays as the druggist, the restaurant owner or the garage employee
must.

In selling you are almost entirely your own boss. You set your own rate of
pay and, like the captain of a ship at sea, you rely on your own judgment and
ability. There are many other things that go to make selling real fun. You
meet the community’s most successful, most interesting and influential
people. You are in constant touch with what’s going on in the world, and you
are laying the foundation for success and increasingly bigger pay checks.

There is almost no other man who is so thoroughly independent and secure as

the salesman who has built up the confidence and friendship of a group of
customers. A merchant may suffer fire losses that will wreck his business or
he may make mistakes in buying that will shatter his profits for an entire
season; a surgeon may lose the delicate skill of his hands as he grows older,
and the loss of one important case may send a lawyer straight down the path
to obscurity. A farmer may lose an entire season’s work in one heavy
downpour of rain, or an overflow of the creek or river. But no fire can burn,
no flood destroy, no thief can steal a salesman’s stock in trade which is, as
you know, the confidence and friendship of his customers.

Of course, there can be no doubt that most men take up selling to earn
money. But there are other satisfactions and compensations in addition to the
money earned. In 1928, a salesman almost jammed a life insurance policy
down the throat of a certain New York newspaper man. The policy had an
accident and sickness clause which paid $100 a month in the event of illness
and disability. When he signed the application and paid the premium he was
in the best of health. Less than two years later he was in a hospital, drawing
$100 a month compensation. Was he grateful to that insurance salesman?
You know he was. Had it not been for the salesman’s insistence, he would
have suffered the loss of ten months’ earnings, and there would have been no
funds to pay the heavy hospital expenses. Yet it seemed to the buyer when he
took that insurance that he was doing the salesman a favor. As it turned out,
the salesman did the newspaper man a favor for which he has been grateful
ever since.

A salesman who sold a radio receiver sometime ago to an old lady who is
crippled and confined to her home said that he wondered if he had done the
right thing. It was an expensive set and she was dependent on a very small
income. “I thought perhaps I ought not to have sold her, because it was
obvious that her home needed repairs and painting. But as she made the
payments I realized that the radio set had brought the world right to her
armchair. She has since told me that her radio receiver, next to her husband
and children, has been the greatest joy in her life.”

There are literally millions of people who owe much of their happiness to
salesmen. Think of the people who might never have owned a home if some
real estate salesman hadn’t “pushed them over.” Think of the thousands of
mothers whose lives have been made easier by some salesman who sold them
a washing machine, a vacuum cleaner, or an ironing machine. There’s a
president of a big advertising agency in New York who traces his upward rise
back to the time when a salesman sold him a correspondence course in
advertising. Numberless cases could be pointed out where salesmen, through
their ability to educate, to persuade, and to induce people to act, have brought
new prosperity, happiness and satisfaction into the lives of millions of people.
That’s why it is so much fun to sell things.

Qualifications of a Good Salesman

One of the best salesmen in his field was a big, blonde fellow who was a
great handshaker and backslapper. He never missed an opportunity to make a
friend or to push himself forward to meet the right people. He joined all kinds
of lodges and clubs. He wore pink shirts, too. He was a typical salesman—the
kind we read about. And he was a big success. Another topnotch salesman
was a fellow who was totally unlike the first man. He never slapped any
backs; he was quiet, reserved and almost diffident in his relations with
people. But he could sell. When he sold an order he made a customer, and
often a lifelong friend.

These two men are mentioned to emphasize the idea that you don’t have to be
an expert storyteller, a gin-hound or a great handshaker to be a good
salesman. There are thousands of good salesmen who never take a drink of
hard liquor. There are other thousands who are quiet, unassuming, modest
fellows who do not feel the necessity of joining a lot of clubs or lodges, or
painting the town red. It isn’t even necessary for a man to have the “gift of
gab” to be a successful salesman. Experience has proved that more salesmen
have become failures from talking too much, than from too little.

Because a man doesn’t have to be a good “mixer,” in the usual sense of the
word, don’t jump to the conclusion that a miser can be a good salesman. But
there is a whole world of middle ground between being a “mixer” and a
miser. If you enjoy meeting people, if you are not scared in the event a man
becomes a little gruff and grouchy with you, if you are not afraid of hard
work and study, and if you have a grim determination to succeed, you have
most of the important qualifications of a good salesman.

Of course, if you are imaginative, can see the inherent value in a proposition
quickly, if you have the knack of explaining values in interesting and forceful
terms, if you have any natural qualities of leadership—so much the better.
But, important as these qualities may be, many men who have them in only
the smallest degree succeed in selling.

You may ask what is meant by “natural qualities of leadership.” Were you
ever the captain of a sandlot or high school baseball team? Are you invariably
appointed to some office in any little group, lodge, association, or club you
join? Do people gravitate toward you and go out of their way to see you or
please you? If these things are true, you are a natural leader and there is no
better way to capitalize your inherent abilities than in a career as a salesman.
But if you like to be alone, if you would rather read about a football game
than go to one and yell your head off, if you would rather sit by the fire of a
winter’s night and read a good book than go to a party, perhaps you had
better not try selling—unless you are willing to fight hard to overcome your
natural inclinations.

To add one word of caution: Don’t pay too much attention to what your
friends tell you. Many a potentially good salesman has been ruined by the
well-meant, but mistaken, advice of wives, friends, mothers, or
schoolteachers. After all, it is up to each man to decide for himself what he
wants to do, whether it is running a retail store, building up a manufacturing
business, farming, selling or anything else. You know in your own mind
whether you want to sell or not. Once you have made up your mind, go
ahead. If you are the sort of person who is constantly swayed back and forth
in your opinions and your desires by the advice of friends, then perhaps you
had better not try to be a salesman.

Getting the Name on the Order Blank

When you begin to sell you are almost sure to find nearly everyone will
promise you some business. You will be told, “I will keep you in mind,” or “I
will let you know when I need anything.” People really mean these
pleasantries when they say them to you, but they seldom bother to remember
them after a salesman is out of sight. You must learn, and learn quickly, too,
that a promised order pays no commissions, turns no factory wheels.

The ability to close sales without a long, drawn-out series of “call backs” is
the greatest asset a salesman can have. Without this ability you are just a
solicitor, not a salesman. There’s an old saying, “Anybody can solicit
business, but it takes a salesman to close orders.”

The first thing to remember in closing a sale is that most people need a little
pushing to bring them to a decision. The natural inclination of every prospect
is to put off buying as long as possible. Even a woman, a few days before
Easter, will want to put off buying a hat or a new outfit, until she has seen
what every store in town has to offer. Yet she wants that new hat or dress as
badly as she ever wanted anything. She’d be heartbroken if she knew she
couldn’t have it. But she wants to wait, wait, wait and see if she can’t find
something she likes a little better.

Keeping this human trait uppermost in your minds, as salesmen, you can
understand the necessity of persistence and pressure in helping people to
make up their minds. Take the case of a man buying a new automobile. He
may have decided to buy a Ford, a Chevrolet or a Plymouth. But which one?
All three cars are presented to him in the most favorable manner. He is a bit
confused. Each car has certain special features which appeal to him. The
salesman’s job is to bring him to the point of deciding. There are definite
methods of doing this. For example, one salesman may say: “Mr. Prospect, if
you will just check your preferences as to color, tires, and body style, I’ll put
your order through, so you can drive this car next Sunday.”

See how this salesman has simplified the prospect’s problem of making a
decision. See how much better this attempt at closing is, than: “Think it over
and let me know what kind of tires and wheels you want.” The washing
machine salesman may say, “Mrs. Jones, if you will sign this memorandum
you can have this machine in your basement by Monday, and finish your
washing long before noon, leaving you free from worry and work all Monday
afternoon.”

In closing an order make everything as simple as possible, and get the

prospect to take some first, easy steps toward signing. A typewriter salesman
had the president of a large company convinced that his machine was right.
But there were some twenty-five old machines to be listed for tradein and a
contract to be drawn. The salesman saw that the president, who was
accustomed to “okaying” memoranda which had been prepared for him, was
busy. Had he waited for the president to ask someone to list all the old
typewriters to be traded in and to draw up the contract, he would never have
obtained the order.

The salesman went out of the president’s office, tore off a sheet of wrapping
paper. On it he listed the serial numbers of all machines which were to be
traded in. Under the list he wrote, “$21 allowance on these machines.” Back
into the president’s office went the salesman. He showed the president the
memorandum and said, “Just okay this and I will have your purchasing agent
prepare the order.” The president scribbled his initials and his okay in a jiffy.
Later the salesman went to the purchasing agent who prepared a formal
purchase order for the twenty-five new typewriters. The salesman had made
the job of buying as simple as possible.

At the first sign of agreement on the part of the prospect, the wise salesman
“asks for the order.” If he can’t close at this point, he goes right on
explaining, even in some cases, repeating things he has said before. Then he
asks for the order again. More men make the mistake of asking for the order
too late than too soon. Remember this point when selling—ask for the order
five times before you give up. Very often a prospect will spar and feint by
saying he will check his stock and let you know. Or he will tell you that he
will find out what color, or what size, or what quantity is needed. Here is
where the salesman shows whether he is really an order getter, or just a
solicitor. If he is really a salesman he’ll say, “That’s fine, Mr. Prospect, just
okay this order with the color (or size or quantity) left blank and I will have
your clerk (assistant bookkeeper, or secretary) fill in the details.”

Not long before this was written a salesman was trying to sell a landlord a
Kelvinator electric refrigerator. Two other refrigerator salesmen were after
the order too. The landlord couldn’t make up his mind, so he said he would
talk to the tenant and find out what make the tenant preferred. The Kelvinator
salesman went straight to the tenant and explained all the good points of
Kelvinators. The other two salesmen waited a day or two and then came
back. “Sorry, but I bought a Kelvinator,” said the landlord when they
approached him. The Kelvinator salesman had “cinched” the order by seeing
the tenant and then going right back to the landlord and saying, “Your tenant
will be delighted with a Kelvinator, because I have just seen him and told him
all about it.”

Deciding What to Sell

What do you want to sell? Don’t make the mistake of thinking, “I would sell
anything if I had the chance.” The first step in going into sales work is to
decide what you want to sell, and what you think you can sell. You might do
a splendid job of selling electric ranges, yet fail miserably in selling electric
motors. Or vice versa. You could conceivably make a big success selling life
insurance and fail completely to sell accounting machines. Your own
previous experience, your interests, hobbies, education, and background, all
should govern the selection of something you like to sell. If you like the feel
and touch of materials; if you have an eye for style, line, color; if you are a
natural trader who loves to see money changing hands, by all means get into
selling something that is sold over the counter in retail stores. But if you are
the kind of fellow who thinks that a retail merchant is just a “shopkeeper,”
and you can’t get excited about a piece of merchandise and the possible profit
it carries, then forget about selling to retailers.

Do you like automobiles? Are you interested in all the new models that come
out from year to year? This interest may be turned into profit by selling
automobiles. Are you of a mechanical turn of mind? There are a thousand
mechanical devices to sell. And so on through the long gamut of everything
that is made. There are a thousand things you could sell. But find the one
thing you want to sell, and you’ve made your first step toward a career in
selling.
In the following portion of this chapter you will read how other people who,
like yourself, had a real desire to sell, satisfied their desire and made good
money to boot. You will notice that in nearly every instance the adventure
proved successful because the product offered for sale rendered a definite
service to the buyer. It is not enough that you are enthusiastic about selling a
product or service; it must be something for which a need exists. When you
are searching for something to sell, make sure that it not only appeals to you,
but that it will appeal to those to whom you must sell it. In this connection
you will find in the supplement in the back of this book a list of products,
which offer such opportunities. From this list you can make a selection with
every assurance that the product is salable.

Every Woman Is a Hosiery Prospect

UCILE ANTHONY , forced to shift for herself and her six-month-old baby
when her husband had deserted her, turned to selling silk hosiery. The
fascination beautiful silk hose held for her was, she admitted, almost an
obsession. She points out that her chief reason for selling connection with a
hosiery manufacturer was to enable her to go from home to home and meet
people.

“Besides a genuine love for sheer silken hose, I had practically no other
enthusiasm,” Lucile explained. “I received samples of six different colored
hose in a light folding case from the company, and was so eager to tell my
friends about the hose that my first calls didn’t seem like selling at all. I
visited friends first. Most of them gave me orders in units of three or more
pairs. But I soon ran out of friends, for you know no matter how many people
you’re acquainted with, sooner or later you’ve told the story to everyone. So
when I had seen every friend I had, I started selling to strangers. This proved
more difficult than I expected. When the women came to the door, they
didn’t expect to see a saleswoman and were not in the mood for buying.
Many scowled. None asked me in, as my friends had done, and I thought
while making my initial call on strangers that the world was hard and cruel.
In three days I made only two sales. Something was decidedly wrong.

“I realized that I was not using a scientific approach when calling on these
women—I was saying the first thing that came to my mind. Since I wasn’t
getting anywhere, I thought something was wrong with my product. Then,
like many others, I blamed my inability to make sales on the kind of work I
was doing. Indeed, I was so sure it was because I was doing house-to-house
selling that housewives wouldn’t give consideration, I was annoyed and
upset. Yet the idea of selling hose, of handling them, of talking about them to
everybody was strong enough to overcome the impulse to quit. Out of my
first impressions about selling, there emerged a few clear ideas on
salesmanship. I began to realize that my trouble was the way I went about
making sales; that it wasn’t exactly what I said at the door that mattered, so
much as the way I said it. There are no magic words that admit one to homes.

“Presently I was aware of being more successful getting in when I kept on

talking. Women who opened the door to tell me they wouldn’t buy anything,
usually waited until I made a move to leave before closing the door. So I
began to use strategy. Standing several feet from the door, at the edge of the
porch, I would talk loudly. I would tell the woman about the beautiful hosiery
I carried.

“ ‘No. Nothing today,’ was the usual answer. ‘But if you would only give me
a minute—.’
“ ‘I’m busy. Not today.’
“ ‘It won’t take any time at all. Won’t you let me come in?’
“ ‘I have no money. Not today.’
“ ‘But if you once saw them, Mrs. Smith, I know—’
“ ‘Call back again next week. I won’t buy a thing today.’
“ ‘But I’m not asking you to buy, won’t you even take a moment to look?’
“ ‘Not today. I’m sorry. I’m very busy.’
“ ‘I understand you’re very busy, Mrs. Smith. I really won’t take up any time
at all. Won’t you let me in?’
“After some moments of this type of conversation, the housewife would
invite me inside. That gave me a chance to do some real selling. My
enthusiasm for silk hosiery usually proved infectious and the woman would
let me have an order.”
Mrs. Anthony’s method of getting past the door is used by many successful
salespeople with good results. She makes an average of forty-five calls daily,
and during her second six-month period of selling for this company earned
commissions which totaled eleven hundred and seven dollars. Her biggest
day’s income came just before commencement exercises at the University of
Chicago, when she called on two sorority houses and sold fifty-six pairs of
hosiery in two group demonstrations. Her commission is fifty cents a pair,
collected as a deposit from the prospect at the time the order is given. The
balance due the company is collected C.O.D. when shipment is made.
This type of work is ideal for women who are anxious to turn their spare time
into money. Working hours may be suited to your own convenience and no
investment is needed to start in this remunerative business.

OvercomingPriceObjections
I

T IS typical of merchants and others engaged in smaller businesses to feel

they cannot afford most of the things they would like to have. It seems to be a
sort of complex with them. But as Henry Ford once said: “Every man feels
much poorer than he really is.” This is a good point to remember when
selling to storekeepers. You have to anticipate this objection, by presenting
what you may be selling in a way that will turn the price into a reason for
buying. Very often this “can’t afford it” feeling can be made the key point in
a sales presentation and capitalized to advantage. This is especially true if
you are fortunate enough to be selling a product which looks “expensive” but
which actually costs much less than the prospect imagines he will have to pay
for it.

Take the case of George Conrad, for example. He has developed a surefire
plan of selling slicing machines around this very idea. When he enters a store
he doesn’t say a word, but lays a big broadside on the merchant’s counter
showing a colorful illustration of the slicing machine he is selling. He leaves
the machine outside in his car.
“What do you think of that?” he asks his prospect, who in this case is the
proprietor of a small meat market.
“It looks good,” the butcher replies after looking at the colored advertisement
for several minutes. “But I can’t afford an expensive slicing machine such as
that. It costs too much.”
“But you need one, don’t you?”
“Yes, but I’m not doing very much business and can’t afford to lay out a lot
of money for a slicing machine.”
Conrad smiles, goes out to his car, brings in a sample machine, hooks it up
behind the counter, and requests the butcher (who is still protesting that he
can’t afford it) to try the machine.
“Like it?” Conrad asks after a few minutes. “Certainly, but I simply can’t pay
. . .”
“I understand. This machine is a low-priced slicer, however, and looks and
works just like the expensive ones. Guaranteed too. How much could you
afford to pay in cash for a slicer?”
The butcher shakes his head. “The way business is, I couldn’t go over $10.”
“Well, if you can pay that much get out your money,” is Conrad’s standard
reply. “This slicer will cost you only $7.50.”
This is typical of the interviews Conrad has with grocers, butchers, and
proprietors of lunchrooms, restaurants, delicatessens and taverns when he
calls with his hand-slicing machine. It is this approach which is responsible
for his averaging $75 a week for the past two years.
“This slicer looks like an expensive machine that costs a lot of money,”
declares Conrad. “It is a sturdy, rotary type slicer with a stainless steel blade
adjustable to any thickness, so that it will slice ham as thin as tissue paper, or
bread any thickness you desire. Before this came out, though, the average
grocer and delicatessen proprietor had to pay around $150 for a slicing
machine. Naturally, when they see this one, which looks every bit as good as
the expensive machine and is quite as satisfactory, it is hard for them to
believe it’s not an expensive outfit. I let them think that. I let them build up as
much resistance as they want toward paying a big price. Then, when I’ve
finally got them to make a demonstration and admit the machine is good, I
crash this opposition with the low-price offer. And I seldom lose a sale.”
To those who like to sell to stores, a good slicing machine offers a real
money-making opportunity. Conrad’s commission on each sale is two
dollars, and he has sold as high as eighty machines in one week. His average
week, however, is about thirty-seven slicers.

How to Sell “Tailored-to-Measure” Suits

I

N THREE months, John Gleason “cleaned up” well over a thousand dollars
from the sale of men’s tailored-to-measure suits. But Gleason had been
making little or no profit from his selling activity in the previous months.
Indeed, as he himself put it, he was just another doorbell pusher. He had
difficulty overcoming the objections raised by prospects. He had trouble
finding men who were in a position to buy suits. And he experienced
disappointment when getting in to see prospects. As a salesman, Gleason
admits he wasn’t so “hot.”

To believe that he suddenly turned over a new leaf would be too much. He
didn’t. He did change some of his selling methods, however, and taught
himself to be at ease with people. It was due to his willingness to let an older
hand show the way, though, which enabled Gleason to climb into the big
money-making class.

“Living in the apartment above was a salesman I greatly admired,” explained

Gleason. “This fellow was a polished, suave chap, who had been selling for
years. When I got pretty well acquainted with him, I asked him for pointers
on selling. It was difficult for me to understand all the points he made. At
first I thought they were only theories so I did not take them seriously. I grew
more and more discouraged. I mentioned this to him. ‘I’m awfully sorry,’ he
said, ‘I’d like to do something to help you.’ ‘You can if you wish,’ I
answered quickly. ‘There’s a lot that you could teach me, if you would make
a call or two with me.’ He agreed to do so.

“It was arranged to call on some prospects together. I made the first interview
but didn’t get very far. It was a call upon a doctor who got rid of me in a
hurry. Outside the office, on the way to the next call, my friend was very
thoughtful and made no comment. When I lost the second sale, he said softly:
‘Let’s drop down to the lunchroom and talk this over. You’ve made an effort
to make two sales, and have avoided letting anyone know what you’re trying
to sell.’ He made no further comment on the matter until we faced each other
across a table in the lunchroom. Then he pointed out an obvious error in my
tactics. ‘When you got in to see those fellows, they knew you came to sell
something. Why do you talk about representing a large responsible house
selling high quality merchandise? Why not try to sell them a suit? These men
are busy. They know what they want, when they see it. Cut the introduction
and get down to business.’

“‘You’ve got to begin, you know,’ I said in defense.

“‘Sure you do,’ he retorted. ‘That’s my point. Begin at once. When we go to

see your next prospect, I’ll give you an idea of what I mean.’
“Half an hour later, we entered the office of a real estate dealer. ‘I’m offering
some of the greatest suit bargains you ever saw,’ said my friend, but the
realtor shook his head. ‘That’s a fine looking suit you’re wearing. Isn’t it one
of our twenty-two fifty line?’
“‘Nope,’ replied the realtor, ‘I bought this in a store.’
“My friend moved over to the prospect and closely examined the man’s coat.
‘Hmm,’ he murmured, ‘that is certainly a fine piece of goods, isn’t it,
Gleason?’
“I stepped up and admired it. The realtor smiled. ‘Let me show you the same
goods here—’ and my friend held out his hand as a sign for me to show a
sample. I opened my case and brought out a sample swatch. Quickly this was
placed in the prospect’s hand. A moment later he was fingering it.
“‘Do you like your sleeves that short? They seem a trifle short to me,’ my
friend said critically.
“The prospect admitted the sleeves were a little short. I got my friend’s idea
at once. Quickly I measured the prospect’s sleeve and marked it on the order
blank. Then I went through the entire measuring series myself.
“After taking this prospect’s measure, I asked him if he wanted us to have a
suit made up for him. He hesitated, but my friend saved the situation.
“‘Here’s a fabric that certainly will make up beautifully, and it’ll look fine on
you.’ The prospect was guided back to a consideration of fabrics once more.
Finally his choice was narrowed down to two fabrics and soon the sale was
closed.
“My friend pointed out the following errors in the method I had been using:
(1) My opening arguments were not natural or interesting. (2) I did not tie up
the prospect with the idea of owning another suit. (3) I did not show how
good my suits were in comparison with those being worn. (4) I did not
picture the prospect wearing the suit. (5) I was voiding all the previous
interview by a negative suggestion at the close, when I should be writing the
order.
“Closely following the tactics used by my friend brought results. I now sell
an average of four suits daily, netting commissions of $12.95 a day which is
better than $3,000 a year!”
Gleason calls on business men and workers in shop and office; he does not
waste time on men who are not working. Calling at the factory entrances of
plants about lunch time enables him to make a demonstration to a group of
men and arrange evening appointments at the homes of those interested. He
sells from a sample. The order blank is so arranged that anyone can easily
follow the directions for taking the accurate measure for a suit. The deposit,
made by the prospect at the time the order is taken, is the salesman’s
commission. The balance is collected C.O.D. by the manufacturer when the
shipment is made.
To sell clothing successfully does not require selling experience of any
nature. It does require a sales plan and some initiative in working the plan.
Many made-to-measure tailoring companies, selling their suits through direct
salesmen to the wearer, supply detailed instructions for salesmen.

The Right and Wrong Way to Sell NurseryStock

W

ILLIAM WERNER got his first thousand dollars from trees. There were
financial worries in the Werner household, and the need of additional cash
led Werner, who clerked in a men’s furnishing store, to sell nursery stock in
his spare time.

“One day,” he said, “I happened to mention my nursery line to a teller in the

bank. He was building a new home and wanted a few trees and shrubs. But he
cooled off when I said that our stock was small and that it took some years
for the trees to grow big. ‘What will they look like then?’ he asked. I tried to
explain and he said he would think it over. When I called back, he was still in
doubt whether to buy from me or from a local greenhouse. ‘The greenhouse
man has such a beautiful story about how nice and shady a fir tree would be
in one year that he has almost sold my wife. But if you want to tell your story
to her, it’s all right with me.’

“When I called at the teller’s home, I asked his wife to step into the yard and
look at the old brick wall of the apartment house they were living in. Then I
tried to picture to her how much more attractive that bare wall would be with
English ivy clinging to it, and the foot of the wall gay with flowers. This
seemed to make an impression on her. We talked a lot about the different
kinds of bushes and shrubs. She preferred lilacs, it developed, and said she
always liked the scent of the lilacs in the air. I kept telling her about the way
the place would look when it was finished and the shrubs and bushes planted
and fully grown.

“I got an order for $207 before I left, but it took me from two that Sunday
afternoon until six-thirty to get it. My commission was $29. Elated, I wrote
the firm about the way I made this sale, and got back a letter containing some
very good advice. This letter complimented me highly, and said: ‘Always
remember that when people buy nursery stock, they expect definite results.
It’s results they want, not a tree a foot high. Sell them results.’ I’ve thought
about that many times since. The other day, when I was talking to a farmer
about buying 100 apple trees of a new variety, I knew he wanted to know
how many apples the trees would bear. I pictured a whole orchard for him,
with fruit hanging on the trees. Of course, he realized as well as I did that the
trees would be tiny when he planted them, but he knew they would grow big
with the passing of time, and that eventually they would bear fruit. He wanted
to see a vision of results, and I helped him see the vision.

“Merely to quote prices on berry bushes, fruit trees, shrubs and other nursery
stock would never get an order for me. Most people, I’ve discovered, are
totally lacking in imagination. They are able to picture a thing only when it is
shown to them. It is up to me to do their imagining for them. Orders vary in
size, and the commission varies greatly, of course. I sell every kind of shrub,
and sell in quantities of from one tree for the backyard of a city dweller to a
whole orchard of perhaps a thousand. The first six weeks after I sold that
banker’s wife, I earned commissions well over $1,200.”

Werner, after this success, left his regular position and devoted all his time to
selling nursery stock. He makes many calls, but succeeds in interviewing
only seven prospects in an average day. The commission earned on each sale
he has made since he started selling nursery stock is $9.10 an order. He
averages two orders daily. His commissions are paid to him weekly, as orders
are verified, this being the nursery’s established policy. This policy does not
apply to all nurseries. Some concerns insist the salesman collect his
commission in the form of a deposit, at the time the order is given. Prospects
are found everywhere, in small towns and big cities, suburbs, and rural
districts. Some nursery salesmen make a practice of calling at regular
intervals upon county school boards, playgrounds, churches and like places,
where there is frequent demand to replenish or replace trees and shrubs. No
money is needed to start in this profitable field.

Selling Frocks Brings Back Prosperity

HEN S. P. Liest lost his job, his family became panicky. They had no
savings, and the prospect of Liest getting another job quickly was remote.
But his plucky wife did not despair. She had read about a manufacturer of
women’s frocks who appointed agents to sell his products. She wrote to him
asking for a local agency, and presently received a number of style cards and
a selling kit, with some practical suggestions for getting started. The plan was
to call upon housewives in their homes. Determined to make money the first
day, Mrs. Liest started out.

“I was lucky on my first call,” Mrs. Liest declared. “When I approached the
door I felt the porch would open up and swallow me, I was so frightened.
When the prospect opened the door and smiled good morning, I couldn’t talk,
and I believe if I hadn’t been so desperate for money, I might have quit right
there. This prospect was very gracious, however. She seemed to feel sorry for
me. She asked me to step inside, and by degrees I recovered from my stage
fright. Then I started to talk about the frocks, and the dresses I was selling
just as though I were visiting a friend. We talked styles and colors and
fashions. I showed her the style cards, pointing out that they featured the
latest Parisian fashions, and that she had probably seen similar designs in a
current woman’s magazine. We got the magazine and compared the style
features of my frocks with those illustrated in the publication, and I soon
forgot I came to get that woman’s order, having become so absorbed in
talking about clothes. When she presently told me that she would take each
one of three numbers the manufacturer was pushing, I was not a little
surprised. My commission, $4.30, was the exact amount of the deposit
required, the balance being collected by the manufacturer C.O.D. I was
elated. I didn’t make another call that day. I hurried home, stopping at the
grocery on the way to get things for dinner, and entered the house loaded
with bags of groceries.”

Mrs. Liest was not so successful the next day, however. She made several
calls, but failed to get an order. Analyzing that day’s selling effort made her
wonder why it had seemed so easy to make her first sale. “I couldn’t help
believing that my first sale was prompted by the charity and kindness of my
first prospect,” Mrs. Liest pointed out, “and that was disappointing, but the
more I thought about it, the more inclined I was to change this view. I saw
after some time, that when I started out I didn’t make a conscious effort to get
an order. I talked dresses and dress styles. I was just one woman talking to
another woman about clothes. This touch, present in the first interview, was
lost in those that followed, and I was making a stilted, unnatural effort to
build interest. I changed my method. Now when I call to see a woman about
frocks, I talk as most women would talk about clothes. I get my selling points
over in this way, and it’s natural. I make a point to wear my sample, and the
prospect then can visualize the way it hangs and looks when being worn. I
ask the prospect to note the depth of the hems, the French seams, the latest
style features, and the washable guarantee that is sewn into each frock. In this
way I build the prospect’s interest to the buying point.”
During her first nine months, Mrs. Liest made a profit well over $1,000 from
frock sales. Commenting on this, she said: “All I do is talk woman to woman
about clothes.” She was not required to invest in a sample kit or style cards.
Her entire selling outfit was furnished by the manufacturer. She makes an
average of thirty calls a day, and sells not less than four frocks daily, on
which her commissions total $5.17. Mrs. Liest has had days when she sold as
many as fifteen frocks, and more than one day she has sold from ten to
thirteen. She has found that the best time for calling upon housewives is
between nine-thirty in the morning and three-thirty in the afternoon.

Because women like to talk about clothes, they willingly admit the
representatives of dress and frock manufacturers who call at their door. You
may readily become a representative for such a manufacturer who sells on the
C.O.D. plan. The deposit, or initial payment, made at the time the order is
taken, is retained by the salesperson as the commission on the sale. The
balance is collected C.O.D. when the parcel post shipment is made.

A Good Way to Sell Radios

E

NTERING the lobby of a small hotel frequented by salesmen and guests

who resided there permanently, James Winton placed a radio on the clerk’s
desk and said to him: “May I connect this to a light socket? No ground, no
aerial is necessary.”

The clerk obligingly permitted Winton to connect the radio and several men
in the lobby gathered around him out of idle curiosity. In a few moments a
local station was tuned in and music floated over the heads of this group,
across the lobby. For some minutes Winton contented himself with a
demonstration of the radio, moving its volume control from a whisper to a
loud clear tone, without saying a word. When he felt that he had secured the
undivided attention of his audience, he took a punch board from his brief
case, and addressed the men in the lobby.

“This radio retails for twenty-nine fifty,” said Winton.

“It is one of the best small sets you can buy. The fellow who punches the
right number gets it.” He extended the board to one of the men, and in less
than thirty minutes, the board, passed from one to another, was completely
punched out. A guest in one of the rooms on the third floor started away with
the radio, smiling. Winton, pocketing the proceeds, suggested to the clerk that
he take a punch board. “You keep 25 per cent of what you take in on the
board,” said Winton, “and the radio will be free.” The clerk agreed, so
Winton left a board with him and then went on to his next call.

“I made twenty dollars profit on that first punch board in the hotel,” said
Winton. “On the board left with the clerk, I made five dollars. I delivered the
radio when the board was punched out. The radios were sold to me at the
usual discount to dealers by the manufacturer, so I had a nice profit from
those two boards. But small hotels are not the only places where I sell radios.
You’d be surprised at the number of barber shops, cigar stores, billiard halls,
and other places of this nature where you can put in these radios and do a
nice business. Some of the more popular barber shops, lunchrooms, and
recreation parlors use as many as three boards weekly. I had a little difficulty
getting the hang of lining them up at first though. I thought it was only
necessary to sell the proprietor or a clerk. I was fooled. You have to show
them how to make money on the board. That’s why I connect the radio first.
No one is interested in a demonstration that doesn’t demonstrate. They want
to hear the radio as well as look at it. My present method proves the money-
making possibilities to the clerk and shows the crowd just how good the radio
is.”

Winton pointed out that trying to talk up the sale isn’t effective with him. He
buys his radios from a wholesale company, specializing in this type of radio
distribution, and during his first four months his profits were well over a
thousand dollars. He builds up his business by establishing an “agent” in a
barber shop, pool room, or tavern, in the manner described above. Each
agent, so appointed, uses between three and six boards monthly. He pays for
the boards and the radios he uses when delivered by the wholesaler, and the
cost of the first radio is the extent of his original investment. This amounts to
twelve dollars.
It is possible for anyone who will really work to make a good profit
supplying the hotels, restaurants, lunchrooms, cigar stores, drug stores, barber
shops, and billiard halls with this sales plan. By making about twenty calls on
prospects daily, Winton averages over nineteen dollars a day when he is
working.

A Storeless Shoe Business

HEN J. W. Hawkins, of Cleveland, Ohio, who had been representing a

wholesale shoe company for twenty years, had his territory taken away from
him, he decided to turn his knowledge of the shoe business to his own
advantage. He made a connection selling shoes direct to the wearer and five
months later he had earned a thousand dollars.

“I simply took advantage of a situation with which the trade is familiar,”

Hawkins said. “Every experienced shoe salesman knows people have only a
vague idea of the size of their shoes. You’d be surprised to know how many
times the average person buys ill-fitting shoes in his lifetime, believing he is
properly fitted. That’s because it’s impossible for a shoe store to keep a
complete stock of sizes, widths, styles and colors of the lines it handles, all of
the time. When the store is out of the proper size, the clerk substitutes a size
close to it, and the average person doesn’t know the difference.

“I have trained myself to tell at a glance if a person is properly fitted.

Prospects, wearing ill-fitting shoes, usually complain of being hard to fit and
doubt that I can give them shoe satisfaction. I tell them: ‘I guarantee the fit. If
they don’t fit, you don’t pay.’ Shipment is made C.O.D. but I make certain to
call up my customers about the time their shoes arrive. I know there won’t be
a substitution as my orders are filled at a wholesale warehouse.”

It took about four weeks before people became fully aware that the shoes
Hawkins sells would actually be better fitting than store shoes. He sold his
first order to an engineer of a railroad, and the engineer was so pleased that
he told his fireman. When Hawkins called back upon the railroad man, he had
two orders waiting for him. The fireman bought, so did one of the trainmen.
Later he got orders from thirty-three men working in the railroad yards, all
traceable to the first order. Meanwhile, he called upon a local foundry and
machine company, and got an order there from the foreman. When this man
received his shoes, he phoned Hawkins.

“I’ve never had a better fitting pair of shoes,” the foreman declared, and
Hawkins was told to call back later. He received orders for sixteen pairs of
shoes on this one call. Hawkins makes an average commission of one dollar
and twenty-five cents on a pair of shoes, which he collects in advance. The
shoes retail at less than three dollars. The commission is deducted from this
price and the balance is collected on delivery by the mail-carriers. Hawkins
carries no stock of shoes, but sells from a sample. A special order blank
measure supplied by the company assures accuracy in getting the proper size.

“It doesn’t take long to learn the knack of fitting, and when you get the knack
and sell a man a pair of shoes that fit him, he will gladly recommend you.
Most of my sales come that way. From my first fifteen sales, I have obtained
ninety-seven orders. It took about two weeks for my first order to be
delivered. After that first two weeks, it was plain sailing. It was almost four
weeks before I got a real break in repeat business, and up to that time I only
sold twenty-nine pairs of shoes. Then, orders piled up fast.”

Hawkins declares it is possible to get orders from women and men on a

straight canvass every day. He, however, specializes on selling men’s shoes,
and calls only on men who are working in factories, shops and offices. While
he makes few calls—about fifteen a day—he does a large volume of
business.

James Horner Became a “PremiumSpecialist”

T IS human nature for the average person to want something for nothing
James C. Horner knew that and decided he could make a thousand dollars
easier selling premiums to merchants than he could by doing anything else.
And this belief seems to be justified by his results. His success is due to the
plan he uses which is so simple and practical that it is surprising others have
not tried it.

“The plan,” explained Mr. Horner, “is to call upon the best merchant in town.
I give him about two hundred coupons to start and also some printed signs for
the windows, circulars to he given store customers, and a sample premium
for display purposes. The merchant gives out these coupons with five-, ten-
or twenty-five-cent purchases, and when the customer has saved up a certain
number, she is given a premium. The success of the premium as a business
stimulator depends upon its quality—it must compare favorably with items of
the same sort which are sold in the store and it must be something the
housewife wants but feels she can’t afford to buy at the regular retail price.
Offering premiums that do not meet these requirements won’t develop much
business for you. I usually suggest electric clocks or silverware. The clocks
come in radio, mantel and wall-clock styles and have proved to be
particularly good business stimulators.

“When the clock premium idea gets under way, I secure a surprising amount
of repeat business from the stores. Frequently they re-order twenty-five or
thirty clocks at a time. After the clock premium has been used for a while, I
suggest that it be followed by another premium, such as silverware. A good
quality silverplate can be given in the same way as the clocks, and those store
customers who have had clock premiums, begin saving for silverware. This
keeps them trading at the store and builds up a steady business for the
merchant.

“I call back upon each merchant several times, not only to keep him friendly
but to show him the right way to use the premium. I have found practically
no objection to premiums by the merchant. The idea, as every merchant
knows, is essentially sound and about the best sales stimulator he can find.
Many merchants, I point out in my sales talk, have found that the use of
premiums saved their business from suffering serious losses during the worst
periods of the depression. The public’s popular acceptance of the premium
principle bears out this contention and helps me close orders. I call on the
smaller towns exclusively. I don’t object to cities, but it takes too much of my
time waiting to see the store manager in a city store.”

