Selling

HOW TO START AND OPERATE A FIREWOOD SUPPLY BUSINESS

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HOW TO START AND OPERATE A FIREWOOD SUPPLY BUSINESS
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Unpredictable fuel costs and the necessity of keeping warm in the winter have resulted in “boom sales” for manufacturers of wood burning stoves. There has also been a return to the use of the fireplace as a form of supplementary heat and as a luxury that promotes the “cosy” atmosphere sought after by both middle class and affluent families. This renaissance in the popularity of wood heat, and upward spiralling sales of associated equipment, has created a demand for firewood that’s almost impossible to fulfil!

A very important element: This demand has!caused the price of firewood to almost double over the past several years. Whatever the “going price” for firewood in your area, you can expect it to increase by 20 to 30 percent each year for the next ten years or so.

Your potential market is as varied as the weather; it is also somewhat dependent on the weather. You’ll find buyers among flat dwellers as well as home owners. The rich are buying firewood perhaps more than the poor; those concerned with the purity of the environment and the so-called “voluntary simplicity” folk seeking a return to the “pioneering” life are all part of your market.

One of the secrets of success in this business is understanding why the people in your area burn firewood. Then it’s a matter of learning when and how often they need it, and positioning yourself to fill those needs.

It doesn’t take special education or training to become a successful firewood supplier. Just for the record, the
backgrounds of people operating businesses of this kind range from farmers to unemployed factory workers to doctors, lawyers, and even university professors.

The kind of equipment you’ll need varies according to the type of business you want to establish, and the kind of wood you will be supplying.

The first prerequisite to the establishment of your business is to decide what kind of business – wholesale to retail outlets,
or retail to the general public – you want to operate.

Next, you’ll have to decide on the type of firewood you will sell. There are three major categories: 1) mill efds or sawed
up scrap lumber and kindling, 2) whole logs for the buyer to cut according to his own rpecifications, 3) fireplace and stove wood, cut and split according to the general requirements of your market area.

Your next step is to line up a source of supply. Actually, it’s best to “lock in” a number of sources of supply. Later on, as
your business develops and grows, you may want to offer several different kinds of firewood, that is, become a full service dealer offering firewood to meet everyone’s needs and fancies in your area. We’ll discuss different categories of wood in demand, so that you can explore sources of supply and costs.

MILL ENDS: Your best source of supply for this type of wood is the sawmills in your area. If you live in a city, take a few
weekend trips to the small towns in the countryside. With a little bit of initiative on your part, you chould be able to
discover any number of small sawmill operations within reasonable distance of your home.

What you’ll want to do is buy a truckload of mill ends, take them home and package them into sacks of firewood. Thus, a load of mill ends that you might buy for £50 would be broken down into perhaps 200 sackfuls that you sell for £5 a sack. Multiply these 200 sacks of firewood times £5 each, and you have a gross income of £1,000 for a load of wood costing you only £50. You wouldn’t have to be very smart to realise that’s pretty good, providing your sources of supply can keep up with the demand.

The beauty of mill ends is that they are clean, burn easily and fast, put out a lot of heat, and when broken down into sackfuls are ideal for flat occupants, as well as people who only need a minimal amount for each winter. Until you have a large full service firewood supply operation, it’s suggested that you leave the sale of truckload supplies of mill ends to the larger, more established firewood suppliers. My advice here is that you should stay within your capabilities of supplying the buying demands of your market, and further concentrate on selling what brings you the greatest profit. However, as your operation grows, the supply of truckloads of mill end firewood is definitely worth considering.

Other sources of supply for mill end lumber will be your local lumber yards, woodworking or furniture manufccturing firms, and home building or remodelling contractors. In many instances, you can offer to stop by these places about once a week and clean up the worksite by hauling away the scrap lumber, and they’ll let you have it without cost. It is possible to even get paid for doing this. The only drawback will be that you’ll have to sort this wood, and then saw it up into the sizes you want for your bundles or sacks. This is no big deal, because you can handle a trailer load with a power saw in just a couple of hours. When you have the wood ready to package into sacks, you’ll save time and increase your profits by hiring a couple of college students. Contact the counsellors at one of the local colleges, explain that you need a couple of students for part time work sacking firewood, and you’ll have all the help you need.

As for how much to pay them, establish a pay rate for 100 full sacks. Of two students, one would hold open a sack while the other uses a shovel to pick up the wood and dump it into the sack. Between them, they can gather the top of the sack and tie it with twine. The full sacks, of course, must be stacked on a pallet or in an area ready for selling. Check the time it takes two good students, working at a reasonable fast rate, to load 100 sacks. Knowing the current minimum hourly wage rate, you can then determine the labour value of 100 loaded sacks.

For a supply of the bags to put the wood into, check with a farmers’ feed store. If you buy in quantity, you can get them
at a very reasonable price. You can purchase twine for tying the sacks at the same place.

