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How to Start a
Mail Order Business
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How to Start a Mail Order Business with Expert Guidance
With the growth of the internet and our constantly busy lifestyles, Mail Order is a booming business. You don't have to operate out of a huge warehouse with hundreds of employees. You can be successful with your own Mail Order Business right from your own kitchen table.
Entrepreneur Press has put together a complete start-up guide for people who want to run a convenient and profitable Mail Order Business from home.
- Learn how to estimate start-up costs, the best products to choose and profitable pricing strategies
- Find out how to create amazing brochures, money-making websites get high-response mailing lists and even how to save money on advertising
- Get step-by-step guidance through start-up and daily operations, including insider advice from successful mail order entrepreneurs Begin here >> Start Your Own Mail Order Business
Mail Order Business Resources
Get Mail Order Products at Wholesale or Dropshipped for You
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Browse By Topic:
Apparel
Body Jewelry
Closeout
Clothing
Dollar Store Items
Dropshippers
DVD
General MerchandiseGifts
Handbags
Jewelry
Knives
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Products
Sunglasses
WholesaleDuplication Products & Services
- Get CD-roms at wholesale and Duplicate your own CD-roms
- Or get your CD-roms duplicated for you at discounted prices
- DVD duplication and more
Print Your Own Postage - Made Easy!
Do you want to avoid the drive and the long line at the Post Office? Do you want to save money shipping packages and parcels? Do you want to a professional look on your mail packages?
Your solution may be easier than you think - and right under your nose. Printing your own postage at home has lots of benefits - saving you time any money, even if you are just mailing a few letters or packages a week.
And now that "home-based post offices" are becoming more and more popular, I've found that the options have increased as well - if you are a small business, you don't have to pay for more than you need.
mailstation Digital Postage Meter
(All-purpose for low volume mailing)
- Postage rates are calculated automatically with built-in scale
- Print exact postage
- Automatically updates NEW postal rates
Personal Post Postage Meter
- Compact meter fits right on your desktop.
- Easy-to-use keypad guides you through the postage printing process
- Up to 10 Letters per minute
Shipstream Manager
- Ship all types of packages
- Scale automatically sets the exact postage needed by class
Marketing Resources to Help You Grow Your Mail Order Business
29 Ways to Get More Mail Order Customers
Take the guesswork out of finding customers by picking up the best marketing guide I've found. You'll find out free and extremely low cost ways to attract new clients to your business with very little effort - saving you tons of money
Respected Small Business Marketing Expert David Frey shows you how to implement these strategies right away, for immediate profit. The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Resource
See Also: Sales Letter Templates | Instant Marketing Toolbox
Hire Help the Easy Way:
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oDesk makes outsourcing easy and affordable so you can grow your business faster. Get a Free Tour, Post a Job
- Website Designers and Software Developers
- Marketers, Salespeople and Telemarketers
- Accounting and Bookkeeping Assistants
- People to handle Customer Service and Administrative Tasks
Practical Plans for Mail Order Beginners
Below are six simple, practical plans that will enable you to start and build your own money making mail order business. These plan have made money for others, and they will make money for you - If you will really work at them.
Plan #1 - Sell Big Mails. The easiest way to start selling by mail is to advertise and sell "Big Mails". To get started, co-publish at least three Mail Order Magazines and several ad sheets. Use an ad like this: BIG MAIL - $1.00 - Commission Mailed Free. (Your Name and Address)
When someone sends you $1.00, send him one copy of each magazine, one copy of each ad sheet, and one copy of every commission circular that you have in stock. If you advertise regularly, and fill each order by return mail, you will soon by selling ads and subscriptions, as well as merchandise offered on the commission circulars. You can expand by regularly adding to your list of magazines and ad sheets. There are some dealers who advertise in more than 100 Mail Order Magazines every issue. If you are willing to work, you can do the same thing.
Plan #2 - Sell Directly from Ads. If you are selling merchandise which is used by Mail dealers and Opportunity seekers, such as rubber stamps, information directories, envelopes, labels, mail order manuals, sample copies of opportunity magazines, etc., you can make money selling them directly from ads in the Mail Order Magazines. If you buy the merchandise in quantity, you can ship orders directly to your customers yourself. Otherwise, you can use the drop-ship method.
To be successful, you must schedule regular follow-up mailings to your customers offering more of the same merchandise or items that are closely related to it. Do this consistently, month after month, and you will be amazed at the number of checks you will have to deposit in your bank account.
,b>Plan #3 - Make Sales Through Circular Mailers. If you have a good offer - one which really appeals to opportunity seekers - have your printer set up an attractive 3 x 6 circular and then pay circular mailers to mail them for you. Your circular will only pull if it offers something that mail dealers and opportunity seekers want and need.