Horner works in Wisconsin. He calls on the stores in Watertown, Madison,

Kenosha, Racine and Janesville. He restricts his premium deals to one store
of each kind, and his commissions average seventy dollars weekly from calls
on twenty stores a day. Every merchant feels the necessity of increasing his
sales, and is ready to listen to you when you call to tell him about a method
that will bring in new customers as well as keep old customers coming back.
Premiums can be used by the filling station, drug store, small department
store, variety store, jeweler, grocery, meat market, hardware dealer and
restaurant. You need no capital to start. Companies which make a business of
supplying premiums will send you the full details of their plan, and its sales
possibilities.

$1,000 from Selling Fire Extinguishers

I

F YOU were to ask Frank DePries how to make a thousand dollars, he would
answer without a moment’s hesitation: “Sell fire extinguishers.” That answer
would be drawn from his own experience too, for DePries has made that
much money in a six-week period. It was about two months after he became
connected with the fire extinguisher manufacturer’s organization that he set
his record. During his first month he didn’t earn much. He made a number of
calls, but his percentage of sales was low. “Here was my trouble,” said
DePries. “I was calling upon people who were not good prospects. In
addition, I had no selling experience when I started and was lost in a maze of
conflicting notions about selling. Soon I discovered I wasn’t getting
anywhere. My earnings were sometimes five, sometimes ten dollars a week.
There were two weeks when they didn’t total twenty dollars. However, I
decided that if someone else could make big money, I could.

“I knew I was selling about 50 per cent of the prospects that had a use for the
extinguisher, but nine out of every ten people I called upon had no real use
for it. Many calls and interviews, therefore, were a waste of time. One night I
discussed this situation with my wife, and she said the sensible thing to do
would be to call only on prospects that needed an extinguisher. This had not
occurred to me, but it sounded good, so I spent the next day studying the
classified telephone directory and made up a list of firms which I believed
needed extinguishers. I listed twenty-seven firms in one business district.
These calls were fairly close together, and I routed them so I wouldn’t waste
time going from one to the other. That day’s commissions totaled thirty-six
dollars.”

DePries sets a quota of twenty-five calls a day. Out of these twenty-five calls
he averages sales of twelve fire extinguishers. This does not mean that he
sells twelve different concerns, for one small factory may give him an order
for ten or twelve extinguishers. There was one week when his commissions
amounted to a little over three hundred dollars, and in one ten-week period he
earned nearly a thousand dollars in commissions.

DePries concentrates his calls on small factories, wholesale houses,

warehouses and garages. Fire insurance underwriters have approved the
extinguisher he is selling, and, as a consequence, he is able to point out to
prospects that possession of his extinguisher will reduce the cost of their fire
insurance.

The company which manufactures the equipment which DePries sells does
not require experienced salesmen, nor does it demand a cash investment from
salesmen. Any ambitious man or woman may make a salesman’s connection
with the organization.

A Business Selling Mending Fluid

HILE visiting a friend, Dwight C. Ritchie, of Pablo, Montana, noticed a tube

of mending liquid lying on a table. “What’s that for?” asked Ritchie. “Why,
it’s for mending small holes in shirts and socks. It’s great stuff. Takes but a
minute to mend a tear, or a hole in a silk stocking,” the friend replied. Ritchie
made note of it. He wasn’t married and had to mend his own clothes, so he
bought a tube. Later he wrote to the manufacturer, and requested a connection
as a local representative. Never having sold house-to-house, he found much
to learn in the first few weeks of his new job. However, he soon learned the
importance of a good demonstration and before long, his earnings from daily
sales were averaging around twelve dollars.

Ritchie’s sales averaged six dozen daily. There were days when his sales ran
between ten and twelve dozen tubes, from which his profit, clear of all
expenses, was as much as twenty-two dollars. He didn’t have an easy time,
however. He admits being lucky the first few days for, as time went on,
problems of many kinds confronted him which made selling difficult.

“A product people want, and have a daily need for, is important. More
important, however, is the way it’s sold,” Ritchie said frankly. “I knew the
product was all right. I experienced difficulty convincing many others, until I
began to sell systematically. When I tried to sell one woman, living on a farm
just out of town, she told me she had no money but as I was willing to accept
farm products in payment I suggested that she trade one of her chickens for
two tubes. Another woman lacking money offered to trade eggs.

“Many have to be shown what the product will do. So I have a demonstration
book which I use when making a brief demonstration. To this demonstration
book, I add such items from current magazines and newspapers as will help
clinch sales. In this book I also carry pieces of silk stockings, cotton cloth,
linen and other fabrics, which I have repaired with this product. Turning to
pages of this book, I point to these fabrics and remark: ‘When you get a run
in a silk stocking just touch a little mending fluid with a toothpick or a broom
straw to the top and bottom of the run, and if you want to patch it, you can do
so in one-fourth the time.’ I clinch my points like this: ‘You see you can
make repairs much quicker and better than with needle and thread,’ and when
the prospect nods agreement, I go on. ‘Now, you’ll want two or three tubes.
The price is twenty-five cents.’ I hold out the tubes. Few women turn me
down. Many take three, and some buy as many as four tubes. Others just take
one. So many women say, ‘No, I don’t want anything,’ when they open the
door. At first this remark would stop me. Now I answer. ‘That’s all right. I
just want to show you how to stop a run in silk hose.’ My demonstration
starts from there.”
Ritchie is a hustler. Making an average of sixty-seven calls daily keeps him
on the go from early morning until almost dark. But he declares that if you
want to make money you have to get out and work for it.

To get started with a small specialty, such as Ritchie is selling, requires no

capital investment. The product may be sold anywhere. A search for many
new uses for the product broadens the possibilities of its sales, and is
rewarded by increased profits.

Selling Protection Against Death

N DENVER , Colorado, T. J. Devers startled his friends when he earned a

thousand dollars in five months by selling memberships in a mutual benefit
association. When he started, Devers was broke. He had answered an
advertisement and received instructions on how and where to get new
members. Devers thought little of the “canned sales talk,” as he styled it,
which the company sent him. However, he did need cash badly, and since the
proposition offered a way to get it, he decided to give it a chance.

“Don’t let anyone tell you it was easy,” he said, talking about his first sale.
“It was anything but easy to find a man who was willing to pay five dollars to
join this benefit association. That membership fee, collected at the time the
application is made out, was my commission. At first I made the mistake of
overselling my prospects. I was talking with an old man and promising him
everything I could think of, when he said sharply: ‘Young fellow, you’re a
liar. You might sell me if you’d stop lying and tell the truth.’ I said, ‘All
right. I’m starting out with this proposition. I don’t believe you’re in good
health. If you are, and you want to join this association, sign the application
and give me five dollars.’ He didn’t sign. He said no doctor in the county
would say he could live more than a week, but if I saw his son, I might get an
order. Although I had no assurance the boy would buy, I located him,
explained that his father sent me, and this time, told the truth about my
company. The boy took one of my policies, and paid me the initial
membership fee. That was my first sale. I had learned one important thing.
That was the importance of telling the truth about the mutual benefit policies.
Later on, I learned another and that was to learn all there is to know about the
policies and the protection they provided. I spent almost seven weeks
learning everything I needed to know about them. Meanwhile, I wasn’t
selling many memberships.

“As time passed, though, I became convinced that I could sell them. The
thing that was holding me back was not knowing where to find prospects who
needed protection. Usually, the man who is able to carry old line insurance is
not a prospect for mutual benefit policies. But those who have been forced by
circumstances to drop their old line policies are in need of some protection.
The mutual benefit plan is a godsend to them, inasmuch as the cost of this
protection is relatively small, compared with the cost of regular life
insurance. These benefit policies require no medical examination, and pay
benefits up to a thousand dollars. The monthly cost is only one dollar, which
most people can afford to pay.

“I struck up an acquaintance with an old line insurance solicitor one

afternoon, and we talked about business. He told me that many of his
customers were forced to give up their big policies, and were carrying only
small industrial policies. That made me curious to see these people. I asked
him if he would tell me the names of a few new lapsed policies on his debit,
and he did this readily. I called on them. Being careful not to say anything
that would be looked upon as knocking the old line company, I explained that
this mutual policy was actually replacing the larger old line insurance in
many instances, where the family could not afford to keep up their premiums.
I then pointed to the low cost, and the safety features of the benefit policy I
was selling. I sold each one of them and in a day or so called back offering
two dollars commission for each policy I sold to friends they recommended.
They took advantage of my offer and gave me the names of friends and
relatives. Within a week I had signed up fifty-four memberships from those
recommended. These in turn recommended a number of others and within a
short while I had all the prospects I needed.”

Unique Cigarette Dispensing Humidor

“
I

MADE my first thousand dollars placing cigarette humidors in apartment

hotels and homes,” Charles Dagmar told a Dartnell staff writer in search of
money-making ideas to include in this book. “Since both women and men
smoke cigarettes these days, I figure making an average sale of two packs of
cigarettes daily from each humidor. At an average profit of four cents this
pays a good return on my investment. Getting locations for these home
humidors is no more difficult than getting locations for any coin machine.
There is this difference, however, you don’t pay any commission to the
owner of the location.
“When the home humidor first came to my attention, I thought it was

a good idea. Carrying some photographs of the humidor with me, I called
upon the owner of three big apartment hotels, and ‘sold’ him on the idea of
letting me place a humidor in each apartment. ‘It’s a self-merchandising
machine,’ I argued, ‘saves the tenant’s time, and offers him the convenience
of fresh cigarettes day and night. If he runs out of cigarettes he doesn’t have
to go out to the store to get them.’ That argument, and the beauty and utility
of the humidor, appealed to the apartment hotel owner. He said that he would
have to place a piece of furniture in each apartment similar to the humidor
anyway, and as long as he didn’t have to pay anything for the use of the
machines I could install them. In his hotels there are a hundred and four
apartments and I placed a humidor in each. As my average profit is four cents
on each package of cigarettes sold, my earnings run close to $375 monthly
for these three hotels.

“These humidors are excellent pieces of furniture. They come in various

styles such as end tables, occasional tables, telephone stands, magazine and
newspaper racks and card tables. The humidor is so constructed that it keeps
cigarettes fresh for an indefinite period. It can be loaded with fifteen
packages of cigarettes, which are enough for the ordinary household at one
time. If more than two in the family smoke I make two trips weekly and refill
the humidor. Service is the keynote of success with this product. I take my
money from the cash box on each trip.

“The convenience of the humidor is quickly apparent to the average man or

woman who uses cigarettes. The favorite brand of the user may be placed in
the humidor so that there is no objection to the cigarette itself. Almost
everyone has had the experience of smoking his last cigarette late at night,
during a party in the home, or while listening in on a distant radio program. I
remind hotel men of this experience if any additional argument is needed to
place the humidors.”

Dagmar paid one-third cash and agreed to make a monthly payment of a

small amount of his earnings for the humidors which, when bought in
quantities, cost $13.50 each. He has placed these humidors in several
apartment hotels and in many homes. There seems to be an unlimited field
for this machine, especially in large cities where there is a tendency for
families to live in small furnished apartments. There is also an opportunity to
make money with this coin machine in the small community. Collections are
made weekly, and a steady income is assured from each humidor, once
placed.

Selling Printing Specialties to Business Men

I

T HAD been raining all morning, and when Johnson McCloud entered the
office of a doctor in Akron, Ohio, he found the physician gloomily looking
out the window at the rain. “Nasty weather, isn’t it!” commented Johnson. “A
day like this is a good day to write letters to delinquent patients.” Turning
from the window, the doctor nodded, moved to his desk and slumped into a
chair. He waited for the doctor to say something, but he remained silent.
Johnson opened his portfolio, and produced an assortment of sample
letterheads. “What do you think of these?” he said, handing them to the
doctor. The doctor admitted the letterheads were good. “I couldn’t use
anything quite so expensive, however,” he said evasively, “there’s no need
for it in this business. I use only a few cards, envelopes, bills, and letterheads
and I get those from one of my patients who is a printer.” “It’s a good idea to
patronize the local printers. However, I think you’d

be surprised to know how little it would cost to print up your letterheads and
give you a better quality. My house specializes in standard forms. We handle
big runs of job stuff too, and some small runs, where we can work them in,
but the prices I can quote on letterheads, billheads, cards and envelopes will
surprise you.”

Meanwhile, the doctor was considering the paper stock of the letterhead. His
attitude was that of a man bent upon killing time, rather than that of a person
keenly interested. The price, evidently, didn’t seem so much of a factor.
Johnson watched him closely. He handed him an envelope. “Feel that paper!”
The doctor took it and nodded. “What do you pay for your letterheads, may I
ask?” inquired Johnson. “Oh, I don’t know exactly. Offhand, I’d say it wasn’t
much. Two and a half, or maybe three dollars a thousand. My, but it’s
raining.”

Johnson ignored the doctor’s last comment and handed him a third printing
sample. “Do you order in quantities of five or ten thousand?” he inquired.
“Lord no! Five hundred or a thousand is about all I need.” “Fine,” said
Johnson, “now, which of these sample papers do you like best? Some prefer a
high-grade tinted stock; others like a heavy white paper like this. I can fix
you up with this stock, a thousand letterheads and envelopes to match, with
your name and address printed as on the samples in bold, modern-faced type,
for $20.90—and that price includes both the letterheads and envelopes. That
represents a saving of about two or three dollars on these two items. Shipped
express collect from the plant. You pay me only a small deposit now and the
balance when the job is delivered.”

“How do I know that I’ll get this same quality printing?” the doctor
demanded. “Here is the guarantee,” replied Johnson, “it covers everything.
See? It’s printed on your receipt. I’ll leave it with you—it’s a part and
condition of the order.”

Johnson McCloud left that doctor’s office with a small order and a
recommendation to three other physicians with offices close by. That day he
sold $57.00 worth of printing and his commission amounted to $17.11.
During the first six months at this work, Johnson’s commissions totaled
$1,400. While it may seem that he must have made some rather large sales to
earn commissions such as these, he claims that all of his sales were made to
men who ordered in relatively small quantities.

“My orders vary in size,” he said, “some being as low as $1.50, others up to
$35.00 or $40.00. I’ve never had an order for more than $45.00.
Commissions vary on this line, and on some jobs I make more money than on
others. My efforts are concentrated on business men, but I never overlook a
store, restaurant, factory, doctor, lawyer or dentist. I had some difficulty
during my first two months in finding just how to approach my prospects, but
I solved this problem slowly. I have found almost every prospect I call upon
requires a slight variation of selling method, and that a standard sales talk or
method of approaching prospects does not do the trick. There are basic
fundamentals, however, that apply to every case. It is important to place
samples in the prospect’s hands quickly after getting in, and keep him
fingering samples throughout the interview. If you can focus the prospect’s
attention on samples and keep it there, you will usually sell him.”

Johnson McCloud never brings up a subject which may cause the prospect to
think of anything but the sale under consideration, during the interview.
Selling standard forms, letterheads, billheads, envelopes and circulars is
made easy because there are a number of concerns, with special machinery,
which can handle such orders at unusually low prices. The quality of such
printing generally is higher than that of a local printer and the cost to the
prospect is much less. These are two strong arguments which can usually be
depended upon by the salesman to close sales quickly.

Bringing the Store to the Customer

HARLES GRAVES pulled his green sedan to the curb, took a package
containing a dozen towels from the rear seat, and hurried to the door of the
white cottage. A woman answered his ring. Graves said: “You told me, Mrs.
Markham, that if these towels were the size and quality I said they’d be,
you’d order other goods. And I have some real bargains.” Mrs. Markham
invited Graves into the house. There she opened the package of towels and
inspected them carefully. “They really are wonderful. And so cheap,” she
remarked.

“Certainly,” Graves returned quickly, “and you’ll find everything you buy
from me is of the same high quality. Remember, Mrs. Markham, you don’t
pay for anything until I deliver it and you inspect it here in your own home.
You see, I operate on a small profit from my car. I don’t have the tremendous
overhead a merchant has. And you know the merchant figures up his rent,
light, wrapping paper, cost of fixtures, interest on money invested in the store
and stock, taxes, and all that sort of thing, and adds that to the price of
everything he sells. If he didn’t he wouldn’t make a dime. He’s entitled to it.
But I eliminate this cost, and pass the benefit on to you in the form of bigger
values. Now here’s something you’ll appreciate: Picot topped, 320 needle
silk chiffon hose. Silk from top to toe. A dozen to a box at only $5.20 a box.
Can you beat that?” “That does sound reasonable,” replied Mrs. Markham.
The prospect feels the sheer silken material, mentally makes an effort to
determine the price for each pair, and concludes it’s about forty cents or a
little over. And Charlie Graves is off on a new sale!

He’s been selling merchandise in this way for three years. He makes a point
of offering good quality at fair prices, and does a big business. During his
first six months, he made a very good living and put almost a thousand
dollars in the bank.

“I believe that you must merchandise to make money,” Charlie declared. “I

mean by that you must be able to show value and build a sales talk to make
the most out of it. It is true that I sell most items under the regular store prices
and that my costs are less. My profit runs a little higher on each sale,
however, than the store operator’s. That’s because I’ve been buying from
wholesalers who deal in bankrupt stocks. They buy up an entire stock of
bankrupt goods at a price. They sell it at small profit to themselves, and turn
over their money quickly. Seldom can they supply a variety of items that
would enable a store operator to stock up on a line of one item large enough
to interest most store people. But they have enough high quality merchandise
for small fellows like me to keep going on. My big talking point, of course, is
price.

“I use the ‘sandwich’ method of building up orders. When talking to a

customer I ask what she is paying for, say, her husband’s socks at the local
department store. She tells me. ‘I have a very fine sock that I know would
please him, and the price is only $1.59 in dozen lots,’ I say. ‘What are you
paying for towels? I mean the large-size Cannon turkish bath towels?’ She
tells me and I go on, ‘I can sell you a package of one dozen Cannon bath
towels, the large size, at $2.10 a dozen—less than twenty cents each.’ These
are two low-priced items in constant demand. I don’t make much on them,
but I make a good profit on most of the other items I carry. So after throwing
two low-priced items out to catch interest, I whip in a profit maker. Say it’s
soap. I get this hand soap, a regular ten-cent item, at one and a half cents a
cake, and offer it at four for a quarter. Then I mention another profit maker,
such as a house dress. After that, I mention a lowpriced leader item, and by
that time the prospect has the impression that every item I have is very
inexpensive. That’s what I mean by merchandising the goods.”

Some of Graves’s orders run as high as $30.00, and his average is $4.75. His
average profit is $1.69 an order. Graves has built up a regular route, calls on
this route once every three weeks, and makes an average of twenty-three calls
daily. He closes orders in twelve out of the twenty-three homes he calls upon,
and his daily earnings average close to $19.00. His entire equipment consists
of his stock, in which his original investment was $50, and the car he drives,
which cost him $300 at a used car lot. You can build up a business as
profitable as that of Graves in your own community with a small investment.

How Cord Earned His First $1,000

E.
L. CORD, president of the Cord Corporation, who built up the Auburn
Automobile Company, and is the directing head of many important business
enterprises, made his first money rebuilding Ford cars. He bought a $75
second-hand Model T Ford. He geared it for high speed, added a homemade
racing body, gave it a coat of paint and sold it for $675.

The plan worked so well that he bought twenty Fords, put them through the
same rebuilding process and sold them all for an average profit of $500 per
car.

Of course, this opportunity is gone today. But there are other similar
opportunities. Second-hand goods of all kinds are constantly being traded in
on new goods. Washing machines, radios, vacuum cleaners are frequently
traded in long before their life usefulness has ended. A few new parts, a coat
of paint or enamel will put them into a salable condition.

There’s a real opportunity in almost every town or city for the man who is
mechanically inclined, who has a few tools and isn’t afraid to get his hands
dirty, to make a good living reconditioning second-hand household
equipment.

Almost every dealer who takes in second-hand equipment offers a pitifully

small allowance on it. To get rid of it he is often willing to sell it for just what
he paid. At times even less. There is a steady market for rebuilt and
reconditioned household equipment. Hundreds of people who do not want to
pay the price of new equipment are good prospects for rebuilt equipment.

All you need to start is a few tools and one second-hand machine, such as a
washer, vacuum cleaner or refrigerator. The first step is to take the equipment
apart, clean it thoroughly, replace worn and broken parts, refinish where
needed. Then you are ready to make your first sale. Offer your first rebuilt
piece of equipment to your next door neighbor. If he doesn’t buy, offer it to
the next nearest neighbor, and so on until sold. As you make each sales call,
ask them if there is some other piece of equipment in which they are
interested. After you have made a few calls, you will have taken orders for
some other equipment which you can buy second-hand, rebuild and sell.
Some men who have tried this plan have orders for all the rebuilding they can
do for weeks ahead.

A safe plan to follow is to add the cost of the equipment and the cost of all
the parts and materials to a fair price for your time and labor in rebuilding.
Then add 50 per cent to this figure to arrive at your selling cost. Thus, if you
paid $7.50 for a used washing machine, spent $3.25 for new parts, enamel,
etc., and two days’ labor, your price would be, figuring your labor at $4.00 a
day, $7.50, plus $3.25, plus $8.00. This totals $18.75. Add 50 per cent and
your selling price is $28.12. This would leave you a gross profit of $9.37,
after paying yourself $4.00 a day for your work. Some rebuilders pay a
commission of 20 or 25 per cent to others for selling. To do this, you should
double your costs after paying yourself wages. For example, on the washer
which cost, including your labor, $18.75, the selling price would be $37.50,
which would carry a 20 per cent commission for selling. This price would net
you $30, or a profit of $11.25. The extra profit is to pay you for the time your
salesmen will inevitably take up, and the necessary help you will be forced to
give them.

Using Old Customers to Get New Ones

C

HARLES ANGLE , of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, raised his extract business

from an ordinary $20-a-week enterprise to one which paid him $4,000
annually by developing a customer cooperation plan among women who
bought extracts. It is a plan that might solve your problem, just as it did his.

Mr. Angle explained his plan as follows: “There isn’t a big profit in extract
sales. My special four-bottle deal, selling for ninety-nine cents, with a
generous-sized package of dessert thrown in free, is a quick seller. However,
there is only a thirty-cent profit for the salesman. You have to sell a lot of
these special offers to make any real money. I went along for a while up here
in Milwaukee doing a big business but not getting much profit. Then I
interested a woman in boosting my flavoring extracts to friends, promising
her four bottles and the special dessert free for each five she sold for me. This
worked out so well that I made the same offer to another woman living two
blocks away. She promptly got busy on the telephone and turned in orders for
39 specials in less than a week. I rewarded her by giving her a pair of silk
stockings in addition to the promised bottles of extract.

“After that experience, I made more effort to secure customer cooperation

than I did to make direct sales. In two months, I had established 34
cooperating customers on this plan in the Milwaukee area, each of whom
averaged 12 sales a week for me. I gave them some inexpensive prizes for
their efforts.

“I have discovered that women will gladly do their best to recommend a

worth-while product if they feel their efforts are appreciated. They like to
believe you are not going to forget them. A card at Easter and Christmas was
sufficient to line up several women who had fallen out of the habit of
cooperating with me last year. One woman, who had been very active helping
me get business, but who had given up for several weeks, was once more
added to the active list when I sent her little girl a birthday card.”

Angle has always been a hard-working salesman, but admits that without the
cooperation of his women customers, he would never have climbed out of the
small earning class. He points out that the cost of the gifts distributed to the
women cooperators seldom exceeds one-third of the commission, an amount
he can well afford to pay. He declares that were he to appoint these same
women as subagents, however, they would not secure the same amount of
business for him.

The extracts and flavoring Angle sells are of good quality. He buys at
wholesale, and the bottles come in special containers. He is not required to
buy any definite quantity to secure the wholesale price. The company
supplying him gladly ships in any quantity, regardless of the size. For this
reason, Angle, without capital, has been able to build up a good business.
Today, there are 46 women boosting his sales in, and near, Milwaukee. They
phone in their orders after five-thirty, when he returns home from making his
canvass of the district. An average of two sales daily is turned in by these
women, which, with Angle’s personal sales, brings daily profits between $14
and $19.

Antiques Are Coming Back

ACK OVERHAUSS drove a truck for a Chicago retail furniture dealer. One
day he was instructed to take the truck over to a railway warehouse and pick
up a spinning wheel, said to be an expensive antique the dealer had difficulty
acquiring. Later when he unpacked the spinning wheel, Overhauss recalled
having played with a similar spinning wheel, when a boy, in the attic of his
mother’s home at Jackson, Minnesota. He mentioned this to his employer.

“If you know where there’s another spinning wheel like this and can get it for
me,” the dealer told him, “I’ll pay you fifty dollars.” Overhauss promptly
replied he knew where there were at least a dozen near Jackson, and was told
to get them. Overhauss went up to Jackson, inquired among his mother’s
neighbors about their spinning wheels, and in less than a week obtained seven
at an average cost of four dollars each. Before returning to Chicago he
secured a total of thirty-nine spinning wheels from residents of Jackson and
surrounding territory, who were glad to dispose of them at the price
Overhauss offered just to get them out of the way.

During his stay in Jackson, Overhauss kept on the alert for other items. While
seeking spinning wheels, he noticed a number of articles in the attics and
barns of the homes and farms he visited, such as flint lock pistols, flint lock
muskets, bowie knives, bows and arrows used in Indian warfare, spears,
hatchets, unique caskets, and other objects which had been kept by the
families for many years but which no longer possessed sentimental value for
their owners. Overhauss listed these articles and sent copies of the list to
several furniture and antique dealers. Within a few days he received an order
from one dealer for the entire lot and realized a profit of over $300.
Very little capital is required to make money from antiques. You can start this
fascinating business right in your home community. In every town there are
ten homes or more whose attics contain furniture and various articles
collected over a period of years. Before buying any of these, make a list of
every article you find that is worth while and send copies of this list to
furniture manufacturers, furniture dealers, antique shops, and collectors in
larger cities. When replying, the dealers will mention the amount they will
pay for each article. Those who have prospects for the articles listed will
gladly pay good prices.

While the demand for antiques fell off during the depression, it is coming
back with the return of better times and the revival in building. During the
period of prosperity we are now entering, thousands of homes are going to be
remodeled and refurnished. Many of these home-owners will refurnish in the
early American style, because of its charm and distinctiveness. This will
bring back with a bang the demand for all kinds of antiques and those who tie
in with this movement are bound to reap profits. It’s an interesting business,
too, and may lead to your becoming an interior decorator with a shop and
factory of your own.

Sullivan’sCollectionSystemPortfolio

N SEATTLE , Washington, H. J. Sullivan made $1,080 in fifty-three days.

He did it by selling a collection system to local business men during the
worst months of the depression. “My commission runs about twothirds of the
selling price,” Sullivan said. “On a $7.50 unit I make a profit of $5.00, and on
the higher-priced units the commission is relatively higher. My biggest
advantage was my list of acquaintances. I knew most of the first 200 business
men I interviewed, and had enough selling experience to understand how to
handle prospective users of the system whom I didn’t know personally. To
clinch the sale after I had a man interested, I used a portfolio of letters of
endorsement supplied by my firm. This portfolio was a gold mine. It
contained hundreds of letters from business firms in every line of business,
from a small grocery store or market to a big public utility corporation. These
companies were located in every state in the Union.

“I was broke when I started out with this system, but it wasn’t long before I
was making real money. My first call was on a small factory where the owner
knew me from the old days when I sold him merchandise. I said: ‘I’ve got
something here which I’m sure you’ll agree is a mighty wonderful collection
stunt. There are a number of concerns which owe you money you think you
will never get. Well—look at this.” I opened up this mammoth portfolio of
reference letters and picked out the names of several leaders in his line of
business. He read the letters—every word of them. There isn’t a business
man in the country who doesn’t perk up with real interest when he sees what
his competitors are doing. ‘What’s the system you are selling?’ he asked. I
explained it to him, pointing to my samples and letting him examine the
entire method. ‘If you collect only one old account with this method,’ I said,
‘the system will have paid for itself.’ He agreed with me on this, and gave me
his order. The commission on this sale was the easiest money I had ever
made.

“My next six days were devoted principally to thinking up answers to

objections. Then I saw that it wasn’t an answer that was needed. These
objections became selling points when properly analyzed. I hadn’t been
inquiring about the total amount of the prospect’s bills receivable, but I
changed my canvass a little, and early in the interview brought up that point.
Most business men do not know how large an amount of money they have
coming until they look at a balance sheet. Then they are a little surprised and
often worried about it. When I’d ask a prospect what the total of his bills
receivable amounted to, he generally called the bookkeeper and requested a
statement. Intently he would consider that statement. ‘I guess we should use
some kind of system. How much did you say that one cost?’ he would usually
remark, and the order followed.”

Sullivan pointed out that he doesn’t make many calls in a day, since it often
requires as much as an hour for his selling interview. He averages ten calls
daily, however, and of these sells six, giving him a high percentage of
closures. His commissions run better than $8.00 a sale.
Collection systems are much in favor during the present era of tight credits.
While you may not make as much money as Sullivan did selling this system,
it does offer an opportunity for the inexperienced man who prefers calling on
business men in factory, office, shop or store. A store unit, declares Sullivan,
runs about $7.50. The others are in larger amounts. The commission is either
collected in advance, or the full amount of the order may be collected C.O.D.
upon delivery, and the commission sent to the salesman.

How the Waffles Sell Moth Tabs

J
AY WAFFLES and his wife together earned twelve hundred and seven
dollars in six months selling deodorants in and around Rockford, Illinois, and
near-by small towns.

Waffles, forced to quit his job in a Rockford factory because of his health,
was sent to Mayo Brothers Hospital in Minnesota, where, after several
weeks’ treatment, he was discharged. At home he didn’t improve as well as
was expected, and was told that a trip to California would hasten his
recovery. Waffles hadn’t enough money to make the trip. “We must get some
money quickly,” declared his wife. One day the following week they made a
sales connection with a manufacturer of moth tabs.

“We sold a few moth tabs to our neighbors during the first week,” said Mr.
Waffles, “but not enough to increase our bank account. The usual excuse
offered by most housewives was ‘I have no money.’ Every woman in town
seemed to be just out of ready cash when we called. It stumped us. Mrs.
Waffles would go down one side of the street and I down the other. We’d
meet at the end of the block, and compare notes. ‘There’s nothing in it,’ I said
disconsolately one day. She didn’t agree with me, and reminded me that the
company had mentioned one man who had made a success. I said frankly that
I doubted it. That night we were feeling pretty blue when we got home. We
were eating supper when the doorbell rang, and Mrs. Waffles answered the
bell. I heard her say to the man at the door, ‘Not today, I have no money.’
The salesman didn’t seem to hear her at all. He went right on with his sales
talk. She kept repeating over and over that she had no money, and finally he
went away. When she rejoined me, she said: ‘I think if he had remained
another moment I would have bought from him. He certainly had a good-
looking can opener.’ ‘Maybe people would buy from us, too, if we stood at
the door a little longer,’ I remarked absently, and she stared at me. ‘That’s
just it. It must be!’ she exclaimed. ‘Do you know what? We don’t make half
as effective a sales talk as that man did. We must improve it.’”

The Waffles went into a huddle and came out with a brand new canvass.
They tried it out on each other that night. Long after midnight, they retired
and awakened the next morning enthusiastic over their new plan. “We’ll
check it as we go along,” they decided. That morning’s sales were better.
Their combined profits amounted to six dollars and ninety cents. But better
than that, they began to discover the weakness in their sales presentation. It
was then that they started the habit of writing out what the prospect said, and
what the Waffles answered after each interview. This took a little time and
reduced the number of calls, but within a week it increased the percentage of
sales to interviews from 10 per cent to 60 per cent. They saw another
weakness in their method. They were carrying five items, the leaders of
which were the moth tab, bowlitizer, and refrigerator deodorant. The three
items together paid them a seventy-five cent profit. They had been talking up
only one item. Now they found the way of selling the other two after getting
the order for the one. The result was more income from every sale. In two
weeks, they had increased their profit from six dollars a day to twelve dollars
daily.

“If every woman who raised an objection were counted, I guess the total
would include every woman in the country,” declared Waffles. “Certainly
they object. But a skillful turning of the objection and a little selling pressure
will make them buy. I was told fourteen times by one woman that she didn’t
have any money in the house, but each time I smiled, agreed with her, and
then pointed out how much money could be saved by using the moth tab.
After ten minutes, she invited me inside to let me show her how easy it was
to hang the tab in the clothespress. I told her, meanwhile, I did not expect her
to buy a thing, but if she knew about the products, and wanted them later, she
could phone me. I told her about a special preparation for keeping moths out
of her overstuffed furniture and she led me to the living room to demonstrate.
Here we sat down while she examined and bought every item I was selling.”

Waffles makes the delivery of the products when he makes the sale, and
collects the total selling price. He buys the deodorants from the manufacturer
at a low rate and resells to his prospects at a good profit.

PossibilitiesofIndustrialUniforms
W

HEN Chester Burton walked from the office of the White Front Service
Stations, Inc., he had an order in his pocket on which his commissions totaled
$69. That order, the result of an hour and a half interview with the purchasing
agent and the general manager of a chain of 17 gasoline filling stations, was
for 107 work uniforms, on the front and back of which the name “White
Service Stations” was to be embroidered. It wasn’t the first order Burton had
taken. It was the second he had that day, the first being for a smaller number
of garments from a local garage. It was typical, however, of the kind of
money he was able to make selling industrial uniforms to gas stations, hotels,
auto agencies, moving companies, dairies, factories, restaurants, druggists,
laundries, bakeries, and offices where industrial uniforms have come to be
considered a necessary thing.

It took Burton, who didn’t have a moment’s selling experience before he

became connected with the manufacturer of these uniforms, exactly five
months to earn his first $1,000.

“Don’t think it was easy for me to get my first real week’s salary out of this
line. I puttered around with it for several days before I got the right idea. I
called on prospective users of industrial uniforms, of course. I showed them
the samples of materials and explained the methods used in making up the
garments. I talked wear, strength and durability, and I didn’t get to first base.
Something, I thought, was wrong with me, with the line, or with the method I
was using. Determined to find out what was wrong, I devoted my next three
days to an exhaustive quizzing of buyers. And I found out why I wasn’t
getting business. In my desire to impress durability and wearing qualities, I
had been making a comparison of my garments to overalls. I had completely
overlooked one of the strongest selling points in connection with the uniform.

“These concerns do not want overalls. They want a uniform which looks
neat, is properly styled, and in some cases, tailored, and which lends dignity
to the appearance of the workman. Gasoline stations were particular on this
point. ‘Our men come in constant contact with the public,’ I was told by a big
chain buyer, ‘and we must insist that they have an alert, snappy appearance in
dress. An appearance that may be kept uniform in all stations is necessary to
identify attendants of this company.’ Here then, was the new idea I was
seeking. I took the answers to my questions and made up a sales talk, using
the buyer’s own arguments and showing where my uniforms served every
requirement. I photographed some gasoline service station attendants who
were wearing the uniforms. I showed these photographs, together with
drawings in my portfolio, to the buyers for other companies. I added
photographs of doctors, druggists, and others to make the collection
complete. I didn’t pay a lot of money for these pictures, but took a small
kodak with me everywhere I went. When I recognized one of our uniforms
on an employee, I stepped up and got a snapshot.

“All this proved to be valuable when closing a sale. Some big companies
want to see what a uniform looks like when a man is wearing it. I can quickly
show a photograph, which is just as good as showing a uniform. They get the
idea.”

It might be pointed out that Burton finds little competition in his sales work,
and has systematized his calls to make the most of his time every day. His
average daily earnings are close to $17, and he calls on about twelve
companies each day. There appears to be no real reason why any aggressive
and ambitious person should fail to make money with this line.

Five Dollars Starts Stamp Exchange

W
HEN James Wallen was graduated from high school, he went out to look for
a job, but jobs were scarce. So he decided to go into business for himself.

Rummaging around in the attic, he found in an old trunk a letter addressed to

his mother. The letter was written back in 1870. The envelope bore a two-
cent black stamp with a portrait of Andrew Jackson on it. He took the
envelope (known to philatelists as a cover) to a stamp dealer and sold it for
$5.00.

With the money thus secured Jimmy purchased a Scott’s stamp catalog and
three packages containing about three thousand mixed “missionary” stamps
—that is stamps sent in to dealers by church missionaries from all over the
world. Jimmy had long been interested in history and geography and found
the stamps held a great fascination for him.

He conceived the idea of selecting one particular stamp and finding out
everything he could about it. He wrote an interesting story about the man on
the stamp. He then went to the history teacher in the local school and sold her
the idea of using stamps to teach history. In that way he started a stamp
“craze.”

Jimmy tied in with the “fad” by getting five students to act as his agents to
sell stamps to other boys. He went to a printer and had stationery and
approval sheets printed with his name. It wasn’t long before he had turned a
large portion of the original three thousand stamps at a nice profit.

With this money he purchased a larger supply from a wholesale stamp house
in Boston. He began putting up small packets of especially sorted stamps
which he sold through several stores in town on a consignment basis. When
these assortments failed to move fast enough, he changed them about until
they did sell.