WHOLE LOGS: Many people have chain saws and fancy themselves as “do it yourselfers”, but they don’t have the time to go out into the woods and bring back firewood. If you can supply these people with a location not too far from home, where they can saw and split their own firewood, you’ll have a steady stream of customers. You’ll need a large vacant site – about half to a whole acre – and preferably on the outskirts of your area. The first thing will be to put up a 6 foot fence around your ground, and then a small garden shed type building to serve as your office.

Contact a sawmill or logging operation not too far from where you want to open your business. Arrange with them to deliver whole logs (lumber rejects) to your wood lot. Your costs shouldn’t run much more than £10 per log, even for premium wood, but will depend upon the size and number delivered in each load.

Still another source of supply is the farmers in your area. Talk with them, and offer to “thin out” areas of standing
timber, and the downed trees. Sometimes, you can get this wood at no cost other than offering the land owner a share of the timber you take out. He may even consider your “thinning” and hauling an even exchange for the logs.

Don’t forget about the road building construction companies, and commercial and residential developers as sources of supply. Actually, once you get into this business, you’ll find sources of supply virtually unlimited, and restricted only by your own initiative in making contact with the property owners.

Once you have a supply of logs within your wood lot, there are many things you can do to attract customers. Run an
advertisement in your local paper inviting “do it yourselfers” to come out and cut their own firewood. You charge them twice as much per log as your cost, and they do the sawing, the splitting, the loading, and provide their own car or truck to take them home. You are there only to supervise and receive payment.

You could also rent chain saws, axes, and the use of your power splitter. Allow the customer to select the log of his choice, and then have the hired help – students, perhaps – who would saw, split and load this wood into the buyer’s vehicle. The ultimate, of course, would be to include delivery and stacking of this wood at the customer’s home.

FIREWOOD AND STOVE WOOD: In running a programme of pre-cut and split fireplace and stove wood, you combine all the principles we’ve discussed so far, into either a wholesale or retail firewood supply sales outlet.

The easiest and most profitable operating procedure is to set up a wood lot where whole logs are delivered to your location. Part time workers saw these logs into 16 to 24 inch lengths for you, and stack the wood onto pallets.

If you can set your business up along these lines, you’ll realise the greatest profits and not have to get involved in the
physical part of the business. The big thing to remember is that – as the business owner and operator – your time should be devoted to selling the end product.

If you decide to be a wholesale supplier, and sell to retailers, advertise for and hire commission sales people to call on the retail outlets in your area. You’ll need help in covering all the possible opportunities for retail sales of your firewood.

You should be selling sacks and pallet loads of firewood. Remember: the more you can divide a basic cord of firewood into sacks or pallet loads, the greater profit you’re going to make from each cord of wood you sell.

You’ll have most people buying cords or truck load quantities of firewood before cold weather sets in, and after that, people will buy in quantities only large enough to get by, or to last out a sudden cold spell. If you should also sell bags and pallets of wood to the general public, after setting up retail sales ou4lets, be sure that your prices at least “average” those being charged by the retail sellers. Never “undercut” the price your retail people are charging.

If you decide to do all the selling yourself – in other words, act as your own retail outlet – you’ll need to advertise.

Start out with a large three-column wide, by four inch deep display ad in your local paper. Unless you’ve had advertising
experience, get the paper to help you with the layout and writing of this ad.

Plan the appearance of this advertisement for a Saturday morning paper. Make your opening a big event – much the same as a grand opening or special anniversary sale – with free drinks, snacks, and balloons for the kids. Ideally, the opening of this kind of business should be staged on a weekend in late September or early October, and designed to acquaint the people in your area with your firewood business.

Get the name, address and phone number of everyone who shows up. This can be handled very unobtrusively by giving away free prizes requiring the attendees to your event to fill out simple prize draw forms. The prizes can be a free log of wood, dinner for two in a local restaurant, or even cinema passes.

The whole purpose of your grand opening show is to let people know that you’re open to serve their needs; to get them to
discover your location; and to implant in their minds the memory that you can supply them with the means to keep warm when the weather turns cold.

Quite naturally, many will find your services to be more convenient, time-saving and less bother than whatever methods
they’re currently using. As you talk with your customers, listen to their “complaints” about their present methods of
firewood procurement, and then alleviate those problems with the services you provide.

After your grand opening, a small 2 by 4 inches display ad in the yellow pages of your telephone directory plus the posting of advertising circulars and business cards left with woodstove and fireplace suppliers, insulation and remodelling contractors and lumber yards in your area is about all the advertising you’ll need to do. However, it would be wise to follow the lead of the “snow tyre” people, and whenever the weather forecast shows a cold front or winter storm moving in, again invest some money in radio and newspaper advertising.

