Page 286 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

slogan is “If Burley can’t fix it, throw it away.” In his little shop which is at
the back of his home he repairs furniture, picture frames, replaces broken
glass in mirrors or pictures, re-silvers mirrors, paints old furniture with great
skill, mends china, repairs broken dolls, re-canes broken seats or backs of
chairs, restores the finish on old furniture, polishes silver and brass, cuts glass
to any required size, repairs enameled signs, repairs pottery, cleans leather
saddles and other leather goods, cleans rust from metal objects and
instruments, cleans and mends ivory objects, sharpens knives and lawn
mower blades, and repairs many other things the average person lacks skill to
handle.

People have come to have perfect confidence in him and will entrust some of
their most prized possessions to his skillful hands. It has taken time, of
course, to build up this confidence and its resulting list of steady customers.
He secured the needed formulas for use in this work by reference to standard
books in the field such as Henley’s Twentieth Century Book of Recipes,
Formulas & Processes. Additional money is made by the preparation and
sale to customers of an excellent furniture polish. In preparing this polish he
did not try to compete with any of the cheaper polishes on the market, but
made a high-priced product which brings him a good profit on each bottle.

Most of his work is done in his own shop where he has the proper equipment
and tools to handle almost any kind of repair job. However, in some cases the
work is of such a nature it has to be handled in the customer’s home.

In Philadelphia the “fix-it” business has been developed by one man to a
point where he requires a fleet of Ford trucks to “patrol” the city. If a
housewife has a leaky faucet, or her electric iron goes on the “fritz,” instead
of sending for a plumber or an electrician who would probably charge two or
three dollars to fix it, she calls “Mr. Fix-It.” Within an hour the “Fix-It” truck
rolls up to the door and in a few minutes the repair has been made. The
success of this venture lies in the fact that each truck carries a complete
assortment of repair parts for fixing almost anything that can go wrong in a
house, and using the block system to speed up service. Truck drivers are
required to keep in telephone communication with a “dispatcher” at
headquarters. As each call comes in, it is put on file, and when the driver