COUPONING: HOW TO RUN AN EASY AND PROFITABLE BUSINESS SELLING SPECIAL COUPONS.
Look in your mailbox. What do you see almost every day? Coupons. Look in
your newspaper. What do you see EVERY day? Coupons. It seems like coupons
multiply like rabbits. Why? Prices are rising, unlike a majority of
people's incomes.
Coupons only make good financial sense. But what if you discovered that
someone's making money from coupons? They are, and so can you, by selling
a special type of coupon.
Manufacturers use coupons primarily to attract new customers. The money
savings entice people to try products they might otherwise not have. The
same can be true of local businesses in your area. Sure, they put coupons
in their newspaper ads. But you can give them the opportunity to get their
coupons into the hands of the exact customers they need, and at a far better
price than the local newspaper. You can produce a Local Business Coupon
Book easily, inexpensively, and profitably, if you follow the steps outlined
here.
The first step in running a successful coupon publishing business is to
find the businesses that will advertise with you. Any business that relies
on local advertising is a good prospect. Here is a short list of businesses
you should consider: Theaters; Hair Salons; Fast Food Restaurants; Record
and CD Stores; Dry Cleaners; Supermarkets; Car Washes; Muffler Shops; Ice
Cream and Frozen Yogurt Shops. Basically, any store that could reasonably
use a coupon to draw in new customers is a prospect. You may want to
specialize in one area, such as fast food restaurants. Or, cover the whole
gamut. Look through your phone book for businesses you might not have
thought of.
When you approach these businesses, target a group within a five mile
radius. It will be more time-efficient for you, and you can use the area
grouping in your sales pitch. Stress the fact that around 80 percent of
their business will come from that five mile radius. Tell them that you
plan to distribute the coupon book within that radius, so it will draw the
best results.
To be really profitable, you should get at least 15 - 25 businesses in the
book. The more, the better. How much to charge? That depends on how many
books you will be distributing, and what your costs are. One coupon book
producer charged $100 for a coupon going to 1,000 people in an eight mile
radius. His total cost was $300, and he sold 11 businesses coupons. This
gave him an $800 profit in one week!
The second step is to create the coupons. If you have a computer, the job
of designing the coupons can be quite easy with some of the word processor/
graphics packages available. If not, talk to your printer. He or she will
more than likely have some ready-made templates for coupons. You can just
fill in the blanks.
Be sure to put YOUR business name on the coupon (in small print, so it
doesn't distract). Subconsciously, people will remember your business name
and associate it with saving money. In any case, you will need to put the
advertising business' name, address, phone, logo (if any, many businesses
will have them ready made for you to use), the amount of the discount, any
conditions they may have, and an expiration date. Your printer can help you
with the layout, if you are inexperienced, or you can find easy to use
layout boards at an office supply or art store.
Assembling the coupon books can be done in a number of ways. The easiest,
and recommended, way to start is by simply stapling them together. Only
one staple will be necessary, on the left side of the stack of coupons.
Make a cover coupon with your business name and the name you've chosen for
the coupon book. Put that on top of the stack before you staple. Other
methods are perforating/padding, and perforating/perfect binding. Your
printer should be able to provide pricing information on these and other
binding methods.
The third step is distributing. You have already identified the radius
within which you will distribute your coupon books. There are two methods
of delivery you can use. You can either deliver them by car or foot, or
you can bulk mail them.
Bulk mailing is infinitely easier and more efficient, but requires a bit of
paperwork and registration fees. If you are delivering in one zip code
area, you can use either five digit presort mailing, or carrier route
presort mailing.
You should check with your postmaster regarding rules and fees. As soon as
you have mailed the coupons, deliver a copy of the coupon book to each
business that has advertised in it, so they know that customers will now
be bringing them in.
The fourth and final step is follow up. You need to know how your coupon
books are doing. Ask the businesses that advertise in your book to write
the amount purchased by the coupon-bearing customer on the back of the
coupon, and to hold them for you.
Stop by at least once a week and pick up the redeemed coupons. Besides
giving you purchase totals that you can refer to in future sales to new
customers, this also gives you a chance to talk to the businesses about
purchasing coupons in new books. You can show them right then and there
the results they have gotten, and they should be enthusiastic about signing
back on.
It is important to maintain a good relationship with the businesses who
advertise with you. Show them that you are committed to helping them
increase their business. If you care, so will they. This is a fun
business that can be started part-time, and can easily move to full-time.
Remember the man who cleared $800 his first week in this business. He was
just starting out, and you can do that, too!
