Are you looking for a way to use your skills as a salesperson or as a desktop publisher to start-up a new business? I might have one idea here that is worth a closer look.

Somehow, about every six weeks, a neat, orderly booklet with coupons to the local auto shop, the pizza place, the veterinarian, the beauty shop, the local florist and a home cleaning service show up on my front door. I use the $5 pizza coupons and maybe the $5 off an oil change and lube without ever thinking about how this booklet came to be. So I found out!

Well, someone in my town is an entrepreneur, sells the ads, creates graphic designs for the ads, has the local printer involved and uses retired seniors to walk around the neighborhood passing out the 20 to 30 coupon booklet.

What this person does is she sells ad space in the booklet for literally pennies per coupon making sure to never have two of the same business types in print at the same time. I see many of these coupons again and again which tells me they must be working!

This lady guarantees a certain number of booklets will be distributed and charges her customers by the 1,000 coupons. Part of the distribution is door-to-door but I see some of them in a small rack at the local grocery store too.

I did some research and found that there is a lot of information on the Internet about going into the coupon business. Most of what I read was positive. There is advice on color combinations for the coupons that are less expensive than other color combinations (I didn’t know that) and that printers are very competitive when it comes to bidding on this type of work.

Now the question remains can you sell the ads? Most business owners are going to be receptive to your sales call. Hand to them a color sample of a coupon. It is likely they have purchased a similar coupon ad in the past. The business owner will want a written assurance that you will distribute the number you promise so make that guarantee a strong selling point.

Your advertising fees are collected upfront so there is very little business capitalization required. Make sure the printer is paid and set aside some funds for those door-to-door seniors.

You can even purchase a mailing list or addresses by zip code and get into the bulk mailing business. Those business owners you approach would, if asked, likely say that you are doing them a favor since they do not have the time or expertise to do this on their own.

The online experts agree that the most difficult part is selling space for the very first issue. Make sure to include in your advertising contract the specific number of hand delivered or mailed booklets, that no two similar business will be in the same booklet and that each coupon will be in a classy two color publication. When the coupons start bringing in business (the pizza guy knows it works), you’ll have no trouble selling ads for the second edition.

Your homework: You should do a Google search using the keyword phrase local coupon publishing business where I just got 262,000 results. Make and take notes and put the best ideas to work!

One final tip: Be sure to read up on the information about digital coupons. What a profitable sideline addition to your new business that could be!

Source by Timothy E Stolz