Building a Business on Homemade Fudge

 Building a Business on Homemade Fudge 

    MRS. BENTLEY , who had a family of four children of school age, found herself faced with the necessity of adding to the family income. Near her home, in Chicago, was a district zoned for light manufacturing. Girls who worked in these offices liked candy, she reasoned; the men did, too, for that matter. So she made up a quantity of fudge, wrapped it in cellophane, and made the rounds of the offices. She sold out her box of fudge before noon the first day and scheduled a return the next Tuesday to those offices she had called upon. That night she made another batch of fudge and the next morning called on the offices on the other side of the street with the same result. It wasn’t long before she had built up a steady trade. She had divided the zoned section into areas and devoted one half a day to each area. In that way people in the offices in each area could plan on getting fudge if they wanted it on a certain day of the week. The girls—and men—arranged to leave their orders at the switchboard and it took but little time to fill them and be ready to go on to the next office. For special occasions, such as Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, parties, weekend trips, anniversaries, hostess gifts, etc., she packed fancy boxes of the fudge, alternating light and dark pieces to form a pattern. She booked orders ahead for these boxes and the children delivered them after school. She had arranged for two school stores and one bakery in the neighborhood to handle her candy and a tea room also gave her space for a small box of fudge which sold at a penny a slice. Through her cousin, who was the cashier in a large cafeteria in the neighborhood, she secured a good display of the candy on the counter near the cash register. Additional orders came from the teachers in the grade and high schools her children attended. These orders amounted to a nice little business, especially at Christmas time when many teachers went home for the holidays and wanted to add several boxes of candy to their Christmas gifts for the family. Another sales-making idea of Mrs. Bentley’s was to put a card bearing the name “Honey Fudge,” her name and address, telephone number, and the price a pound, in each package. The boxes had to be inexpensive to keep costs down, so she chose plain, deep cream-colored boxes and with a hard brown crayon wrote the words “Honey Fudge” in a distinctive backhand script on the covers. A little practice was required, of course, to acquire the proper swing to the writing. At first she found it difficult to get the right pressure when using the crayon on the cover, but this problem was solved by placing the box cover on a block of smooth wood. A little touch such as this in packaging merchandise often means the difference between success and failure in marketing your product. 

Where to Sell Candied Popcorn 

   STANDING in a crowd of three hundred and fifty people who stopped to watch a prairie baseball game, James Barlow, of Waterloo, Iowa, got an idea. Barlow wanted some popcorn and the nearest store was about two blocks away! Here were a hundred or more people all wanting popcorn. What a chance for making money! So he decided to test the possibilities of his idea the following Sunday. He bought a corn-popper and went to work. His wife’s cookbook furnished a recipe for making caramel from corn syrup and water, and from that recipe Barlow made up a quantity of syrup which he poured over the corn. Then he pressed this caramelized popcorn into balls, wrapping each ball with red waxed tissue. Just before the game began he filled a clothes basket with popcorn balls and carried it into the crowd gathering to watch the game. Slowly moving up and down the side lines, he soon sold all his popcorn at five cents a ball, and returned home three times during the game to refill the basket. His total sales were one hundred and seventy-nine popcorn balls. Expensive equipment is not necessary for successfully caramelizing popcorn. You may secure satisfactory results by pouring a thin caramel syrup over the corn shortly after it is popped, and letting it stand for a few minutes. Either corn syrup or molasses will make a good caramel when mixed with water and boiled. The syrup should be thin, however, so it will spread easily and dry quickly. Popcorn, always a fast selling item, retains its freshness for two or three days, and sells readily wherever people gather to enjoy themselves, such as beaches, picnics, summer resorts, parks, and tourist camps. Opportunities for quick sales are sometimes found among the crowds who wait outside of public buildings, fair grounds, and the theaters. Once you get the “hang” of making the popcorn, you can hire for a small commission a few “live wire” boys of high school age to help you do the selling and the first thing you know you will have a thriving business. It means a little work to get started, but it is more than worth it. 

Ivory Carving Proves Remunerative 

    YEARS ago when Frank Foster of Atlanta, Georgia, was a boy, he learned to carve ivory. As he grew older it became his hobby and as the years went on he became more and more expert. Like many skillful arts, ivory carving can be learned by almost anyone who can handle simple tools. It only requires patience and much practice to become expert. There are degrees of fineness in ivory carving just as in wood carving. Frank Foster turns out many different kinds of objects, from a plain billiard ball to the finest, most delicate bit of lacy carving. Since his retirement from business, Frank Foster has built up another business with his unusual hobby. Dominoes, billiard balls, beads, fancy boxes of all types, chessmen, bracelets, earrings, brooches, letter openers, book ends, small picture frames, quaint replicas of birds and small animals, figurines, and of course, elephants of various sizes, all are made by his skillful fingers. His chessmen are particularly beautiful. A fine set of thirtytwo chessmen brings him from $50 to $75; a de luxe set as much as $250. Ivory is rather easy to work with because of its resiliency. The ivory used by Mr. Foster is elephant ivory. The tusks cost about $1,000 each, but he manages to buy scrap ivory around one-tenth the original cost. Piano factories have hundreds of pounds of material that are useless for making piano keys because the curve in the tusk makes it difficult to secure long pieces of ivory. Therefore, the amount from a tusk that can be used for keys is comparatively small. This scrap ivory is of excellent quality and can readily be used to form small objects.