Toehold

Well, I've found a means of marketing my cards that seems to be doing well, so I'll be investing more time into it. I mentioned a while back that I'd thought of a way to have a small army of salesfolk. To do this, I created colorful flyers and posted them in the career centers of local high schools. One counselor at one of the local schools liked my work and pointed out the flyer to a student who wanted to get started selling on her own.

The student did okay and got a few orders, but at this same school, I guess word got back to the counselor that I followed through well in support of the student, and so a couple more signed on. They've submitted their first orders with me and got paid, and so they then referred me to one of their friends, whom I signed up today. So here's the bigger question: can I replicate this model into a larger domestic model that can be profitable?

The students like it because there's no pressure to sell. It's their own time and they're not my employee. They make $4 per Connection Pack sold. If they sell two in a few minutes, that's equal to their job at the grocery store or fast food place.

So... how do I scale this upward? Great problem to solve :)

Read the whole story of "Workin' on the Dream"
by Brett Rogers, 12/5/2006 12:52:28 PM
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I don't know if you do this in the States but here in Canada, some businesses work with local community groups to organize fundraising opportunities for them. Your card business would work quite well for this.
It would basically be the same idea as with the students of your local high school. You could probably even use the same colorful flyers. Let's say you teamed up with your local Boy Scouts group or even one of your kids' class. They would all get one of your flyers and try to sell your cards to their family and friends (obviously the parents would need to get involved in this). At the end of the deadline, you would gather all the orders and return to the group the same $4 per Connection Pack sold as you do with the high school students. This would benefit both the local community group, by helping them with some fundraising, as well as yourself, by generating income as well as getting your work out there.
Something to think about!

Posted by Look up ... wayyyy up!, 12/11/2006 12:36:13 PM

Thank you! I've thought about this, which is part of the reason that I am working to get words on all of my cards.

For those who want to see the link where I have the prototypes, email me (through the link above) and I'll send you a link to the page.

Posted by Brett Rogers (http://www.beatcanvas.com), 12/11/2006 12:43:34 PM