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PLAN No. 409. A MEDICAL GARDEN
Garden vegetable products having medical properties made a large income for a widow with several small children, and though it required considerable care, the returns were more than satisfactory, for the druggists bought all she could raise, at high prices.
Larkspur, for instance, the seed of which brings $1.50 to $2 per pound, was one of her successes. This she planted in rows about 18 inches apart, and, when 4 to 5 inches high, she thinned it to 5 inches apart in the rows, and harvested it like buckwheat.
She also grew parsley, as the seeds and roots find a good market as drugs, and the roots bring 90 cents per pound. An oil is obtained from the seed.
Ginsing is another profitable product of a medical garden, and brings approximately $5.40 per pound.
She obtained reliable information regarding these plants, without cost, by writing to the bureau of plant industry, at Washington, D. C.
PLAN No. 411. SILVER FOX SKINS
When it is known that a silver fox skin is worth $2,500 in London, it will be seen that some capital is required to begin the raising of the animals.
A western man, who knew something of the business, organized a small company with which to purchase two or three female foxes and one male. The bureau of animal industry, at Washington, D. C., sent full information, free, on request, concerning this particular industry, and following the instructions received from that source the company made a remarkable success. One mother silver fox frequently rears eighteen young animals in three years, so the profit can be figured from this. Of course, the first cost was considerable, but this was amply justified by the returns.
PLAN No. 412. PERCENTAGE COLLECTIONS
A couple of young fellows in Salt Lake City started a collection agency by first opening a small office and calling upon all the merchants for their old, outlawed or hopeless accounts, on a commission basis ranging from 25 to 50 per cent of the amounts collected. By arranging with a good local reporting company, so as to learn the standing and financial condition of debtors, and associating an active attorney with them, they were able to write a form of letter that brought good returns. The reporting company saved them much time. These old accounts brought them in touch with good claims from time to time until in a few months the business was of sufficient size to give them a good living.
PLAN No. 413. COLLECTING ON A SALARY
A young man in Ogden, Utah, who had a particularly winning way in approaching people, employed this talent to excellent advantage by doing the collecting for a number of firms at so much per month from each. His tact and agreeable manner won in countless cases where bluffing or threats would have been unavailing. He had made the discovery that “politeness pays” to the extent of $200 a month, or more.
PLAN No. 414. RAISING PANSIES FOR THE MARKET
That pansies can be raised with profit, and made a regular business during a certain part of the year, was proven by a young woman in a middle-west city, who possessed a great love for flowers, and had more time than money.
She started her seed bed in the latter part of July, and in September she set the plants in rows five inches apart. These plants she protected with coarse straw until almost the first of April, when she uncovered the bed. Then she replanted in 2-quart wooden baskets, eight to each basket. The retail price of these baskets was 15 cents each, or $1.25 per dozen baskets wholesale. She sold to both wholesale and retail dealers in plants and flowers, and realized a neat sum from their sale.
PLAN No. 415. MEMBERSHIP COLLECTION AGENCY
A number of merchants in a western city were induced by a young man of that city to organize themselves into a mercantile collection agency, the membership fee to be $30 a year and to entitle them to have all their accounts collected free, even though litigation should become necessary to enforce the collections.
When collections were made for those not members, the charges were 20 per cent on all amounts under $40; 15 per cent on all accounts from $40 to $100; and 10 per cent on accounts over $100.
The young man engaged a live-wire attorney to look after the legal end of the business, and drew a good salary as manager of the agency, besides sharing in the profits of the business after all expenses were paid.
It proved a good thing for the merchants as well as the originator of the plan, and made collections much easier than under the ordinary methods, besides being more economical for the members.
PLAN No. 416. RAISED RHUBARB IN HER CELLAR
A Chicago woman raised rhubarb in boxes of rich dirt in her cellar during the winter months. It required but little attention, aside from irrigating it frequently with luke-warm water. In January, when everybody was longing for fresh green garden sauce, she sold it for 25 cents per pound, and made many dollars in that way. And rhubarb, besides being exceedingly healthful, is practically all profit.
