Page 279 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

accounts on the books which had showed no entries for the past couple of
months and the total, nearly six hundred, startled him. Anderson left the shop
determined to find out how those postals were produced.
The next day he learned there were several different duplicating and
addressing machines for handling postal card advertising and that these small
machines were available for as low as thirty-five dollars. A salesman selling
one of the machines became interested in the idea and gave him several
samples of postal cards produced on his machine for advertising purposes.
Anderson was satisfied that here was a means for making money during his
forced vacation of one month without pay in a dull season. He took the
sample cards to the butcher. The butcher ordered a series of three to be sent to
old customers at monthly intervals. Then, he went to the druggist who had a
larger list, and secured an order for cards to old customers who had stopped
buying and another lot to present customers featuring some new special
items. Next, a dry cleaner saw the possibilities of using the card idea. Soon
Anderson had sold small jobs totaling over $2,500, to the upholstering shop,
music store, paint store, lumber yard, and many other types of merchants and
small manufacturing plants all around the city. He paid for the machine the
first two weeks. His ink and supplies amounted to comparatively little. His
biggest cost was the postal cards costing a cent each at the post office, which,
for the period, totaled less than $9.50. He was quick to offer ideas to the
merchants and for that reason got a little higher price for the work which
included writing up the cards for each case. The first month showed a nice
profit; the second month with the aid of his son, who had just graduated from
high school, he handled the remaining orders that had been obtained. By the
time the third month had rolled around the total profit was sufficient to buy
larger equipment and to set up his son in a small business.

Bringing the Show to the Audience

W

HEN the carnival to which he was attached disbanded, J. E. Cox found
himself in a small town in Georgia. Forced to remain there for several days,
he studied this town carefully. Its population was less than one hundred. It