Jimmy now sends stamps to all parts of the country and a number of foreign
countries. The number of his boy agents in near-by towns is constantly
increasing. He has made his first thousand dollars and is on the way to his
second thousand.
A “Killing” on Carded Merchandise

HILE talking with a customer about his regular line, Carl O’Neil, a cigar
salesman, got an idea which enabled him to earn better than $1,000 within
nine weeks! Just as the storekeeper stopped talking with O’Neil, a young man
entered the store. The cigar stand proprietor asked him what he wanted. The
young fellow took two display cards of five-and ten-cent merchandise from a
sample case, and showed them to the cigar man. “There’s 120 per cent profit
on this card for you,” said the newcomer, “these carded products sell
themselves.” One card was filled with envelopes containing aspirin, and the
other had packages of razor blades attached. The lithographed cards invited
the store patrons to serve themselves. There wasn’t much of a sales talk
needed to show the store man the advantage of an open display from which a
customer could take small items without bothering a clerk. In less than two
minutes, the cigar man bought one of each of the cards, paid the young
salesman and returned to O’Neil who had been listening meanwhile. When
the other salesman left, O’Neil made note of the name and address of the
manufacturer of the carded products from the card left with the cigar man,
and that night wrote a letter inquiring about the possibility of selling carded
items as a side line.

“I got the connection right away,” said O’Neil, “bought a few cards to carry
with me, and decided to introduce them to my regular cigar dealers. Being
acquainted with every cigar man in my county, I was sure I could make extra
money which I badly needed. I had no trouble selling my first twenty-five
cards, and reordered twenty-five more. The goods sold themselves from the
cards in a store when they were displayed in the proper place.

“Usually I placed the cards where I knew they would attract attention.
Sometimes the store man moved the cards around, however, and would
complain that the merchandise didn’t sell. Others said they had carried such
merchandise, but hadn’t been able to do much with it, and refused to buy.
This complaint was pretty general for my first two weeks and held down my
sales. But wherever the store man left my cards in a good spot in the store he
sold a lot of this merchandise. That got me thinking. I couldn’t force a store
man to keep my card where I wanted it. But if I knew enough about displays,
I could teach him to leave it where I put it. I studied store displays. A good
place to put the card is close to the cash register. Another good place is on the
top of the glass display case in which the low-priced cigars are kept. I told
this to my customers and figured out for them in dollars and cents exactly
what the value of this space was to them when they displayed my
merchandise. The results were surprising to me. In less than a week most of
my customers ordered additional cards and told me to place them where I
thought they would do the most good.”

O’Neil did so well that soon he gave up selling cigars and concentrated on
the sale of carded merchandise. Loading his car with fifty cards each
morning, he drove through the country, established regular routes, and placed
cards with every kind of store. He makes ninety calls a day, and sells an
average of one card for each two calls. His profit is never less than twelve
dollars daily. During one stretch of nine weeks, he worked intensively on a
plan to get merchants to display three cards where they had been displaying
one and his commissions for the period were $1,019.20.

Inexperienced salesmen who do not relish house-to-house selling, may find

calling on stores with carded merchandise unusually profitable. Cigar stands,
drug stores, grocery stores, bus stations, railway stations, magazine stands,
hotels, and restaurants offer a ready outlet for carded merchandise.

“Taking a Chance” on Soap WinsforFitze

C

ARL FITZE , a house-to-house soap salesman calling on housewives in

Dayton, Ohio, uses what he calls a “gambling system” for getting business
which has enabled him to earn handsome profits. The effectiveness of his
selling method may be appreciated when it is considered that he started out
with practically no capital, investing only one dollar and fifty cents for a
supply of soap to start his business. When this was sold, Fitze took the entire
proceeds and reinvested them in more soap, and pyramided his purchases
until he had built up a large soap inventory. His first week was a
disappointment. Most women, he knew, had enough money in the house to
pay for a box of soap. The price he asked—thirty-nine cents a box—was
reasonable for a box of soap, generally priced much higher. Nevertheless, it
took him two days to sell his first ten boxes, although he worked hard at the
job.

“Wherever I called I was usually given the same story,” he explained. “‘I
won’t have any money until Saturday when my husband gets paid,’ is what I
heard many times each day, and I’d turn away from the door, to be greeted at
the next door with the same ‘reason.’ On my third day as a soap salesman I
told one woman who gave me that excuse, ‘All right. I’ll leave the soap now,
and come back, say Monday. If you wish, you can pay me a small deposit
now, or you can pay the entire amount Monday. Just as you prefer.’ She
thanked me, and said that would be all right, so I handed her a box of soap,
wrote her name and address in a book, and went on to my next call. Here
again, I met the same objection in the same way by leaving another box of
soap. At the next three calls, however, my readiness to trust the housewife
brought out the cash, and by early afternoon I had sold fifteen boxes of soap
for which I was to collect later, and collected the full amount for ten more. I
was then all out of soap so I took all the money I had collected to the
company that supplies me with soap and reinvested it in a fresh supply. The
next morning I used the same argument I had used the previous afternoon
when women told me they had no money. Within two hours I left twenty-five
boxes, fifteen of which were cash sales. Again I returned to the company and
this time secured thirty boxes, which I disposed of before dark.

“When I called back to make collections for the soap on the following
Monday, only one woman refused to pay me. My profit on the sales up to that
time was forty-six dollars, so I could stand the few cents loss nicely.”

Fitze continues to use his “system” with remarkable results. Each morning he
starts out with a sack containing twenty-five boxes of soap, and along about
noon returns to get another twenty-five. Sometimes he sells as high as
seventy-five boxes a day. In one four-month period, he averaged a daily sale
of sixty-two boxes and made over a thousand dollars. By making about
ninety-five calls daily, Fitze averages around fifty sales. As his profit is
twenty cents a box, he makes an average income of about ten dollars a day.
The beauty about a business such as Fitze has built up is that he is dealing
with necessities. Everybody uses soap. Everybody buys soap. They buy it in
hard times, and they buy it in good times. It repeats, too, which makes it
possible for a man to build up an established business quickly.

If you find in selling house to house that you are constantly running into the
objection, “I have no money today,” try Fitze’s plan. Leave your product on
the payment of a small deposit or, if it is an inexpensive item, without any
deposit. About 99 per cent of the human race is honest and you probably will
never have any difficulty collecting your money when you call back. And
remember—it is one way to get past the door and to put your product into the
customer’s hands!

Every Man Wears Shirts

C

LARENCE B. TRAVIS wondered how he could make $1,000. He found a

good line of shirts which he sold direct to the wearer, and soon had the
money he needed. Last month he put another $1,000 in the bank. Travis, who
lives in Port Arthur, Texas, was disappointed at the beginning but once he
developed the plan he now uses he began making money hand over fist.

“I won’t say this plan differs materially from the plan of other fellows,” said
Travis. “I believe a good many men are using similar plans. In brief, it is to
forget about the call, and think about a connection. Not long ago I called
upon a prospect occupying an executive position in a cheese factory. He told
me he had given an order to a direct salesman a year or so before, and was
‘swindled’ so badly he was determined never to buy from a house-to-house
salesman again. All the other salesman had thought about was an order. The
prospect said that he had to wait an unreasonable time before his order came
and when it did arrive, his shirts were not as he had ordered. I admitted the
justice of his complaint, but pointed out that because this one man had broken
faith all others would not also. I didn’t get his order then, but after many calls
I succeeded in convincing him he would get his money’s worth from me.
That was sometime ago. Today he is a satisfied customer and has
recommended me to many of his friends.

“Shortly after I started selling, I entered a local garage to see if I could

interest some of the men in a medium-priced shirt. I was confronted by a
hard-boiled, grim visaged superintendent who informed me I was wasting the
men’s time. Hurriedly I explained it wasn’t my intention to interfere with his
men, and that the error was undoubtedly due to my lack of experience. I then
urged him to tell me when it would be convenient to return and interview
them. I made a point of being very courteous to this fellow, and as I agreed
that he was right, he calmed down a great deal, his gruff manner softened,
and he asked me what I was selling. I showed the samples, explained and
demonstrated them, and he gave me his order. Then he said that if I talked to
only one man at a time, it would be all right. His men who had witnessed this
scene were impressed by his purchase, and I left with orders for fifteen shirts.
I tried this same idea half an hour later in the office of an express company
with good results. That started me calling on industrial plants and offices, and
led to many sales. While a majority of such calls resulted in firm turndowns,
there are enough offices and factories where the foreman or superintendent
will let me talk to the men to make this system profitable.”

Travis makes most of his sales in units of three shirts. He carries shirts of
various prices, however, and his commission varies between sixty-five cents
and a dollar on each. Specializing on factories, offices, and stores, he
maintains an average sale of fifteen shirts daily, although he only makes
seven interviews a day. Some shirt salesmen concentrate calling on business
and professional men, and carry socks, ties, and underwear as additional
lines. The shirts, such as Travis sells, are made to measure from material
selected by the prospect, and shipped C.O.D. The deposit, required when the
order is placed, is retained by the salesman as his commission.

Gifts for Young Men to Give to Girls

T
HERE are certain specialties manufactured today that open a wide range of
money-making opportunities for men and women. Some of these are
luxuries; others combine utility with novelty. George Lehman decided a
cigarette case, which kicks out a lighted cigarette when you press a button,
was a good money-making idea. His commissions from the sale of this lighter
exceeded $1,000 in three months! Here is his story:

“This cigarette case appealed to me as one of the things many men would go
for, but I’ll admit that my first efforts to sell it were a washout. Everyone
liked its appearance. They thought it was novel and all that, but they didn’t
seem to have the money to buy. Then I realized I was not calling on the right
people. Those I talked with were men working on a small salary and barely
making a living. I sought out younger men. One gave me a cue by buying a
case for his ‘girl friend’ as a birthday gift, and she was delighted with it. He
was so pleased that he phoned me and said a pal of his wanted one for his
girl. I followed up the idea of selling the cigarette case to young men for gifts
and began immediately to make money.

“I found that the fellow about twenty or twenty-five, who isn’t married, likes
to flash a novel cigarette case of this kind. No matter where you are, you’re
sure to have someone ask to see the case when you press that button and a
lighted cigarette jumps out. I soon exhausted most of the young men
prospects I knew, but by that time I had decided to go after sales in a more
efficient way. Any man who has driven a car knows how awkward it is to
light a cigarette in traffic. With one of my cases, the auto-driver merely
presses the button, and a lighted cigarette immediately pops between his lips.
So I devoted most of my energy to showing this case to auto-drivers. I didn’t
have to do much talking. I’d stand at popular gasoline stations and, when a
man stopped for gas, show the lighter and explain it. One out of every twelve
asked me the price of the lighter, and when I mentioned it, bought without
any further urging.

“Experience taught me that the best place to show the lighter was at the gas
station while the man was behind the wheel. He is most easily sold then
because he is driving. He, no doubt, wanted a cigarette and in fishing first in
one pocket for a package, and then in another for a match, probably came
near going off the road. Naturally, he welcomed a cigarette case such as I was
selling. It is quite a different matter in his home or office, however. The
motorist at home forgets all about the inconvenience of lighting a cigarette
while driving, and when in his office his mind is on other things. Thus, the
best place to catch him is at one of the many gasoline stations at busy
intersections. The gas station attendants usually don’t mind having me hang
around. There’s always some little thing I can do to help around there, and I
am someone to talk to when business slumps off.”

Lehman sells as high as sixteen cigarette cases daily, netting him a profit of
$17.37. On days when the traffic is unusually heavy, he sells as many as
thirty-five cases. The selling price, $2.50, does not seem too high to
prospects.

Lehman’s success with this case is typical of the success of many specialty
men, once they find the right spot to sell their products, and the right way of
introducing and demonstrating them.

Greeting Cards Made Money forEttinger

L

AST year, James J. Ettinger needed some extra money. He knew that
hundreds of men and women make good money around the holidays selling
greeting cards. But instead of trying to sell his cards house to house, he
concentrated on two special fields—the professional and the service station
field. By concentrating his calls on these types of prospects, he not only made
a maximum number of calls in a minimum of time, but he spent his efforts on
two practically unworked fields.

His campaign was mapped out to cover only the office buildings in his town
—particularly those buildings which housed doctors’ and dentists’ offices.
For these prospects, he carried two kinds of cards—one for personal and
another for business use. In order to get in to see the doctor, he concentrated
on selling the office girl first. When he had sold her, he would ask to see the
doctor or the dentist. Usually the office girl was impressed with his sincerity
and his evident desire to please, as well as with the excellent line of greeting
cards he carried. Having reached the doctor or the dentist and succeeding in
making a sale, the next step in his campaign was to sell the wives of these
men. Generally, he would get permission to telephone from the doctor’s
office making an appointment to show the line of greeting cards.

His success with this “endless chain” method of selling was due to making
the prospect feel that he was an important customer and impressing him with
his need, as a professional man, of the right type of greeting card. After
making a few sales, he found it fairly easy to size up his prospect and decide
whether he would like something conservative, something radically different
or something showy. Most professional men do not like to be rushed and
when they are not busy they like to talk. This talkativeness gives Ettinger a
chance to get the names of other prospects, and he never fails to ask whether
the doctor’s brother, or uncle, or sister, or aunt, or any other member of the
family he may mention would be interested in selecting Christmas cards.

It wasn’t long before Ettinger found that most of the doctors’ offices are
pretty busy in the afternoons. Furthermore, they close early. So he decided to
cover the service stations in the afternoons, evenings, Saturdays and Sundays.
This was a field that also needed what Ettinger was selling and a field that
few salesmen approached. Nearly every service station in a residential section
depends upon the business received from the immediate area surrounding it.
This steady day-after-day trade is the backbone of the business and, naturally,
the operator wants to keep in touch with his customers. Ettinger found that
these men were glad to buy greeting card remembrances from him.

The first efforts Ettinger made to sell greeting cards at the holiday season
netted him $295 in five weeks! He doesn’t believe he could have made this
much money selling house to house, although others have done well with the
house-to-house plan. Ettinger prefers the highly specialized field and the
quick sales results. This year he expects to make considerably more money
because he not only knows how to go about getting prospects, but he has a
number of customers’ names on his calling list. He will also start earlier and
get in another week’s work.
chapter three
MAKING THINGS TO SELL
O

VER in Oberammergau, Germany, there is a colony of people who, for

generations, have been wood carvers. They specialize in religious carvings.
Years ago, when the only outlet for works of art was the church, the founders
of this little colony began carving religious statues and selling them to
churches. They became so much interested in the history of the men whose
likenesses they portrayed in wood, that they conceived the idea of re-enacting
their lives. Thus out of one art developed a greater art and soon the
Oberammergau Passion Players became famous the world over. But the
Passion Play was the result and not the cause of their success as wood
carvers. Today, in ritualistic churches all over the world, the religious
carvings of Anton Lang and his associates have become very valuable. Proud
indeed is the church, whether it be of the Roman or the Anglican faith, which
boasts a wood screen or a crucifix carved in Oberammergau.

Now if the Oberammergau wood carvers were only one or two people it
would be easy to dismiss their great success on the grounds that they had a
natural gift for carving. But nearly every person in Oberammergau carves,
and carves unusually well. Which simply goes to prove that being able to
make anything well is not so much a matter of being gifted, as it is being
interested enough in what you make to be willing to acquire through patient
practice the skill that success requires. There is a world of wisdom in the old
saying that genius is one-tenth inspiration and ninetenths perspiration.

You frequently hear people say: “How I envy So-and-So; if I only had his
gift of being able to write.” It is true some people have more natural ability
than others when it comes to expressing themselves on paper. But you will
usually find that the permanently successful novelists and shortstory writers
got where they are because they liked to write in the first place, and then
wrote, and wrote, and wrote until they perfected a style or specialty which
made their work stand out above the crowd and catch the imagination of the
public. It has been said, with a good deal of truth, that if you have aspirations
to be a successful short story writer, the way to begin is to write a hundred
stories, and throw them all into the waste paper basket. Then send your one
hundred and first story to a publisher. The point is that no matter what you
elect to make or do, skill requires practice. It is better to practice on yourself
than on those whom you hope will some day buy the things you make.

But don’t let the need of practice discourage you from trying. Rather let it
steel you against the discouragements which always go with selling things
you make. Remember that even Anton Lang, the Oberammergau wood
carver, was once a beginner. At one time in his life he was just as inept as
you are so far as wood carving is concerned. True, he had the help and
inspiration of the more experienced men in the village, but just the same he
was a beginner. So was every great artist. Remember then that you can never
arrive until you begin. And having begun, never for a single moment allow
yourself to become discouraged or to depart from the straight course you
have elected to follow. For that is the all-important thing in success—staying
on the main track all the time.

Naturally, you are going to be most skillful at the things you really like to do
best, so it is easier to be successful when you work with materials you like to
handle. If you like the feel and the smell of wood, you will be happier—and
probably more successful—making things of wood than working with metal.
If your mind is precise, exact, and mathematical, cabinet making may be your
forte. What kind of tools do you like to use? Do you feel at home with a
scroll saw, lathe or forge? Or tools such as a knife or chisel may interest you
more. If you have the “watchmaker’s mind,” you are likely to be more
successful making intricate little models of ships, designing engines or
building model houses.

It may be possible that you are not now successful selling what you make
because it is not the sort of thing you like to do. A man may work for years in
a certain field and find that long after his prime, he could have made a better
living working at the thing he really enjoyed doing. If necessity has made it
impossible for you to make a choice in your vocation, keep up your hobby
that you really enjoy, and sooner or later you may find an opportunity to turn
it into money.
Free Training in Handicrafts

If you have tried to make things and have given up, feeling that you could
never acquire the necessary skill to turn out a good product, perhaps you just
lack a few pointers in handling your tools properly or selecting the right
designs. In most of the larger cities, the public schools give free courses in
handicrafts. The Young Men’s Christian Association also holds classes in the
applied and fine arts. Students of either sex, of any age, may enroll in these
classes for a small fee. There are several magazines on the newsstands which
cater to the craftsman, and the U. S. government publishes bulletins which
will give you exact plans and instructions in making many things for use on
the farm or in the home. The public library in your city has dozens and
dozens of books that tell how to make things. Manufacturers will send you
instructions for the use of their products. There is plenty of help for the man
or woman who is eager to acquire skill in his work.

With a few good books or other material to guide you and plenty of practice,
you can develop skill in practically any type of work you really like. When
you have reached the point where your work begins to look professional, then
you must start thinking of ways and means of marketing your product. For no
matter how well you make a thing, you will not make a profit from your labor
until you find a market for it. Even before you begin making things, it is a
good idea to find out what your community needs and likes. A walk through
the department stores, the gift shops, the woman’s exchange, and other sales
outlets will give you some idea of what the public is buying.

The trend today leans toward the “streamline” effect in practically everything
—from automobiles to kitchen knives. Keep away from the outmoded
designs. Look through the women’s magazines and the periodicals on interior
decoration and furnishings to find out what is in good taste today. The
present trend toward the “classic modern” in furniture suggests that you omit
excessive ornament from any cabinet work, but it means that your work must
be superior in design and execution in order to achieve that clean streamlined
effect. Linens, rugs, glassware, china, jewelry, lamps, picture frames, ash
trays, kitchen implements and equipment, as well as furniture, all have more
or less of a tendency toward the modern in design. This does not mean the
hideous art moderne which cluttered up the country a few years back.
Beware of any designs that border on that short-lived “epidemic” in house
furnishings. In a number of magazines you will note a tendency toward the
“Victorian” in furnishings. However, this style of ornate furniture and
decoration will undoubtedly prove to be more or less of a fad. We live in a
modern, machine age and a modern style of design seems to be more fitting.
The old colonial type of furniture and decoration is in demand today, but
even the colonial is being produced by manufacturers in keeping with the
modern lack of ornamentation and simplified lines.

Suiting Your Product to Your Market

What is your community like? Is it a suburban section where people are

interested in garden furniture, rose trellises, fireplace equipment, bird houses,
dog kennels, door knockers, sun dials, hooked rugs, handmade quilts,
handmade furniture, pottery and other beautiful things for their homes and
gardens? Perhaps your community is an apartment district, where people
have little time to make good things to eat. Try selling your bread, or cake, or
doughnuts, or baked beans to these householders. Or your painted tin ash
trays, parchment lamp shades, cocktail tables may suit their fancy. If a great
number of children live in your community, whose parents have medium to
good incomes, then toys, nursery furniture, colored cutouts of animals, and
similar projects may be money-makers.

When your product is ready for the market, it can be sold through the gift
shops, the woman’s exchange, through advertisements in your neighborhood
newspaper, by word-of-mouth advertising, by opening a small shop in your
home or in an inexpensive location, or by taking space in a successful shop
selling something unlike your product. You may also be successful selling it
house to house. If it is possible at all, have your product on display in some
spot where people shop. Let people know what you are making—tell your
merchant, your neighbors, people you talk to on the street car or at a ball
game, the service station attendant, your doctor, the milkman—in fact, tell
the world. You can’t expect people to search you out—you must go to them
with your product.
Billy B. Van and His “Pine Tree” Soap

ILLY B. VAN used to be in the show business. His job was to make people
laugh. Just as he felt that he was making some progress toward becoming
established in his chosen profession he developed tuberculosis and had to
leave the show in Boston. He had little or no money at that time, so the
members of the company and other friends financed his period of
recuperation in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Here he regained
his health and in two years was able to go back to the theater for six months.
His long stay in the pine forests gave him two ideas: One, to take the fresh,
fragrant odor of the pines to people who had neither the time nor the money
to get to the pine woods; the other, to build up a business that would support
him comfortably as soon as he could leave the theater.

He decided that soap was the product that would suit his purpose, and he
experimented with many formulas before he found one which would actually
hold the fragrance of the pine needles. After searching around a bit, he
discovered a man who would make the soap for him in quantities. However,
he, Billy B. Van, would have to go out and sell it. At first, he laughed at the
idea of a comedian becoming a salesman. Then he realized that this was what
he had been doing all during his show life—selling; he had been selling
himself to his audience night after night. It should be easier to sell soap, he
reasoned. So each morning he filled his pockets with samples of his soap, his
heart with hope, and started ringing doorbells.

There were difficulties. There always are. The druggists didn’t know his soap
and wouldn’t stock it; the jobbers wouldn’t move it, and he had no money for
advertising. Suddenly the idea came to him that he could introduce his soap
through the hotels. Most of his life had been spent in hotels and he knew
hotel managers from one end of the country to the other. But the hotel
managers thought it a huge joke—Billy B. Van selling soap! He soon found
that there was no short-cut to prosperity selling to friends. He finally secured
permission to place a trial order in a hotel. Around each cake of soap he
wrapped a circular stating: “This soap will keep everything clean but your
conscience.” A coupon was attached to the circular which read, “Dear Billy: I
like your soap. Send me six cakes. Here’s your dollar.” The idea worked like
a charm. Many orders came from the hotel’s guests. In this way, Billy B. Van
had put the reverse English on direct-mail advertising. As he had no money
to write to prospects he arranged for them to write to him! This was the
opening wedge in the merchandising of the Pine Tree Soap. From that time
on, little by little, he progressed with his merchandising plans. Eventually he
built up a lucrative business in the White Mountains where the pine trees
send out their clean, healthy fragrance.

The point to this story is not, however, that Billy B. Van, one-time showman,
became a successful soap manufacturer, but that by doing the obvious thing
he made money. So many people foolishly suppose that the only ideas that
are any good are the clever ones, which nobody ever thought of before. The
truth is that the ideas that make the biggest money are usually those which
are only waiting for somebody to pick them up, just as Billy B. Van picked
his Pine Tree Soap idea out of the air of the New Hampshire mountains.
There were many brands of soaps on the market when Billy B. Van started to
sell his soap, but as he found out, there is always room for another product—
if it has quality and answers a specific need.

Knapp Specialized in Pressed Chicken

I

N EVERY farming community there is an opportunity to start a “pressed”

chicken business. No skill and very little capital is required. You simply
contract with the farmers and poultry raisers in your community for their
chickens when they become too old to lay and too tough to eat. Because they
are such tough old birds you don’t pay much for them. Then you buy or
borrow a steam pressure cooker, and you are in the pressed chicken business.

That there is good money to be made quickly in such a business is

demonstrated by the experience of the Knapps, The Knapps have a poultry
farm in Eaton County, Michigan, not far from the State Capital. In addition to
selling eggs—there is a capacity of 2,000 laying hens at the farm—quite a
few chickens are also sold, mostly broilers. However, at the end of the
breeding season there are, of course, a number of old hens and stags which
must be marketed for which only the lowest prices can be obtained. After
handling the left-over stock in this manner for some time, the idea occurred
to them that they might be able to make a profit by cooking the old birds and
selling them as “pressed chicken.”

The chickens for this purpose are best cooked in a pressure cooker as cooking
under pressure requires only from 30 to 40 minutes, whereas cooking in an
open kettle requires from two to three hours. In addition to reducing the time
spent in cooking, the pressure method of cooking produces a much richer
product than the open-kettle method as the additional water required in the
latter method naturally reduces the rich stock. With a pressure cooker Mrs.
Knapp was able to save the cost of the extra cooking time. After the chicken
is thoroughly cooked, the meat is cut into cross sections (to reduce the length
of muscle shreds), seasoned to taste (some seasoning is added during
cooking), the chicken stock is added, and a tablespoonful of plain gelatin.
The extra gelatin helps to keep the mold firm and makes for easier slicing of
the loaf when it has set. The molds should be greased to prevent the contents
from sticking and when filled they are placed in the refrigerator to set. In
addition to making plain loaves, Mrs. Knapp also adds sliced vegetables,
olives, the riced white and yolks of hard-boiled eggs, etc. By preparing the
loaf in layers a very attractive summer dish can be made. To form this loaf,
the chicken should be cooked in the usual way, the white meat separated
from the dark meat and each kind cut fine or run through a food chopper. The
yolks and whites of several hard-boiled eggs should be chopped up separately
and each seasoned well. Then the four ingredients, the white meat, dark meat,
egg yolks and egg whites, should be mixed with the chicken stock which has
been cooked down thick enough to jell. The white and dark meat and the
yellow and white egg should then be arranged in layers, pressed in a pan or
jar and allowed to set overnight.

Adding water to the stock results in a larger quantity of food, but, of course,
the product brings a lower price. In a quality market a loaf should sell for 50
cents a pound. As a five-pound male bird, at the usual 45 per cent loss,
should dress out to about two and three-quarter pounds, the return on one bird
would be about $1.28. By adding water and doubling the amount, a product
would result which could be sold for about 25 cents a pound. Although the
addition of water would make a loaf not nearly so rich, the return per bird
would be the same. Whether to dilute the product or put up a richer loaf
depends entirely upon the market. If a quality market can be developed and
you can secure 50 cents a pound for the loaf, it means making as much
money on fewer customers and, therefore, less selling effort. However, if the
trade prefers a lower price and the diluted product, there is nothing to do but
cater to your market.

HandkerchiefsfortheChinese
F

LORENCE ROCHESTER was a secretary in the attorney general’s office

at Topeka, Kansas. But Mrs. Rochester needed more money. To appease both
the need for more cash and to do something more artistic than copy legal
briefs, she began making dainty little lace handkerchiefs in her spare time.
She found a ready sale for them among her friends. She spent as much time
as necessary to turn out just the kind of handkerchiefs she liked, bought as
expensive material as she wanted, and charged for the handkerchiefs
accordingly. That was back in 1926.

It was not long before these friends began showing their handkerchiefs to
their friends. The demand for Rochester handkerchiefs grew. Before she
realized it, Mrs. Rochester was in the handkerchief business!

When orders began to pile up and she no longer was able to make the
handkerchiefs and hold her regular job, she talked over the matter with her
husband, a civil engineer for a railroad company, and he advised her to quit
her job and concentrate on handkerchiefs. She did. She saw that if she built
up the business she now was determined to have, she must sell to stores
rather than depend on sales direct. She called on two near-by department
stores with samples. She sold orders to both. She went back home and opened
her “factory” in her own home.
It was the same old story of the world beating a path to the door of the person
with quality merchandise—except that Mrs. Rochester did not wait for this
path to be beaten. She went out and told merchants about her handkerchiefs.

Today Mrs. Rochester not only sells handkerchiefs to merchants in every

state in the country except three, but to foreign countries as well. Foreign
orders grew so fast she opened a branch factory abroad to expedite export
business.

Start a Pie Bakery

IVE years ago in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the John Mayers started a pie
bakery. If you want to buy cake, cookies, bread or doughnuts, you have to go
elsewhere to make your purchases; the Mayers’ idea was to do one thing
superlatively well and they have succeeded in baking pies that are good
enough to keep people coming back for more. The market for their pies
consists of hotels, restaurants and the near-by summer resorts. Quite a few
are sold direct to consumers at thirty-five cents a pie.

The usual demand in any American community for good pie has enabled the
Mayers to build up a profitable business, keep up a nice home which they
own, have a car, and provide a comfortable living. There is a limitless market
for pies as practically every other man who enters a restaurant orders pie even
though he knows it may not be particularly good. Just why there are so few
good pie bakers in a country where dessert generally means “pie,” is one of
the great unsolved mysteries. There is really no competition for the person
who has the knack of baking pies like those “mother used to make.”

$100 per Month with Felt Work

R

UTH G. JONES , a widow living in San Antonio, needed money and needed
it quickly. She had had no commercial or business experience of any kind
prior to her marriage; she had no special ability or talent. What could she do?

One day she heard the son of a friend complain that he was unable to find
anyone who could cut out letters properly and sew them on his baseball
uniform. That gave Mrs. Jones an idea. She investigated and found that none
of the sporting goods stores in the city had equipment for furnishing this
service. There was, she found, a little shop that did this felt work so she went
over and had a talk with the proprietor. The outcome was that she took over
the shop, equipped it properly, and went out after business.

The only experience Mrs. Jones had had in cutting or designing felt was
when she cut out a few pennants for herself and friends at college. Yet with a
modern sewing machine, a pair of good shears, some sharp razor blades and a
small assortment of felt, she was ready for business. She called on all the
sporting goods dealers and sporting goods departments in the city. She told
the managers about her service and asked them to cooperate with her,
pointing out that they would be rendering their customers a service by
sending them to a place which was equipped to design and sew on any sort of
letters or emblems wanted on uniforms.

Most of the dealers simply send the uniform purchasers to Mrs. Jones and the
transaction thereafter is entirely between her and the uniform owners.
However, one or two stores prefer to deal with her direct and make a small
margin on the deal. The best season for the little shop, of course, is just prior
to opening of the baseball season; but there is always some work to be done
on swimming suits and both basketball and football create some business.
Sweater emblems and letters contribute to yearround volume.

With an investment of less than $100, Mrs. Jones earns on an average of

$100 per month the year round, with peak months going to about $150. She
believes the idea would be good in any city where there is no such shop, or
where there is no uniform factory which provides this service.

Starting a Food Specialty Business

W

HILE making bread one morning, it occurred to a widow in New England

that the one thing she liked to do most of all was to bake, and she decided to
give some thought to developing a “Food Specialty Business” in order to add
to the family income. The next day she made arrangements with one of the
local shops to handle her coffee cake and doughnuts and nut bread on a
commission basis. She secured an order from the lunchroom near the station
for a daily order of doughnuts, the first orders being put in on trial. A tea
room which had a rather good business each day—and especially on Sunday
—wanted rolls and pies as well as nut bread. These orders were, of course,
not all placed in a day, but as she found a growing demand for her products,
and her confidence increased, she had the courage to solicit additional
business. Out on the edge of town was a tourist camp which like all such
places had little facilities for baking. One afternoon she sent her son out on
his bicycle with his basket filled with doughnuts, cookies, pies and coffee
cake. It was all sold without difficulty and Johnny came home with orders for
more. All summer long this proved to be a fertile market for her products.

That fall and the winter following, she turned her hand to catering and
developed a good business during the “party season.” Occasions such as the
hard-times party at the club and a big Halloween party also at the club called
for dozens of doughnuts. She secured both orders simply because the
committee responsible for the refreshments knew where to get the best
doughnuts in town. That was the secret of her success—everything did taste
so good that people came back for more and more. She found that
gingerbread was another favorite with the young people in town and she
made a specialty of it by adding a fudge sauce to be poured over the slices.
After her business had developed, people got in the habit of calling her when
unexpected company arrived, and she generally managed to provide
something delicious that would fill in for a tea or a luncheon or a Sunday
night supper. She remembered that bridge party hostesses liked to serve such
dishes as creamed crabmeat and creamed chicken in patty shells. As good
patty shells were hard to obtain in their town, she added this item to her list
and succeeded in working up a good demand for this specialty by
recommending it for Sunday night suppers as well as bridge parties.
“Word of mouth” advertising sold most of her products naturally, but the
small cards enclosed with her bread, cakes, coffee cakes, and other items
helped to advertise her business. These cards were about three by six and
contained on the reverse side a number of suggestions for special “treats” for
luncheon guests, bridge parties, Sunday night suppers and children’s parties.
Many a hostess turned these cards over in an emergency and found a happy
solution to “what to give the Joneses after bridge tonight.” The cards were
carefully typewritten by a friend of the family for a small fee. During the
Christmas season, Easter, Fourth of July, and other holidays, cards containing
a list of foods which were especially suitable for holiday parties were mailed
to her customers.

When large orders were received or when a catering order came in, it was, of
course, necessary to secure extra help. Frequently this was a young woman
who had just completed high school and not having secured a position was
eager to make a little pin money. Her work was simple and consisted of such
jobs as icing the little cakes, putting the icing or powdered sugar on the
doughnuts, beating the eggs with the electric beater, putting the cakes or
doughnuts in boxes, washing dishes and pans used in baking, and frequently
delivering special orders when Johnny had too many to handle. The actual
preparation of the various specialties was never turned over to anyone else,
however—the special goodness of these products could not be entrusted to
any assistant.

For a woman without business experience this unusual success might seem
phenomenal. However, she succeeded because she put into her business what
everyone has to put into business if he is to succeed—knowledge, hard work,
ingenuity, and personality.

Making Money from Worn-Out Tires

A

MONG the unclaimed goods in James Hadley’s storage warehouse in a

middle-western town were a number of worn-out tires. He couldn’t collect
rental for their storage space, and he couldn’t sell them for more than a few
cents. So when he heard of a machine which made doormats out of the used
tires, Hadley decided to investigate.

“I had a good many old tires on hand, and if I could make them up into mats,
I thought I could get a little profit from them,” explained Mr. Hadley. He
invested three hundred dollars in the mat-making machine and incidental
equipment, made up a number of mats, stacked them in his warehouse, and
then advertised them in the local newspapers.

“I believed I would sell a number of mats from the advertisement,” said

Hadley, “but didn’t. There were no crowds clamoring for mats, and I was
disappointed because only a few came to buy. I didn’t sell enough to pay for
the advertising. I reasoned this was because people did not know enough
about the mats, and my problem was to get people acquainted with them. So I
tried a window display. But it was hardly noticed. I tried calling from door to
door, and sold a good many, but I couldn’t down the feeling that there was a
better market somewhere.”

James Hadley kept thinking about this better market. He went around to
office buildings and talked with managers. They used mats in the entrances of
the buildings, they told him, and admitted his mat was better than the one
they were using, but they were supplied. “I walked my feet off for two
weeks,” continued Hadley, “before it occurred to me that I wasn’t using the
right kind of merchandising tactics. I changed them. Concentrating my calls
upon business concerns, I adopted a policy of leaving a sample mat with each
concern, to be used for a short period. I then pointed out that since the mats
were made from old tires, each mat was much tougher and stronger than an
ordinary mat, and built up a demonstration to prove the long life of the mats.

“One firm, manufacturing twist drills, wasn’t impressed by this argument.

The purchasing agent told me that if the workers operating surface grinders
preferred my mat to the one being used, I’d get an order. He put my mat on
the floor in front of a surface grinder. If the solution used in operating
grinders gets on the bare floor accidents are inevitable; so when my mat
proved its ability to avoid such accidents, the workers wanted it. Before the
day was up, the purchasing agent phoned and asked me to bring over forty-
five mats. That cleaned me out of mats and out of tires, too. I got another
order for one hundred and thirty feet of mat from a chain of grocery stores the
next day, and had to scour around town to find old tires.”

James Hadley paid five cents each for the old tires, and got an average of
three square feet of matting from each tire. He sold the mats at seventy cents
a square foot. His total cost including production cost and overhead was
twenty-five cents a square foot, giving him a net profit of forty-five cents.
With the mat-making equipment he was able to turn out three hundred square
feet of matting daily. Operating thus for the first ten months gave Hadley a
profit of more than a thousand dollars.

There is an unlimited field for mats made from old tires in most cities.
Laundries, taverns, roadhouses, saloons, cemeteries, churches, office
buildings, machine tool manufacturers, electric power houses, dry cleaning
plants, stores, restaurants, printing plants, factories of all kinds, and every
home, are prospects for sales. The mat-making machine is small and operates
on house electric current from an ordinary light bulb. It may be set up in your
basement, or some unused room. The mats turned out are unusually durable,
being woven together with heavy spring steel wire.

CommunityMarketingofHandicrafts
O

NE of the difficulties sometimes experienced by those who make things to

sell is that they are more or less at the mercy of buyers when it comes to
marketing their products. If there are several people in your community who
make similar things, it may be possible to organize a community marketing
agency, with one person acting as an agent for the products of all members.
This, of course, has been done successfully in agricultural communities, and
the idea is beginning to find favor among those who make things that are
usually sold through such outlets as gift stores, department stores or
wholesalers.