Ideally, 3 x 6 circulars distributed by circular mailers should offer "leader items", items which are appealing, useful and priced right (never more than a dollar or two-even less if possible). The purpose of the circular is to attract new, steady customers for your mailing list.
You should plan to make regular mailings to each person who purchases your leader item. It is the repeat business which makes Mail Order Profitable.
If you send 200 circulars to mailers every day for thirty days, you will have 6,000 circulars in the mail at the end of the month. If you send 500 a day, you will have 15,000 circulars in the mail at the end of the month! There are mail dealers who rely entirely on circular mailers to find new customers for them. Some of them distribute as many as 100,000 circulars every month.
Plan #4 - Selling Through Commission Mailers. This plan is similar to Plan #3 except that you do not pay mailers to mail your circulars. Instead, you print a good commission ad on the backs of your circulars, leaving a blank space for the commission mailer to rubber stamp his name and address.
The mailer stamps his name on them and includes them in his mailings. When he receives an order for them, he keeps about half of the money as his commission and sends you the other half to drop-ship his order for him. You will probably make a small profit from his sales, but your real profits come from the circulars which he is mailing at no cost to you. This method is a little more complicated than Plan #3, since you have to stock merchandise and fill drop-ship orders - but in the long run, it is cheaper than paying mailers to mail your circulars.
You can give your circulars away free, you can ask mailers to pay their postage for them, or you can run ads in the Mail Order Magazines like this: COMMISSION CIRCULARS! 100 - $1; 500 - $3 We drop-ship for half.
There are literally hundreds of people looking for good commission circulars. This can be a very effective way of building up a very prosperous Mail Order Business - if you have the stamina to work at it!
Plan #5 - Get Paid for Mailing Circulars. Start by studying the mailing rates of other mailers in the Mail Order Magazines and then create a similar ad for yourself. Start small - advertise in lots of 100 and 250. Later, as you gain experience, advertise for circulars in 500 and 1000 lots.
Besides your mailing ad, you should also run an ad like this! BIG MAIL - - FREE! Postage Appreciated.
Soon after your mailing ad appears, you will start receiving small packages of circulars to mail - each with money in them. (Be sure to send a sample mailing to the mailing customer. It is the only way you will get more circulars to mail!) You will also get letters with stamps in them. Use the stamps to mail the circulars which you have been paid to mail.
As soon as you get more requests for Big Mails than you have circulars, increase the number of your circular mailing ads. If you get more circulars to mail than requests for Big Mails, increase the number of your Big Mail ads.
If you stick to your mailing copies of magazines in which you are advertising in your Big Mails, you will sell enough ads to pay for your own advertising. And if you include commission circulars in the Big Mails, your sales from them will be "pure gravy". Circular Mailers soon learn that there are dozens of ways to make money in this business - if they keep their eyes and their ears open.
Plan #6 - Become a "Commission Mailer". The first thing you should do is sit down and order Small quantities of commission circulars from about twenty or thirty different dealers. Most will charge you about $1.00 per hundred. A few will supply them for just the postage. Once you have done this, order at least one new batch of commission circulars every day! (You will find them advertised in the Mail Order magazines or you can buy lists of commission circular suppliers from most dealers.) Also order 100 names of opportunity seekers from two or three different dealers.
It will take two or three weeks for your circulars to start arriving, due to present day third class mail service. As soon as you have about fifteen different circulars, start mailing them. Set a daily quota and stick to it. Five letters a day is 150 letters a month, 33 letters a day is 1,000 a month.
When orders come in, forward the order to the drop-shipper immediately. Then acknowledge the order and let your customer know that his order is being shipped to him direct from the supplier via third class mail. With your acknowledgment - include some more circulars. I cannot over stress the importance of this. Your customer likes you and your offers - give him the opportunity to buy something else from you. He is your best source for more business.
Orders will be slow - very slow - in the beginning, but don't get discouraged. Initially this is a slow business, and the only ones who succeed in it are those who have the patience to persevere.
When you find a customer, send him a new mailing every month for at least three months. (That is why you should be ordering NEW circulars every day.)
Once you find a circular that "pulls" - order more of them. If possible, order them with your names and address printed on them. (They will almost always pull more than rubber stamped circulars.) Eliminate circulars that do not produce orders, but keep mailing the ones that do. Eventually, you will develop a mail order "package" that will be irresistible to your prospective customers.
As your customer list grows, you will soon discover that your mailings will become productive (providing that you mail to your customer regularly). A "customer list" will always pull more than a cold list. Making the first sale is certainly the hardest. Commission mailing is difficult in the beginning. Most beginners do not stick with it log enough to give it a fair chance. If you will stick with it - you can make money mailing commission circulars. It takes determination and a willingness to really work at it.
Copyright DeAnna Spencer | DeAnna Spencer is a virtual assistant that helps entrepreneurs run a successful business by providing affordable administrative help. She also publishes a blog for small business owners. Visit this small business resource today.
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