Starting a Food Specialty Business

 Starting a Food Specialty Business 

    WHILE making bread one morning, it occurred to a widow in New England that the one thing she liked to do most of all was to bake, and she decided to give some thought to developing a “Food Specialty Business” in order to add to the family income. The next day she made arrangements with one of the local shops to handle her coffee cake and doughnuts and nut bread on a commission basis. She secured an order from the lunchroom near the station for a daily order of doughnuts, the first orders being put in on trial. A tea room which had a rather good business each day—and especially on Sunday —wanted rolls and pies as well as nut bread. These orders were, of course, not all placed in a day, but as she found a growing demand for her products, and her confidence increased, she had the courage to solicit additional business. Out on the edge of town was a tourist camp which like all such places had little facilities for baking. One afternoon she sent her son out on his bicycle with his basket filled with doughnuts, cookies, pies and coffee cake. It was all sold without difficulty and Johnny came home with orders for more. All summer long this proved to be a fertile market for her products. That fall and the winter following, she turned her hand to catering and developed a good business during the “party season.” Occasions such as the hard-times party at the club and a big Halloween party also at the club called for dozens of doughnuts. She secured both orders simply because the committee responsible for the refreshments knew where to get the best doughnuts in town. That was the secret of her success—everything did taste so good that people came back for more and more. She found that gingerbread was another favorite with the young people in town and she made a specialty of it by adding a fudge sauce to be poured over the slices. After her business had developed, people got in the habit of calling her when unexpected company arrived, and she generally managed to provide something delicious that would fill in for a tea or a luncheon or a Sunday night supper. She remembered that bridge party hostesses liked to serve such dishes as creamed crabmeat and creamed chicken in patty shells. As good patty shells were hard to obtain in their town, she added this item to her list and succeeded in working up a good demand for this specialty by recommending it for Sunday night suppers as well as bridge parties. “Word of mouth” advertising sold most of her products naturally, but the small cards enclosed with her bread, cakes, coffee cakes, and other items helped to advertise her business. These cards were about three by six and contained on the reverse side a number of suggestions for special “treats” for luncheon guests, bridge parties, Sunday night suppers and children’s parties. Many a hostess turned these cards over in an emergency and found a happy solution to “what to give the Joneses after bridge tonight.” The cards were carefully typewritten by a friend of the family for a small fee. During the Christmas season, Easter, Fourth of July, and other holidays, cards containing a list of foods which were especially suitable for holiday parties were mailed to her customers. When large orders were received or when a catering order came in, it was, of course, necessary to secure extra help. Frequently this was a young woman who had just completed high school and not having secured a position was eager to make a little pin money. Her work was simple and consisted of such jobs as icing the little cakes, putting the icing or powdered sugar on the doughnuts, beating the eggs with the electric beater, putting the cakes or doughnuts in boxes, washing dishes and pans used in baking, and frequently delivering special orders when Johnny had too many to handle. The actual preparation of the various specialties was never turned over to anyone else, however—the special goodness of these products could not be entrusted to any assistant. For a woman without business experience this unusual success might seem phenomenal. However, she succeeded because she put into her business what everyone has to put into business if he is to succeed—knowledge, hard work, ingenuity, and personality. 

 

 Making Money from Worn-Out Tires 

  AMONG the unclaimed goods in James Hadley’s storage warehouse in a middle-western town were a number of worn-out tires. He couldn’t collect rental for their storage space, and he couldn’t sell them for more than a few cents. So when he heard of a machine which made doormats out of the used tires, Hadley decided to investigate. “I had a good many old tires on hand, and if I could make them up into mats, I thought I could get a little profit from them,” explained Mr. Hadley. He invested three hundred dollars in the mat-making machine and incidental equipment, made up a number of mats, stacked them in his warehouse, and then advertised them in the local newspapers. “I believed I would sell a number of mats from the advertisement,” said Hadley, “but didn’t. There were no crowds clamoring for mats, and I was disappointed because only a few came to buy. I didn’t sell enough to pay for the advertising. I reasoned this was because people did not know enough about the mats, and my problem was to get people acquainted with them. So I tried a window display. But it was hardly noticed. I tried calling from door to door, and sold a good many, but I couldn’t down the feeling that there was a better market somewhere.” James Hadley kept thinking about this better market. He went around to office buildings and talked with managers. They used mats in the entrances of the buildings, they told him, and admitted his mat was better than the one they were using, but they were supplied. “I walked my feet off for two weeks,” continued Hadley, “before it occurred to me that I wasn’t using the right kind of merchandising tactics. I changed them. Concentrating my calls upon business concerns, I adopted a policy of leaving a sample mat with each concern, to be used for a short period. I then pointed out that since the mats were made from old tires, each mat was much tougher and stronger than an ordinary mat, and built up a demonstration to prove the long life of the mats. “One firm, manufacturing twist drills, wasn’t impressed by this argument. The purchasing agent told me that if the workers operating surface grinders preferred my mat to the one being used, I’d get an order. He put my mat on the floor in front of a surface grinder. If the solution used in operating grinders gets on the bare floor accidents are inevitable; so when my mat proved its ability to avoid such accidents, the workers wanted it. Before the day was up, the purchasing agent phoned and asked me to bring over forty- five mats. That cleaned me out of mats and out of tires, too. I got another order for one hundred and thirty feet of mat from a chain of grocery stores the next day, and had to scour around town to find old tires.” James Hadley paid five cents each for the old tires, and got an average of three square feet of matting from each tire. He sold the mats at seventy cents a square foot. His total cost including production cost and overhead was twenty-five cents a square foot, giving him a net profit of forty-five cents. With the mat-making equipment he was able to turn out three hundred square feet of matting daily. Operating thus for the first ten months gave Hadley a profit of more than a thousand dollars. There is an unlimited field for mats made from old tires in most cities. Laundries, taverns, roadhouses, saloons, cemeteries, churches, office buildings, machine tool manufacturers, electric power houses, dry cleaning plants, stores, restaurants, printing plants, factories of all kinds, and every home, are prospects for sales. The mat-making machine is small and operates on house electric current from an ordinary light bulb. It may be set up in your basement, or some unused room. The mats turned out are unusually durable, being woven together with heavy spring steel wire. 