A typical organization of this kind is the Willow Cottage Weavers, of

Nantucket, Massachusetts. After several members of this group experienced
difficulty in marketing their handicrafts, a central sales department was
established, which devotes its entire attention to building up and maintaining
a year-round market for the products of members.

Deference to the style factor is most important in holding a clientele which

must be persuaded to pay premium prices for quality products. Next to
shortcomings in design, lack of conformity to color trends has been the most
serious drawback for many a venture among arts and crafts groups. To
overcome these serious obstacles, the sales agent for the Willow Cottage
Weavers goes scouting several times a year to the style centers to study
fashion trends, and more particularly, color preferences. As 95 per cent of the
output is original in design, it is most essential that the merchandise conform
to apparel trends to hold customers, many of whom buy on sample.

The direct sales campaign is two-pronged. On the one hand, there is the
solicitation of old customers by mail. This has lately been coupled with a
“traveling exhibition” which is counted upon to muster new prospects as well
as to contact the old customers in the cities visited. Some of the producers of
hand-woven textiles have simplified their display problem by staging
demonstrations in department stores. The head of the Willow Cottage
organization prefers an exhibition sale at a hotel, club, vacant store, or other
location that permits an atmosphere of detachment. Invitations to hand-
picked lists are relied upon to coax potential buyers.

A second line of attack by the Willow Cottage Weavers is a distinct departure

from the usual handicraft marketing methods. Several times a year,
representatives of the twelve-loom plant visit leading cities to contact interior
decorators and other volume purchasers of hangings, upholstery fabrics, etc.
This plan has been richly productive of new business in sizable units. For
example, a record-breaking order came in for fabrics for a new dormitory at
Cornell. Because of the demand in modern upholstery and interior decoration
for period designs, most of the work must be done to order to insure color
conformity.

These master weavers have found one secret of tying the steady customers
which seems to have eluded most exploiters of handmade products. This trick
is to fill the gap between orders of yardage for suits and coats with specialties
such as scarfs, neckwear, runners, mats, bureau and dresser sets, etc. In
addition to creating many additional orders for the weavers, this activity
cultivates gift side lines that, in a sense, serve a sampling purpose in respect
to weaves, patterns and color combinations.

An Architect for the Birds

T
HE name of Joseph H. Dodson is so well known that when you see it you
immediately think of little wren houses swinging from trees or commodious
apartment houses for martins.

This flourishing business had its beginning years ago when Joseph Dodson
worked for a Chicago bond house and much of his spare time was spent in
the basement of his home making bird houses. These little bird houses were
unique in that each one had a tiny piece of shiny metal tacked to the outside.
He had discovered that many birds like to primp and preen themselves before
mirrors and that by simply attaching this little piece of metal he could entice
more birds to spend their summers with him.

Before long his neighbors began to ask him to make bird houses for them.
Then the friends of his neighbors sent in orders and soon he realized that
there were commercial possibilities in this hobby. From this simple beginning
a good business has developed and today, Joseph Dodson is still making bird
houses and shipping them all over the country from the little town in Illinois
where he lives. It is an idea that might appeal to you as one way to make that
$1,000 we are talking about. There is a good market in nearly every
community for “de luxe” bird houses and especially martin houses. They are
easy to make and all you need to get started is a clever design and a few
tools.

Building a Business on HomemadeFudge

M

RS. BENTLEY , who had a family of four children of school age, found
herself faced with the necessity of adding to the family income. Near her
home, in Chicago, was a district zoned for light manufacturing. Girls who
worked in these offices liked candy, she reasoned; the men did, too, for that
matter. So she made up a quantity of fudge, wrapped it in cellophane, and
made the rounds of the offices. She sold out her box of fudge before noon the
first day and scheduled a return the next Tuesday to those offices she had
called upon. That night she made another batch of fudge and the next
morning called on the offices on the other side of the street with the same
result.

It wasn’t long before she had built up a steady trade. She had divided the
zoned section into areas and devoted one half a day to each area. In that way
people in the offices in each area could plan on getting fudge if they wanted it
on a certain day of the week. The girls—and men—arranged to leave their
orders at the switchboard and it took but little time to fill them and be ready
to go on to the next office.

For special occasions, such as Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, parties, week-
end trips, anniversaries, hostess gifts, etc., she packed fancy boxes of the
fudge, alternating light and dark pieces to form a pattern. She booked orders
ahead for these boxes and the children delivered them after school.

She had arranged for two school stores and one bakery in the neighborhood
to handle her candy and a tea room also gave her space for a small box of
fudge which sold at a penny a slice. Through her cousin, who was the cashier
in a large cafeteria in the neighborhood, she secured a good display of the
candy on the counter near the cash register. Additional orders came from the
teachers in the grade and high schools her children attended. These orders
amounted to a nice little business, especially at Christmas time when many
teachers went home for the holidays and wanted to add several boxes of
candy to their Christmas gifts for the family. Another sales-making idea of
Mrs. Bentley’s was to put a card bearing the name “Honey Fudge,” her name
and address, telephone number, and the price a pound, in each package. The
boxes had to be inexpensive to keep costs down, so she chose plain, deep
cream-colored boxes and with a hard brown crayon wrote the words “Honey
Fudge” in a distinctive backhand script on the covers. A little practice was
required, of course, to acquire the proper swing to the writing. At first she
found it difficult to get the right pressure when using the crayon on the cover,
but this problem was solved by placing the box cover on a block of smooth
wood. A little touch such as this in packaging merchandise often means the
difference between success and failure in marketing your product.

Where to Sell Candied Popcorn

TANDING in a crowd of three hundred and fifty people who stopped to

watch a prairie baseball game, James Barlow, of Waterloo, Iowa, got an idea.
Barlow wanted some popcorn and the nearest store was about two blocks
away! Here were a hundred or more people all wanting popcorn. What a
chance for making money! So he decided to test the possibilities of his idea
the following Sunday. He bought a corn-popper and went to work. His wife’s
cookbook furnished a recipe for making caramel from corn syrup and water,
and from that recipe Barlow made up a quantity of syrup which he poured
over the corn. Then he pressed this caramelized popcorn into balls, wrapping
each ball with red waxed tissue. Just before the game began he filled a
clothes basket with popcorn balls and carried it into the crowd gathering to
watch the game. Slowly moving up and down the side lines, he soon sold all
his popcorn at five cents a ball, and returned home three times during the
game to refill the basket. His total sales were one hundred and seventy-nine
popcorn balls.

Expensive equipment is not necessary for successfully caramelizing popcorn.

You may secure satisfactory results by pouring a thin caramel syrup over the
corn shortly after it is popped, and letting it stand for a few minutes. Either
corn syrup or molasses will make a good caramel when mixed with water and
boiled. The syrup should be thin, however, so it will spread easily and dry
quickly.
Popcorn, always a fast selling item, retains its freshness for two or three days,
and sells readily wherever people gather to enjoy themselves, such as
beaches, picnics, summer resorts, parks, and tourist camps. Opportunities for
quick sales are sometimes found among the crowds who wait outside of
public buildings, fair grounds, and the theaters.

Once you get the “hang” of making the popcorn, you can hire for a small
commission a few “live wire” boys of high school age to help you do the
selling and the first thing you know you will have a thriving business. It
means a little work to get started, but it is more than worth it.

Ivory Carving Proves Remunerative

Y

EARS ago when Frank Foster of Atlanta, Georgia, was a boy, he learned to
carve ivory. As he grew older it became his hobby and as the years went on
he became more and more expert. Like many skillful arts, ivory carving can
be learned by almost anyone who can handle simple tools. It only requires
patience and much practice to become expert.

There are degrees of fineness in ivory carving just as in wood carving. Frank
Foster turns out many different kinds of objects, from a plain billiard ball to
the finest, most delicate bit of lacy carving.

Since his retirement from business, Frank Foster has built up another
business with his unusual hobby. Dominoes, billiard balls, beads, fancy boxes
of all types, chessmen, bracelets, earrings, brooches, letter openers, book
ends, small picture frames, quaint replicas of birds and small animals,
figurines, and of course, elephants of various sizes, all are made by his
skillful fingers. His chessmen are particularly beautiful. A fine set of thirty-
two chessmen brings him from $50 to $75; a de luxe set as much as $250.

Ivory is rather easy to work with because of its resiliency. The ivory used by
Mr. Foster is elephant ivory. The tusks cost about $1,000 each, but he
manages to buy scrap ivory around one-tenth the original cost. Piano
factories have hundreds of pounds of material that are useless for making
piano keys because the curve in the tusk makes it difficult to secure long
pieces of ivory. Therefore, the amount from a tusk that can be used for keys
is comparatively small. This scrap ivory is of excellent quality and can
readily be used to form small objects.

Potato Chips Made Hibbard Independent

OY C. HIBBARD did not relish the long hours and uncertain income driving
a taxi. He realized he was getting nowhere. So he kept his eyes open for some
way to make extra money. He made many stops to pick up fares at beer
taverns, and in this way became acquainted with the tavern owners.
Sometimes they talked to him about their business in a general way. To make
people drink more beer, he learned, salty food specialties, such as potato
chips, were given free to tavern patrons. So Hibbard thought it would be a
smart idea to supply taverns with potato chips.

He obtained a machine that turned out a high quality potato chip, and made
up sample packages which he left with each tavern owner he knew. His first
sampling produced a total of fifty trial orders. The quality of the chips was
excellent, and the day following he was gratified to secure reorders totaling
seventy-five pounds of chips. Hibbard quit his job driving a taxi to devote his
entire time to his potato chip business.

Hibbard’s initial investment was about $100. He bought the machine on a

deferred payment plan, paying $85 for it. Potatoes averaged ninety cents a
hundred pounds, and grease for frying cost fourteen cents a pound in twenty
pound cans. By setting the machine up in the basement of the apartment
building where he lived, he had no additional rent to pay. He made good
money right from the start. His success was in the selection of the right kind
of potatoes. At first he used a thin-skinned cobbler, which is inexpensive, but
he later learned that all potatoes do not fry into good chips. The more
expensive Idahos, recommended by the maker of the machine, were found to
be much more satisfactory.
Hibbard figures the cost of frying potato chips at nine cents a pound and by
bagging them in five-, ten- and twenty-cent sized bags, he averages fifty
cents a pound on retail sales. Sales in bulk to taverns bring him thirty cents a
pound. He averages a net daily profit of better than $11, and his business is
steadily growing.

A potato chip machine similar to Hibbard’s can be set up in your own home.
It is operated from gas, and fries potato chips of uniform quality. Ready
outlets are found in taverns, lunchrooms and restaurants, and you may
wholesale them at fifteen cents a pound to grocery and delicatessen stores.
When put up in bags, such as the five-cent bags, an additional charge should
be added.

Doll Hospital Pays for Operation

M

OLLY WINDER , the wife of a textile salesman, had been in an automobile

accident which had injured her right foot. An operation would cost around
$800. How could she get that much money? Of course, there was her
husband’s salary, but payments on a home, insurance premiums and living
expenses, pretty well used all of that. Mrs. Winder had often dressed dolls at
Christmas time for her friends’ children from the textile samples discontinued
by her husband from his line. Perhaps making doll clothes was the answer.

She found her friends quite willing to buy the doll clothes for their children’s
birthdays and as gifts. Her doll clothes sold quickly because she patterned
them after the current styles in women’s and children’s clothes. A doll
dressed in the current fashion always makes a hit with children. She had
started to make the doll clothes in September and in November and
December she concentrated on getting as much business as possible for the
Christmas season. It was at this time that she found herself not only dressing
dolls for Christmas, but also mending them. The dolls brought in by the
mothers would have a broken arm or leg, a scratch on the face, a cracked
head or a badly torn wig. Of course, these damages would have to be repaired
before the doll could be dressed.
It was easy for her to make these simple repairs. A little glue here, a bit of
sewing there, the wig recurled and the new clothes would make “Betsy Ann”
or “Sally Lou” look brand new again. Molly Winder is the genial type of
woman who has a large circle of friends and acquaintances and almost before
she realized it, the word had gone around and she was in the Doll Hospital
business. However, she did not stop at repairing dolls—toys of all kinds were
brought to her to mend and even china and little pieces of brica-brac. She also
found—perhaps “cultivated” would be a better word—a market for character
dolls and dolls dressed in the costumes of the various nations. These dolls
were raffled at church bazaars and charity affairs held by societies, lodges,
etc.

By the following June, Molly was able to make arrangements for her
operation. She had enough money to pay the hospital bill and more than half
of the doctor bill, Now that she had built up a good list of customers, the
second Christmas was so profitable the work required all her time and she
delegated the household activities to her eldest daughter of highschool age.
Mrs. Winder was fortunate, of course, in that she had most of the materials
needed in her work and but little money had to be spent for supplies.
However, even with the added expense for materials, operating a community
hospital for dolls can be made a profitable venture.

Brown Bread and Beans Pay the Taxes

T

HE woman who lives in or near a section of apartment dwellers will

generally find a market near her home for breads, cookies, cakes and similar
products if she but searches her neighborhood for prospects. One woman
living on Chicago’s south side developed a market for brown bread and
baked beans by calling on homes in her neighborhood on Friday afternoons.
Many homes that serve baked beans, creamed codfish and similar Friday
foods, find that brown bread is just the needed item to make a perfect meal.
However, most women will not bother to make brown bread and it is one of
those special foods that the commercial food firms have not been able to
reproduce with all its fine flavor.

She started out with the idea of selling brown bread only but the tie-up with
baked beans was so obvious, it was not long before she was selling both. Her
method of introducing the brown bread was to carry a small case similar to a
typewriter case containing several whole loaves of brown bread and one
sliced loaf. The slices which had been cut in half were offered to each
prospective customer as a sample. The bread was exceptionally good as the
sample proved and before long she had several Friday customers. The baked
beans were deliciously brown and put up in brown earthenware of two sizes,
small and large, depending upon the size of the family ordering. Most of the
women welcomed the idea of a home-cooked meal without any of the fuss of
preparation. They could arrive home from their bridge parties, put the pot of
beans in the oven to warm, slice the bread, fix up a substantial salad, bring
out the pickles and catsup and serve the dessert prepared in the morning
before leaving for the party.

Being a wide-awake person, this woman made up a list of foods with which
brown bread tasted good, such as baked beans, codfish, potato salad, finnan
haddie, etc. She also suggested it for the children’s lunches with a big glass
of milk, as well as sliced, cut in circles or other fancy shapes, and spread with
cheese, to serve at luncheons and parties. Her name, address and telephone
number were typed by her daughter in high school on regular recipe-size
cards and a list of the ways of using brown bread was typed on the back of
the card together with prices. These cards were mailed to friends of
customers (names she secured simply by asking for them), given to prospects
who had shown an interest in her products, and to customers. She also mailed
them to tenants in the buildings where she had customers. Incidentally, she
never missed an opportunity to call on other tenants in a building where a
customer lived.

In addition to this type of business she opened up another field for her brown
bread by calling upon the three hotels in the immediate vicinity, as well as
selling four other hotels in an adjacent neighborhood that catered to more or
less permanent guests who were fussy about their food. Her high school
daughter and 12-year-old son delivered the orders near home while she
herself drove the old family car and delivered the hotel orders and other
orders outside her immediate neighborhood. As the business grew she began
to put aside a tidy little sum of money which paid the taxes on her home each
year and helped to dress the children as well as herself.

He Made “Snake Snaks” Popular

EVERAL years ago George K. End, of Arcadia, Florida, helped his two
small sons kill a rattlesnake and skin it. The reptile’s flesh, which was a pale,
salmon pink, looked inviting and Mr. End decided to taste it as an
experiment. To his surprise he found that it had a delicate flavor and was
exceedingly tender. Sometime later he served the meat at a convention at
Tampa and those who tried it agreed that it was delicious. A number of
friends also tried it on his recommendation and pronounced it a real delicacy.
He decided that there might be a market for the product and as the immediate
vicinity has more rattlesnakes to the square mile than any other part of the
United States, he had an unlimited meat supply for his odd business. He
established a canning plant and started to prepare and market his product.

The main difficulty, of course, was overcoming the prejudice people have
about eating snakes. However, Mr. End found enough people who considered
his product a delicacy to enable him to build up a good-sized business.
People eat eels, snails, and frog legs, so why not clean, palatable snake meat,
a product much cleaner than the oyster which so many people enjoy?

The snakes are captured alive by means of a noose at the end of a bamboo
pole about six feet long, then they are swung into a wire cage and taken to the
cannery. Here they are killed the same day if possible, as they will not eat in
captivity and, consequently, lose considerable weight. The snake catchers are
paid at the rate of twenty cents a foot averaging about $1.25 a snake. The
meat is prepared with or without a sauce and orders for raw rattlesnake meat
are also filled. The average snake weighs about nine pounds when brought in
but much of this weight is lost through shrinkage in cooking and with the
removal of the head, bones and rattles. Not cheap by any means, the meat
sells for $1.25 for a four and one-half ounce can; the uncooked meat bringing
$2.50 a pound. The meat is also smoked in the same fashion ham is smoked
and marketed as “Snake Snaks” in small bags. In view of the fact that the
meat has a very delicate flavor, it is especially delicious served as canapes.
Other parts of the rattler such as the head, the rattles, the fangs are made up
into ornaments and a rubbing oil is made from the fatty tissues. The skin, of
course, is made into hat bands, belts, pocketbooks, book covers, etc.

You may not be keen about the idea of starting a snake cannery, even though
you live in a snake infested area. However, the way Mr. End made his $1,000
may suggest to you the many opportunities for making money that exist right
in your own back yard, so to speak, if only you look for them.

What You Can Make from Clam Shells

M

ARY COOPER , who lived with her two small children in a cheap rooming
house, had lost her job. However, being an ingenious person, she had soon
established herself in a nice little business of her own making novelties from
clam and oyster shells. She secured the shells without cost from a near-by sea
food shop and made them up into novelties. She took them down to the
beauty parlor where she had been working and the owner of the shop gave
her display space in a window for a commission on all that were sold. Such
novelties are inexpensive to make. The materials used consist of common
pipe cleaners, clam, oyster shells, and other shells. No particular skill is
required. Here is how to do it:

Drill a hole in the small end of an oyster shell. Insert one end of a pipe
cleaner through this hole and fasten it securely by twisting the wire over and
around the edge of the shell, letting most of the pipe cleaner extend upward.
Now repeat this operation with a second oyster shell of the same size. Place
the two shells alongside each other. Halfway up the length of the pipe
cleaners, bend and twist them together for the rest of their length. Next select
two small oyster shells. Match and fit them together about the twisted single
portion of the pipe cleaners. That portion of the pipe cleaners which protrudes
above the shells becomes a neck. Now drill a hole in one side of a small
conical shell. Attach this to the top of the pipe cleaner. You now have the
figure of a comical man, with two large feet made from oyster shells, a body
made from oyster shells, and the legs and neck from the pipe cleaners. The
small shell on top is, of course, the head. Arms may be added by cutting a
pipe cleaner in half, and attaching to the neck at the juncture of the oyster
shells. A small brush and ten cents’ worth of paint will enable you to tint
your figures any color. Ash trays and a score of useful items may be easily
made in this way.

Tosdale Sisters Saw Paris on FancyPillows

T

HE Tosdale sisters had just finished college, and after the usual round of
parties had been given for them in their home town, they developed a bad
case of wanderlust. Somehow or other Helen and Mary Tosdale meant to
make some money for a trip.

There was one thing in which both girls excelled and that was sewing. Both
of them had made all their dresses and many of their suits and coats since
their high-school days. They knew colors and fabrics and they had style
sense. However, neither one of the girls had any desire to develop a
dressmaking trade. It would have to be some other type of sewing, they
decided. And then they hit on the idea of fancy pillows. The years of sewing
in the Tosdale home had resulted in trunks and boxes of both used and
unused fabrics and ribbons and edgings. After a check-up, they found they
would have enough for quite a number of pillows before they would have to
buy any new material.

That summer they worked over pillow designs and by November, they had
made several dozen unusual and beautiful pillows. Ribbons in matching tones
were woven together to make interesting squares; bands of contrasting
material were appliqued in modern effects; porch pillows were made of
sturdy chintz and cretonne, their edges bound in contrasting colors; fine
linens were daintily embroidered to fashion baby pillows of softest down;
scraps of lace and silks were used to make boudoir pillows, and jewel-colored
squares of velvet and satin were trimmed with looped fringe edgings or with
pipings of a contrasting material to make plain, tailored cushions.

Three weeks before Christmas they were ready to display their work. They
persuaded a local laundry agent to rent them his window space for the three
weeks for five dollars. After the mad Christmas rush was over, they found
that they had sold every pillow they had made up and had orders for about
two dozen more to fill. They charged good prices, too. As a matter of fact,
they discovered that people seem to appreciate handwork in direct proportion
to the price.

While a handsome profit was made on the Christmas sale there wasn’t
enough money in the travel fund to take them both to Europe that year. So
they designed, and planned, and sewed all spring and summer. The
magazines were scanned for ideas, and the silk sales eagerly watched for
bargains. They managed to buy a lot of kapok and down-filled pillows in
muslin covers from a wholesaler at a price cheaper than they could make
them. During the spring, the two girls had orders from a half dozen local
families for pillows and draperies and they sold pillows steadily through the
summer for porch use. One of the local gift shops gave them an order for
pillows which the proprietor admitted were more attractive and better styled
than any she could purchase elsewhere.

Late that fall they worked busily to get enough stock ready for the Christmas
sale. They figured that even if they made too many they could be sold during
the next year. By the time the Christmas season arrived they had more
pillows than the laundry agent’s window could hold. So a vacant store on a
busy street was secured for a month and it was so attractively arranged that
people came in just to look around. The majority of them, however, evidently
left with pillows under their arms, because when two tired girls figured up
their sales after the last mad scramble Christmas eve, they found only two
pillows left, one of which had been stepped on and soiled and the other
wedged behind a counter out of sight.

So the Tosdale sisters saw Europe the next year and evidently it won’t be
their last trip for they have decided to open up a shop. Now that they have an
idea of what people want, their shop will carry pillows, curtains, quilts,
padded throws for the chaise lounge, pads for dresser drawers and shelves,
padded dress hangers, equipment for wardrobes and closets, etc. To have
enough stock on hand, they have secured the part-time services of two
women who do exquisite needlework.

Makes Miniature Reproductions ofAntiques

V

ISITING George Cona’s shop in San Francisco is like traveling with

Gulliver through the land of Lilliput. Time and space are eliminated by this
craftsman’s wand as he fashions miniature models of antique furniture. In
orderly rows above his workbench, hang diminutive planes and saws, and
tiny little hammers that drive still tinier nails into bits of wood of matchlike
thickness.

With these tools Mr. Cona fashions tiny cabinets no higher than an orange.
Every detail is finished with minute precision even to the lining of the
drawers, for no cabinet-maker ever delved more intensively into furniture
lore or applied his knowledge with closer attention to authenticity.

As a boy in England, Mr. Cona studied period furniture and cultivated his
talent for reproducing it. Later, in California when his health failed after
many years in the ministry, he turned to cabinet making for a livelihood.
There were fat years during which he became notable in San Francisco for
antique furniture reproductions so clever that only an expert could tell the
copy from the original. Then came 1929 and lean years. He was past three
score and ten, yet his agile fingers still held their cleverness. When business
languished he turned to his hobby—the modeling in miniature of
Chippendale chairs, Duncan Phyfe tables and Heppelwhite sideboards. Of
course, this does not mean doll furniture. These bits of furniture are real
miniatures. To give a cash basis of differentiation—a Cona bedroom set sells
for $5; a doll’s set of similar proportions for 25 cents.
Former patrons straggling in with odd jobs noticed the exquisite little models
and bought them. They sent friends who “wanted a set just like it.” Gradually
a little furniture business filled the big furniture void. One day a woman with
a pre-depression bank balance asked Mr. Cona if he could build a doll house
to fit the furniture. The answer was yes, Mr. Cona having studied architecture
along with antiques in England. He drew plans and built a house that clicked
and brought more orders. Now he makes to order houses that, as he puts it,
are “just a little better.” These range from a $10 cottage for a real estate firm
to a $300 mansion for a wealthy client’s child.

Just now he is working on a house complete with furniture that will bring
$550. The house stands in his window and the furniture is being added piece
by piece as finished. Every day interested observers pause before the shop
window to ascertain the progress made. The five-room colonial house is
white with green trimmings. It has parquetry floors of oak and mahogany and
a delightful oak staircase, with banisters, that leads to the bath and bedrooms
above. The rooms contain electric switches of postage stamp size and the
chandeliers are fitted with tiny globes. The finely wrought window frames
enclose real glass windows instead of the usual mica.

The interest in miniature reproductions of antique furniture during the past

few years has been largely stimulated by the exhibit of Mrs. Ward Thorne’s
exquisite miniature rooms at the Chicago World’s Fair, and by the $500,000
doll house exhibited for charity by the moving picture actress, Colleen
Moore. Another beautiful example of this work is the priceless collection of
Helena Rubinstein, the well-known cosmetic manufacturer. Some of the tiny
little furnishings of these rooms have been acquired by their owners during
years of collecting little objects of glass, brass, wood, and bits of furniture.
However, most of them have been made by modern craftsmen. Many a man
with a workbench in his basement and a flair for design can turn out these
tiny bits of furniture. Books and periodicals on furniture design will help him
in getting the lines of the tiny pieces of furniture as authentic as the originals.

A Rattling Good Income from Rattlers

C

ATHERINE C. REIDY , of Tucson, Arizona, became interested in snakes

while homesteading twenty-three miles from the town where Mr. Reidy
worked. She began studying the local wild life and vegetation as a pastime
and became so interested that she started to write on nature subjects. This
meant getting together more or less of a reference library, cameras and other
equipment. Then the depression came along and slashed the family income
rather badly. She wrote a few letters and found herself engaged to collect
bugs for several biological supply houses. She also sold cactus and wild
flower seed.

It was while collecting notes on native foods of the Indians that she found the
Indians not only use the meat of the rattlers for food, but they made
ornamental necklaces from the bones. This aroused her curiosity and the next
time she captured a rattler, she popped him into a kettle and the next day she
had a business. The ornaments include costume jewelry, buttons, buckles,
necklaces and bracelets. “The bones,” explains Mrs. Reidy, “resemble carved
ivory, and achieve a startling whiteness after a lengthy cleansing and
bleaching process. They are then matched carefully and strung in various
ways, some naturally and some in combination with colored beads of many
kinds and sizes.” The rattlers’ skins make lovely billfolds, bookmarks,
cigarette cases, check-book holders, pocketbooks and even boots and jackets.
During the Chicago World’s Fair, a tailored suit of rattlesnake skins made by
Mrs. Reidy was displayed in the Arizona exhibit, and attracted a tremendous
amount of attention.

Business became so good, the Reidys moved back to town and fitted up a
studio where their handicraft could be displayed more easily. She now has
several hunters to secure the snakes and has put in a stock of meat. She has
found that there is always a small demand for the skulls and fangs and the
rattles. In addition to maintaining the studio, Mrs. Reidy exhibits her wares at
tourist camps and dude ranches in the West.

He Specialized in “Hamburgers”
A

FEW years ago, Henry Fisher lost his job in a restaurant. He took fifty
dollars from his small savings account, rented space in a Chicago Loop office
building, and opened up a hamburger shop. In three months, Henry’s
business became so profitable, he opened two more shops, which he now
operates successfully.

“The space secured for my first location was hardly big enough to turn
around in,” he said. “I hoped to be able to get additional space later, add a
regular line of restaurant food, and serve coffee, tea and milk. But I decided
against this policy during my first week and specialized in hamburger
sandwiches. These were a little larger than ordinary, and I sold them for a
dime. People working in the building crowded around at noon, and it was at
once apparent that they wanted quick service more than anything else. As
news of my stand got around the building, I had considerable difficulty
keeping up with the crowd’s demand during the noon hour.

“My investment in equipment amounted to sixteen dollars. Rent for the six-
by-ten-foot space was thirty-three dollars a month. I did no advertising. I
hadn’t figured on it, for I hadn’t planned on staying in that small space very
long. As I was serving a better hamburger sandwich for a dime (one covered
with relish in which a little mayonnaise dressing was mixed on a rye bun—
sometimes known as ‘Vienna’ style), they sold themselves. On my first day, I
took in twenty-four dollars. My expenses ran to fifteen. The second day was a
little better and by the end of the week, I figured I was on my way. My wife,
who was as excited over the success of this first stand as I was, urged me not
to be satisfied with one location, but to open a second stand. However, we
had difficulty finding a spot for it, since few office buildings had suitable
space available and those having such space wanted too much for it. So we
chose a small room on the second floor of an industrial building which was
almost entirely devoted to the printing industry. One typesetting company
employed a hundred and twenty men, and a printing company occupying two
floors employed six hundred men and girls. Our success in this spot was
immediate. The workers patronized us because we were convenient and gave
them a satisfying sandwich for a dime, which was about all many wanted to
pay for a lunch. Those who didn’t want to leave their shop or office, often
asked someone to bring back a hamburger. Office and errand boys from the
offices in the building take back as many as fifteen or twenty hamburgers for
the girls and men in their office at one time. I could have sold coffee at our
first location, but that would have meant a delay in service. People who want
coffee generally want to sit down at a table and I didn’t have room for tables
there. Those who bought the hamburgers didn’t seem to mind not having
coffee. So I saved the rental on larger space and the cost of fixtures, and did
just as big a business as if I had them. In the second shop, however, we sold
coffee, because it seemed to be a custom for working men to send out a boy
for enough coffee for eight or ten at one time. Our profits in this building
were almost as large as in the first place. When I decided to open the third
location, I chose a spot in another industrial building. Here rent was cheap,
and there was a large and highly concentrated market for coffee and
hamburgers.”

Henry pointed out that he did not consider locations outside of the business or
industrial districts as suitable for hamburger stands. His success, he declares,
was due to offering a convenience to working people with limited time. If he
can get 30 per cent of the workers in a building, he is able to keep one stand
going in great shape, and have the evening for himself.

His first equipment was one second-hand griddle, thirty by eighteen inches,
for frying the hamburgers, a large tin box for his supply of “giant” rolls, and a
large bottle of relish. A trick in making hamburgers especially delicious is to
mix the meat with crumbled stale bread. No ice is required since the
hamburgers come ready for the griddle on two daily deliveries from the local
packing house warehouses. A stand of this kind may be opened with very
little capital in any small space on the lower floors (not necessarily the lobby
or street floor) of an industrial or office building. Potato chips bagged, small
pies, and similar specialties might profitably be carried as side lines.

Etched Bottles and Boxes Sell Easily

W
HEN Harry Brown finished college, he decided to see if he couldn’t make
some money with an idea he had been mulling over for some time. In his
chemistry course in college he had learned how to etch glass by coating it
with beeswax, lettering words with a steel point, and then exposing the
surface of the glass to the fumes of hydrofluoric acid. With a little practice
Harry found that he could produce some rather

neat looking bottles suitable for the medicine cabinet. He purchased a carton
of standard-sized bottles of good clear glass and etched them with the names
of the usual medicine cabinet remedies such as boric acid, witch hazel, hand
lotion, glycerin, etc. He made up several sets of four bottles each and sold
them to friends and relatives. Later he sold them from house to house. On
every call he tried to sell a complete set of bottles. However, when it was
plainly evident that the housewife did not need the entire set, he would
suggest her taking a pair of bottles. Sometimes he could get her to suggest
other labels for two more which he would etch for no additional charge. He
also took orders for special sets of bottles for the invalid in the family or for
the baby’s medicines.

Harry made it a point to deliver the orders in the evening. Generally, the
“man of the house” would be home and there would be no delay in getting
the money for his work. Furthermore, he frequently found that father would
be interested in securing for his “private supply,” a uniform set of bottles
with names such as Rye, Bourbon, Scotch, etc.

Another idea that sold well was a little mirrored-top match box. He bought
these by the dozen and etched numbers from one to eight on the mirrored
tops. Women bridge fans were delighted with them as they could use them
for bridge prizes. When these went over so big, he purchased some larger
mirrored cigarette boxes and etched the names of the popular cigarette brands
on the tops. Women bought these novelties for bridge prizes also as well as
for their own homes.

Before long, Harry found himself so busy that he not only had to secure
assistance in handling the work of etching the bottles, but also had to hire
someone to follow up inquiries.
TheVogueforWroughtIron HouseNumbers

HEN the depression took away his office job, Leander Hvale of Deerfield,
Illinois, turned to his hobby, the making of hand-wrought knickknacks for
homes. Word-of-mouth advertising along the fashionable North Shore section
has brought Mr. Hvale many orders for handmade iron home-markers
(swinging signs at the gate or on posts near the entrance), wall plaques,
weather vanes and other handicraft. His son, a Chicago Art Institute graduate,
makes the designs. One home-marker, which he worked out for a dog shelter
(an enterprise of one of Chicago’s society leaders), shows a little dog up on
his hind legs, begging. Two other little dogs are sympathetically listening.
Another design was a lovely madonna for the wall of an outdoor living-room
of a North Shore estate.

The home-marker had its origin in the Middle Ages before the invention of
house numbers. In order to identify one’s home it was customary to use some
sort of distinctive sign. Thus people came to speak of Mr. So-and-So who
lived at the sign of the “Green Rooster” or the “Yellow Lantern.” Among the
nobility the crests from the family coat-of-arms were used as home-markers.
Fighting cocks, spread eagles and unicorns were popular. The modern vogue
of naming homes has brought with it the demand for markers to symbolize
hospitality and good-fellowship.

Mr. Hvale realized that he would have to let people know what he could do
with wrought iron if he were to have any kind of success. So, although he had
no money to spare, he planned to have an exhibit at the Garden Club flower
show held at Chicago’s Navy Pier. The money for the display space was
earned by doing odd chores and shoveling peat for a month for the club. The
display did bring his work to the attention of those who appreciate the beauty
of wrought iron and created no little business.

There are any number of things to be made of wrought iron and those who
have a hankering for this type of work will find innumerable designs in books
on the subject. The wrought iron gates and balconies of New Orleans, made
in the colonial days, are known all over the world for their beauty. For years
these examples of art and skill have endured. The intricate, lacy designs are
really the work of artists and are not easy to equal. However, there are many
simpler designs which can be made by the average craftsman. Home-
markers, colonial lanterns for entrance lights, railings, small balconies
beneath windows, fireplace equipment, grills, hinges, door knockers—all are
in vogue today due to the revival of interest in colonial architecture and
furnishings. Prices charged for wrought iron things should, of course, be high
enough to put a proper value on original design and expert craftsmanship of
this sort.

James Mack’s Sandwich Bar

F

OUR years ago, James Mack, in search of a better climate for his health,
drove to Florida and stopped for a while in Miami. Now James Mack was a
connoisseur of good coffee. He was fussy about the kind of coffee he drank,
and well he might be for he made a good cup of coffee himself. According to
Mack, there was no good coffee in Miami. He tried all the restaurants, the
hotels, and even the refreshment stands. The coffee was terrible!

Well, if he couldn’t get a good cup of coffee in Miami, he would make it

himself and show these Florida cooks how the people from up north liked
their coffee! No sooner said than done—James Mack opened up a sandwich
bar. The menu included only two types of sandwiches—fish and hamburger
—and the best coffee you could buy at any price. Yet he charged only a
nickel a cup for it. Milk was added to the menu as a concession to those who
couldn’t drink coffee. The fish used in the sandwiches was always whatever
was in the market that morning in quantities sufficient to be purchased at a
good price. The hamburger was always strictly fresh and prepared so that it
really was good enough to accompany the best cup of coffee in town. No pie,
no cake, no cookies, no ham and eggs—nothing but the sandwiches and
coffee and milk were served.

People were skeptical at first, but the few who tried his coffee were back
soon with other customers. It became the habit to brag to newcomers, “I’ll
take you over to Mack’s where you will get the best cup of coffee you ever
tasted.” There were seats for only twelve at Mack’s place and he refused to
enlarge. “I don’t want a great big place with lots of overhead,” he remarked
to a visitor who asked him why he didn’t enlarge the place. “The customers
really like it this way—it’s cozy and different from the average restaurant or
hotel dining room. If I enlarged and had to have waitresses and tables, the
place would look like every other food ‘emporium.’”

People did like it as it was—they stood four deep in line to get their coffee,
and thought it fun. They ate their dinners at the hotels and came over to
Mack’s for their coffee. It became a fad and he was wise enough to know it
and to keep it so. Once he had made his reputation for having the best coffee
in town, he did nothing to change it. That coffee had to be good! He bought
the berries himself, blended them, and ground the coffee fresh each time it
was prepared. The few things he served were all fresh and good quality. The
place was immaculate and so was Mack and his assistant in their white coats.
There was no noisy clatter of dishes and silverware—the service was quiet,
the place cool and shaded from the sun by awnings. Mack was proud of his
coffee and sandwiches—he expected you to enjoy them, and you did.

Mack’s emphasis on quality succeeded. He has turned in his old car on a new
one, paid his doctor bills back up north, improved his place, paid for all his
equipment, and has money in the bank!