PLAN No. 417. CABBAGE AND TOMATO PLANTS
Raising cabbage and tomato plants in boxes indoors during the late winter and very early spring, and later transplanting to beds out of doors, covering them from frost, and using good, rich soil, enabled a Kansas City woman to sell thousands of these plants for 10 cents per dozen, at a time when others were just beginning to sow the seed. Her receipts from this source alone amounted to $150 or $200 every spring.
PLAN No. 418. SWEET POTATO PLANTS
The raising and selling of sweet potato plants alone, in boxes of highly fertilized dirt, enabled an Ohio woman to send her daughter to business college from the proceeds, even though she received but 25 cents per hundred. But the thousands of plants she raised brought a very handsome sum in the aggregate.
PLAN No. 419. MADE APPLE BUTTER
A Missouri woman, in whose orchard hundreds of bushels of fine apples were going to waste, made several hundred dollars each fall by converting them into apple butter, of which the storekeepers never could get enough to supply the demand, for she had apple butter reduced to the finest kind of a domestic science, and her product brought the highest prices. This is how she made it: Cider, 30 gallons; apples, 10 bucketfuls; sugar, 20 pounds; ground cinnamon, 10 cents’ worth. Add sugar about an hour before taking off the stove.
PLAN No. 420. ATTORNEY TOOK EQUITIES FOR $400 FEE AND MADE $7,875
A young lawyer in a northwestern city had a client who owed him a fee of $400 for legal services. The client had no cash, but held equities in certain properties which he turned over as full payment for the fee. These included a 5-room house with a $600 encumbrance; an 8-room house, with $2,250 encumbrance; a clear lot in British Columbia and three clear lots in a small Montana town, which he was glad to throw in for good measure, as the equities in the other properties were of no value to him, since he could not pay off the indebtedness.
With all this property on his hands, the lawyer got busy. Over the long-distance phone he called up a bank in the British Columbian town where the clear lot was located, offered it at $250, and the offer was at once accepted. That left the two city houses and the three Montana lots out of which to realize the remaining $150 of his fee.
The 5-room house was in fairly good condition, so he moved into it with his family, and improved its general appearance by making a few needed repairs himself, and adopting the theory that a man’s property is dignified by his occupancy, and its selling possibilities increased. He then looked for a buyer or a trade.
A southern family, living across the street, greatly admired the little cottage, and offered in exchange for it a 160-acre farm, not far from the city, valued at $3,000, but encumbered for $330, provided he would pay cash $300 in addition. The lawyer made the trade on this basis, though in making this deal, as in all others, he adhered to his established rule never to assume an encumbrance upon a piece of property, but to take it subject to the mortgage, the purpose being not to be made personally responsible for the mortgage obligations.
Immediately upon securing title to the farm, he obtained a loan of $1,250, out of which he paid off the encumbrance of $630, and still
had $620 in cash from the proceeds of the loan. Therefore, as a result of this deal, he had paid out $680, and had $620 in cash, and an equity in the farm which he sold for $2,700.
Then he moved into the 8-room house, which was in need of cleaning and painting, and at a total expense of $100 he made it look like a new house. And it was close to the business section besides.
Not long after moving into this place, he was offered another farm of 80 acres, valued at $6,000, which was later sold for $5,000, but encumbered for $1,500, for the 8-room residence, and he accepted that offer also, taking the farm subject to the $1,500 mortgage.
The paying off of the mortgage on this house, added to the $100 spent for painting, etc., required an outlay of $575, and by giving a mortgage for $2,000 on the farm, he cleared off the first mortgage, and had $500 in cash left to pay the $575.
When he figured up the totals he found that for a $400 attorney’s fee he received more than $3,500 inside of eight months.
This attorney adopted the plan of accepting equities considered of no value in other people’s hands, in lieu of small cash fees and found a use for the property which enabled him to deal.
