Page 23 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

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