DoughnutsBringProfits
U

PON leaving his job in the circulation department of a Chicago newspaper,

S. D. Lavely retired to Watervliet, Michigan. Idleness soon palled on him,
and he decided to start a small business of his own. He rented a store and
invested $250 in equipment for making greaseless doughnuts. The first batch
of doughnuts baked was given away as samples to people passing the store.
That first day Lavely sold seventy dozen doughnuts at twenty-five cents a
dozen. The second day went even better as a majority of those who bought
the first day repeated, and brought others with them.

Before the first week passed, Lavely had reached an average daily sale of
over 150 dozen—all he could bake. He expanded his business and added
more equipment. As Watervliet is but a short drive from Paw Paw Lake,
Lavely figured he could do a brisk business with the summer resorts around
Paw Paw. So he hired a woman to help his wife bake doughnuts while he
packed sixty dozen in his car and drove down to the lake. Within two hours
he sold the entire lot to vacationists in cottages. After that he drove down to
the lake at least once every day. Later, he established a regular route to the
near-by towns of Marcellus, Lawrence, and Hartford, where he sold the
doughnuts at wholesale for fifteen cents a dozen to most of the restaurants,
retail stores, tea rooms, soda fountains and lunchrooms.

The cost of baking greaseless doughnuts averages under six cents a dozen
with the equipment Lavely used. His small machine bakes eight dozen in an
hour, or eighty dozen in a ten-hour day. Lavely started with two of these
machines, giving him a daily output of 160 dozen doughnuts. During the first
week, his sales totaled 900 dozen at twenty-five cents a dozen. When he had
deducted all his expenses he found that he had made quite a nice little profit
—about $161.

Greaseless doughnuts are baked in electrically operated bakers. They are not
fried like ordinary doughnuts. The doughnut batter used is exactly the same
as is used when baking the “greasy” doughnut. When packed in waxed paper
containers, greaseless doughnuts remain fresh for six to eight days. This type
of doughnut is quite easily digested and may be eaten without harm even by
chronic stomach sufferers.

Equipment for baking greaseless doughnuts may be set up in your own

kitchen and operated from a light socket. Demand for this product is always
good, and stores, lunchrooms, and restaurants are excellent outlets. You may
retail some to your friends and neighbors, as Lavely did, and before you
know it you will have a thriving business of your own. It has the great
advantage of being a business where satisfied customers draw others. The
average American takes to doughnuts like a duck takes to the water, and it
does not take the people in town long to make a beaten path to the door of the
man who can make better doughnuts.

Motor-DrivenChairsforInvalids
L

UZERN CUSTER , of Dayton, Ohio, makes motor-driven chairs for people

who are incapacitated—invalids or cripples. His plant, in Dayton, turns out
about three chairs a week, at an average price of $200 a chair. Until recently,
all the chairs were driven by electric batteries. Now, however, some of them
have gasoline motors and will run along at 15 miles an hour. Some of these
chairs have built-in showcases to enable their users to sell candy or notions.
One Southerner had a chair built to carry himself and his Negro attendant.
Many of the cripples for whom he makes chairs like gay colors, so he paints
their chairs fire-engine red and equips them with powerful headlights and
loud horns.

Twenty years ago Mr. Custer started to make chairs for board walks. Putting
motors in them revolutionized the business for him and he made good money
for several years. Then he saw a market for motor-driven chairs for invalids
and the incapacitated. It wasn’t long before most of his business was catering
to this market.

100 Other Things Easy to Make

W

OOD— Start with the simpler things such as book ends, a bookstand, bird
houses, garden trellises, picture frames, racks for garden tools, window
boxes, footstools, flower stands. When you have developed some skill and
ease in handling tools, try folding screens, end tables, cupboards, hanging
bookshelves, coffee tables, toys, etc. The modern style of furniture is simple
and easy to make. Keep clear of elaborate ornamentation which does not add
to the design of the product. There is also a good demand for the rustic type
of lawn and garden furniture. This furniture is made of small logs and
branches upon which the bark is left. The construction is simple in the
extreme. Blueprints can be had from such magazines as Popular Science
Monthly, Popular Mechanics, and the government.

c eMent—It requires much less skill to make things of cement than of wood.
Forms of wood or metal may be bought or you can make them yourself.
There are government bulletins explaining how to mix and use the cement;
the cement companies will also send you instructions. Get a catalog from
some company making this type of product and see just what items are in
demand. Bird baths, sun dials, aquariums, benches, urns or large jardinieres,
and other garden and lawn equipment are popular. When you have acquired
some skill, you can also make clever little figures and ornaments such as
frogs and mermaids for the lily pond; rabbits and squirrels for the lawn;
fauns, birds, etc.

p aper—So many things can be made with paper it is almost impossible to

enumerate them. With pastepot and shears, or shears alone, clever hands can
fashion an endless number of things that can be sold in the gift shops, in your
own shop, from door to door, or at fairs and exhibits. One of the most
interesting things to do with paper is to make silhouettes. There are books on
silhouette making and many magazine articles have covered this art. With
practice and a certain dexterity, you can make a good living with this work.
The usual practice is to set up your worktable in a gift shop, a department
store, a greeting card shop, a county fair, a street fair, or any place where
many people congregate. The silhouettes are sold at from 50 cents to $1.00
each. Double your paper and cut two of them at once. Then offer them to the
customer at two for 75 cents or two for $1.25, depending upon your price per
silhouette. A little “showmanship” will add to your sales. With wall paper
you can create some beautiful folding screens—look over those on display in
your local department store. You can also make closet accessories from
boxes and wall paper— hat boxes, blanket boxes, shoe boxes, etc. These
should be matched, or ensembled. With wall paper you can also make
scrapbook covers, cover waste-paper baskets, tin cooky boxes, cigarette
boxes, etc. These should be shellacked when finished to protect the paper.
Many decorators have had unusual success with cutting designs from wall
paper and making an applique border for bathroom, kitchen or bedroom
walls. These borders can also be used to decorate kitchen cabinets, bread
boxes and other containers, valances for windows, etc. Colored cut-outs of
animals, fairy tale characters, fruit, flowers, etc., can be made for children’s
rooms, as wall or furniture decorations. Make these in sets, put them in
glassine envelopes and sell them for 50 cents and up a set. With crepe paper
you can make fascinating favors and decorations for parties. The Dennison
Company’s party books will give you directions for making favors, party
decorations, and paper costumes.

o Ilcloth—Oilcloth may be used in much the same way as wall paper. It is

excellent to cover folding screens (especially for kitchen or nursery use), to
cover boxes, to cover scrapbooks and schoolbooks, as cut-outs for wall and
cupboard decorations, for valances, etc. In addition, oilcloth makes attractive
breakfast and luncheon sets for the summer cottage, table mats for children’s
use, porch cushions, kitchen aprons, beach bags, table runners for the porch,
babies’ bibs, laundry bags, as coverings for kitchen articles (the scouring
powder can, match box, etc.), racks for pot holders, waste basket, etc.

W ool, yarn—The craze for knitted things of all kinds presents an opportunity
to sell knitted garments for babies and adults. Knitted suits and dresses sold
through the department stores start at around $50. The vogue for colonial
furniture in the last few years has brought a demand for hooked rugs which
are in keeping with colonial interiors. These rugs are also suitable for summer
cottages. One young woman who made several rugs for herself, not only
achieved considerable skill in making the rugs, but speed as well, and could
make the small type of bedroom rug in her spare time in a few days. Through
her friends, the local gift shop, and an advertisement in the neighborhood
paper, she secured orders which netted her enough profit to pay half her
household expenses. Her rugs sold because they were well made and were of
unusual designs. Modern designs can be hooked as well as the colonial type.
Knitted garments for babies, needle-point chair seats or footstool covers, all
suggest ways of making money. Skill in this type of work always comes with
practice.

t eXtIles—Aprons and house dresses offer a fertile field for a woman’s clever
hands. Many a small business has been built up by someone who started
making aprons and selling them to her neighbors. Nelly Donnelly is today
one of the most successful makers of women’s dresses and aprons in the
United States. She started this business in a little workroom in the attic of her
Kansas City home. Most manufacturers thought then that women would not
pay more than 69 or 79 cents for wash frocks to wear about the house. Nelly
Donnelly knew better and proved it by building a success with $1.00 wash
dresses. Many women have found that men like their shirts made to order and
will pay a little more for a well-tailored garment. Handmade handkerchiefs
for men and women, curtains and draperies, slip-covers for furniture, hand-
quilted comfortables and “throws,” smocks, shoe and dress bags, infants’ and
children’s garments, fancy costumes for parties and school plays, collar and
cuff sets, are other suggestions. The secret of success in this field is not to try
to compete with cheap merchandise now on the market. People are willing to
pay a price for handmade things. Make your dresses, aprons, shirts, and other
things of excellent material and good workmanship and put a good price on
them.

M etal—There is a vogue just now for articles made of tin. Almost any type
of tin can be used to make such things as candlesticks, book ends, vases,
boxes, sconces, and toys for children. All that is needed in the way of
equipment is a work bench, a pair of leather gloves, a pair of heavy shears, a
block of wood, a wooden mallet, a pair of dividers, a half round file, a vise,
and a soldering outfit. The finished product should be given two coats of
paint. In addition to making useful and ornamental objects of this metal one
may use other metals such as embossed copper, brass, and pewter. These
require a little more skill in handling. Tin may also be embossed. Hand-
wrought iron equipment for fireplaces, home-markers (swinging sign at the
gate), foot-scrapers, lanterns for colonial doorways, and other such items are
in demand today, due, no doubt, to the revival of interest in the colonial mode
of decoration. Lighting fixtures of wood and copper or wrought iron and
wood are simple to make. Not long ago a woman inventor in Chicago grossed
$6,000 a month, making hair curlers out of lip stick containers. Sheet metal is
another material which can be handled dexterously by the amateur craftsman.
This material makes up into good-looking stands, baskets, racks, shelves, fire
screens, bird cages, lawn ornaments, stools, tables, lamp bases, book ends,
cigarette boxes, ash trays, toys, novelties, and innumerable other things. Until
recently, this work meant tedious hours with soldering irons and other hand
tools. Now, however, with the new sheet metal working outfit on the market,
the home craftsman can use the same methods as the modern factory does.
With this equipment, a simple piece like a metal waste basket can be
completed in less than half an hour and the total cost, including the paint, is
less than twenty cents. The makers of the metal working equipment furnish
books of designs and patterns as well as the necessary materials.

o ther MaterIals—Parchment lamp shades (particularly shades for wall lights)

are always in good taste. The parchment may be purchased in the stores and
many department stores have trained women on their staffs who will help you
with designs. Handmade baskets, pottery, beadwork, batik work and hand-
loomed fabrics are not difficult to learn to make and bring good prices. Raffia
makes beautiful table mats and coverings for wine bottles. Shells make droll
little figures. Sheet celluloid makes costume jewelry, buttons, silhouettes, etc.
A scroll or jig saw is necessary for this work. Old inner tubes can be used to
make marionettes—the rubber helps to make the dancing figures more
realistic. Leather covered boxes, desk pads, letter cases, telephone book
covers, book carriers, and many other articles made of leather sell well in the
stores today, especially at Christmas. Tooled leather work is not hard to learn
—a surprisingly small number of tools are needed to carry on the entire work.
Some of the plastics on the market today can be used to make ornamental and
useful items that are money makers. Practically all the companies making this
material furnish directions for the beginner.

chapter four
RAISING THINGS TO SELL
T

HE next time you complain about making a living in the United States, think
of that little party of Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. Think
of what they were up against. They had come to a new country, about which
they knew very little, seeking religious freedom and an opportunity to
prosper. The country to which they came had no currency. There was no
government to guarantee their livelihood. There was no police force to
protect their property. All they had was a lot of courage and as much ground
as they required to raise the things they needed. And Mother Earth did not
disappoint them. What they planted grew. The live stock which they brought
from England multiplied. And by barter and trade, they laid the foundation of
the New England Confederation—that group of states north of New
Amsterdam which has since become known as New England.

Any American who has a patch of ground, no matter if it be only the back
yard of a city lot, is infinitely better off than his Pilgrim forbears. At least he
has close at hand a market for what he raises. He has the benefit of a medium
of exchange, so that he can sell the things he raises for money. He enjoys the
security and protection of the armed forces of the state in which he lives. He
does not have to get out of bed in the middle of the night to fight off
marauding Indians. And if he can devise a way of raising things that are in
demand, he can expand his activities until he has built up a large and
profitable business. No other country of the world, unless possibly it might be
Canada, offers such opportunities to the man who is not afraid of work and
who has a desire to raise things to sell.

Under our present complex system of living, however, it is important that

careful consideration be given to what you raise. It is not just a matter of
planting corn and potatoes, as it was in the days of the Pilgrim Fathers. Corn
and potatoes may be a drug on the market in the community in which you
live, so it might be much smarter for you to raise something else. What that
something else ought to be depends upon a lot of things. It depends upon
what you are best qualified to raise; it depends upon what you would enjoy
raising; it depends upon the needs of the people to whom you must sell the
things you raise, and upon what can most profitably be raised in the particular
locality in which you operate. A widow in Victoria, British Columbia, made
thousands of dollars raising tuberous begonia bulbs. She started raising the
bulbs as a hobby in the back yard of her Victoria home. Today, she has a big
business and the begonias are shipped all over the world. Much of her
success was due to the mild climatic conditions of that part of Vancouver
Island. It does not follow that you would be as successful in a community less
favored by nature.
In the same way there is a man in Florida who raises alligators for leather. He
used to hunt them in the Everglades, but found he could make more money
raising them. By raising them himself he was able to get skins of just the
right age and size, which is quite important. This man has made a great deal
of money raising gators. But in order to conduct such a business successfully
you have to seek a locality which is favorable for the growing of alligators.
An alligator farm would not go in Maine, but a mink farm might do
amazingly well. So one of the first things to consider when you set out to
raise something to sell is to fit your product to the climate. Then, too, give
consideration to style changes. A chap in California spent a lot of money to
start an ostrich farm. He made a great success of ostrich farming so far as
raising the birds was concerned. But soon after he got things going well,
ostrich plumes went out of style and he went broke.

People who have not had much experience in raising things are inclined to
look with favor upon various land development schemes. As a rule these are
not practical. Some years ago a company was formed to plant and develop
7,000 acres of orange trees on Lake Pontchartrain, within the limits of the
city of New Orleans. The land was cleared, drained, and planted in five-acre
groves. They were sold to people of moderate means in the North. The
development company undertook to plant the trees, and cultivate the groves
until the trees reached bearing age, then they were to be taken over by the
grove owner and personally operated. In theory the plan had many
attractions. But it turned out to be a failure because the scale of operation was
too big. When a freeze comes in a climate like New Orleans, an orange
grower living on his land can get on the job and take precautions against the
frost, either with oil heaters or smudge pots. It is an individual responsibility.
There are today a number of small orange groves in lower Louisiana which
produce remarkably fine oranges, but almost without exception the owners
live on the groves and are in a position to go into action quickly upon the first
frost warnings. While there have been instances where these development
schemes have worked out successfully, as a rule it is much better to put your
money in an improved place of your own rather than in a big scale
development.

The price of farm land is still low, but it is steadily increasing in value. Many
business men are buying foreclosed farms as a hedge against inflation. If you
are looking for a small place of your own on which to raise the things you
intend to sell, you may find just what you are seeking from one of the
insurance companies or land banks. Other things being equal, the man who is
going to raise things to sell, and whose capital is limited, should get as close
as possible to his market.

He Cultivates Violas for the Market

I

N TREE-STUDDED Lafayette Square, a spacious park a little over a mile

from San Francisco’s business center, F. W. Davis’ hobby of viola growing
has become a profitable business, a business which has unsuspected money-
making opportunities for all those who love flowers. The viola looks like a
pansy except that instead of the pansy face thin dark rays spread out from a
yellow center. A hundred years ago the Swiss viola found in the Alps was
blended with the pansy bringing forth a blossom resembling both the violet
and the pansy.
Mr. Davis, a graduate of the Royal Horticultural Society of England, has

been interested in flowers for sixty years—all his life. He has had charge of
nurseries and chose viola raising as his hobby because of the opportunity it
gave him to experiment and bring forth new creations in size, shape and
color. For twenty-five years, while in charge of the Balboa Nurseries in San
Francisco, he put all his spare time into the development and evolution of the
viola. He finally had one that he thought worth while and when a sufficient
supply was ready he took them to a leading florist.

The viola was an immediate sensation. So instead of a hobbyist Mr. Davis

became a commercial grower with a demand constantly exceeding the
supply. He soon needed more ground and was fortunate in leasing the historic
place up in the heights of Lafayette Square. While the park is owned by the
city, the mansion and its grounds are still under private ownership.

There are twenty-five plots four and one-half feet wide and from thirty to
eighty feet long, tier upon tier, a solid acre of violas blending myriads of
colors. As the cut flowers are ideal for decorative purposes the entire output
is marketed to San Francisco florists. Some of the plants are sold but Mr.
Davis makes no effort to sell them. At first people begged for a plant for their
garden and cheerfully paid $5.00 for one. Prices now range from 50 cents up.

Sixty varieties are under cultivation but the grower works continually on
them and each year a new one is added. Getting new varieties is not exactly
simple. It sometimes takes a thousand seedlings to produce one worth
cultivating. To bring out a red one is Mr. Davis’ ambition.

As a new variety appears a name suggests itself. A pure white with gold
center, for instance, is called Shasta after the Shasta daisy, the Rainbow is
radiantly colored, and one brownish purple is named Othello. Another purple
suggests “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” and is naturally Colleen. Then
there’s Cocktail; its browns and yellows indicate the reason.

There was no backsliding in the viola business during the depression. Mr.
Davis went right on selling all he and his daughter—his only assistant—could
raise. Like anyone who has found his right work, he’s happy in it. A wiry,
sparse, gray-haired man with a skin as bronzed as his khaki breeches, he
conducts you through the grounds with quiet contentment. If you ask him
whether he is kept busy, he answers: “Oh yes, I generally work ten hours a
day and sometimes fifteen or twenty.”

A Map Salesman Learns How to Raise and Sell Broilers

T

HOUSANDS of people have started poultry farms. But not everyone has
been successful. One who did succeed was Howard Whitely, a salesman for a
map publishing company. During the years he had been a special
representative for the publisher, he had made a good salary and had saved his
money. The doctor told him he had to give up his job and get outdoors in the
sunshine as much as possible. So he decided to buy a 15-acre farm near
Indianapolis. The former owner had tried to make a living by growing
produce, but Whitely decided to raise chickens.

Not knowing a great deal about raising chickens, he sent to the U. S.

Department of Agriculture for bulletins and studied them carefully. Then he
visited a farmer in the neighborhood who had been raising poultry with
indifferent success. Here he learned what not to do if he wanted to make
money. Inquiry revealed that the farmer had little or no idea how to feed his
chickens and practically no ideas on marketing them. His poultry house was
filthy, and it was obvious that the chickens had little or no attention from one
day to another. The farmer thought government bulletins and poultry
magazines were a lot of nonsense. “As if,” he growled, “you can learn to
raise chickens from a book or a magazine.”

However, Howard Whitely had his own ideas on this subject which he
discreetly kept to himself. On his little farm there was a poultry house which
he thoroughly cleaned and fumigated. He built a poultry run and then
purchased a second-hand incubator and a brooder from a dealer in town.
From another dealer he bought ten dozen eggs and then he started his poultry
business. Some of the eggs, of course, did not hatch. Of those that did, he
kept about half for breeding, and the rest were raised for the market. In
raising the chickens, he followed the government bulletins religiously. He
found that cleanliness was the most important thing in keeping the chickens
free from disease. By preventing all possible contamination, he not only
saved himself a load of trouble but considerable expense. Naturally, he made
a few mistakes, but none of them serious. He found, too, that he liked raising
poultry.

In the meantime, Whitely had been thinking about his marketing problem.
Having been a salesman he realized it was one thing to raise a good product,
but unless you got busy and sold it, there would be little profit to bank. By
the time he had his poultry ready for market, he had secured orders from a
number of old customers in Indianapolis as well as from two hotels and three
restaurants. When his customers saw the plump, milk-fed broilers he had
raised, they were sold to the hilt and he had no difficulty in getting reorders.
He and his wife made a great effort to pack the birds attractively. Each capon
was wrapped separately in white, moisture-proof wrapping paper, and
packaged four to a box. His prices were slightly above the store price, but not
a kick was received. He was supplying the market with what he knew the
market wanted—a superior product. And the market was willing to pay for it.

The hotels and restaurants gave him regular orders for poultry which he
delivered every two or three days. His customers telephoned him when they
wanted a broiler and often drove out for it. He kept a card record of all his
orders and when he failed to hear from a customer in a reasonable period of
time, he followed him up by phone. Several friends of his oldtime customers
telephoned him orders and he also added a fancy food shop to his list. This
shop, which catered to Indianapolis’ “400,” took only the very best of his
broilers—and at very nice prices, too.

Another good order he got was from the country club which was situated
about half way between his farm and Indianapolis. He had heard that the club
was planning a gala affair one week-end so he interviewed the club manager,
sold him a nice order of capons, and made a regular customer of him.

Howard Whitely made no attempt to market eggs as he realized that he could

not develop a good egg-breed as well as meat-breed type and do justice to
both. Whenever he had a surplus of eggs, he endeavored to sell them along
with his poultry, but he never made any effort to secure a market for them.

Mrs. Fox’s Mink Ranch

ERTRUDE FOX , the wife of a busy doctor, tried to settle down to a

peaceful, quiet life among the Westchester hills. But like so many energetic,
enthusiastic people, an inactive life was impossible for her. She began
looking around for a hobby and having previously raised domestic animals,
decided that raising fur-bearing animals might be interesting. Her first idea
was to develop a fox farm, but it had features that did not appeal to her.
Somebody suggested mink ranching and she decided to give it a “whirl.”

Knowing nothing about raising minks, she spent a whole year studying the
subject, reading every available book published and every government
pamphlet on it. She also visited the few mink ranches scattered throughout
the East and the Middle West. Most of these ranches, she found, were
stocked with Mississippi minks, whereas, the finest type of mink comes from
the north shore of Labrador. The pelts of these animals are as dark and glossy
as sable. A coat made of an inferior grade of mink may bring only from $500
to $800, whereas, a coat made of Labrador skins brings from $6,000 to
$12,000. She reasoned that she might as well raise the best as long as she was
going to risk her time and money into the venture.

She purchased her breeding stock, consisting of 11 males and 19 females,

from a rancher in northeastern Quebec. These animals were pure Labradors
just one generation removed from the wild. She set up her pens on the South
Salem estate and began experimenting, becoming so far as is known the first
woman in this particular work. This was in 1929. In 1930 she was asked to
exhibit her pets at the Woman’s Exposition of Arts and Industries, and it was
this event which marked the turning point in her career. Not one visitor in ten
at this exposition had ever heard of a mink ranch and interest ran high.

From that time on, she was kept busy supplying breeding stock to people who
wanted to start their own mink farms. As a matter of fact, while she started
mink raising to sell the pelts, she has never been able to pelt any of her
animals. They have all been sold as breeding stock to amateur mink ranchers.

From raising minks she has drifted naturally into teaching others how to raise
them. The beginners are instructed in methods of constructing pens and
runways and in proper ways of handling and feeding the animals. Her interest
in her customers, or students, as she terms them, extends a year after they
have purchased their herds. During this time they may write to her about their
problems and she will advise them on points of feeding and handling.

As keeping the minks free from vermin is one difficulty in raising them, Mrs.
Fox emphasizes the importance of building pens so that they are raised from
the ground. With the exception of death from pneumonia, there are almost no
fatalities from disease and if their bedding is always dry minks are not likely
to have even this disease. The minks are fed a varied diet of beef, horse meat,
ground bone, eggs, milk, cereals, tomatoes, cod liver oil, and fish. Each
animal must be segregated from his fellows as the mink is a vicious little
beast and will attack any other mink that comes near him. Fighting must be
prevented at all costs, as in addition to possible deaths which may occur, the
pelts may be severely damaged. The mink mates once a year, in the spring,
and the litter consists of about five or six young. The young are born about
fifty days after mating and are hidden by the mother in her nest until they are
about four weeks old. When an excessive litter occurs, the young are raised
by another mother mink or by a cat.

Besides managing two ranches of her own, providing breeding stock for
amateur ranchers and publishing a monthly bulletin on fur trade conditions,
Mrs. Fox owns and edits The Black Fox Magazine and has published a very
practical book by the title of Raising Minks in Captivity.

Goat Dairying—a Coming Business

R

OBERT FEARN , Norbeck, Maryland, is a goat dairyman, and a very

successful one. He seldom raises any kids, as he finds it more economical to
buy new milking stock each fall and sell his culls in the spring. When he
began business he had 125 does for which he paid $10 a head. But he learned
it paid to buy better stock. Now he has about 30 for which he paid from $50
to $75 each. From these 30 does he gets four times as much milk as from the
125 inferior ones. In December and January, he gets about 70 pints daily
from 25 does; in summer, 200 pints. The six- or eight-quart does, so eagerly
sought by the beginner in goat keeping, are of little interest to Mr. Fearn. He
considers a doe, even when she is giving but three pints a day, a profitable
one. Animals which give around six to eight quarts a day are very rare and
are hardly ever for sale. Generally speaking, a production of two quarts a day
is fair, three quarts good, and anything over that, excellent.

The does in Mr. Fearn’s dairy are not permitted to run about as they please.
They must lie down, chew their cuds and make milk. At milking time they go
in groups of ten to the milking room, stand in stanchions and are fed. Great
care is taken to see that the milk is pure. It takes about thirty minutes to
prepare them for milking and to milk them. By that time they have eaten their
feed. By milking three times a day, he finds that he gets more milk. “Soy
bean hay,” states Mr. Fearn, “produces the best milk. Lespedeza is, without
doubt, the coming roughage. The goats are very keen about it when they can
get it.”

Feeding rations vary considerably and each breeder or dairyman must

experiment until he finds the proper combination of feeds for his stock.
Information on this subject can be secured from the U. S. Department of
Agriculture, Washington, D. C.; from The Goat World, Vincennes, Indiana;
the Dairy Goat Journal, Fairbury, Nebraska, and the American Goat Society,
Inc., Herkimer, New York.

The goat selected by most breeders for stock today is a pure-bred, imported
type. The American or “scrub” goat does not give good milk production and
its kids command very low prices. It is, undoubtedly, to the best interest of
the goat owner to purchase pure-bred animals only and to see that all the kids
are registered. The types usually purchased by breeders and dairymen are the
Toggenburg, Saanen, Nubian, French Alpine, Rock Alpine, and the
Murciana. The Toggenburg is the biggest milk producer and the Nubian is
noted for the richness of its milk, the butter fat content being much higher
than in any of the other breeds. The price of pure-breds will run not less than
$35 for mature stock or $15 for kids. Certain stock for breeding may run
somewhat higher than these prices and, naturally, outstanding breeding stock
will bring very fancy prices just as any other kind of fancy live stock does.

Goat milk sells for 25 cents to 50 cents a quart. As it is the nearest animal
milk to human milk, it is an excellent food for babies. However, being much
richer than cow’s milk, it must be diluted by more than 50 per cent before a
baby can assimilate it. Goat milk is alkaline instead of acid (cow’s milk is
acid), so it is an excellent food for invalids, old people, and those suffering
from stomach disturbances. Goat milk also contains one important mineral
which cow’s milk lacks—iron. The taste of goat’s milk is very palatable if
the animal has been fed correctly. There will be absolutely no disagreeable
odor or taste if the doe’s stall is kept clean, the milk is handled in a sanitary
manner, and the bucks are kept in another stable altogether. As the goat is
practically free from tuberculosis, its milk does not carry that dread disease
germ. But to make certain that the goats are not likely to contact tuberculosis,
they should be kept separate from cows.

Mr. Fearn’s merchandising methods are particularly interesting. Instead of

selling to hospitals and doctors, he has placed small refrigerators in drug
stores in Washington and Baltimore. They are attractively labeled and have
glass doors that give a view of the pint-size paper bottles of goat milk. Each
pint bottle sells for 25 cents and they have a ready sale.

The dairyman may also find a market for goats’ milk in the canneries which
are now putting up a brand of evaporated, unsweetened goats’ milk. This
retails for 20 cents a can of 11 ounces, which is equivalent to about 30 cents a
quart for the original milk.

A doe averaging two quarts a day for 10 months produces 600 quarts. At 25
cents a quart, this returns an income of $150. Feed for the doe for 12 months
at 10 cents a day would be $36. The profit less the labor cost would be $114.
A three-quart doe would give about 900 quarts at 25 cents or $225. The feed
would probably cost a little more, say 12 ½ cents daily or $45. This would
make a profit less the labor cost of $180. This little comparison between the
two- and three-quart milker easily shows how much more profitable the
better milker can be. It is conservatively said that a good doe will pay her
purchase price back in milk each year and an extra dividend in kids.

Cheese As a Source of Income

A great many goat owners have failed to recognize the opportunity existing
to make additional money producing and selling goat cheese. Some of the
finest imported cheeses are made from goat milk. Tons of these cheeses are
coming into this country every year and finding a ready market. There is a
good market for domestic cheeses also, but the public must be taught the
value of good domestic goat cheeses. Among the cheeses made from goat
milk which are finding favor today are cottage, cream, Neufchatel, cheddar,
Roquefort, Swiss, Parmesan, and primost or brown whey cheese. Directions
for making these cheeses can be secured from your state agricultural
experiment station, the U. S. Department of Agriculture, or from the Dairy
Goat Journal, Fairbury, Nebraska.

It is well for the amateur to begin with soft cheeses such as cottage, cream
and Neufchatel, as these are easy to learn to make. The first thing to know
about making cheese is that your does must test pretty high in butter fat or
you cannot make a quality cheese. Good cheese simply cannot be made with
poor quality milk.

Where is the market for goat cheese? If you already have a market for milk,
everyone of your customers is a prospect for cheese. Take samples to your
regular customers when you deliver your milk. Also place samples in the
stores in your locality.

Advertise locally and don’t forget to have some signs on the roads
approaching your dairy as well as a large sign on the dairy itself. Passing
motorists are frequently good prospects. Your neighbors, your friends, and
the friends of your friends are all prospects for your products. Tell them
about the value of goat milk and cheese. If you make good cheese, “tell the
world about it”—word-of-mouth advertising moves a great deal of
merchandise.

A Different Kind of Poultry Farm

CHICKEN farm, organized along factory lines, has been a great success in
the East. This poultry farm near Cockeysville, Maryland, covers only one
acre of ground. The 61,000 chickens handled by this farm would require 610
acres if they were being raised and fed in the usual manner. On this farm,
however, the chickens never touch the ground—never go outdoors. They live
in tiers of wire cages, in large, air-conditioned, disinfected, thermostatically
heated and cooled, photoelectrically-lighted rooms. There are no nests for the
2,500 laying hens, as the cages are so arranged that eggs, when laid, roll
down into a little rack outside. Here the eggs are picked up by attendants on
hourly collection rounds. Under these conditions, the daily production of
laying hens is 58 per cent as against the usual 50 per cent figure.

The chickens’ food is within easy reach of each cage, being supplied on a
conveyor belt which runs on each tier. A constant drip of water is provided
from a metal nipple at the top of the cages. A second conveyor belt, running
under the cages, catches the waste matter which is carried to a bin and there
removed periodically to be used in making a highgrade fertilizer.

As any infection would be disastrous to the entire flock of 61,000 chickens,

the utmost cleanliness prevails. Each room is disinfected once a day and, at
short intervals, all cages are subjected to live steam. The twentyone
employees wear spotless uniforms—the women being dressed in white and
the men in striped linen trousers and coats.

This factory-operated farm has created such interest that not only have
farmers in adjacent communities made trips to the farm, but those from
distant lands, such as Egypt and Africa. In fact, so numerous are the visitors
during the week-ends, that the cages have been separated from the onlookers
by walls of glass in order to minimize the danger of infection.

Selling “Fighting” Fish by Mail

W
HEN Bill Klaiber, of San Francisco, took up the hobby of breeding Siamese
fighting fish and other tropical varieties, he little realized he was starting
what has since turned out to be a “national” fish business.

Bill’s regular job is a glass worker for a paint manufacturer. He began raising
tropical fish three years ago, having bought some fish from a friend who was
going out of business. As usual, Bill delved deeply into his subject, reading
everything he could find; even buying expensive books unobtainable in the
library. He applied what he read and added constantly to his stock. Fanciers
heard of his fine collection and came to buy. Bill Klaiber was amazed at the
marketing possibilities and the eagerness of people to secure a coveted
specimen. So he became a dealer as well as a fancier before many months
passed.

He had made contact with seamen to secure rare fish for him when they went
inland for fresh water in the tropics. Today he maintains tanks on a number of
boats that reach the tropics, paying seamen to look after his interests.

When an opportunity came three months ago to buy a small hatchery

complete, Bill moved his outfit to a larger store which he remodeled and
called “Kay’s Aquarium.” His wife spends part of each day there and he
keeps open evenings and Sundays.

There’s a tropical atmosphere about Kay’s Aquarium. Innumerable tiny fish,

streaks of iridescence and brilliant color, dart about in small tanks. Aquatic
plants furnish both oxygen and decoration.

Caring for the fish is easy. The real work is in breeding, but therein lies its
fascination. It means time and patience and often disappointment, but Bill
Klaiber never tires of hybridizing and trying for perfect specimens. Some
species, such as the Scalare, are particularly difficult to handle. “These
fellows,” he explains, “won’t marry unless the bride pleases them and it takes
finesse and many females to induce them to become breeders.” The fact is
that Bill is one of the two or three fanciers in town who have succeeded in
making benedicts out of the Scalare. Another rare specimen deposits its
orange colored eggs in an even row on a long reed, and the male and female
“spell” one another guarding the eggs and foraging for food.

The Betta or Siamese fighting fish, in which he specializes, are kept singly in
mayonnaise jars because if placed together they would fight each other to the
death. In Siam, Bettas are used for gambling, and fortunes have been won or
lost on the outcome of staged battles. The little savage is correspondingly
tender in courtship, however, guarding the fertilized spawn against would-be
devourers, including its erstwhile mate.

Volumes might be written about the tiny tank dwellers. Bill’s initial stock of
thirty that cost him two dollars has increased to several hundreds. He receives
orders from Texas, the Middle West—even Canada, and his weekly profit
sometimes exceeds his salary. How does he get his trade? News, of course,
travels fast among fanciers and much of his new business comes from friends
of old customers.

One reason for his success is his practice of selling only healthy stock. He
believes that while “sluffing off” sickly fish is easy, it is a foolish thing to do.
Another reason for his success is because he sets up the aquarium, if desired,
keeps in touch with customers, and gives the buyer help whenever he can.

A map in his outer room illustrates his thoroughness. Patiently he worked out
a list of tropical fish and their habitats. On a map of the world he printed the
names of various fish in the section where they are to be found. The map,
besides being informative, is an aid in selecting stock.

Breeding Dogs for Fun and Profit

D

O YOU like dogs? Do dogs like you? Then why not turn that liking into
dollars? Why not combine business with pleasure and raise dogs? Perhaps no
business offers better opportunities for making money in your spare time or
to develop a national reputation in your field. For instance, Mrs. Harold
Cluxton, of Chicago, regarded as one of the most successful breeders of
Russian wolfhounds in America, started her kennels as a hobby.

It was not until Mrs. Cluxton was given a very fine pair of Russian
wolfhounds by a friend living in Canada that she decided to establish her own
kennels. She became intensely interested in the breed and studied everything
she could find on the subject. She subscribed to all the dog magazines
published both here and in England and even went so far as to study the
Russian language, so that she could read what had been published in that
country on wolfhounds. She has carried off nearly all the prizes for
wolfhounds in most of the shows, and has obtained as high as $5,000 for a
single dog.

One of the nice things about breeding and raising dogs is that you can start
with as little as $100 capital. True, you cannot get a “blue ribbon” dog for
any such sum, but with a little shopping around and good judgment you can
get a likely bitch for that amount in a number of popular breeds. First of all
decide upon the breed on which you intend to specialize and get a registered
bitch of the best blood lines possible. The bitch should be healthy and should
not vary in type from the breed she represents. In other words, if the breed is
supposed to be heavy of bone, select breeding stock with this characteristic.
Check up on the breed carefully and find out the main points upon which the
animals are judged, then try to get as many good points in your breeding
stock as you possibly can. If possible, purchase stock from a line in which
there have been blue ribbon winners as this gives you a good selling point to
talk about to prospective purchasers.

As in every business, there are hazards in dog raising. Worms and distemper
take the greatest toll of puppies, but both can be controlled if the breeder is
careful. At the beginning it is wise to invest money in the services of a good
veterinary to handle the first few litters, to worm the puppies and take care of
any other problems with which you are not familiar. This will, of course, cost
you extra money and must be figured in your overhead. In addition, you will
need the services of a veterinary to guard your kennel against distemper.
Every breeder who wishes to protect himself, as well as his customers,
against losses from distemper, has his puppies inoculated against this dread
disease at the proper time. If you take chances with this disease, you are sure
to regret it as the expense of bringing even one puppy through it is
considerable. So many times the veterinary cannot save the dog and then the
expensive treatments, plus the loss of the dog, will eat up your profits.