PLAN No. 421. ADS. IN COUNTRY WEEKLIES
An advertising man in a western city made $1,000 within a few months by purchasing a certain amount of space in the “patent insides” of a number of weekly papers supplied by a newspaper union, at 3 cents per inch, and selling it to city merchants and other advertisers at 5 cents per line. By signing up contracts for three or six months or a year, and filling the space with the ads. so contracted for, he derived a regular income from this source that enabled him to live well. This plan required sales ability plus hard work to make it a success.
PLAN No. 422. SPECIAL DIRECTORIES IN “PATENT INSIDES”
A Middle-Western man, with some newspaper experience, arranged with a newspaper union supplying “patent insides” to handle a certain amount of space in a stated number of weekly papers using their ready-print sheets, at a rate of 3 cents per inch. Then he had illustrated two-column heads made for several lines of business, such as: “Where to Eat When in Town,” followed by a list of restaurants, cafes, etc., each occupying two inches of space; “Where to Stop When in Town,” for hotels, rooming-houses, etc.; “Where to Buy When in Town,” for merchants in all lines.
He had but little trouble in filling these spaces with ads. that paid good prices, and made a handsome profit on the plan.
PLAN No. 423. BOOSTING HOME INDUSTRIES
A special writer in a northwestern daily introduced a novel feature for the paper, upon which he was working on a commission basis, by conducting a manufacturers’ page, to appear on a certain day each week.
He had a zinc etching made, showing a large manufacturing plant, with heavy, black smoke pouring from several tall chimneys, and with every indication of great activity about the place. Under this cut, in heavy, black type, were the words: “Buy Home Manufactured Goods.” Below this appeared write-ups and small display ads. of the various manufacturing enterprises in the city, and in the center a strong argument favoring the patronizing of home industries, in order to encourage the growth of those already established, induce others to come, and thus keep the money of the home people at home, where everyone would have a chance to get some of it back through the increased prosperity that would ensue as a result of this commendable course.
Each manufacturer was asked, and generally consented, to run a certain number of lines or inches of space in this department, and it was not long before the manufacturers’ page was one of the most prominent features of the paper. Not only that, but the commissions of the young man who started and conducted this department amounted to more than the salary of the highest-paid man on the paper.
PLAN No. 424. COPYING ADDRESSES
In the offices of the leading public stenographers in almost every city are thousands of names and addresses to be copied for the use of advertisers or other patrons and a Seattle young lady who was an expert typist, besides owning a first-class typewriter, secured all the work in this line she could do, by keeping in close touch with the public stenographers, directory publishers, and others. This work paid her well, and there was always plenty of it for her to do.
PLAN No. 425. ADS. ON BARBERS’ MIRRORS
A regular patron of a barber shop, while having his hair cut one day, conceived an idea. He proposed to the boss barber to install a row of mirrors, 21⁄2 feet wide, along the wall of the shop, about four feet above the floor. These mirrors he would put in free, with the understanding that he was to reserve the lower left-hand corner of each for advertising purposes.
As the mirrors then in the shop were rather dingy and oldfashioned, the barber was glad to make this arrangement, and the new mirrors were duly installed. Then the man who had thought of the idea went out and got enough advertising in one day to fill the reserved spaces, at prices that seemed extravagant, yet they were well worth the money. Ads. that were of special interest to men who frequent barber shops were taken for the most part, and these advertisers must have been pleased with the results, because they renewed their contracts each year. The first month’s receipts more than paid the cost of the mirrors, and after that it was most all clear profit.
PLAN No. 426. MADE STOVE POLISH
Making a self-shining stove polish of finely powdered graphite, at a cost of 2 cents for a 2-ounce box, and selling it for 5 cents a box, was the way a hustling youngster at Bellingham, Washington, “got his start.”
This polish he called “Lusterine,” and put on each box a label saying it was “Best and cheapest. No mussy mixing. Makes old stoves look like new in two minutes. Produces an instantaneous polish that will not burn off. Apply with a damp woolen rag, then go over the stove with a dry cloth.”
