builders for any small business. They serve to enhance the
community relations image of a business, and the space required
to locate a bulletin board can be written off as a tax deduction
when listed as advertising or public relations expense.
People use these "business provided" bulletin boards to advertise
things they want to sell, home-based businesses, and whatever
they might want to trade for or buy. Then, they come back,
sometimes morning, noon and evening every day, to check them, or
to see who else has an announcement posted. Each time they come
into the business owner's store or shop, they may not feel
obligation to buy something, but of course the business owner has
another opportunity to sell them something.
Just about anybody can organize a route of bulletin boards;
charge the advertisers a small monthly fee; keep them up-to-date
and neat, (which will make the business owner happy) and make
some really easy money in the whole process.
The first step is to contact as many businesses in your area as
possible. Grocery stores, drugstores, barber shops, beauty
salons, service stations, quick print shops, rental shops, mobile
home parks, shopping centers, apartment complexes that have
foyers or recreation rooms---and the list goes on endlessly.
Sell them the idea of allowing you to install and maintain a
bulletin board service for them. Emphasize the community service,
the tax write-off,and the fact that you'll keep it neat. When you
get ten or more signed to allow you to install a bulletin board,
you're ready to start making your bulletin boards.
The best plan ( and of course the most economical) is to make
your own. Cut a piece of corkboard 3 feet by 4 feet, mount a 3/4
by 1 1/2 inch frame around the edge, and cover this frame with a
3 foot by 4 foot piece pf plastic. Mount the plastic with hinges
at the top and hasp at the bottom. On the back of the corkboard,
install a couple of hooks for hanging it, and you're ready to go.
Make up a sign---you can even type it out and use it as another
bulletin board announcement---something like this:
CITY WIDE BULLETIN BOARD SERVICES!
Your announcement or advertisement displayed here for only $5 per
month! For more information, call 123-4567.
Put your sign or announcement on each of your bulletin boards,
lock them up, and install them in all your locations. Ten such
signs with only 50 announcements per bulletin board should bring
you an easy $500 per month.
When you put an announcement from the same person up on more than
one board, charge them $5 per announcement on each bulletin
board. And one other thing: The date the "run of display" ends
should be marked on each announcement you put on each of your
bulletin boards.
In all likelihood, you'll have people waiting for space on your
bulletin boards. Keeping records should be very simple and easy.
Start with a loose leaf notebook, blank paper and a couple of
packages of 3 by 5 cards. In your notebook, write down the date,
the amount of money received and the number of announcements on
display, and the contract expiration date. On the 3 by 5 cards,
write name, address, phone number and expiration date of each
contract, and the location (s) of the bulletin boards (s) that
particular announcement is on. Arrange the cards in chronological
order according to expiration date, and file them in a storage
box.
Once you get rolling, you shouldn't have to service your bulletin
boards more than once a week, and as more people see the, more
businesses will want you to put one in their business location,
and more people will want to display announcement. Simple, easy
and a real money-maker for you.
This kind of business is what the newspapers like to write about,
and the TV stations like to carry as news of what the people in
their areas are doing as entrepreneurs. So take the feature
editors out to lunch, make friends with them, and push for al the
free publicity you can get.
That's the plan. It's simple, easy and depending upon the
population density of your area it could very well be the very
thing you've been looking for to supply you an extra income. It
demands little investment, not much of your time and no special
training or education. But, as with any business venture, it
takes ACTION on your part. You must get out there and set it up,
and work at making it a success for YOU! It's really up to you,
and we wish you success in it.
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