What Would You Say?

Matt,

One thought would be to search through SowPub archives several years back and further when biz ideas were flowing like a flood through here.

A lot of the ideas discussed were things a person could put together for as little as a small pitch book would cost once you found something you could get excited about.

I have always loved advertising and marketing for small businesses so my memory is more along the lines of email marketing (NO cost except what it would run to collect email addresses and an autoresponder).

Text Messaging is HUGE these days and reaches people where they are and especially when catering to younger audience of say 50 and younger.

I say search the archives because I just haven't seen many ideas flowing in recent years as I did way back when. Don Alm, Vondre, Skip Rosell all had a number of ideas freely discussed here. Of course there were many other contributors than them but they were constantly either coming up with a new idea or perhaps more often an older idea with a new twist which made it a new idea.

Don had a book of ideas in Midas Report that I bought years ago. Not sure if he is still marketing that or not but I have done some of the ideas and made money. Even if he is not for some reason selling it actively ... hey, he has a computer and can probably print you off a copy so I'd ask (if that was of any interest to you).

At one time Vondre had a bunch of ideas he shared in a membership site but I don't know if he still does that or not .... Google and see.

Skip Rosell is a faithfull idea marketer and for just pennies (almost) you can access a large selection of ideas. http://makemoneyalerts.com/

One thing I have done in the past was sell ads on a coffee mug. This was before the computer in my life but I found a company that would sell printed coffee mugs. I read about them in a moneymaking mag. The company was called AdverMug and I ordered their info with samples.

I was all excited and while waiting on the package to come I asked the owner of a local diner if they ever had broken coffee mugs that needed replacing and she said yes. I asked if she had to pay for those mugs out of her pocket and again she said yes. I asked, "Would you like to get delivered 144 new mugs every 3 months totally free ... she asked "HOW"?

I explained that I would put the name, address and phone number of her diner for free and deliver these mugs to her every 3 months and they would include the ads of 8 small businesses on them. She liked the idea so I asked her who she would recommend I talk with. She gave me the names of some people who frequented her restaurant to contact.

There were two of these people in the restaurant at the time and one overheard me talking with her and asked what it would cost. I said $75 up front and $75 upon delivery. He bought on the spot. He gave me his business card for me to get logo from.

I didn't have a receipt to give him, nothing to show anyone because my package of info had not yet arrived and I had not done one yet but I went and bought a receipt book and delivered his receipt later when I delivered him a mug. (Each advertiser got a mug when I picked up the balance.)

When my package arrived I loved everything except the price of the mugs because they wanted me to buy from them and they were pricey as I recall. I did some looking and found a company that would do them for far less so my profit was about $700 on each batch of 144 mugs sold and delivered.

The really fun part was there was no real selling involved. I had asked Shelby (diner owner) to call and let the people on her list know I was coming by. She contacted 4 or 5 of them while I was standing there and told them she was working with me on a project and was sendin me over with an idea that she thought they would be interested in.

Since I offered a non-compete agreement it was a no-brainer. PLUS ... they felt almost obligated since Shelby had called and she had thought of them instead of some competitor. My first mug was sold in an afternoon because 3 businesses were within blocks of Shelby's diner.

This is simple stuff ... and fun. That was years ago and I still drink coffee from my very first coffee mug project with her. If you have interest I'll take a snapshot of it and email it to you.

Oh ... on that first mug, I only sold 4 ads which I placed on the front of that mug. The back half I placed MY ad for Ad Specialties & Business Promotions. I had seen an ad for Kaeser & Blair in the same magazine as I saw the AdverMug ad and had ordered their package which is where I ordered my mugs from.

When I delivered the mug to the advertisers I made certain they saw my ad on the back side of the mug and asked if they would keep me in mind in the future for other needs.

From my first mug sale when I delivered the mugs the pest control company ordered calendars and flyswatters from me, a brake & alignment company ordered ink pens and key tags, a parts house ordered some caps and tee shirts and the feed and seed store ordered some caps from me so I was up and running .... to the bank. My profits total from that first mug sale was over $1000 when I add the profits from the above promotional products.

WOW ... it has been a long time since I thought of all of this.

Anyway ... I hope something I have mentioned has triggered an idea in your own mind for this individual that you are seeking a solution for.

Merry Christmas!

Randy