Statistics prove that 20 percent of your potential market will prepare for cold weather by purchasing before the cold weather sets in. Another 30 qercent of the market will wait until the first cold weather spell hits, then buy from the first supplier that comes to mind. Finally, the remaining people will have to be “sold” via suggestion of the benefits your business provides.

This is the period when you begin profiting from those names, addresses and telephone numbers of people who turned out for your big opening event. Simply set up a telephone selling programme utilising the services of commission telephone sales people, and follow up on those who had registered.

You can conceivably operate this business from your home or backyard, and definitely on a part time basis, but the prospects of immediate success, with”outstanding profits, are so great that it would be wise to plan on a big operation from the start.

A receipt pad for taking orders, a “daily diary” or ledger type of book-keeping system, a calculator and a telephone should suffice for office supplies and equipment. Until you’re over the hump on the profit side, you can keep your sales receipts in a shoebox or daily staple together and store in chronological order.

A couple of other points to remember: Hardwood burns the longest and gives off the most heat; firewood that has been cut in the spring and seasoned through the summer is the kind most people will be willing to pay premium prices for; and giving the customer a “little extra” for his money will result in greater and longer success than quick profit schemes.

Once you’ve got your basic firewood supply business on a profitable basis and running smoothly, you’ll find your
facilities and business expertise ideally suited to adding extra profit producing lines such as the sale of firewood accessories, woodstoves, built in fireplaces, home insulation, or weathering services, recycling, and perhaps even home remodelling. er.

HOW TO RECRUIT DEALER/DISTRIBUTORS TO SELL FOR YOU

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HOW TO RECRUIT DEALER/DISTRIBUTORS TO SELL FOR YOU
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Everyone dreams of owning a super money making business where other people do all the work, and their only duty involves the approval of sales and bank deposit slips. It’s the only way to go as a business owner.

The problem is, however, not too many people seem to know how to “put together” such a business. What you’re really talking about is an operation where you supply the product and other people do the selling – a prime source with a dealer or distributor network.

Assuming that you have the product, you’ll also need a sales kit and plenty of impressive, eye catching promotional materials. If you don’t supply or offer to supply materials with which your sales force can sell the product, you’ll have a hard time enlisting people to sell for you, and you probably won’t set any sales records relative to your product either.

Let’s assume that you’ve just written a book – HOW TO MAKE £££’S PER YEAR AT HOME WITH YOUR TYPEWRITER. OK, in order to sell this book, you’ve got to get the word out to the people that you have such a book available. Advertising on your own is going to cost you money, and unless you’ve got a good understanding of the advertising business, you may never reach your full sales potential – besides, the time and effort expended in finding the “right” place to advertise, the placing of your ads, monitoring your returns, and the frustrations of dealing with curiosity seekers, will quickly wear you out. Such is not the way you envisioned your life when you got the idea to write the book, get rich and enjoy a life of leisure.

So, just as soon as you’ve got your book written – the book is your product – get some “bids” out to the advertising agencies in your area, the freelancers, and the advertising department at your local colleges. What you want these people to do is make up an advertising circular promoting and selling your book. Now then, in a different – maybe smaller- type, and kind of like as an afterthought – at the bottom of this circular, you include the phrase: Dealer Inquiries Invited.

Look over all the submitted circulars and choose the one(s) you consider the best. Then have a supply of these printed up at your local print copy, obtain a mailing list of opportunity seejers, and get them in the mail.

Just as soon as you’ve dropped these first circulars in the mail, start writing your dealer/distributor letter. This should
be simply an explanation describing how you will dropship orders for their customers, allowing them a certain commission on each sale and, the price per copy you’ll sell your book to them in wholesale quantity lots. At the same time, this letter should include a copy of your advertising circular, and an explanation, reassuring these dealers that they can reproduce this circular, with their name and address in place of yours on the order coupon. You might even include a brief note that you will pre-print these circulars with the dealer’s name and address and send them to him for a wholesale printing price. All of this boils down to your supplying him or her with whatever is needed to promote and sell copies of your book for you. The bottom line is simply that you can only reach so many people, and sell so many books by yourself. with 1,000 people helping you – mailing out advertising circulars and running small ads in loads of opportunity seeker publications- your costs of running your business will be minimal while your book sales should rocket.

Remember though, you need an impressive, eye-catching advertising circular or mailing package for your sales force to
use as their own, and you need a clear, easy to understand lepter outlhning the commissions you allow, the price of your
books in wholesale quantity lots, and the availability of advertising materials for your dealers.

The advertising circular should be dual purpose – you send it out to solicit sales of your products, and at the same time,
recruit dealers who are impressed with your advertising materials and feel that they can make some money for themselves by promoting your product. Again, this needn’t be much more than a simple “thsow away” line at the bottom of the circular: Dealer Inquiries Invited.