He sold immense quantities of this polish to the hardware stores all along the coast, at 81⁄2 cents per box, thus clearing 11⁄2 cents on each, and also sold a great deal of it himself for 5 cents per box, or a profit of 3 cents. It gave him a good living.
PLAN No. 427. PEANUT VENDING MACHINE
A Baker City, Oregon, young man made a nice living and a surplus by buying several peanut-vending machines and placing them on prominent corners of his town, as near the moving-picture shows as possible. The machines were of the penny-in-the-slot order, and yielded a small handful of peanuts when a cent was inserted and a button pressed.
Of course, others in his town also sold peanuts, but he had a novel way of treating his, and soon secured the peanut trade. He bought his peanuts in considerable quantities from wholesale grocers in a large city, and prepared them by placing a small amount of butter in a large dish, then put the peanuts in. The butter would boil up and cover the peanuts, and roast them to perfection. This butter could be used repeatedly. Then he would stir a teaspoonful of glucose in a bushel of peanuts, and throw on the necessary amount of salt, the glucose causing the salt to stick.
A neat card calling attention to the superiority of his special brand of peanuts did the business, and he was kept busy roasting the peanuts and filling the vending machines.
These machines paid him a net profit from $35 to $50 a week.
PLAN No. 428. MAKING HOLIDAY AND BIRTHDAY PRESENTS
An old lady in an Illinois town, who had always been very skilful in the use of the needle, was able to earn a very comfortable living by making sofa pillows, pin cushions, jewel trays, lamp shades, bookmarks, waste and work baskets, catch-bags, etc., and selling them to people who wanted to make Christmas or birthday presents of them, yet could not do the work.
After the holiday season was over, she would insert a small ad. in the local paper, saying she was prepared to make appropriate presents for birthdays and other occasions, and her excellent work soon became so well known that she had all she could do. Her prices were rather high, but were justified by the character of the work she did, and people cheerfully paid them, as they realized the worth of her work.
PLAN No. 429. KEEPING A FLOWER BED
For several months in the year, an energetic woman in a northern city paid the family grocery bills from the proceeds of a small flower bed in the back yard of her home.
She took especial care of this flower bed, as she realized that most of her neighbors were negligent in such matters, and would be glad of an opportunity to buy flowers from her later in the season. And she guessed right, for they were soon coming from all directions to buy her flowers. She had all varieties, which showed the effects of careful culture, and she charged good prices for them. For weddings, funerals, etc., she made up special designs, and sold them for several dollars each.
Among the rare flowers she raised were orchids, which brought very high prices in the winter, and she felt well paid for the labor and care she had bestowed upon her small flower bed.
PLAN No. 430. REPRESENTING COUNTRY WEEKLIES
An advertising man in the Pacific Northwest recently called upon the publishers of forty weekly newspapers, within a radius of 200 miles of the city in which he lived, and entered into contracts with each of them whereby he was to solicit advertising for them in the city and elsewhere, on a basis of 25 per cent, after receiving $100 worth of advertising space in each paper as a bonus. This $4,000 worth of space he sold at regular advertising rates, and in addition was paid 25 per cent on the business he secured and forwarded to the papers.
In this way the local weeklies furnished him the capital to make his start and they gave him a good profit on future business.
PLAN No. 431. BAND LEADER M. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 432. GATHERING OLD MAGAZINES FOR SALE
Living in a city where a great many magazines were taken, an old gentleman, who had no regular means of making a living, made a business of his own by gathering up old magazines from a large number of homes, and selling them at good prices to dealers. By calling regularly at the homes, he was given many of these magazines, mostly in good condition, and carried them to his home in a little cart. When he had accumulated enough for a good load, he got a friend of his with an express wagon to haul them to the dealers for a small charge, and received enough income in this way to supply him a living.
PLAN No. 433. A HOT-BED FOR PLANTS
A country woman who had constructed a hot-bed out of some second-hand material she had gathered from time to time, made quite a neat profit by raising plants and selling them to her neighbors, as well as sending them to a market in the city, when it was too early in the season to obtain these in the regular way.