If you like dogs, you probably have attended the dog shows and know
something about the various breeds. Of course, the most popular dog appears
at the dog shows in great numbers. One year it will be the German shepherds
(commonly called police dogs), another year, wire-haired terriers, another
year Airedales or Scotties. Then there are certain breeds that never seem to go
out of style. Over a period of time these have been the Boston bull terrier, the
Pekingese, and the cocker spaniel. Certain types of hunting dogs are always
popular. The setter (both English and Irish) is favored by those who never
shoot game as well as by the sportsman. The German shepherd has been
another unusually popular dog, but as he is not quite suited to city life his
popularity is beginning to wane.

For the city type of home and especially for those who live in apartment
buildings, the following dogs are the most suitable, due to their size and their
adaptability to city life:

Boston bull terriers, French bulldogs, dachshunds, wirehaired fox terriers,

smooth fox terriers, cocker spaniels, Scottish terriers, Irish terriers, the
Pekingese, the Pomeranian, the sealyham, miniature schnauzer, Japanese
spaniel, and the Yorkshire terrier.

For the suburban home, the dogs just listed and the following are the most
suitable breeds:
English and Irish setters, Irish water spaniels, the springer spaniel, Airedale-
terriers, collies, Dobermann Pinschers, German shepherds, Dalmatian
hounds, chowchows, German schnauzer (medium size), pointers, beagle
hounds, Gordon setters, bull terriers, and bulldogs.
For the large estate or farm, the following dogs may be added to those listed
for the suburban home:
Russian wolfhound, Irish wolfhound (the largest of all dogs), St. Bernard,
mastiff, Great Dane, Newfoundland, Labrador retriever, Shetland sheep dog.
If you are in a section where there is considerable hunting each year, the
following hunting breeds may sell well:
Springer spaniels, Irish water spaniels, beagle hounds, rabbit hounds,
coonhounds, deerhounds, foxhounds, Labrador retrievers, English and Irish
setters, pointers, Llewellyn and Gordon setters.
Regardless of the fact that in your locality there may exist a market for the
larger breed of dog such as the St. Bernard, mastiff, Great Dane, etc., the
beginner may do well to cultivate another market in which he can sell the
smaller breeds. The reasons for this are obvious. You need a large amount of
ground to maintain kennels for the larger breeds, and the food bill for these
breeds is an important item in your overhead as you will realize once you
have seen a St. Bernard eat.
Raising dogs naturally entails a great deal of work—kennels must be kept
immaculate to ward off disease, the dogs must be brushed and combed, their
food must be carefully prepared and they must be fed at regular periods.
When ill they must be segregated and carefully tended not only for
humanitarian reasons but for financial reasons also. The dam must be cared
for especially at whelping time and the puppies must be given a great deal of
attention. Then there is weaning which means more work. However, if you
really like to handle dogs, all this work will be interesting and therefore not
drudgery.
For advertising you will need to have some cards printed for prospects who
come to see the pups, the local paper should carry your advertising, and every
merchant in your vicinity should know that you are a breeder of Scotties,
Bostons, or whatever breed you intend handling. An advertisement in the
Sunday morning edition of the largest circulation newspaper in your city, or
if you live in the suburbs or country, the nearest large city, will often bring
prospects. Be sure to include your telephone number.
Many small breeders raise dogs as a side line and manage a full-time job also.
In this case, someone else in the family must have the routine care of the
dogs. One interesting example is that of a laundry driver in Chicago who
worked six days a week for one of the largest laundries in the city. He and his
wife lived in a little cottage on a three-acre place on the edge of town. Both
of them were unusually fond of dogs and hunting. Having purchased a fine
English setter for their hunting trips they decided to put him at stud. The
charge made for this was $25 and in addition they received two male puppies
from the litter, each of which sold for $35. The dog was bred again at the
same charge and two pups again were sold for $35 and $40. With this money,
they purchased a cocker spaniel of good blood lines and placed him at stud.
The first two pups they received, a male and a female, sold for $35 and $30,
respectively (the female usually brings a lower price than the male puppies).
Later a female cocker spaniel was purchased which came from a blue ribbon
line and the litters from this pair sold from $35 to $45 a puppy.
Fresh eggs from his own chickens, rich milk from a near-by farmer, careful
feeding and plenty of sunshine gave his puppies good bone and muscle and
shining coats. They practically sold themselves “on sight.” Naturally, his
customers were told about these puppies when they were available and many
orders were received through their “word-of-mouth” advertising. A friendly
arrangement with a “training school” for hunting dogs gave him some good
leads and at the same time provided the school with the names of those who
had made recent purchases of puppies.
Bee Keeping for Profit

EORGE JESSUP , Council Bluffs, Iowa, began raising bees as a side line.
Before long, this side line returned enough profits to more than take care of
expenses, and today his income from bee keeping exceeds a thousand dollars
annually. In fact, bees not only pay all his household expenses, but enable
him to put a good round sum in the bank every year.

“Few occupations,” says Jessup, “offer the interest and relaxation bee
keeping affords, and for the office worker it has the additional incentive of
being carried on out of doors. I started with one colony in a large hive, which
I was told would provide ample room for brooding and winter storage,
eliminate swarming, and provide large combs for the queen bee thus making
her more efficient. My initial expenses for bees and equipment ran about
twenty dollars, and my cost of producing honey that year was five dollars.
The colony produced a hundred pounds of honey, all of which I sold locally
to retailers at an average price of sixty cents a bail, a measure which contains
five pounds.

“The second year the colony was increased greatly by a winter brood, so I
split it, and made a second colony, which also came in with a hundred pounds
of honey. That, I found, was about the average yield for each bee colony.
Meanwhile, I was so pleased with the way the bee keeping was going, that I
increased the number of colonies to ten, and sold some of the honey at
wholesale, getting an average of forty-five cents a bail for it. There is, of
course, more work connected with the ten colonies, but not a great deal more
as about all there is to do is gather the honey. Bees do not require much
attention. You can leave them alone for several days and they will feed
themselves and work for you while you are away. Last year, I added fifteen
more colonies, to bring the total number to twenty-five, and my profit
increased proportionately.

“Most of the honey I produce goes to local grocers. Some of it I ship to

Dubuque and points not too distant. I sell to local grocers at sixty cents a bail
as a general rule, and get fifty-five to seventy cents from outside markets.
When I sell to the consumer, I get twenty cents a pound, and I did a lot of
consumer business last year. It’s in that market most of the money is to be
made. However, I haven’t been able to take the time to develop consumer
demand properly, although I’ve been determined for a long time to go after it.

“Bee keeping is fascinating as well as profitable. You can keep bees in any
place—the cellar, barn, garage, attic or even in a closet which has an outside
window, and be perfectly sure that as long as you have a good queen in
charge, the colony will stay ‘put.’ If the colony is permitted to get too large,
however, there is a chance that a queen coming out of the winter brood will
lure a portion of them to swarm in a hollow tree somewhere. So it is good
policy to watch them and separate them, giving the queens from your brood a
house of their own so they won’t lure other bees to swarm.

“I believe much of my success has been due to the use of the Caucasian bees
exclusively. These bees are gentler and permit you to work among them
faster than you could with other types. They seem to be less inclined to
develop disease, and their crop of honey is fully as good as the Italian bee.
Experience has taught me the disadvantages of the big hive, however, and I
now use standard ten frame equipment, with full depth hive bodies for supers.
I simplify the provisioning of the brood chamber by slipping in a frame of
honey from another super, assuring ample winter stores. Combs with patches
of drone are easily removed by exchanging with combs from supers and
allowing the brood to emerge above. When the comb is filled with honey at
the end of the season it is handled right along with the rest of the crop until
extracted. A mark across the top bar, made with a hive tool, makes its
identification simple and disposal sure.”

A bee apiary may be started with a few dollars. A small colony will more
than pay for itself in a short time, and furnish a hobby or a side line that is
immensely fascinating. Housing equipment may be made by yourself, or may
be purchased for as little as ten dollars. The equipment is designed as a
permanent colony home, and is built to withstand freezing temperatures.
Bees may be secured at very reasonable prices. You may buy a twopound
package of baby bees, with a young queen, for as little as two dollars. Two or
three of such packages will start a very fine colony for you, and will soon be
producing a hundred pounds of honey annually or better. It may be pointed
out that the existing demand for honey far exceeds visible supply, and that a
good price may be obtained for your entire honey yield all the year round.
Wholesale prices vary somewhat in different sections of the country, ranging
from thirty to fifty-five cents a bail. Retail prices range between forty-five
cents and eighty-five cents a bail. In most sections, however, neither
wholesale prices nor retail fluctuate much more than ten cents a bail.

There’saBigDemandfor OrnamentalBirds
“
I

TURNED sixty acres, not suitable for farming, into pens for raising
ornamental birds,” said John Keller, of Kenosha, Wisconsin. “This land has a
pond at one end and a shallow creek runs through it, but the rocks and
marshy spots make it bad pasture. It was the pond that made me think of
trying my luck with swans. These sixty acres, being handy to the house,
would be ideal for swan raising I figured, because I could easily watch the
birds. I paid sixty-five dollars for a pair of white swans, fenced off pen space
for them at the edge of the pond. I read a good deal about the swan’s habits
and found it is an affectionate bird which, once mated, will never leave its
mate. They lay in March, April and May, prefer to live by themselves, and
must be kept away from animals. My first brood was seven young swans and
by the end of the summer, I had eighteen swans. The swan, being very hardy,
is not difficult to raise. It requires less care than a turkey or a chicken, and
brings higher prices. My original investment was sixty-five dollars for the
first pair and thirty dollars for fencing. By Christmas, I had sold eight pair of
young swans, at seventy dollars a pair. I kept the others for breeding. In two
and a half years, I’ve raised and sold a hundred-and-fifty pair of swans at an
average price of sixty dollars.
“Shortly after I started the swans, I decided to experiment a little with
peacocks as I had plenty of room. The peacock, I soon discovered, needed a
high fence around the entire area used for raising him, since these birds have
the habit of roosting on housetops, trees, and other high places, and refuse to
sleep in a coop. They are quite hardy birds, almost as easy to handle as swans
and are not bothered much by the cold. They are more prolific than the swan,
and because of the beauty of their plumage sell for big prices. I get up to
ninety-five dollars for a pair of well-matched green peacocks, and last year
sold seventy-six pair at this price.

About the only thing I have to watch closely is that no dogs or other small
animals get into the big pens. While the swan and peacock are large birds,
well able to take care of themselves in any battle with a dog, the presence of a
dog or the threat of one visiting them is sufficient to keep the birds from
laying. Frighten a peacock or swan and it seems to lose all desire to lay. The
swan is not subject to disease such as attack chickens, hence loss through
disease and sickness is practically nil. The peacock and the swan mate for life
and care should be taken to discover how they mate up, and not to break up
mated birds. I figure the cost for raising a swan to be about three dollars, and
three twenty-five for a peacock. This includes the cost of making the pens,
feeding, incidental expenses, except labor. The work of looking after the
birds, which is done by my wife and myself, takes only an hour or two each
day.”

The raising of ornamental birds takes more space than would be required for
other fowl, inasmuch as these birds like to strut and preen themselves a good
deal. There are many farms having marginal land that might profitably be
devoted to raising these birds. A ready market is always at hand, as the
demand for peacocks and swans by public parks, zoos, private estates,
playgrounds, public and private institutions, and universities is greater than
the existing supply.

Other ornamental birds may be raised along with swans and peacocks with
little added cost. For example, the Chinese Mandarin duck, wood duck and
Red Billed Tree duck will get along well with the swans, while Golden and
Silver pheasants and Pearl Guinea fowl will thrive with the peacocks.
A Smart Way to Market Broilers

HEN Mrs. Alice Moffet, who lives on the outskirts of Blue Island, Illinois,
decided it was up to her to help balance the family budget, she turned to
raising broilers to make money. After several months of experimenting with
marketing ideas, she hit upon a method that enabled her to earn more than a
thousand dollars from her venture.

“Like many others who start a chicken ranch, I thought all one had to do was
feed the little chicks, keep them warm, and when they were twelve weeks old,
sell them to the butcher. I knew nothing about marketing poultry. I soon
found out, however, that to make a big profit from broilers, they should be
dressed and packaged attractively before marketing.

“I followed the accepted practice of buying one-day-old chicks from

responsible hatcheries. Putting them in brooders, I carried them along until
they were twelve weeks old. In developing the pullets for market, I made
many mistakes which I have since corrected. I had permitted the chickens to
run in a large pen which made their flesh tough. Now I no longer let them run
about but keep them in a special ‘broiler plant’ and they bring better prices.
Keeping the chicks in the ‘broiler plant’ enables me to feed and care for 500
day-old chicks in a small space. At twelve weeks they are ready for market
and bring top prices.

“At first, I shipped the live pullets to the wholesale house, but I soon
discovered that the loss from shrinkage in shipping, regardless of distance, is
about 10 per cent, which cuts heavily into their market value. Pullets lose
weight when shipped due to handling and irregular feeding. The first time I
checked this loss against the price paid me by the commission companies, I
couldn’t understand it. I was doing a big business but wasn’t making money.
So I experimented with some marketing ideas. Instead of selling the pullets
alive, I dressed them and packaged them in attractive pasteboard boxes
labeled, ‘Milk-Fed Broilers.’ I sold them to the butchers who get a few cents
a pound more for dressed broilers attractively wrapped in waxed paper than
they can get for live pullets.

“Experience convinces me that cross-bred pullets make the best broilers.

Their hybrid vigor makes them gain faster than pure-bred chickens, and they
generally weigh 30 per cent more at twelve weeks than a purebred pullet. But
in growing pullets for broiler purposes, the most important thing is the feed.
Only a good feed can develop a broiler to the limit of its inherent capacity. A
chick of the heavier breeds will gain up to thirty times its weight in a period
of a few weeks if given a carefully selected prepared feed.”

While Mrs. Moffet now has a chicken house forty feet long and eighteen feet
wide, she started in a very small way; investing only $60 altogether. The
present house cost $190 and her investment in equipment amounted to $160.
This total of $350 was part of her profits. She pays four cents for one-day old
chicks in 500 quantities. Five hundred chicks, when twelve weeks old, cost a
total of $120. “When dressed, packaged in pasteboard containers, and
wrapped in waxed paper, they bring Mrs. Moffet a profit of about $50. The
cost of packaging of the pullets runs almost four cents each. Chickens for
broiler purposes are not difficult to raise. As many as 200 may be developed
in a comparatively small space, with a small broiler plant. A ready market is
furnished in every fair-sized city, especially during the spring. Prices for
broilers vary with the season. Only chicks from disease-free stock should be
used for broilers. Sickly chickens do not have the necessary stamina, and the
high percentage of loss through death wipes out the profits.
Raising Rabbits for Their Wool

O YOU know that rabbit fur is dyed and used in the manufacture of synthetic
sealskin coats? Well, it is, and it offers one more way for a wide-awake
person to make a thousand dollars. Blanch Krabill, of Toledo, Ohio, had been
raising rabbits for their pelts which she had been selling to a tannery at a
profit. However, she discovered that she could make about as much money
by shearing the rabbits for their wool instead of using the whole pelt. Her
hutches now contain nine hundred rabbits which supply rabbit wool for
commercial purposes.

“I hated to kill the rabbits for their pelts,” Blanch said, “because I became so
attached to them. But I had so many of them and they multiplied so rapidly
that I could not afford to keep them. I had to get money out of them some
way and when a friend suggested shearing them and selling their fur for
wool, my problem was solved. Rabbit fur is softer than lamb’s wool, and not
so greasy. My problem was to find out if there was a demand for the wool
and, upon making inquiries, I learned about the rabbit’s commercial value as
a wool producer. The Angora, with its unusually long silky hair, is the ideal
rabbit for wool production. There are regular markets for this wool in all big
cities, such as Detroit, Chicago and New York. Upon making this discovery,
I sheared the rabbits and shipped the wool to the nearest market.

“Rabbit wool is used for any number of things, such as knitting sweaters,
baby clothes, muffs, scarfs and dresses. It makes a beautiful yarn which has
the strength and durability of regular sheep wool although it is much finer
and softer. I receive a dollar and forty cents a pound for this wool and shear
the rabbits four times a year. The Angora rabbit is unusually large, and each
one produces about one and one-quarter pounds of wool yearly.”

The rabbit is one of the most easily raised of all the furbearing animals and as
many as five hundred rabbits may be successfully raised in your own back
yard. They are not subject to vermin of any kind, and resist practically all
ailments. Success requires only ordinary attention to sanitation and cleaning
the rabbit hutches regularly. The cost of raising rabbits in quantities of a
hundred or more is about ten cents a rabbit.

Miss Krabill gives this suggestion on breeding to those interested in raising

rabbits. Secure two bred does and a buck from a reliable breeder who will
guarantee them to be healthy, pedigreed stock. Specify that the buck must be
from a different litter than the does, so he may be used when breeding the
does’ litters later on. This precaution will enable you to mate the rabbits in
the first and second litters without danger of inbreeding. Rabbits reproduce
prolifically, and with good stock to start, you soon will have a number of
animals with salable pelts. You can dispose of them through a tannery or, if
you prefer, shear them for their wool.

“Glad” Garden Brings Joy and Profit

E

IGHT years ago Lucretia Kays Hanson, of Mill Valley, California, was
confronted with the problem of supporting five children and a husband whose
ill health had forced him to quit business. Mrs. Hanson is five feet tall and
weighs a hundred pounds but she shouldered the burden without flinching. At
first she was a “jill” of all trades. Finally she applied for a job with the Mill
Valley Record, a newspaper edited by two capable women. Perhaps women
editors are soft-hearted; anyway Mrs. Hanson got work in the office and has
been there ever since. Evenings she typed letters for a blind business man,
coached in French, English and mathematics, and looked after her brood and
her nine-room house.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hanson busied himself with his hobby of raising gladioli. He
had the knack and the “glads” responded by blossoming in gorgeous
profusion. People were enthusiastic over their exceptional beauty and wanted
to buy, but Mr. Hanson gave the flowers away in great armfuls until his wife
suggested: “If they want to buy why not sell?”

They discussed commercial distribution and Mrs. Hanson called on the owner
of the town’s swankiest market. Would he put their gladioli in for sale? He
consented, saying that flowers like theirs would be an asset. His only
stipulation was that they be arranged before the store opened.

Mrs. Hanson got up still earlier six mornings a week and while the fresh
produce was being set out she arranged masses of “glads” in tall vases. Fifty
dozen were sold the first month which added twenty-five dollars to the
Hanson income. As the grocer refused a commission, Mrs. Hanson insisted
that he take home all the flowers he wanted on Saturdays and whenever his
wife gave a party.
The sale of bulbs followed naturally. Customers wanted certain varieties for
their gardens. One big seller was a pale yellow which has been named
Billionaire because of its great stalk and the profusion of blossoms,
sometimes twenty to a stalk. Billionaires were popular for wedding
decorations and floral sprays.

It wasn’t long before she found there was another outlet for the flowers.
Although several large nurseries are located in outlying districts, there is no
florist in Mill Valley; consequently the undertaker sells sprays. In return for
services rendered he taught Mrs. Hanson how to wire sprays and she began
getting orders which brought from two dollars up.

Soon other ideas for getting orders presented themselves. A donation now
and then to the leading tea room brought orders for decorations when
banquets were held there. A bouquet presented to the owner when a new
store opened in town increased trade; so did an occasional advertisement in
the Record. On one outstanding occasion red “glads” banked the platform of
the San Francisco Civic Auditorium where ten thousand people gathered at
the International Convention of the Christian Endeavor to celebrate that
society’s Golden Jubilee.

“Selling ‘glads’ has been fun, and although it hasn’t meant a fortune the
money has often been a godsend,” Mrs. Hanson remarks. “Besides, being
gainfully occupied has saved Mr. Hanson much worry and unhappiness.”

Making Money from an Herb Garden

A

LTHOUGH herb gardens are as old as history, the last generation in

America seems to have neglected this type of gardening entirely. Of course,
we use sage and celery salt in seasoning our cookery, but most of us have
forgotten the herbs our grandmothers and great-grandmothers knew and used
daily in their kitchens.

Recently, however, there has been a revival of interest in the herb family and
once again kitchens are giving off the delicious odors of foods seasoned with
thyme, marjoram, basil, and tarragon. While these herbs may not add to the
food value of a dish, they do give it a savory flavor. Certain herbs, notably
lavender, are also used for scenting linen closets or chests. There are also the
medicinal herbs which constitute a study in themselves.

Most herbs can be grown with little care if they are planted in good, well-
worked soil in a sunny spot. Midsummer is the time for collecting herbs from
the garden. If cut before the flowers open, all the fragrance is retained in the
dried herbs. Not only is herb gardening a pleasant way to make money, but
the study of herbs is a most fascinating subject. A woman in the East has
made an excellent living with her garden of the rarer medicinal herbs which
she sells to the pharmaceutical houses. Not only is her garden a financial
success, but she has become an authority on medicinal herbs.

One does not need a large space for an herb garden. Miss Helen Lyman of
Oakland, California, has an herb garden, approximately 25 feet in diameter
which holds 30 varieties of herbs. Her little booklet entitled, “30 Herbs Will
Make an Herb Garden,” tells others how to succeed in this interesting
enterprise.

Marshall Field & Company, Chicago, the largest department store in the
world, now has a department devoted entirely to herbs for use in cookery,
medicine and perfume. The herbs are imported from an herb farm more than
a century old which is located near Kent, England. Among the products
handled by Field’s herb department are the old-fashioned pomander balls just
like those our grandmothers hung in their clothespresses. All the well-known
herbs are available, several types of vinegars, jellies with special herb
flavoring, and cosmetics prepared from certain beneficial herbs. A small shelf
of 10 selected kitchen herbs is sold as a unit. Mixed salad herbs are also sold
by ounce or half ounce.

Many a woman who has a sunny corner in her garden could develop an herb
garden specializing either in medicinal or in kitchen herbs. If she is known
for her jellies and jams, she can combine two interesting occupations and,
incidentally, make jellies so unusual that they will bring higher prices. The
better food specialty shops offer an outlet for such products.

There are several books on the subject of herb growing and most of the
garden magazines have published articles about people who “herb garden.”
The details of such gardening are simple enough for any man or woman to
follow and success in this field is dependent only upon the energy and
initiative of the individual gardener.

Raising Goldfish for Premiums

B

ACK in 1900, Eugene C. Shireman was selling washing powder for a

company which had hit upon the bright idea of offering a small bowl and a
pair of goldfish as a premium. This premium idea worked so well that they
soon ran out of goldfish and Shireman decided to turn a swamp, which he had
received as a legacy years ago, into a fish farm and sell his crop to the
company. He stocked his pool with two hundred goldfish which multiplied
rapidly. But by the time he was turning out sufficient fish to sell, the
company had gone out of business. However, there were other outlets, and
today the fish are sold through five-and-ten stores, pet shops, chain stores,
drug stores, florists, department stores, etc. The various State Departments
are also a market for goldfish which are used extensively in mosquito control
work. The goldfish, which belong to the carp family, are exceedingly fond of
the mosquito larvae and will clear a stagnant pond of water of these pests in
no time.
From a small start with 200 fish in 1900, Eugene Shireman has developed the
famous Grassyfork Fisheries at Martinsville, Indiana, and has raised over
75,000,000 fish. Grassyfork Fisheries consist of 1,500 acres of gently rolling
hills and give employment to 125 persons. There are 615 ponds as well as
216 hatching tanks. The ponds and tanks are terraced so that they can be fed
with a continuous circuit of fresh water from the numerous springs located on
the property.

One hundred and sixty thousand carefully selected goldfish are reserved as
breeding stock at the Grassyfork hatcheries. Branch shipping points are
maintained at Chicago, Illinois, and Saddle River, New Jersey. From
Martinsville the goldfish are shipped via a fleet of tank trucks. From Chicago
and Saddle River the fish are shipped to the customers, via express, in
peculiar, globe-shaped shipping cans. In addition to the goldfish, the
Grassyfork hatcheries also raise some forty varieties of toy tropical fish
which have recently become so popular, such as Gouramis, the live-bearing
Guppies, Helleri, and other species. As these fish are less hardy than the
common goldfish, the tanks in which they are raised are located indoors in
greenhouses. An important part of this business is the aquatic plant
department. About sixty varieties of water lilies are raised, besides
perennials, marsh and bog plants, and all the other items necessary, to add
beauty to pools and rock gardens.

The price for goldfish runs from a nickel apiece for small common goldfish
to $25 apiece for the relatively rare Moor “telescopes.” The most interesting
goldfish and also the most valuable specimen ever seen in America was the
famous Liberty Bond fish which was exhibited during the World War. The
colors of this fish were red, white and blue and it was used to attract crowds
during Liberty Loan drives of 1917 and 1918. The value placed on it at that
time was $10,000.

There is still a big market for goldfish among merchants and other business
men who use them as premiums. The L. Fish Furniture Company, of
Chicago, built its business, one of the largest in the world, that way. Fish
furniture is sold on the installment plan. When a customer gets her account
almost paid up, she is called upon by a salesman who presents her with a
bowl of goldfish with “Mr. Fish’s compliments.” That breaks the ice. The
salesman then proceeds to find out if the customer has an electric refrigerator.
If not, he sells her one—on the installment plan, of course. If she has a
refrigerator, he sells her a washing machine or some other electric appliance.
In this way the company’s customers are kept on the books year after year.

Cleaning Up on Turkeys

HEN Mrs. Paul Engle, of Pulaski County, Indiana, decided to raise turkeys
instead of chickens, she didn’t realize the “clean-up” she was going to make.
“Everybody was raising chickens,” Mrs. Engle said, “but only a few were
paying attention to turkeys. So I began with turkeys on a small scale. In 1933
we had a thousand turkeys which we sold at Christmas time at twenty cents a
pound, and we were well satisfied with our profits.” As the average turkey
ran to a little over ten pounds and her cost for each of the birds was about 50
cents, she had a profit of about $1,400 for that one season.

The work connected with the care and raising of the turkey poults did not
bother Mrs. Engle in the least. “Work,” she said, “is a tonic for anybody.”
She converted the former chicken house on the farm into a large turkey
house. It was a big job but proved worth the effort. As she places day-old
poults in this turkey house, everything connected with it must be kept safe
and sanitary. Before placing the baby poults in the old chicken house, the
floor, which is cement, was scrubbed with lye water. Every piece of
equipment was cleaned and scrubbed, and the house fumigated. A sun pen
was built just outside this chicken house. The sun pen was a collapsible
affair, arranged so that it could be quickly taken down, and put out of the
way. It consisted of frames covered with wire, and cost but little to make. In
good weather, the young poults were permitted to run in this sun pen. After
the oats harvest was completed, the turkey poults were turned into a small oat
field, which was used as a turkey range.

The entire cost of rearranging the chicken house and building the turkey pen
was less than $100. Mrs. Engle did not buy brooders and incubators for the
turkey poults, but utilized the equipment on the premises which had been
used for raising chickens.

Sanitation, Mrs. Engle believes, is an all-important element in successful

turkey raising. Too much care cannot be given the pens to keep them free
from infectious diseases. Once a week she has clean straw spread on the
floors of the turkey house after soiled bedding is removed. When anyone
enters the turkey house where the young poults are kept, he must put on
rubber boots that have been thoroughly disinfected just before entering. “We
cannot be too careful about this,” Mrs. Engle explained. “Without such
precaution, blackhead infection could be tracked in from the ground over
which the chickens have run.”

Although Mrs. Engle has increased the number of turkeys on the farm to
about three thousand, the cost of raising each poult has steadily decreased
until now it is close to 27 cents each. She emphasizes the fact that it is not the
cost of feeding which checks profits, but careless handling. Careless handling
causes the poults to die from disease and then the crop goes “into the red.”

Day-old poults may be secured from one of the big poultry farms at very
small cost. A small turkey flock does not require a big area for ranging, for as
many as 100 birds may be brought to maturity on an average city lot. Such
birds are carefully shipped either by parcel post or by express, and with
ordinary care 90 per cent will mature for market, giving a high percentage of
profit to the raiser.

RaisingIrishTerriers

HAT you can do with the hobby you have acquired has been demonstrated
by Jules Beaumont, who a few years ago acquired the lease of a garage on the
rear of a building lot near Chicago’s “Gold Coast” and started his own
kennels. Beaumont had been given two pedigreed Irish Terriers, and was so
attached to them that he had rented the vacant garage property as a home for
the dogs and their puppies. People in the neighborhood noticed the fine breed
and form of the animals, and stopped to buy the puppies. He held his prices
high, not caring whether he sold them or not. Before he realized it, he was in
the money in a big way, averaging better than three hundred a month from
the sale of blooded dogs and supplies to dog owners.

“I am touching on a controversial subject when I mention dog intelligence,”

declared Beaumont, “but I believe the owners of Irish Terriers will agree that
they are about the most intelligent of the dog kingdom. These terriers I had at
the beginning had good pedigrees, and they never failed to attract the
attention of anyone passing the kennels. One day a woman wanted one so
badly for her boy, then about fifteen, that I couldn’t resist selling it, though I
didn’t want to. In the end she paid a hundred and fifty dollars for it. I thought
that was a lot of money at the time, so let her have it. I had four puppies of
the Irish Terrier breed, but within a week, friends of that woman had called,
and each insisted on getting one of those puppies. As orders came in for the
pups of the next litters, I decided to go into dog breeding. At this time, I
didn’t have any money left that I could invest in additional dogs, so I cared
for and watched over those I had. When the litters came in, I noticed the
people who had ordered. I made enough from the sale of the dogs to break
even during the first six months, and got a good profit out of the sale of
accessories, such as dog food, harnesses, leashes, and dog medicines.

“There were other sources of profit. Few people can see a cute puppy without
handling it a great deal. Some make it play until it’s tired. Others feed it too
much. The pup, therefore, from well meant overdoses of kindness in one
direction or another, becomes run down, and suffers from various types of
illness. In addition, pups are subject to worms, and frequently the owner
neglects to worm them. The result is a sluggish, sick puppy. These are but a
few of the abuses a dog receives almost from the day it is bought. As the
kennel from which the dog was secured is the first place the owner goes for
advice and treatment, one soon accumulates side lines that are profitable, and
cost but little. For instance, many dogs that are seemingly ill only need to be
placed in a warm dry spot and left without food for a day or so. This
treatment means little or no expense to the kennel, but, of course, the owner
is glad to pay well for getting his dog back in good condition.
“As a rule, a litter will have two males or more and one or two females. The
males are always in big demand and bring good prices; the females are
generally lower priced. The females from my first litters were sold, but I kept
those from subsequent litters for breeding, and in two years have greatly
increased the productivity of the kennels. Later I added other popular breeds
as I found there are certain breeds of dogs which capture the public favor and
for which people will pay more money than others. In this group are the
Sealyham, Pekingese, Pomeranian, Wire-haired Fox Terrier, Dalmatian, and
some Collies.

“Many believe that it requires a lot of money to start a kennel. This, however,
is a myth. I never had much money until after I had a good start in the kennel
business. As a matter of fact, my total investment for blooded stock was less
than three hundred dollars. It cost me about seventy dollars to turn the
abandoned garage into a suitable kennel for dog breeding. I discovered that
while you may have little trouble selling a few puppies to people who pass
your kennels, you have to do a little merchandising to sell a good many dogs.
I use the easiest method, which is holding a dog show at the kennels. I don’t
place dogs I have for sale in these kennel shows, but enter only the dogs of
my customers and their friends. Those who condition their dogs properly are
the owners who receive the blue and gold ribbons. These dog shows not only
attract new customers, but also increase the sale of supplies and accessories.
They are open to all blooded dogs whose owners care to enter them.”

You may start an Irish Terrier kennel in your home. A good female is usually
all the stock you need to start, and may be purchased for around forty to fifty
dollars. When old enough, she may be put at stud with a pedigreed male at
one of the first-class kennels. The fee for studding is usually one male of the
litter. By retaining the females of each litter, you soon will be able to have a
number of puppies for sale. If you are unable to get good prices yourself or
want to sell wholesale only, any kennel, recognized by the American Kennel
Club, will buy your puppies and resell them for you.

QuickProfitsfromMushrooms
W

HEN Laz Lewin made up his mind to start a business of his own he decided
to do something different. Learning that mushrooms may be profitably grown
in cellars, sheds, barns or garages, Lewin bought a small quantity of
mushroom spawn, rigged up a mushroom bed in his cellar, and started to
raise mushrooms. This wasn’t a new idea. Home cultivation of mushrooms
has been attempted for many years, but during the past few years new
methods have been developed which greatly increase the profits in this
business. It was a new idea in Memphis, Tennessee, Lewin’s home town,
however, and his venture won quick approval from local storekeepers,
restaurants, cafes and similar establishments.
“I never saw a mushroom grow before I started raising mushrooms,”

admitted Lewin. “I was somewhat surprised at the suddenness of their

growth, and realized the meaning of the old ‘saw’—‘grows like a
mushroom.’ I started with a mushroom bed one hundred feet in area. It cost
me two dollars to make this bed, ten feet by ten. Then I ordered the seed, or
‘spawn’ as it is called by mushroom growers. When it reached me, it looked
like a mass of tangled white threads. I planted it, carefully following
instructions, and two weeks later a white substance, appearing like cobwebs,
covered the bed. Over this I spread ordinary back-yard dirt, and waited for
another three weeks. One morning, upon going into the cellar to look at this
bed, I was amazed to see it covered with baby mushrooms. This was a
surprise, for nothing had been there the night before. ,I wondered how long it
would take to develop these baby mushrooms for market, but the next day,
when I saw the mushrooms had increased in size ten times, I picked them. I
averaged a little over two and one-half pounds per square foot for the one
hundred square feet in the bed and sold this entire crop to local markets at an
average price of forty-five cents a pound.

“My investment in spawn was slightly over eight dollars which, with the two
dollars for making the bed, comprised my total cost. I received approximately
$110 for my crops.

“It was then I fully realized what a profit there could be in raising
mushrooms. I increased my mushroom beds with the profit from this first
crop and soon had one thousand square feet in production. At forty-five cents
a pound, I easily sold the entire crop. As I have no rent, overhead, special
equipment, or marketing expenses, I enjoy an advantage over the commercial
grower.

“Up to that time, the local market held up well, and there appeared to be no
reason why I should not increase my growing space. Many of the companies
from which spawn is purchased are also commission merchants with branch
mushroom receiving stations located throughout the country. Some of the
companies will agree to purchase all the mushrooms produced by home
growers and resell them to local stores. This, of course, helps the grower to
secure a ready market for his product at the current wholesale market price.
Moreover, they pay the shipping charges on shipments of five pounds or
more. With an assured market I increased the size of my mushroom beds,
using more of the space formerly wasted about my home. The pure white
variety of patented mushroom I have been raising brings top prices for my
crops. I was lucky, I guess, when I picked out this particular variety.”

Mushrooms are easily raised as they require but little attention. Sunshine not
being essential to their development, they will grow as well under the cellar
stairs as in a pleasantly lighted room. In fact, bright sunlight is really not
desirable according to experienced growers. The market for mushrooms is
wide and profitable. The ability to supply fresh stock at all times, and give
quick delivery service, insures attractive profits.

The cost of “spawn” for raising a pound of mushrooms varies between four
and one-half and six cents. Persons shipping to wholesale and commission
houses find sufficient profit margin between the prices received and their
actual cost, to operate profitably. Generally, the best plan is to sell some of
your crop in your own community, at higher prices, and to ship the
remainder.

Practically any mushroom spawn today will grow in ordinary cellars or sheds
wherever it is possible to maintain a fairly even temperature. The temperature
should be from 55 to 70 degrees according to the period of growth of the
spawn.

Advertising Makes Farm Pay

T WAS not until the Arthur Wolf Farms, Tippecanoe County, Indiana,
erected “want ad” signs, that business really did pick up. These signs are the
billboard type and bear the name, post office and telephone address of the
farm at the top. Under this information are two columns with the headings,
“For Sale” and “Want to Buy.” These columns are so arranged that the farmer
can insert listings which are painted on removable sheets of metal. Whenever
the farm has something to offer or is in the market to buy, Mr. Riley, the
manager, inserts the proper metal strips under the correct headings. Under the
“For Sale” heading will be such items as mules, sheep, clover hay, bred gilts,
oats, alfalfa, shoats, feeding cattle, machinery, hay feeders, hay corn, etc.
Whenever Mr. Wolf needs any kind of hay, live stock, clover or alfalfa hay,
oats, hogs, etc., a sign specifying the need is put up under the heading, “Want
to Buy.”

As Mr. Wolf’s live stock operations are rather extensive, and there are many
cattle and hogs to feed, there are times when he needs hay or corn. Then he
will buy from anyone passing on the highway who sees his sign and has the
right product to sell him. When the farm is short of stock and long on feed,
the truckers become the buyers. The last crop of turkeys and hogs was all
sold by this sign. Whenever there is a surplus of any stock or produce, the
sign usually sells it in a few days. From time to time, feeder cattle or hay may
be auctioned in the field. The sign tells the passer-by several days ahead of
time about the auction. Two signs are in use all the time on this farm of 1,050
acres—one on each side of the place where the highway intersects the
property line.

