Here’s an intriguing story. Could you start a work from home business with just $1?
A buddy told me he was about to lose his house, in Colorado. He had lost his “day job” and had gone thru his “UNemployment AND his friends and relatives and the bank was about to take over.
We were sitting in a coffee shop in Glenwood Springs, CO….back in the days when pay phone calls were a dime.
I asked him if he had ONE dollar he would “risk on a venture”.
He said, “Sure! I’ll try anything!”
So he gave me a buck. I went up to the clerk and asked for ten dimes.
I then asked my friend to pick up the local phone book and give me a number that looked like it was the phone number of a HOUSE.
It was Labor Day (Sept 3rd) at about 3 in the afternoon. (winter would be here in a couple of months)
I dialed the number…after 4 rings I got an answering machine. I hung up and dialed the next number my buddy gave me. Same thing. THEN…on the 3rd dial…after 3 rings a woman answered.
I told her:“Hi! My name is Don Alm. I’m a local guy. I have a business called “Valley Storms”. I install Sorm Windows. Do you folks have Storm Windows?”
She replied;
“Well…no! We’ve been going to get them but never got around to it!”I said; “Well! That’s what I do. I’d like to stop by this evening when your hubby is home and give you an estimate. Would 5:30 be OK or would 6 be better?”
She said; “Well! 7 would be best so my husband can have dinner first.”
I said; “Fine! I’ll see you at 7. Oh! (Looking at the address in the phone book)…is your address still 123 Main?”
I hung up the phone and asked the cashier if she had a Denver phone book. She found one behind the counter and handed it to me.
I looked in the YP under “Windows” and found several listings of companies that made “Storm Windows”.
The first 3 I called (I charged the calls to my home phone)…were NOT what I was looking for. I was looking for a company that MADE custom storm windows and had a “Direct Sales” crew out selling them.
The 4th co not only had a Direct Sales Crew out selling their storms…they had a “Demo Kit” they’d sell me for $60 which included shipping.
I got the prices of their windows. I’d buy windows from him at a wholesale price and mark them up to whatever I wanted.
I took his numbers and multiplied by 4 for the INSTALLED PRICE of MY windows.
It was now about 4pm. I told me buddy to get in my car and I drove over to my printer…where I asked my typesetter friend, Jeannie, to make me up an Order Form with the info I wanted and the heading of “VALLEY STORMS” with my buddies home address and phone at top.
Nowadays I’d just make up the Forms on my pc and run out some copies on my inkjet.
She pasted the typesetting on a sheet and I ran off some copies. She gave me a piece of Carbon paper so I could make a carbon of any orders and we went to my buddies home and got a TAPE MEASURE.
I told him that at 6:45 we were heading to our appointment.
When we got there, I introduced my bud as my “partner”…told them about how Storm Windows could save them a lot in heating costs….and told them we were going to go around the house and measure their windows.
We measured the windows on the 1st floor AND 2nd.
On a blank piece of paper I listed the sizes and prices of the windows…breaking them down to 1st floor and 2nd.
It came to something like $800 for the 1st floor and an aditional $400 for the 2nd floor.
I told them we normally get 50% down with the balance AFTER they were installed to their satisfaction.
The guy thought “that was fair” and wrote me out a check for $600.
Well…I knew the windows wold cost me about $300 on a $1200 job…so we had already made $300 PROFIT and we hadn’t even gotten the windows.
My buddy was beside himself.
The next day we drove over to the Storm Window co in Denver (on 47cent a gallon gas)…saw how they made their windows…got a “Sales Pitch” from the owner who had be doing this for 20 yrs.
We then drove back to Glenwood and “Valley Storms” was started.
My buddy went on to sell LOTS of storm windows that year. He STILL sends me a Card every Labor Day.
SO…thanks for reminding me of a venture I started from scratch…and I’m talkin’ SCRATCH!
HOWEVER…these type of “ventures” take a KNOWLEDGE and DESIRE to….(hold on their now, I gotta warn ya that the next few words are gonna scare the bejesus outa some of you reading this…so…lift your head up and take a deep breath…while you continue reading)….
THESE…types of ventures take a KNOWLEDGE and DESIRE….to “MAKE PHYSICAL CONTACT WITH YOUR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS”!
Yup! You are gonna have to CALL people and make an appointment to GO SEE THEM IN PERSON!
There…now most of you can breathe again.
Don Alm
Thanks to Dane for the lead…
No comments yet.