Tomato, pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, egg plant, celery, and all sorts of flowers, were given a good start in the hot-bed, and brought good prices for all she could raise.
PLAN No. 434. MARKETING EGGS, BUTTER AND MILK
Of all the numerous opportunities afforded the country woman for making money, none present so many possibilities as do the supplying of many real luxuries to people who need and want fresh eggs, butter and milk.
A farmer’s wife, who lived near a large city in Illinois, saw in these unsatisfied wants her opportunity for mutual benefits, and having a large number of chickens and milk cows on the farm, she set about utilizing these products in a way that meant a great deal for scores of city people, and for herself as well.
Through the insertion of just a little ad. in the classified columns of a city paper, she received replies from over one hundred city people who were interested in the prospect of buying these products, and she thereupon hired a good woman to help with her housework and marketing. Through the parcel post, she sent to the city every day the freshest of eggs, butter, milk and cream, and was soon in receipt of an income that paid all her own personal expenses, the wages of her assistant and the tuition for one year of her daughter who wanted to enter college.
PLAN No. 435. A FARMER’S WIFE AND HER CHICKENS
The wife of a Nebraska farmer, who knew how to raise chickens with profit, made this industry pay by adhering to a few simple rules.
First, she weeded out all the “scrub” poultry on the place, and kept only the best specimens of the best breeds, as they eat no more than common stock, and bring much better returns.
Then she insisted on keeping her poultry yard absolutely clean, free from vermin and rats, and giving the fowls proper food in sufficient quantity to keep them in good condition.
She raised chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys, and, owing to her excellent methods of caring for them, had very little bad luck with them.
She made one or two trips to the city, secured enough permanent patrons to take all her surplus products off her hands the year round, at prices considerably in advance of regular market quotations, and sent her eggs, butter, young chickens and other fowls by parcel post, and cleared over $200 every season, with but little extra labor or expense. And $200 is quite a sum to a country woman, especially if she earns it herself and saves it all.
PLAN No. 436. JAMS AND JELLIES
A farmer’s wife, who lived more than ten miles from the city, and realizing that it was not possible for her to market her strawberries, and other garden products by driving that distance, only to find the market over supplied for that day, resolved upon another plan for handling these berries profitably. She knew that by putting them up in the form of delicious jellies and jams, home-made she could get good prices for them long after the fresh berry season was over, so she obtained a large number of jars, glasses, etc., and made vast quantities of all kinds of jams and jellies.
Her judgment was confirmed the following winter, for when the city people learned of these home-made delicacies, through a little want ad. in the city papers, she sold the entire lot in less than two days, at prices she considered very high. The next year she doubled the quantity of jams and jellies put up, which doubled her profits as well.
PLAN No. 437. BEE HANDLER—U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 438. KEEPING PIANO KEYS WHITE
This is a woman’s discovery, and a valuable one, too, for it not only kept the keys of the piano white, but made her a good profit. She introduced it by asking her friends to try it on their piano. She made it of the following ingredients, the proportions given being enough to make 96 4-ounce bottles of the preparation, and as a cleaner and whitener of piano keys it has no equal. The entire cost of making it, bottle, label and all, is only about 5 cents per bottle, and it sells rapidly at 50 cents for a 4-ounce bottle. This is the formula:
Grain alcohol, 1 gallon; water, 2 gallons. Mix. She learned by experience that this preparation prevents discoloration of ivory piano keys, and restores faded, yellow keys to their natural whiteness and gloss. With each bottle, properly labeled, she gave the following directions: Dampen a piece of chamois with the preparation, apply to the keys, and after fifteen minutes rub over with a dry piece of chamois. Repeat the treatment weekly, always using the same pieces of chamois, and you will always have white, glossy, beautiful piano keys.
She first sold this through agents, then to music houses, and later made it a mail-order proposition by advertising, and sold so much of it that she finally devoted her entire time to making and selling it.