Is there an idea here for a business of your own in selling and installing signs
like these for the wide-awake farmers in your locality?
chapter fIVe
THINGS TO INVENT AND PATENT
T

HE closer your business comes to being a monopoly the surer you will be of
success. Here in America there is a good deal of confusion over the meaning
of “monopoly.” To some people it means taking advantage of small
competitors by unfair practices. But since the days of Elizabethan charters
and patents, a monopoly has meant protection against competition.
Sometimes a monopoly was granted by the state in the form of a patent or
grant, but more often it was obtained by the business man or tradesman by
virtue of his membership in a “guild.” The last official act signed by Queen
Elizabeth was to annul the British Monopolies Act.

What forms of monopoly do we find in American business? First we have the

“trust” or holding company which enjoys a monopoly by virtue of buying out
all its competitors, thus giving itself a clear field to charge all the traffic will
bear. Such monopoly is based on financial power. It is a pistol pointed at the
heart of the small, independent business man. It is the type of monopoly
which Theodore Roosevelt attempted to crush with his trust-busting
activities. Some business men still believe his method is the answer to
ruthless competition. The use of such power to obtain a trade monopoly is
un-American in its conception, uneconomic if carried to its logical
conclusion, and would inevitably lead to a monopoly of monopolies and
finally monopolize the functions of government.

But there is another kind of monopoly fostered by the government, which is

just as much in the public interest as the other sort of monopoly is against it.
Under that classification comes the monopoly of skill. That is the best
monopoly of all. It is the monopoly that is enjoyed by the man who can build
a better mouse trap or paint a better picture, write a better book, design a
better dress or excel in any field. The very fact that you can do one little thing
better than anyone else in the world can do it, assures your success. And
although the monopoly granted for one achievement is limited as to duration,
the success will continue so long as you make good your monopoly by
keeping ahead of the imitators who are always found in the wake of success.

Then, there is the monopoly that comes from location. For example, it is a
well-known fact that on the Island of Bermuda, a certain group of people
pretty well control the island. These “best” families protect native business
men against the encroachment of newcomers who seek to exploit the island.
How do they do it? Very simply. You go over to Bermuda on a trip, fall in
love with the climate and decide to start an automobile agency there. It looks
like an easy way to make a few thousand dollars. Statistics show that the
number of inhabitants per automobile is higher in Bermuda than in any other
place in or around the United States. It looks like a wide-open opportunity.
So you get an agency and hang out your shingle in Hamilton. But nothing
happens. The first thing you find is that only government officials are
licensed to drive automobiles on the island, that residents there don’t want the
smelly things rushing about killing people. Next you learn that it is not
considered good form in Bermuda to patronize any business that has not the
approval of the “best” families. Bermuda is a small place, and one who lives
there feels the need of social contacts. People who patronize the “wrong”
business men suffer a sudden social catastrophe. In that way a monopoly is
granted to those whom the older families wish to have succeed, and failure
usually overtakes those who try to “muscle in.”

Another form of monopoly is to get an exclusive concession at a fair, or the

exclusive local agency for some advertised product. When Eskimo ice cream
bars were first put on the market, men paid fancy prices just for a local
franchise to make these bars and sell them to the public. The “rights” to sell
Neon signs in a territory were sold to eager salesmen at prices ranging from
$1,000 to $15,000. The Coca-Cola Company is another well-known concern
which gives exclusive franchises to sales agents. It is worth noting, however,
that in nearly every case where the sale of franchises has been used to finance
a business, a large part of the money received for the franchises was used to
pay for the initial advertising campaign. While there are cases of men selling
patent rights to raise money it is a difficult and usually a disappointing
method of financing a new business.

What Goes with a Patent

Most inexperienced people feel that if they invent something and are able to
get it patented, they can make a thousand dollars very quickly, either by
selling the patent on a royalty basis, or by selling the patent outright. They
assume that because they have a patent, they have the federal government
back of them to keep off poachers and pirates. There is danger in placing too
much reliance on, and attaching too much importance to, a patent until it has
been tested in a high court.

For example, a number of advertising men have “invented” trick mailing

cards, letters which fold down from the top, or some other device, and have
applied for, and been granted, patents on these things. In many cases they
have, on the strength of such patents, collected royalties from printers and
others for the use of the idea. One large lithographer paid several thousand
dollars for a patent on a folded-down letterhead, the patent covering any
letterhead which had printing under the flap. There was nothing wrong with
the patent. But if this patent claim was appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court
an infringement suit would probably be dismissed on the grounds that the
patent covered an operation which was natural to a mechanic in the pursuit of
his trade. English common law gives a mechanic definite protection, just as it
protects business men from confiscation of capital without due process of
law; and the question of whether a patent is for a real invention and not mere
mechanical skill must be left to the judgment of the courts in view of
evidence introduced on both sides of the controversy.

There is also the possibility of somebody being able to show prior use of
anything you may patent. A patent was recently granted for a “pop-up” idea
in collection folders. It appeared to be a perfectly good patent, and hundreds
of companies are paying the inventor a royalty for the use of the idea. Yet it
is possible that this idea was used in valentines many years before its present
use in folders. If somebody wanted to go to the trouble of searching among
collections of old valentines and found a sufficiently similar idea, the patent
could be invalidated by proving that it was not an original idea, and therefore
the inventor was not entitled to the benefits of a government monopoly.

Another hazard that goes with patents is the possibility of some person
“improving” upon your patent or otherwise changing it just enough to get
around your patent claims. The idea, of course, is to make the claim as broad
and as inclusive as possible, but because of earlier patents or printed
publications, the claims must be limited to only the advance in the art which
the inventor had made. Sometimes the only thing that can be patented is an
accessory. That is why in taking out a patent you should go to a reputable and
experienced firm of patent attorneys and stay clear of quacks who advertise
for “suckers.” You will pay a reputable patent attorney a little more than the
quack’s advertised price, but the reputable attorney will tell you frankly if
your invention is practical and may even be able to help you to market it.

Strangely enough, most of the outstanding inventions were made by

“outsiders.” The principle of the steam engine, as everybody knows, was
discovered by James Watt, who got the idea watching the lid of a teakettle
jump up and down. It suggested to him the existence of power in steam, and
he set about in his crude way figuring out how that power could be harnessed.
Out of that invention came our present industrial system.

Benjamin Franklin was not an electrician, but he invented the lightning rod.
The Eastman Kodak Company paid a hundred thousand dollars to a man who
invented the device which enables you to write on the back of a film after it is
exposed. And even the humble brake on a baby carriage was not invented, as
you might suppose, by a carriage manufacturer, but by an advertising man in
search of an “exclusive” feature to advertise.

So do not feel that just because you do not know all there is to know about a
particular product that you cannot find ways to improve it. Strangely enough,
a person who is using a thing is often the one to think of an improvement,
rather than the man who makes it, and the maker is eager to pay him either a
lump sum of cash for the patent or a royalty on it. Improving the appliances
and things that you use in your daily work is perhaps the easiest and most
practical way to make money on patents. It is not much of a trick to get
$1,000 from a large manufacturer for any worth-while improvement which
you develop and patent. There are a hundred ways to make a thousand dollars
right in the kitchen of your home. In spite of the thousands of existing patents
there is still a need of a better can opener, a better clothespin, a better bottle
opener, and other simple everyday things that are in daily use.

As a rule, simple inventions are the most profitable. The hump hairpin is a
case in point. For years women had been using and losing straight hairpins.
The pins fell out of the hair because there was nothing to hold them in. Then
some bright fellow thought about putting a little kink in the wire. It was so
simple it seemed unimportant. Yet a great business has been built up in
Chicago, and millions of dollars have been made on “hump” hairpins.

On the other hand, this same chap might have spent years inventing a dish-
washing machine, only to find after inventing it that people had to be
educated to wash dishes by machine and that there were already a dozen on
the market. If you are of an inventive or deductive turn of mind, and have an
ambition to make some money on a patent, first be sure your market exists
before spending time and money on an invention.

Of the large number of patents issued annually, many are taken out by
corporations to protect their development work in improving upon their
products, or their production methods and apparatus, which have already
been more or less approved in the market. Often corporations will also take
out patents on alternatives or substitutes which they do not intend to exploit,
but merely to hold, to forestall competitors adopting them. But of the other
patents—those issued to “free lance” inventors—perhaps nine out of ten
patents are on inventions which prove to be of practically no commercial
importance. Generally, this is not so much because the invention lacks merit
as because there is an inadequate commercial field for it. There are many
reasons why the commercial field for an invention may be inadequate.
Expense of manufacture may be too great to bring the selling price of the
invention down to profitable production. The cost of merchandising may be
too great in cases where the article invented cannot be standardized and
requires too large an assortment of stock.

Often the invention involves a meritorious idea for the particular situations
for which it was designed, but the possible users are too few and too scattered
to make it practicable to contact and sell them economically. This is
particularly true of accessories usable only on particular makes and models of
automobiles or on certain types and makes of domestic boilers.

In other instances the cost to a manufacturer of taking over an invention and

developing it until it is ready for production may promise to involve so much
expenditure that it is difficult to get a manufacturer interested. It is often the
high cost of development (which along with the royalty to the inventor must
come out of the manufacturing profits) which reduces the revenue an inventor
might otherwise get on his patent. Thus, in inventions where the probable
cost of development is the least, the inventor has the best chance of realizing
a large royalty or lump sum payment for his patent.

These difficulties are reviewed not for the purpose of discouraging you from
making money by inventing something, but rather to point out other factors
than the merit of the invention itself or how well it works, in deciding
whether you are going to devote your time and money to a particular
invention you may have in mind.

The Cost of Taking Out a Patent

The cost of securing a patent is one factor of expense which ought to be

balanced against the probable reward for your efforts in the event of success,
and you must take into consideration that an invention is something of a
gamble until the merit of the invention has been demonstrated, and your
patent upheld in the courts. To a certain extent the cost of securing a patent
depends upon how complicated the machine or device is. But, on the other
hand, the very simplicity of some inventions makes them more expensive to
patent because the attorney has to spend more time in presenting arguments
to the Patent Office to overcome the objection that because the invention is
simple it is seemingly obvious. It is seldom possible to have an attorney
prepare and file an application for you for less than $100, including the cost
of the Patent Office drawings and the government filing fee of $30. A worth-
while patent nearly always involves some cost of prosecution in getting the
patent through the Patent Office after it has been filed, and before the patent
is finally issued another $30 must be paid to the government as a final fee.
The total cost of securing a patent, on even the simplest inventions, will be at
least $140 or $150 in most instances. Even the average invention will be a
little more expensive than this to patent, and if the invention is unusually
complicated, the cost of the Patent Office drawings and the time which the
attorney will have to devote to the proper preparation of the application and
claims, may increase the total cost of securing such a patent to $300 or even
more. Because your income from the invention will probably be due almost
entirely to the patent protection you get, it is well to have the services of a
competent patent attorney in procuring your patent, as often the value of the
patent depends largely upon the skill of the attorney. It is wise to have your
patent procured by an attorney of recognized ability, although some other
attorney might prepare your application for a lower fee. Incidentally, you will
find that being able to confer directly with your patent attorney is going to be
of considerable value to you.

Improvements Are the Most SalablePatents

T

HE best way to make money on inventions is to devise improvements for

things which you use every day. As a rule manufacturers are anxious to
improve their products and will pay substantial sums for ideas along those
lines.

Take the ordinary kitchen mixer, for example. It does many things, but it is
safe to say that there are a hundred and one undiscovered uses for this
common home appliance. There are several manufacturers of such appliances
and competition between them is keen. An attachment to increase the use of
the mixer, which one of these manufacturers could feature exclusively, would
be a valuable sales point.

Similarly, it is possible to improve the most simple things. A good example is

the ordinary tube of tooth paste. The tube was an improvement over the sift-
top can, just as the sift-top can was an improvement over the can of soap
which our fathers used. Yet the tube leaves much to be desired. It is unhandy,
it is a nuisance, and it is unsanitary. What will the next improvement be? Will
it be some simple dispenser, similar to the soap dispensers on Pullman cars,
which can be built into a medicine cabinet or the washstand and always be
ready for use? Somebody thought of wall dispensers for Italian Balm, and it
became one of the most important parts of the sales plan of that company.
There are many other opportunities for improving the things that we use in
the home, in the garden and office, if one is observing enough to see them
and ingenious enough to figure out a way to add improvements. Of course, if
you are experienced in a certain field, you have a particular advantage in
being able to invent improvements that apply especially to that area of
activity. There is nothing so perfect in this world that it cannot be improved;
nothing so well done that it cannot be done better. The man who thinks that
we have progressed so far that everything worth while has been thought of
will awake to find that nothing is static, but that the fertile brain of man is
constantly finding a way to do everything better.

Of course there are opportunities—many of them—for inventing new things

to fill a long-felt want. But the development and marketing of such inventions
is at best uncertain. The story is told of the man who invented a knife and
fork for a one-handed person, and in his enthusiasm had thousands
manufactured. He learned too late that there were not enough onehanded
people to use them and that it would cost so much to create a demand that he
would have to charge more for his product than the average one-handed
person would pay. Had he spent the same time and effort on improving
something for which a known demand existed the loss of both time and
money might have been saved.

BertPond’sHobbyEnded Up in a Business
W

HILE Bert Pond was still a high-school boy in Chicago, he became

interested in model airplanes and joined the Illinois Model Aero Club. This
airplane research group, he believed, was far ahead of the rest of the world in
the study of miniature flying craft of all kinds. While he attended Illinois U,
he continued to make many midget planes and often paid his fraternity house
bills with cash prizes he won at national exhibits.

It was after Lindbergh’s flight, however, when the country became aviation-
conscious, that he began to cash in on his knowledge of model airplanes. He
resigned his job with the Minneapolis-Honeywell Corporation and decided to
build and help others build model airplanes. His first work was instructing
classes in model airplane design at Y. M. C. A. meetings, Boy Scout camps,
and at various schools all over Indiana. He next wrote a series of articles on
model airplanes for Popular Aviation, Popular Science Monthly, and other
publications of this type. It wasn’t long before the students in all these classes
and the readers of his articles wanted materials to make their own models. So
his next step was to make these materials which were so much in demand.

In his model airplane shop, Peru, Indiana, he began to manufacture not only a
midget motor and a 6½ ounce gasoline motor, but also the familiar rubber-
band twisters and other parts and accessories for fans who build their own
models. He later supplied the featherweight wood called balsa, which is used
for airplane models, Japanese silk tissue, special cements, and fresh rubber to
power the planes. He also manufactured a low-priced scale used to weigh
parts for the models down to 1/1000 of an ounce, and a miniature true pitch
propeller. Thousands of these little propellers were turned out for other
miniature aircraft companies. His shop also designed model kits and made
ready-built planes for other concerns. In the last few years, the shop has sold
many hundreds of thousands of planes in the fiveand-ten stores.

Regular orders kept this shop busy the year round, but during certain rush
periods the shop ran night and day. During the three or four major national
contests held each year, there was a gratifying increase in orders. Bert Pond’s
success with his hobby suggests the value of developing an interesting hobby
which some day may provide your bread and butter— and perhaps a little
jam.

Another hobby which later became a real vocation was that of H. E. Boucher.
As a little boy, Mr. Boucher frequently made little boats which were the envy
of his playmates. His parents had planned his entire education to the end that
he would some day become a naval architect. He did reach this goal but his
hobby persisted in taking all his spare time and soon he found that he was
making many miniature ships for his friends. The demand increased and
presently his “real” work was being crowded out of his life by his hobby. It
was then that he decided to stop fighting against his interest in this hobby and
he organized the H. E. Boucher Manufacturing Company. The market for his
products was provided by the hundreds of other hobbyists interested in
miniature ships and ship parts. Eventually what started out as a hobby
became one of the largest businesses of its kind.

Electrical Toy Sells Out State Street

F

OR perhaps a year or more, an editor on a Chicago business publication had

been working on an electrical toy. At first glance, there seemed to be nothing
remarkable about this toy. When you picked it up you thought it just another
“Jack-in-the-box.” When the little hook holding “Jack” in the box was lifted,
however, there really was a surprise in store for you. “Jack” had two big
electrical eyes which lit up fiery red when he popped out of the box!

When the toy was ready for market, the editor, who had had considerable
selling experience, decided to take it around to the store buyers himself. This
was in September. By the middle of November he had sold every store on
State Street, except the largest, whose toy buyer had been too busy to give the
toy any real study. The small factory handling the production of the toy had
made up the quantity the inventor thought would sell the first holiday season.
But now demands for the toy came from outlying stores and also from the
“big” store. However, he had made the profit he had set out to make that year
and the other buyers had to wait until the following Christmas for stock. The
next year a much larger quantity of the toys was made up and again he sold
out.

The mechanical or electrical toy field offers a rich market for the inventor
who can capture a new idea in toys or take an old idea that has been on the
market and put it in a new dress. Every holiday, fond mothers and fathers, to
say nothing of grandparents, aunts and uncles, search the toy sections for
something new and different for Jimmie or Sally Ann. Their wants are
insatiable and the inventor who can satisfy those wants will profit
handsomely.
Funeral Flags and Insignia

WO years ago, Robert Hubbell was out of work. Then one day he went to a
funeral with a friend. Before the procession of cars started for the cemetery,
the undertaker’s assistant clamped a metal device on the running board of the
car to hold a white flag with a purple cross. When the funeral was over and
the clamp was removed, Robert Hubbell’s friend found the enamel scratched
and the metal wrinkled where the clamp had been applied.

Robert Hubbell gave the matter a little thought and within two hours in his
workshop had invented a flag holder that slipped on over the bumpers. As
flags get bedraggled in the rain and snow, he decided that a paper flag would
be better as it could be changed for every funeral at small expense. So, the
new arrangement included a flag mast on which a paper flag could be
clamped.

The idea was a winner and today, Mr. Hubbell has a factory where he makes
holders, masts, and white flags. He employs a dozen people and spends most
of his time out on the road selling to wholesalers. In addition, he has spent
some time helping to lobby bills through a dozen states requiring the use of
funeral flags in processions to prevent traffic from breaking into the line.

Toy Automobile Puzzles Onlookers

A

LITTLE fifty-cent toy Ford automobile, which is bringing its inventor plenty
of profits, creates interest by its trick of automatically turning in another
direction. Just as it reaches the edge of the table and you think it will run off,
a hidden third wheel, at right angles to the front wheels, turns the automobile
in another direction. Everyone wants one of these toys because of its trick of
fooling the onlooker. Such toys offer a fertile field for inventors.
ProfitsfromWhittling

N 1915 , A. O. Dinsdale (O’Dee to his friends) was an ambitious young man

who had just been graduated from the California School of Fine Arts and the
Berkeley School of Arts and Crafts. He was determined to become a painter
equaling Michelangelo. But the war changed all that. After serving in France,
Dinsdale returned to San Francisco restless and unsettled. He went up into the
high Sierras and isolated himself in a crude cabin twenty miles upgrade. Here
he aimlessly whittled out queer little animals and painted them. A hunter
chancing on his retreat saw these animals and chuckled. “They’ve got
personality,” he said. “Send ’em down to the art shops. They’ll sell.”

Dinsdale followed this advice and his animals became a fad. He grew so busy
painting pink elephants and purple lions that he had no time to bemoan
shattered ambitions. Returning to town he purchased a band saw and cut his
creatures out of three-ply pine, painting them in oils. Because his art
education had included a thorough study of anatomy, his animals were
proportionately right despite their whimsicalities and gaudy hues.

Business expanded. In his garage he worked out nursery interiors and store
displays: “The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe,” for instance, for a juvenile
shoe department. Dinsdale called his workshop the O’Dee Studio and
designed a black cat and blackbird trade-mark because his recently acquired
wife considered black cats “good luck.”

Years passed. Today the O’Dee Studio is located downtown and equipped
with the latest machinery. Animals have been left far behind in Dinsdale’s
“March of Progress.” His unusual profession takes in decorative relief maps
for vast projects, mechanical displays timed to light and sound, caricatures,
and unusual animated exhibits.

Strange assignments come to Dinsdale, one of these being his group of

historical displays created for the Wells Fargo Bank Museum. True to scale
and history these dramatic tableaux in wood vie in interest with the valuable
collection of relics bearing on California’s frontier days. One, for example,
has for its setting Sutter’s Mill, where gold was first discovered, and shows in
five scenes the evolution of mining implements from crude pan and shovel to
effective hydraulic methods. The superbly painted scene, correct in every
detail, is enlivened by quaint figures of Indians, miners, Spanish caballeros,
and others, each true to type and costume.

A clipper ship assignment was a hard nut to crack because these ships, which
used to carry mail round the Horn, are out of existence. Dinsdale spent days
talking to old waterfront characters and nothing has been omitted either from
his clipper ship education or from the finished model.

But his greatest interest lies in synchronizing sound with movement in

mechanical displays. He built the first Christmas window of this type in San
Francisco: “Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf” acted out while a
phonograph played the song. Delighted crowds almost blocked traffic.

But this is only a crude beginning to Dinsdale who is working with a radio
engineer on sound controlled mechanics. Future animated displays will not be
timed to phonograph records, he predicts; they will be moved by actual sound
vibrations.

A Shoe Pain-Killer Builds a New Business

LBERT SACHS , who had been a retail shoe merchant in Salisbury,

Maryland, for many years, long had an idea for another kind of business. He
selected the tail-end of the depression as a favorable time to launch this other
enterprise. His idea was for a device that would take the “pain” out of shoes.

Mr. Sachs had been experimenting for ten years with various methods of
breaking in new shoes mechanically. He had always been interested in
finding out how he could give his customers more foot comfort. It seemed a
pity to him that many people had so much trouble with new shoes.
Finally, he developed a system consisting of a set of jacks in which holes had
been punched. These jacks were manipulated in the balky shoe until the area
of pressure was over a hole. Here the leather was hammered until a
depression was created, thus removing the cause of discomfiture to the
wearer.

These jacks were but the forerunner of Mr. Sachs’s present system. Gradually
he evolved a hydraulic press, based on the original principle that he used in
Salisbury. A variety of brass forms is a part of the equipment. The machine
presses a form into that part of the shoe that is causing the pain. This is done
with such great force that the source of the trouble is permanently removed.

Mr. Sachs decided that the best way to handle his invention was to lease the
machine to operators who would run the business according to the inventor’s
specifications. Already there are three SHU-EEZ Comfort Shops in New
York City. Though these shops are conducted by lessees, Mr. Sachs gives the
closest attention to their supervision.

A charge of twenty-five cents is made for breaking in each of a pair of shoes.

So popular is the service that dozens of customers drop in his main shop daily
to have their shoes made wearable with comfort. It seems that everybody has
shoes with pains in them. Early in 1936, a man from England dropped in to
have his shoes adjusted. He returned a few months later, on another trip to
this country, with an armful of shoes to be broken in by the hydraulic pain
eliminator.

Mr. Sachs’s novel business is still a very small enterprise. But it is making
money, and it holds a brilliant promise for the future. He is more than glad
that he did not let the depression scare him from putting his idea to work.

Coleman Made His $1,000 with Polish

S

OME years ago, George Coleman came upon a formula for making metal
polish. It sounded simple, so he decided to get the ingredients and mix up
some. This first polish was in liquid form, and reasonably successful, but
when he tried to sell it he discovered that it wasn’t exactly what prospects
required. Then he searched for a new formula. After a great deal of
experimenting, he developed a formula of his own that was practical for use
as an all-purpose metal and glassware polish, and has made hundreds of
dollars as a result.

“While I found a widespread demand for a high-grade metal polish,” said

Coleman, “I had difficulty selling enough to make a worth-while profit. I
knew practically nothing about selling or advertising in the beginning, and it
took a little while for me to learn. For instance, the containers I used had no
labels, and my product had no name. I sold a gallon jug to a large Chicago
hotel one day, and they asked me the name of the polish explaining it was
necessary to name the brand in their records. That stumped me. ‘I haven’t
called it any special name,’ I said, ‘but, use it. If it’s good, you’ll want more.’
The man laughed. ‘I’ll call it Use It, then.’ About two weeks later, I got a
phone call at my home for five gallons of Use It. That’s how I came to give
the polish that name. When I went around, I told my prospective customers to
use Use It, and sales began to increase. The polish did its work well, but there
was a good deal of competition. However, as I picked up additional business
steadily and was holding what I had, it wasn’t long before I was making real
money.

“I could have done better had I given the polish a trade name and made up a
week or a ten-day supply at one time. But being cautious I made up only as
much polish daily as was needed to fill orders. Furthermore, I should have
had some circulars printed but I did not think it was necessary to give
directions to the purchaser. I have since found I was wrong.

“To sell readily, a metal polish must have certain features and these should be
explained to the buyer. This explanation should be followed by instructions
about applying the polish to glass and metal surfaces, and the effect
demonstrated. Be sure that your formula does not contain poisonous or
inflammable agents. While the danger from fire is not great, big users of
polish will not have an inflammable or poisonous polish on the premises as
they don’t want any more occupational hazards than are necessary. You can
make up just as good nonpoisonous and noninflammable polish as you can a
combustible and poisonous polish and the cost is less. I would suggest to
anyone starting in the polish manufacturing business that he make
innumerable tests of the product. Find out whether it is simple or difficult to
apply. Make it as simple as possible to apply to secure the best results. If your
metal polish is safe to handle, easy to apply, and polishes all metal surfaces
including brass, copper and chromium perfectly, you will have a wide sale
for it. But it will be in greater demand if it can be used to bring sparkling
luster to mirrors, chinaware and porcelain.”

There are a number of formulas for making a good polish, meeting the above
specifications. The demand by clubs, hotels, taverns, hospitals, restaurants,
office buildings, factories, garages, steamship lines, railroads and for home
use is regular and steady. The polish may be made up at small expense, and
attractively packaged. The cost including packaging is about six cents for an
eight-ounce size, which retails for twenty-five cents. Sold in bulk to large
users, such polish may be priced at from a dollar to three dollars a gallon. For
one who likes to make up formulas, there is no better way to get the “first
thousand” than through making and selling polish.

Mrs.Royeton’sButton-EyedLambs

HERE lived in Oakland, California, a young widow named Charlotte

Royeton, who, having four children to support, turned to a federal
government agency and was given a job as playground instructor, providing
she could entertain a lot of youngsters sufficiently to keep them coming back.
Just how could she fill these requirements? The children were from poor
families, mixed races. They cared little for reading, they couldn’t play in the
court all the time, and sewing was “out.”

Desperately the widow scoured the five-and-ten, mentally discarding jigsaw

puzzles, dominoes, and dish towels for embroidering. Then she spied the
little pig outlined on cambric to be cut out and stuffed! She pounced on him
and took him to market—that is, she sat up nearly all night putting him
together.

The next morning, behold! Piggie had the niftiest black cutaway jacket edged
in yellow, a curlicue tail, and a rakish black hat slanted over one pink ear.
Mrs. Royeton’s children voted him “a knockout” and when her charges saw
him they seconded the motion and were eager to make one like him. The
woman had no money but she said, “Look, children, I don’t know how we’ll
do it but we’re going to make those pigs.”

She purchased four yards of material and as much kapok as her thin purse
would allow. She got seventeen pigs out of the goods but ran out of kapok.
So she had the children bring discarded stockings which were cut up and used
to stuff the rest of them.

She added other animals, purchasing some patterns and designing others,
until there were fifty varieties. The children, more and more delighted,
brought every available scrap from home. Two Chinese girls brought two
uncalled-for sheets from their father’s laundry and after taking what material
they needed gave the rest to the others. The old striped trousers of
Antoinette’s father yielded some amazing elephants, while Kitty McCarthy’s
green chinchilla reefer became woolly dogs with green bead eyes. Over two
hundred animals were made that summer by a class that had increased from
fifteen to fifty to the wonderment of the playground director.

But here’s where the fairy tale comes in. The widow sat up nights designing
animals for the next day’s session and that’s how the lamb came into
existence. He was white muslin with black hoofs and his flat, black button
eyes made him the most innocent looking lamb that ever followed Mary.
Unknown to his originator he was chosen for a National Exhibit of
Handicraft held in Washington, D. C., where he blinked at the toy buyer of
Saks and Company’s Fifth Avenue store, New York. It was love at first sight.
The buyer demanded that lamb and more like him. In due course, Mrs.
Royeton was flabbergasted to receive a letter asking for a dozen lambs and
placing a large future order.

Daughter Eloise and the three boys fixed up a basement workshop for their
mother who glowingly declared: “I feel like a flower about to burst into
bloom.” She hopes soon to be able to stay home and look after her family
while earning a living. And even if she doesn’t sell a million lambs and make
a million dollars there is every indication that she will make a thousand.

chapter sIX
STARTING A ROADSIDE BUSINESS
I

F YOU lack money enough to take your goods to your market—that is, open
a store, advertise extensively, or hire a crew to sell house to house—you must
bring your market to your door. That door may be just a roadside stand such
as you see along the highways. Along these well-traveled routes, with their
ever-increasing army of tourists, you have a great potential market. Jump in
your car and run out on any highway. You won’t go but a few miles before
you run across at least one roadside stand.

This stand may be the usual type which sells farm products—eggs, poultry,
fruits, vegetables, butter, honey, etc. It may be one of the thousands of stands
scattered far and wide across the country’s highways which sells hamburgers,
hot dogs, barbecue sandwiches, citrus and other fruit drinks, pop, potato
chips, candied pop corn, doughnuts, or custard ice cream. Souvenir and postal
card stands are so common it is hardly necessary to mention them. Then there
are the historical souvenirs which are sold around centers of historical
interest.

Which one of these many stands might make money for you depends upon
the particular need in your locality, the buying habits of those who pass your
way, and your ability to attract customers. Know your community well for
much of your business may come from those in your neighborhood as well as
the tourists who pass through your town. Key your product to your section.
The tourist who passes through the little towns of Vermont most likely will
want maple syrup or maple sugar candy. You might convert the natives of
Vermont to hot tamales, or make the tourist think he wants them, but you
probably would lose a lot of money before you had done so.
So cater to your section of the country. In the Pacific Coast region, Atlantic
Coast, Gulf or Great Lakes sections, fish (fresh and smoked) are sold at
roadside stands. In the East, particularly in New York, you will find a number
of “milk stations.” The inhabitants of Texas are great consumers of ice cream
and any number of stands sell this hot weather confection. Mexican candy,
known as pralines, is in demand around New Orleans and certain parts of
Texas. In certain western and southwestern sections, unusual rocks and semi-
precious stones are sold. Indian handicrafts— bead work, silver and turquoise
jewelry, and leather goods—are sold from stands in and near the Indian
reservations. Throughout the Southwest, practically everything to wear, use,
or to eat, is sold at roadside stands. Hand-wrought jewelry, pottery, beads,
lace, carved ornaments, needlework, handmade baskets, handwoven blankets,
hot tamales, and chili are a few of the many items you can buy along the
roadside.

In addition to these sectional types of stands, roadside stands are successful

selling bird houses, garden ornaments, fishing bait, pets of all kinds, shells,
taffy candy, honey and honey candy, pies, pecans, taffy apples, antiques,
trellises and garden furniture of the rustic type, objects made of birch bark,
toys carved from wood, flowers, plants and shrubs, goldfish, dolls and
neckties.

Next to getting the right product for your locality, there is nothing so
important to the success of your enterprise as advertising. This may be in the
form of signs placed in advantageous places on the routes to your stand, signs
in tourists’ camps and railroad stations. Or, a novel type of display stand may
be sufficient to advertise your wares. One enterprising chap had a local
builder make a huge “hot dog” for a stand and thus advertised to all the world
his specialty. In Hollywood is a large iceberg which sells ice cream and cones
to the youngsters. Out west there are also a number of huge “lemons” and
“oranges,” which serve citrus fruit drinks and sandwiches. If you want
something different you might construct an ice cream freezer similar to one
built in Los Angeles. This enormous freezer, which can be seen for miles, has
a real handle on it that turns by means of a motor. In the East a successful
refreshment stand, selling buttermilk, butter, ice cream, malted milk,
sandwiches and similar products, is built in the form of a gigantic milk can.
An awning extends over the counter built around the can. A stand designed to
resemble a huge basket of colorful vegetables would make a most novel
advertisement for the sale of farm produce. While the country is dotted with
many a “coffee pot,” one such refreshment stand is unusual in that it has an
apartment above the store proper where the owner lives. A cider barrel or an
old mill would tell the world that you sell cider, and an igloo would advertise
cooling drinks and ice cream. Often these novel stands cost little more than
the usual type to build and the advertising value is incalculable. Motorists
will pass dozens of ordinary stands, but an unusual one is bound to command
their attention.

The display stand is not the only type of roadside business that flourishes,
however. Many proprietors of golf driving ranges are making a good living
catering to the inveterate golfer who is “just out for a ride” in his car. The
“pony ride” is just as popular today with youngsters as it was years ago, and
children will clamor for a ride whenever they see a pony. One man in
Chicago made a good living for many years with his little string of ponies.
When he retired and sold out his concession and ponies, he cleared several
thousand dollars. Since archery is becoming popular again, archery practice
fields are springing up along the highways. Bicycle stands are common and
also riding academies. A successful riding academy near Chicago was once
an old farm. The farmhouse has been turned into an inn and about two dozen
riding horses are stabled in the barns. Groups of young people come out on
Saturdays and Sundays for a gallop and dinner. Many students on vacations
come out during the week.

Another rather novel roadside enterprise was developed by a young man just
out of school who was finding it difficult to get a job. He bought several
inexpensive cameras and rented them at the entrance to a large picnic grove.
A deposit was required on each camera and a small fee was charged for
rental. He added to his profits by selling rolls of film at his little stand. A
small enterprise of this type is bound to succeed. The overhead is practically
nothing, and it fills a need that no one else is bothering to fill, always an
important factor in drawing customers. Candy bars, chewing gum, packaged
nuts and other items can be added to increase profits.
Good Profits from a “Sale Barn”

N EVERY farming community there is an opportunity to conduct a sale barn

and earn regular profits the year round. If there aren’t now too many in your
community it is worth trying. You don’t even need a barn, although you can
conduct the business better if you have a large lot and a building. You can, of
course, rent one for the purpose.

These sales are conducted in the following fashion: The operator of a sale
barn advertises that on regular dates he will conduct a sale of any and all
property brought to the barn. Usually the sales are held regularly, once a
week, or twice a month. Saturday is frequently the day selected, although one
of the most successful operators of sales conducts his sale at a farm near
Washington Court House, Ohio, every Tuesday.

Horses, mules, pigs, cattle, sheep, vegetables, seed, shrubbery, fruit and all
kinds of farm equipment as well as furniture, stoves, and similar articles are
in demand. In fact, almost anything you can name is sold regularly at these
barns. Sales are for cash and the auction plan of selling is followed.

At the S. F. Snider Sale Barn, at Washington Court House, Ohio, each seller
pays the operator of the barn a commission on all sales. The customary figure
being 3 per cent on live stock and 10 per cent on miscellaneous equipment.

One of the contributors to this book attended a sale one afternoon at which a
wagonload of grapefruit, a disc plow, cattle and several horses were sold. A
six-year-old gelding brought $215.

The way to start is to select a good location. This may be a vacant lot, close
in to the business section, or if you think you need more room for the buyers
and sellers to park their cars, select a larger lot on the outskirts of town. It is
better, of course, if there are sheds, an empty barn, or some kind of shelter.

When you have selected your location, visit the farmers of the community
and explain your plan to them, telling them the date of the first sale. At first it
may be necessary to persuade them to bring in things to sell. When talking
with the farmers ask them if they haven’t a horse, mule, calf, cow, some extra
fruit or canned goods, a plow, rake, cultivator, manure spreader or something
of the kind they would like to sell. Nearly every farmer has some surplus of
one kind or another.

If your first sale is properly advertised and talked about you will have a big
crowd. A good auctioneer can always get something for almost anything
offered. After the first sales results are known in the community there will be
little difficulty in getting things to sell and crowds to attend other sales.

If there is a county or community fairground near your town and you can
arrange to use the fair property for your sale, you will have an ideal place.
But any location on good roads, easily accessible, will do for a start.

Commissions are paid the sale operator at the time of the sale. Usual rules of
bidding at auction sales are followed. Small advertisements in the local
papers, and handbills or sale bills, as they are called, will be sufficient
advertising until the regular day and date of your sale becomes established
and known in the community.

A Roadside Tire Repair Business

T WAS a blown-out front tire, occurring while driving along route US 20

from Chicago to Michigan City, that started James Mowry in business. When
the blow-out happened, Mowry did what many other motorists do. He
replaced the flat with the spare, and threw the old tire in the weeds along the
road. He decided to buy a used tire in Michigan City to carry as a spare on
the way back. After calling upon several tire dealers in the Indiana city,
Mowry was forced to pay $5.00 for one that wasn’t much better than the tire
he threw away.

Mowry felt he was cheated. The idea persisted in his mind on his way back
home, and he wondered how other motorists felt in similar situations. He
thought that a roadside tire service station offering rebuilt tires at low prices
would make a lot of money. By the time he parked his car in front of his
house, Mowry decided to go into the business himself.