Community Marketing of Handicrafts 

   ONE of the difficulties sometimes experienced by those who make things to sell is that they are more or less at the mercy of buyers when it comes to marketing their products. If there are several people in your community who make similar things, it may be possible to organize a community marketing agency, with one person acting as an agent for the products of all members. This, of course, has been done successfully in agricultural communities, and the idea is beginning to find favor among those who make things that are usually sold through such outlets as gift stores, department stores or wholesalers. A typical organization of this kind is the Willow Cottage Weavers, of Nantucket, Massachusetts. After several members of this group experienced difficulty in marketing their handicrafts, a central sales department was established, which devotes its entire attention to building up and maintaining a year-round market for the products of members. Deference to the style factor is most important in holding a clientele which must be persuaded to pay premium prices for quality products. Next to shortcomings in design, lack of conformity to color trends has been the most serious drawback for many a venture among arts and crafts groups. To overcome these serious obstacles, the sales agent for the Willow Cottage Weavers goes scouting several times a year to the style centers to study fashion trends, and more particularly, color preferences. As 95 per cent of the output is original in design, it is most essential that the merchandise conform to apparel trends to hold customers, many of whom buy on sample. The direct sales campaign is two-pronged. On the one hand, there is the solicitation of old customers by mail. This has lately been coupled with a “traveling exhibition” which is counted upon to muster new prospects as well as to contact the old customers in the cities visited. Some of the producers of hand-woven textiles have simplified their display problem by staging demonstrations in department stores. The head of the Willow Cottage organization prefers an exhibition sale at a hotel, club, vacant store, or other location that permits an atmosphere of detachment. Invitations to handpicked lists are relied upon to coax potential buyers. A second line of attack by the Willow Cottage Weavers is a distinct departure from the usual handicraft marketing methods. Several times a year, representatives of the twelve-loom plant visit leading cities to contact interior decorators and other volume purchasers of hangings, upholstery fabrics, etc. This plan has been richly productive of new business in sizable units. For example, a record-breaking order came in for fabrics for a new dormitory at Cornell. Because of the demand in modern upholstery and interior decoration for period designs, most of the work must be done to order to insure color conformity. These master weavers have found one secret of tying the steady customers which seems to have eluded most exploiters of handmade products. This trick is to fill the gap between orders of yardage for suits and coats with specialties such as scarfs, neckwear, runners, mats, bureau and dresser sets, etc. In addition to creating many additional orders for the weavers, this activity cultivates gift side lines that, in a sense, serve a sampling purpose in respect to weaves, patterns and color combinations. 

An Architect for the Birds 

    THE name of Joseph H. Dodson is so well known that when you see it you immediately think of little wren houses swinging from trees or commodious apartment houses for martins. This flourishing business had its beginning years ago when Joseph Dodson worked for a Chicago bond house and much of his spare time was spent in the basement of his home making bird houses. These little bird houses were unique in that each one had a tiny piece of shiny metal tacked to the outside. He had discovered that many birds like to primp and preen themselves before mirrors and that by simply attaching this little piece of metal he could entice more birds to spend their summers with him. Before long his neighbors began to ask him to make bird houses for them. Then the friends of his neighbors sent in orders and soon he realized that there were commercial possibilities in this hobby. From this simple beginning a good business has developed and today, Joseph Dodson is still making bird houses and shipping them all over the country from the little town in Illinois where he lives. It is an idea that might appeal to you as one way to make that $1,000 we are talking about. There is a good market in nearly every community for “de luxe” bird houses and especially martin houses. They are easy to make and all you need to get started is a clever design and a few tools.