He rented a roadside stand adjoining a three-pump gasoline station a short

distance east of Gary and stocked it with fifty rebuilt tires secured from a
Chicago jobber. He put up large signs 300 feet east and 300 feet west of his
new tire station reading: “Tires $2.25 and up—300 feet,” and another large
sign on the service station, facing the highway reading: “Home of Jimmy’s
Guaranteed Tires—$2.25 and up.” Mowry opened up for business. That was
July second. Over the Fourth of July he sold out his entire stock and made a
profit of $52. His initial investment was $145, including cost of the tires, rent,
signs, and incidentals. The first month he operated this stand Mowry netted a
profit of $203, after deducting the entire cost of his investment.

Rebuilt tires such as Mowry handles are standard brand tires which have been
reconstructed by a special process at low cost. You can safely guarantee good
mileage to customers who buy such tires from you. It is both a pleasant and a
profitable business, requires little capital and there is practically no chance
for loss.

A Target Green for Iron Practice

N ESTES PARK , Colorado, a man made a “barrel” of money last summer

by renting a vacant lot on the main street of this bustling resort town and, on
a sloping bank at the far end of the lot, arranging a giant putting green. The
bull’s eye in the green was a hole about four times the size of a hole on a golf
green. Circles on the target green were made with ridges of stone, and were
graduated so that they became narrower as they approached the cup. The
green was about twelve feet in diameter, and pitched facing the driving tee at
an angle of about fifteen degrees. The driving tee was about fifty feet away
from the cup.
The idea, of course, was to give those who thought they were good iron
shots an opportunity to prove it by pitching ten balls into the cup with a
niblick. Each ball dropped into the cup counted one; balls that missed the cup
but dropped into the second ring, counted five, and those which landed in the
next ring counted ten, and so on. Par for the hole was twenty and when a
player scored par, he was entitled to shoot ten balls free. The charge for
shooting ten balls was ten cents. The names of those who “shot the course”
under par were posted on a blackboard where they remained all day, and a
daily prize was offered to the player getting the low score. Such a shooting
green can be built at a very small cost, the only equipment needed being a
dozen iron clubs, both mashies and niblicks, and about fifty repainted golf
balls. While the idea is somewhat similar to the miniature golf fad of a few
years back, it has one decided advantage: It gives the player an opportunity to
perfect his “approach” shots, since he is playing with regulation clubs and
under conditions identical to those he will experience in an actual game of
golf on any club course. The owner of such a target green can figure on the
average person shooting about fifty balls at a time.

Selling Bait at a Roadside Stand

ROKE, lacking any income, and in poor health, Ella Gaston, a widow of
seventy-seven, living in Joplin, Missouri, wondered what she could do to
make some money. It occurred to her that a great number of fishermen passed
her home along the highway leading into the Ozark fishing country. Where
did all these men get their bait? There were plenty of worms in the mud flat
of a creek near by—perhaps she could sell them. It was worth a try anyhow.
A friend built a roadside stand for her and hung a sign above it which told all
passers-by that fishing bait could be purchased.

Mrs. Gaston filled kettles, pails, boxes and buckets with soil and worms. The
passers-by did stop and buy and before long she had to hire boys to dig
worms for her to supply the demand. The boys are paid 10 cents a hundred
for the wrigglers and she sells them for 10 cents a dozen. Some days she has
sold as high as 1,000 dozen. In two years, Mrs. Gaston figures she has sold
over a million worms! Incidentally, in these two years, she has paid her own
and her dead brother’s debts. And because she has had an interesting and
profitable bit of work to do, she has also regained her health.

Making a “Stop and Sock It” Range Pay

J

OHN GALWAY and Martin Sheffield, high-school graduates who couldn’t

find a job, put their heads together, rented a vacant corner of two well-
traveled highways on the outskirts of Chicago, and started a golfdriving range
that paid them $600 in five months. It could easily be made to pay $1,000.

“The idea wasn’t original,” said Galway, “but it was the best we could think
of, and required practically no capital to start. We rented the corner for fifteen
dollars for the entire summer season, that being the amount of the owner’s
taxes. The owner thought we were crazy, I guess, but told us to go ahead. We
borrowed fifty dollars from our parents, got some secondhand lumber with
which we built a stand, and had some signs painted. Then we measured off
distances and put up the signs at fifty, one hundred, one hundred and fifty,
one hundred seventy-five, two hundred, and two hundred and fifty feet from
the tee-off. We leveled the tee-off ourselves, and did all our own labor,
cutting the grass, and fixing up things. Our expenses for lumber and the signs
came to twenty-one dollars. As we had a few golf clubs, we didn’t need to
buy any at the start. We bought the cheapest golf balls we could get with the
rest of the fifty dollars, and were ready to do business. Our prices were
twenty-five cents for driving twenty-five balls; fifty cents for driving seventy-
five balls. We opened up on a cold Sunday morning in late April, and with
high hopes sat in the stand. A few cars passed, but none stopped. Our first
customer appeared about one o’clock that afternoon, and invested fifty cents
in driving practice. The next customer pulled up while the first one was on
the tee, and invested a quarter. Two more appeared, before the first two had
finished, and all left about the same time. However, we pocketed two dollars,
and weren’t feeling very bad. Still, we were rather anxious. In the days that
followed there wasn’t much business. We heard of another practice range
about five miles off and I went over to see what they were doing, but they
weren’t doing much either. I talked to the owner. ‘Don’t worry,’ he advised,
‘they come in bunches. When they see one or two people practicing on your
course, a number will stop. The idea is to keep someone practicing as much
as possible.’

Attracting Customers

“I agreed with that, thinking of our first day’s experience. I felt the trick was
to get the first motorist to stop and practice. When I got back, I talked the
matter over with Martin, who said: ‘Why not decoy them, like hunters decoy
ducks? Get someone to hang around and practice when we have no
customers. Then when people are passing they might stop.’ We tried to get
someone, but everyone we invited told us we’d have to pay them a salary. As
we couldn’t do that we took turns swinging at the balls ourselves. First I
would swing for an hour, and then Martin would have a go at it. Whether this
brought the customers or not, I can’t exactly say, but business began to pick
up. Women, out for a drive afternoons during the week, drove up and
practiced for a little while. Many came regularly every day. Meanwhile
Martin and I were learning things about driving, and how to take a good
stance and get that little extra snap in the drive that gives added power. Soon
we were making fairly long drives, and began to attract attention from
motorists. A golf professional, formerly with a small golf club came to see us
one day. He told us he was out of a job, and would like to give driving
lessons. We arranged to let him use our place on a fifty-fifty split, and put up
a sign. He charged two dollars an hour, and helped Martin’s form and mine,
while he was around. When he got another job, a month later, we left the sign
up which offered instruction and collected the two dollars hourly ourselves
for teaching. Sunday is our big day. On a sunny Sunday afternoon we took in
as high as thirty dollars from the practice range, and from the lessons. Week
days ran about eighteen dollars on an average. Of course, there was no
business at all when it rained.”

A couple of hundred golf balls, a few clubs, a stand, and a good-sized lot
along a highway is all the equipment needed for a driving course. Side lines
such as cold soft drinks, sandwiches, and ice cream, coffee, cigarettes and bar
candies will add to the total profits. There are few more attractive ways for
young and active men to get a start and accumulate capital during the open
season.

ARoadsideBookstore
A

N UNUSUAL business has been developed by J. C. Meredith, who operates

a roadside stand near Traverse City, Michigan. This roadside stand sells
neither hot dogs nor hamburgers, ice cream nor gasoline, but books. While
rare in this country, this type of bookshop or stall is common in Europe,
especially Paris. Mr. Meredith believes that the average person likes to
browse in a bookshop and that not even a tourist can resist the impulse to stop
and look over books and prints. A large sign over his stand states: “Why
hurry? You’ll enjoy visiting this roadside bookshop.”

chapter seVen
STOREKEEPING AS A BUSINESS
W

HEREVER you live there are plenty of ordinary stores. In most towns and
cities there are too many ordinary stores. Every week thousands of retail
storekeepers go bankrupt, are closed out and shut up, with losses varying
from $1,000 to $10,000 each. One Los Angeles wholesale house has one man
who does nothing but attend to closing up stores, the owners of which can’t
pay their merchandise bills.

Various reasons are given by the mercantile reporting agencies for the failure
of so many retail stores: Lack of capital, inexperience, credit losses, poor
management, bad locations. These are but a few of the reasons given. Yet
when you come right down to the final analysis, you will find that the chief
reason is because the storekeeper did not render a needed or useful service to
the community he served.

That should be your first thought in determining whether or not you want to
open a store. Can you render a useful service to the town, community or
neighborhood to which you will look for your patronage? Will you offer the
people of your community some service they need, or want, but are not now
enjoying? Or will your store merely attempt to duplicate some service which
is already being well performed? Will your store simply become another unit
in an already overcrowded field?

There are in the United States, as this is being written,

532,010 food stores

56,697 drug stores
26,996 hardware stores
28,709 dry goods stores
18,967 shoe stores
9,568 millinery stores 13,198 men’s furnishing stores 32,555 meat markets
11,741 variety stores
17,043 furniture stores
21,975 women’s ready-to-wear 12,447 jewelry stores

Between the time this is written and the time you will read it, thousands of
these stores will have gone bankrupt, changed hands, merged, moved or
made some other change which indicates that the owners are making little, if
any, profit. From this summary it may seem to you as if storekeeping is a bad
business; but it isn’t. It is a fundamental necessity. Retail business suffers
less, as a whole, than any other type of business during a period of
depression. Of course, a depression clears out the unfit, the lazy, the slovenly
and careless retailers. But the good ones carry on year in and year out, during
good times and bad, with as great a degree of stability as is found in any other
type of business.

In spite of the dismal record of failures, you may want to open a store. What
kind of store? The chains have made it increasingly difficult to make a profit
out of a grocery, drug, cigar, hat or shoe store. There are plenty of these
stores, anyway, so why pick a field in which you must compete with the most
astute merchandisers in the country? Because of factors over which no
individual has any control, discussion of the ordinary types of stores such as
grocery, cigar, drug, hat and shoe, is being omitted. Of course, independent
storekeepers enter these fields every week and some of them succeed. But to
operate a drug store successfully you must be a pharmacist; a shoe store
requires a heavy investment; there are so many incompetents in the grocery
field and so much bitter competition from the chains, there isn’t much
incentive to enter it.

Despite all the adverse factors that must be taken into consideration when
contemplating storekeeping as a business, it is well to remember that some of
America’s greatest fortunes have been earned from storekeeping. There is
always room for real ability. Thousands of new things to sell are being put on
the market each year, each new item opening a new field for the storekeeper.
Think of all the electrical appliances which were unheard of ten or twenty
years ago; think of how much more is spent today than ten years ago for
sporting goods, sports clothing and toys. Think of all the things now bought
ready-made or ready prepared which only a few short years back were made
in the home. Millions of women never bake a cake today, but buy their cakes,
cookies and bread from stores. Think of all the things women used to make
for themselves that they now buy from stores. There was a time when a
woman bought a purse and used it until it was worn out. Now she buys a
purse, a hat, gloves, stockings, and shoes to match every dress. The matched
accessories or ensemble idea has added millions of dollars to retail sales in
recent years.

It is easy to see there is no limit to the variety of services a retailer can render.
A far larger share of our national income is spent today in retail stores than in
the days when our own hands made most of what we eat, use and wear. This
is one of the reasons storekeeping is growing and will continue to grow and
expand.

Deciding What Kind of Store to Open

Having eliminated fields which are overcrowded and fields where special
experience or training is a necessity, it is evident that you may not want to
tackle any of the usual types of stores. But even with all these eliminations
there still remains a vast field for the owner of a specialty store. What is
meant by the term “specialty” store? In the usual sense of the word it means
the little shops that dot every Main Street—the shops that specialize in
lingerie, corsets, costume jewelry, $1.88 hats for women, novelty shops, etc.
But there are hundreds of other specialty shops which have not yet penetrated
all parts of the country.

Some of these are: Tropical fish shops, pet shops, exclusive hosiery shops,
little shops that sell nothing but nuts and nut candies, bridge shops that
specialize in bridge supplies and prizes, necktie shops, fountain pen shops,
vacuum cleaner stores, washing machine (new and used) shops, portable
typewriter shops, drugless drug stores, gift shops, butter-and-egg stores, milk
depots, stamp shops or exchanges, potato chip stores, pop corn candy stores,
greeting card and novelty shops and a score of other unusual stores.

Your previous experience, your likes and dislikes, your personal preferences,
all should be taken into consideration when thinking of opening a specialty
shop. Then there is the matter of finances. How much can you invest? How
big a business do you want? Do you want to go into business on a fairly
pretentious scale, selling on credit, delivering and handling a large stock? Or
do you prefer a small shop which you can run with the aid of one assistant,
with no delivery or credit expense? Take all of these factors into careful
consideration before you decide what kind of store to open.

There is another factor too. What kind of people do you know? Do you have
a following and acquaintance among factory workers? Then pick a store with
merchandise they can buy. Or do you know the community’s wealthiest and
most stylish folks? If this is true start a store catering to them. Make use of
every advantage you possess. Do you know automobile owners, or have you
served them in some capacity in the past? Then perhaps you will want to
consider a tire store. Whatever your past experience may have been, you
should try to capitalize on it when you open your store.

There is another way to determine what kind of store to open. Find out what
the people of your community must go out of town to buy. Suppose you were
thinking of starting a fishing tackle store. Contact a number of fishermen and
get them to tell you where they buy tackle. Do they have to go to some out-
of-town store, or buy by mail? Would they patronize you if you handled a
complete line? What items do they have the most difficulty in finding in local
stores? These are some of the questions to ask around your community before
you start a store.

In this book you will find specific and definite suggestions, based on the
actual experience of others in starting specialty stores. From these
suggestions, and a careful survey of the needs of your community, there is no
reason why, if you really want to, you can’t start a successful store.

Choosing the Best Location

There are two general types of store locations, popularly called “high rent
locations” and “low rent locations.” Of course, the high rent locations are the
“hot spots” on the busiest downtown streets. Even a small store in such a
location may rent for thousands of dollars a year. Without adequate capital
such locations are almost out of the reach of the average beginner in
storekeeping. But for the sale of certain “drop in” items these locations are
almost essential.

People will not walk upstairs, around the block, or even across the street to
buy convenience items such as chewing gum, cigars, cigarettes, popular drug
items, soft drinks and similar merchandise. For stores specializing in this type
of merchandise, location is the most important thing.

In selecting your location try to determine how much your type of store is
actually dependent on location. Pick a location that is in a growing section of
town. Beware of a section that is being overrun by manufacturing, garages,
cheap rooming houses, or gives other indications that the neighborhood is
going to seed.

Different types of stores require different locations. Be sure you know just
what type of people you intend to cater to, and that the location you select is
in a neighborhood frequented by such people. In every business section there
is always one side of the street that is most popular; locate your store on this
side of the street. Most of the busiest locations are now cluttered up with
cheap chain stores, featuring “price” merchandise. A high-grade store
sandwiched in between a $1.88 hat store and a “five-anddime” store might
fail, in spite of the heavy traffic passing it.

Don’t be too sure that your store will attract people a block or so out of their
habitual path. People have gone broke trying to change buying habits. Don’t
hamper your store by selecting a location where people have to walk up
steps, or take a few steps down to a floor level, even a foot or so below the
sidewalk level. Obtain a location with floor exactly level with the sidewalk.
Beware of a store with a front that curves inward—people don’t notice such a
front.

Most young business men make the mistake of leasing a store that is really
too big. Figuring out how much you think you want, then cutting the space in
half, isn’t a bad rule to follow when selecting a location. Remember that a
large store requires more heat and light, more fixtures, and a bigger stock.
Just because a landlord wants to sell you the entire store is no sign he will not
divide the store and rent you half or two-thirds of it.

It may even be possible to lease space from a noncompeting store. Jewelers

occasionally lease a space in one end of a drug store. Sometimes you will see
a jewelry store in one section of a furniture store. Many expenses can be
reduced or eliminated if you can start your store as part of another store
which is already well established. In hundreds of department stores
throughout the country there are independent operators who own certain
departments, but operate them as a part of the big store.

Lobbies of office buildings, hotel lobbies, or even a small space in what

would be one entrance to a large store are frequently used for small stores.
Remember that every cent you save on rent and other expenses will enable
you to hold out successfully just that much longer.

What Makes a Store Successful

Sidney Carter, of the Merchant’s Service Department of Rice-Stix, the big St.
Louis wholesale house, has made a special study for many years of the
factors that make a store successful. He puts it this way: “I know a merchant
who isn’t very friendly, whose store isn’t very neat, but who does a big
business because he has merchandise in good quantities. I know another
merchant whose store is neat, whose stocks are good, but who does a
comparatively poor business, because he isn’t friendly with people. I know
another merchant who has a badly lighted store, and no fixtures to brag about,
but who does a big business because he is a good salesman and knows how to
teach his clerks to sell. So you see there are always many factors in
determining what makes a store successful.”

The National Cash Register Company, whose officials know as much as

almost any group of men on earth about operating stores, reports in its
excellent book, Better Retailing, that the things which customers like are:

A good assortment of well-arranged stock.

Prices right and in plain sight.
Quick, courteous, accurate service.
Exchange and money back without question.
Truthfulness about merchandise.
The same price to everybody.
An attractive, convenient, well-lighted, comfortable store. Chairs for rest
when selecting goods that take time. Careful attention to children and
servants.
Accurate filling of telephone orders.

There has been an enormous improvement in stores in the past few years.
Customers are accustomed to better salespeople, more careful attention, an
increasing amount of “service,” better lighting, and far more courtesy than we
once expected. They simply will not tolerate a slipshod, careless, unkept store
any more. A store that isn’t neat has no more chance than a frowsy debutante.

People will no longer argue about returned goods. No matter how “wrong”
the customer may be, he is right in his own mind and expects to be treated
accordingly. A customer may have no right to expect to return a hat after she
has worn it, but no merchant ever got rich standing up for his “rights.”

Overbuying is another cause for many failures. A successful, old-time

merchant’s secret of making a profit was simply: “Remember you can always
buy more.” In buying your opening stock keep in mind that the manufacturers
are scarcely going to stop making merchandise that is in demand. In opening
your store don’t tie up more than half of your capital stock. Save some of it
for unexpected expenses, for tiding you over a dull season, or for stock to
replace slow selling merchandise mistakenly purchased when opening.

Keep Merchandise Moving

Successful merchants aren’t afraid to sacrifice merchandise that is not

moving. After you have kept merchandise more than a few weeks it has
begun to “eat its head off.” It should be sacrificed at any reasonable price just
to get your money out of it, so you can put money into something that will
turn and make profits. No matter how much merchandise costs, it is worth
only what you can get for it.

Successful merchants have always gone slowly in committing themselves for

heavy time-payments on costly equipment. Don’t make the same mistake one
merchant did who had an $800 stock of variety goods and a $750 cash
register! While good equipment is essential, don’t tie yourself up for
payments on fixtures, scales, registers and signs. Even if you do a good
business monthly installments on equipment will take all the ready cash you
can obtain.

Last, but not least, move heaven and earth to satisfy your customers, and
keep them coming back. If a customer buys only once, telephone him, see
him, write him a letter, if you even suspect that he is buying elsewhere. Find
out why he didn’t repeat. Make any errors right. Make him understand that
you are striving to please him. It is by such tactics that successful
storekeepers are made.

Starting a Stamp Shop

T

HE intense interest which has developed in stamp collecting led Phillip

Carpenter, retired from the postal service at the age of sixtyfive, to sell the
stamps he had collected to philatelists in Portland, Oregon, where he lives.
Although he had a limited supply of stamps at the start, he rented a portion of
a store window, placed most of his stock on display, and waited for buyers to
come along.

“My time was worth practically nothing,” he explained, “so there was little to
be lost by displaying the stamps and talking to possible buyers. I had quite a
number of stamps which I had bought from the post office during the thirty
years I carried mail. Other stamps had been given to me by relatives and
friends who had heard that I was collecting stamps. Many of these were
duplicate commemoration stamps, such as the Century of Progress and
Harding; a number were foreign and air mail. All in all, they made a good
display.

“However, as I had little merchandising sense, I made only $15 the first
week, which was barely enough to cover expenses. After a few weeks, I got
acquainted with other dealers. We met once a week in a little restaurant and
talked business. From then on I began to get the right slant on the stamp
business. They explained that the prices I was charging for some issues were
too low; other prices were too high. They also pointed out that I needed some
new stock so I got in touch with several wholesalers. I learned values quickly
after that and shortly I saw the real possibilities of this business.

“I studied various stamp issues and found that I could buy from private
collectors at more advantageous prices than I could from the wholesalers.
One day a chap came in with a marvelous collection. ‘I’m broke,’ he said,
‘I’ll sell you this entire stock for $100.’ He told me that these stamps had
originally cost him almost $2,000. The other collectors, because of the
depression and because he insisted on selling them the whole lot intact, had
turned him down. When I glanced over the stamps, I discovered several that
were rare, and I saw that I could easily make a good profit. So I took the lot.
The next day, I called upon a customer who had been seeking some Danish
West Indies, and sold him three blocks of four each at a good profit. Before
that week was over, I had sold the entire collection to history professors,
school teachers, and stamp collectors for $796. For sometime I thought about
this sale and I came to the conclusion that if one person had a collection to
sell, there probably were others. I ran a small advertisement in the newspaper
offering to buy all or part of the stamp collections of the people in Portland. I
secured several good collections in this way and presently I had a good-sized
stock at a cost of only $460. I discontinued the advertisement and began to
concentrate on selling this stock. Before long I had sold all but a few of the
stamps at a profit of $1,400.”

Carpenter contacts the universities, schools and even the museum in Portland.
School teachers, especially those teaching high-school classes, are interested
in stamps, since they are able to teach more colorfully such subjects as
history and geography through their use. Foreign canceled stamps, especially
those from France, India, England, Italy, Germany, Sweden, British South
Africa, Honduras, China, and Japan, are, regardless of issue, in constant
demand by school teachers. They bring as high as 300 to 400 per cent profit
to the stamp collector.

Catalogs listing the prices at which stamps should be sold are available from
wholesalers and some of the stamp listings give both wholesale and retail
prices. A stamp shop may be started either by advertising in the newspapers
for stamps, as Carpenter did, or by getting in touch with one of the many
wholesale stamp companies. These companies will generally submit a large
assortment of stamps on an approval basis, allowing the dealer a discount of
25 to 50 per cent. Hence he can start his shop with very little capital. An
excellent location for this type of business is in a circulating library near a
school.

Making a Grocery Store Pay

T IS a notorious fact that most people who open up a grocery store fail. The
mortality rate is higher than in almost any other business. There are a number
of reasons why this is true. Sometimes the man who opens up the store lacks
industry. He is just plain lazy. He may have picked a poor location. Or he
may have shown poor judgment in stocking his store. But the principal reason
for the high percentage of failures is that the average man who opens a
grocery store overlooks the importance of sales ability and sales knowledge.

Competition in the grocery business is so keen today that old methods of

storekeeping won’t do. In order to succeed you have to know why people
buy, and how to make them buy. To some extent this knowledge comes
natural to observant people. However, there are certain definite fundamentals
about salesmanship which need to be understood to be successful in the retail
business. Fortunately for James Brandt, he realized this when he began to
think about opening a grocery store in Los Angeles. He could not very well
give up two or three years to acquire the needed selling experience, but he
learned from a friend that there were schools which taught the principles of
salesmanship by mail. That, he thought, would make it easy since he could
open his store and study while he earned. “One section of this course,” he
said, “was devoted to retail merchandising and, among other things,
explained various methods of building retail sales. This section, of course,
was intended for the wholesaler’s salesman making calls upon retailers, and
was designed to show him how to help the retailer move the goods from his
shelves. Being a retailer, I read this section carefully and found a number of
excellent suggestions which I later put into practice in my grocery business.

“From the day I opened the store, I realized the benefits of my salesmanship
course. Not only did it teach me how to address a customer, but it taught me
how to suggest things so as to build up the unit of sale. By applying the right
merchandising principles, I found I could increase a sale by as much as a
dollar. You see there’s a difference in the way an additional item is suggested
to a customer. Suggest it one way and the customer resents it. Suggest it
another, and the customer is interested. This art of suggestion helped me get a
good start. By applying this principle and others, I soon built up a successful
trade here in Los Angeles.”

Jimmy Brandt’s course in salesmanship cost him eighty-four dollars, which

he paid in small monthly payments. But it was worth considerably more than
that to him. While most people may not be interested in a course in
salesmanship, it is well to think of the many advantages of training if you
want to succeed in business. Undoubtedly, such training does open new
fields, and keeps you from making mistakes that often are costly and always
avoidable. No better way of preparing yourself for a successful career in
business may be found than is furnished by specialized training in business
practice and business fundamentals. It certainly shortens the way to that “first
thousand.”

The “Ins and Outs” of Running a Gift Shop

RS. BARCLAY had $500. She wanted to start a business of her own. There
were already two struggling gift shops in the town, but they carried mediocre
merchandise. Any gift the least out of the ordinary had to be purchased from
the department stores in the near-by city. Practically everyone played bridge
the year round in this town and there was an active social life—plenty of
“showers” for brides-to-be, baby “showers,” announcement parties,
children’s birthday parties, etc. Here was a madeto-order market for gift
merchandise. “What this town needs is a good gift shop and I am going to see
that it has one,” Mrs. Barclay remarked to an old friend one day.

The first step was to find the proper location. A vacant store, near enough to
the business center to attract trade and not too near that the rent would be out
of line, proved to be an ideal location. The interior was painted a pale yellow,
and the inexpensive shelves and display tables made by a local carpenter
were painted the same color. Sheer yellow curtains at the two display
windows were drawn to the sides in order to permit the passer-by a clear
view of the interior. This one-color scheme made an effective background for
the display of merchandise which naturally comes in every color of the
rainbow.

One wall of shelves held china, pottery and glassware. The wall across from
it held brass, pewter, woodenware and silver gifts. The display shelves on the
back wall were low and above them was hung a lovely piece of chintz and a
colonial mirror. These low shelves held toys suitable for children from
infancy up to the age of ten or so. The space above the shelves on the other
two walls was large enough to permit the hanging of several pictures—
etchings, prints, reproductions of oils and water colors. Two comfortable
chairs with end tables at their sides, three display tables and the wrapping
counter took up the remainder of the space but left sufficient room for a small
crowd to get about.

One of the tables was sufficiently long to display a number of items suitable
for bridge prizes from $1.00 to $3.00, the prices usually paid in this
community for bridge prizes. A smaller table displayed playing cards, bridge
tallies, pencils, table covers, ash trays, and a few books on systems of playing
bridge. The third table held novelties which were the fad at the moment and
for which there would be a certain demand for a short time. The display case,
which was the bottom of the wrapping counter, held merchandise which is
easily soiled. This merchandise included silk lamp shades, silk and velvet
cushions, dainty linens and baby gifts such as bonnets, jackets, dresses,
shoes, carriage robes, and pillows.

A cabinet at one end of the counter contained gift cards, fancy paper for
wrapping gifts, ribbon and colored string, little candles for birthday cakes,
larger candles in various colors for luncheon and dinner tables, paper napkins
and tablecloths, and place cards.

The windows were kept shining and bright and the displays changed daily.
Only a few things were placed in each window each day—perhaps a bowl
and candlesticks, a picture and a piece of beautiful brocade, or a small lamp
and and unusual cigarette box opened to show the cigarettes within. Each
piece displayed was beautiful, distinctive, colorful, or perhaps all three.

Building Up a Clientele

A customer list maintained on cards gives the name of the customer, address,
and telephone number and, on the back, a list of the things purchased with the
date of purchase. A check of these cards from month to month brings up the
names that are not buying and a simple announcement describing new
merchandise received is mailed to such names. The telephone is also used to
tell customers about new items. Subscriptions to gift magazines keep Mrs.
Barclay in touch with new merchandise, and a visit to the more important gift
shops and the department store gift sections in the large city near by also
gives her new ideas on displays and gift items. Then there is, of course, the
semi-annual exhibit of giftwares in the city, which she attends regularly.
Magazines such as House Beautiful, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue are looked over
carefully for suggestions which may be incorporated in displays or window
arrangements. When talking to customers she makes a point of mentioning
such and such an item or display as being similar to that shown in the current
issue of House Beautiful or Vogue, or other magazine from which it happens
to have been culled. This plan always succeeds in creating interest in a new
display and at the same time helps to sell the customer.

After the first few weeks people began to take notice of this shop. They found
that it wasn’t just a place where you might find what you wanted; it was a
shop that would have just what you wanted. This ability to create confidence
in her selection of merchandise began to build up a nice clientele almost
immediately. By the end of the first year, Mrs. Barclay had to hire an
assistant and to add two new sections to her shop—a greeting card section
and a “knitting corner.” The assistant was an expert with the knitting needles
and being also a young woman with ideas and a pleasing personality, she
soon helped Mrs. Barclay build up a nice yarn business in the “knitting
corner.”

It is possible, of course, to start a gift shop with less money than Mrs. Barclay
invested. If your home is one of the old-fashioned, comfortable residences
built in the nineties, part of the space can be used for your shop. The room
selected should be easily accessible to the passer-by and have suitable
windows for display. The walls and woodwork should be painted a
harmonious color if they are not appropriate in their present condition for the
display of merchandise. If the room has a fireplace, so much the better. While
some shelving will be necessary for the display of merchandise, particularly
as the amount of stock is increased, many of the gifts can be displayed as part
of the furnishings of the room. The mantel offers a suggestion for the display
of vases, china figurines, pictures, mirrors, etc., and the display should be
changed daily in order to make the most of this central feature. One or two
gate-leg tables, a Pembroke table, a tilt-top, and a coffee table will aid in the
display of gifts and a chest of drawers will hold much of the more fragile
merchandise. A study of the types of interiors featured in the current
magazines devoted to interior decoration will help you in the arrangement of
this type of room.

An announcement in the local paper and printed announcements, suggesting

appropriate gifts for all occasions, mailed to a selected list of names, will let
people know that you have a shop and that it is open for business. Keep a list
of your customers and the “lookers” as well, and use the telephone to keep in
touch with them when new merchandise arrives. Don’t expect this type of
business to grow overnight—rather a slow, steady rate of growth should be
your aim.

How to Become a Corsetiere

I

F THERE is a hospital in your town here is an idea that may be worth

$1,000 to you. A woman who had been a corsetiere decided to open a shop
with her savings. She selected a location in a busy outlying part of the city in
which she lived. Two blocks away, the neighborhood was zoned for light
factories and, of course, many girls were employed in the offices of these
factories. There were also a number of young women employed in the offices
and stores in the immediate neighborhood. But most important of all, just two
blocks from her store was a large hospital. Having had considerable
experience in fitting surgical corsets, she had selected this location in order to
build up a business catering to post-operative cases in need of abdominal
support, and in supplying the proper type of corsets for invalids and others in
need of special corrective garments.

She arranged to carry the “line” of a well-known manufacturer of popular

types of corsets, brassieres and girdles. This company was also noted for its
surgical supports and offered excellent cooperation to corsetieres handling
this sort of garment. Keeping in mind her market, she stocked her shop with
girdles for the younger women who worked in the offices in the
neighborhood, with corsets for the heavy matronly figures among the
housewives in the residential section, with collar and cuff sets, belts, gloves,
handkerchiefs, a good grade of hosiery, brassieres and other lingerie,
boutonnieres, and notions such as darning cotton, tape, thread, hairpins,
powder puffs, etc. Later when she began to know her customers’ tastes better
she would purchase ten to fifteen dresses in the moderatelypriced line which
she knew would be suitable for certain customers, and telephone them that
the dresses were in stock. Frequently, all were sold in a day or two as the
styles and prices were right.

Her first step in building up a business in corrective garments was to call on

the doctors in the neighborhood and explain that she was a trained corsetiere
and specialized in surgical supports. She also left cards with the hospital
office. Through the nurses who purchased hosiery and other items, she
secured further advertising.

A card record of every customer was kept on file giving the name, address,
type of garment purchased, date purchased, and size. From time to time post
cards were sent to these names announcing something special. A separate
record was kept of the patients who had been fitted with surgical supports,
and these names were followed up by special calls in order to determine
definitely whether or not the garment sold had been satisfactory and,
incidentally, whether a new one or a different type of garment was now
required.

The store had only one display window but she made the most of it by
keeping it spotlessly clean, by changing the displays frequently, and by
displaying the latest fashions in lingerie or the most attractive seasonal items.
Whenever she had purchased a few dresses she would place one in the
window with a card stating that a new stock of dresses had just arrived.
Within the store, the collars and cuffs, the handkerchiefs and silken lingerie
were attractively arranged in display cases, brassieres were displayed on
models in the corset section, and if dresses were in stock they were arranged
on a long rack at the back of the shop. The surgical support section was
located in a room at the back of the shop which was divided to include a
fitting room and space for altering garments.

For ten years this little shop flourished and during good times and bad she
made money. What competition did spring up quickly died down because she
never made any attempt to compete on a price basis and very few merchants
could match her ability to serve customers. The corset manufacturer whose
line she carried saw that she had about exhausted her market and for some
time had been urging her to move to a neighborhood with greater
possibilities. Finally she decided to make the change and rented the shop the
manufacturer’s agent had selected. Two display windows enabled her to
attract more passers-by and a larger stock with greater variety helped to build
up more business than she could have handled in the old shop. Two hospitals
in this neighborhood kept her busy with special fittings, and she still had
many customers through the doctors at the hospital in the old neighborhood.
As she located only about two miles away from the neighborhood where her
other shop was established, many of those whose names were on her
customer list still patronize her shop.

Even though you may not have the advantage of the special training which
this woman had, that need not prevent you from starting a business of this
sort. Most of the corset manufacturers conduct courses which you can attend
to learn the business. You do not have to open a store at first but can start by
soliciting orders from friends and others until you get a trade built up. Very
little capital is required if you begin in that way, and then after you have
earned a few hundred dollars you can invest in a stock and open up a store. If
you like people, enjoy selling, and buy cautiously, you should soon be able to
build up a business which will net you a good income—well over $1,000 a
year.

Start a Second-Hand Magazine Shop

“
W

E STARTED our magazine shop with a pile of magazines, a few dollars, an

idea and a location,” said Mrs. McIntyre, commenting upon the beginning of
the business in which she and her husband made their first thousand dollars.
“We had to live somewhere, so we rented cheap store space, moved in,
washed the windows and partitioned off living quarters in the rear. Then we
bought a pile of second-hand magazines from a storage warehouse which was
selling out the stored possessions of people who had not paid their storage
rental.”

After starting this type of store, the next move of the McIntyres was to decide
on where they were going with it. While the sale of used magazines might
tide them over the depression, to make a big business of it and to build for
permanence and the future required a definite objective. They considered
ways and means and finally they decided just to be “different.” They would
carry a file of back numbers as far back as they could, build up this file as a
reference file, and at the same time build up a wholesale business in used
magazines. Of course, they didn’t accomplish this aim overnight. Like so
many beginners, they made many mistakes and, too, they had a great deal to
learn.

Watching Out for Profits

“The most important thing I discovered,” continued Mrs. McIntyre, “is that
everything you sell must be sold at a profit. As long as you make a little
profit on every sale, you can’t lose anything. In acquiring the used
magazines, we accidentally got hold of books, sheet music, and unframed
pictures and sketches. We did not want these things, but they were often
forced upon us. When we had a number of old books and pictures, we sorted
them and placed price tags on them. People entering the store for magazines,
often bought a book or two, or inquired about books. We also found that the
old sheet music had a cash value. So we decided while building a file of back
numbers of magazines for reference, to build a back number file of songs.
This requires patience and everlasting work, but it is worth the effort, for
soon you build up a reputation for your shop. We came to be depended upon
to deliver back numbers of many magazines, and we received orders from
bookstores, libraries and collectors for back issues, as well as complete files
of magazines. The price ranges from a nickel to two dollars and a half for
each magazine.

“We obtain the magazines from the janitors of apartment buildings, hotels,
and rooming houses. We also make frequent trips to the furniture storage
companies and pick up magazines at little cost—usually about a cent a copy.
Some magazines may run a little higher but the most we ever figure on
paying for a magazine is twenty-five cents.

“We aim to have as complete a file on each magazine as it is possible to get.

We also try to carry as many different magazines as our storage space permits
and we are able to secure. If a call comes in for a certain magazine title or a
certain issue, we make every effort to secure it for the customer. For this
service a slight extra charge is made which the customer is usually willing to
pay if he wants the magazine.

“It took a little time to learn how to estimate values. I’ve sold books for a
nickel that I later discovered were worth several dollars, and magazines for
ten cents that had a current value of two dollars. But each time I made a
mistake of this kind, I remembered it. In the beginning, it’s best to stick to the
medium-priced magazines and books, until you learn more about the valuable
ones.”

In less than six months, it was necessary to expand the size of the shop so
more space was rented to care for extra business. Later, this store covered a
whole block and eventually a branch store was opened to care for the extra
business.

Quality Sells—Even Hamburgers

HIS story of a successful enterprise starts out with a creaky old jallopy and
eleven cents. Ted Lansmann, a young Californian, owned both the
automobile and the grand capital of eleven cents. On his way to give the old
auto wreck to a friend because he could no longer afford to run it, he came
across a hamburger stand on the route between Los Angeles and Pasadena.

The owner of the stand had given up hope of making anything of the business
and he was about to close up when the jallopy and its occupant came along.
After some conversation, the owner offered the stand in exchange for the auto