Now that you’re organised this far, the next thing is to contract to run as many small DEALERS WANTED ads in as many of the mail order publications as possible. Such an ad can be either a classified or a small, but eye catching one inch
display ad:

DEALERS WANTED! Outstanding new book. Sells like wildfire! Everybody wants a copy! Make £10 profit on every £15 sale! Details send SASE to:

Basically, that’s all your “dealers wanted”`ad need to say, and then with plenty of exposure in all the mail order publications over a period of six to eight months, you should have hundreds of people all over the country selling your book for you. Simple, easy, almost cut and dried, but it works!

In building my own business from scratch over the past few years, I’ve found that once you’ve established a basic dealer/ distributor network – or a list of people selling for you – you can add hundreds of related products, and the orders just keep coming in. Give it a try, and see for yourself just how easy and profitable it can be for you!

EASY MONEY FROM OFFICES

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EASY MONEY FROM OFFICES
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David Montgomery, 47, and married with three children, was made redundant by an office supplies firm in the Midlands, following a takeover.

He had worked there for nearly three years, knew a lot about the business, and so decided to set up on his own.

This is his story.

From my relatively short experience, I knew that the margin of profit on most office supplies is greater than for just about any other product sold at retail, with profits on many items running as high as 300%.

I was also aware that most Office Supply companies are quite large concerns with consequently large overheads, which includes rent for attractive branches in expensive areas, wages for telephone and other office staff, commissions for the expensive representatives, delivery vehicles, etc.

Additionally, not many people appreciate that all the suppliers have two sets of prices for everything in their glossy free 300 plus page catalogues – one set in the free catalogue for their direct’ customers, serviced by their own reps, and one (with no name on the cover, for independent agents) for which they charge around two pounds.

I operate entirely from home, using a cheaply shelved Talbot Express high roof van (they have more inside space than any other similar vehicle) which I have on a three year lease for just over £45 per week, including servicing.

Originally, my wife answered the telephone at home and took orders and enquiries whilst I was out delivery brochures to
potential customers and requested items to existing customers, but I now have a smart vodaphone in the van, obtained by taking up one of the cheap offers in the National Press.

The rental is just £25 per calendar month, and as I rarely make outgoing calls, the 25p per minute cost of these is not a
problem.

I do however make use of the rather clever ‘call transfer’ system, which automatically at the press of a couple of buttons,
transfers any calls to me direct to my home telephone. This ensures that I don’t miss any calls whatsoever; the small cost
of this really does pay off as I need never miss a call, which is much appreciated by my customers.

In this way I have totally eliminated nearly all the overheads normally associated with this type of business.

Additionally, since I need no other assistants, there are no wages and so on to be paid. I have established a regular route
of small offices and businesses in the area which I call on weekly, taking orders and making deliveries there and then of
the faster selling items.

Other items are obtained usually the same day and because I have reduced the overheads to nothing more than the expenses of operating the van, I can undercut all my competitors by a wide margin.

Although anyone automatically gets at least 30 days to pay for the items, as I do from my suppliers, I also offer a straight
10% discount there and then for cheque on delivery.

An amazing 70% of the smaller customers are quite happy to do this – saving us both money!

I have had no problem in obtaining all the customers I can conveniently serve; you could do the same.

Start by looking in your local Yellow Pages under Office Supplies.

Nearly all the companies listed there will supply you with their catalogues with blank covers for your own name.

I’m now (after only 18 months), making a take home pay of an average £900 + per month.

MONEY FROM USED TOYS

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MONEY FROM USED TOYS
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This is the story of Mr Jim Clover, who has now been retired over 10 years, and his wife, Mary. They never had children of their own, but are totally devoted to each other.

We let Mrs. Clover tell their story.

We live in a relatively small town in Shropshire and are operating an interesting business from our home which provides
not only many hours of happiness, but also, frankly, the extra money we need to supplement our state benefits.

We own what is known, for some miles around, as “KUTS”, the Kiddies Used Toy Shop!

We go to all rummage sales, garage sales, car boot sales and second hand furniture shops looking for good used toys and
playground equipment which can be repaired and sold in the little shop which we have set up in a storage area next to our little home.

Additionally, whenever we run a little short of stock, a small ad is run in the “Wanted” column of the local newspaper to
replenish supplies.

As we’ve increased our area over the years, we also receive unwanted, often slightly damaged toys as donations, too.

My husband, now known affectionately to everyone around as Grandpa Clover, makes any repairs to such things as bicycles, tricycles, kiddies cars, rocking horses, children’s furniture along with swings and slides for a playground; while I (for some reason known as “Auntie” Mary) run the doll and stuffed toy department.

I make new dolls clothes and I also wash, iron and mend the old ones, as the need may be, and sew up teddy bear’s bursting insides, and also I help Grandad Clover by repainting many of the items he repairs.

Between us, we are doing quite good business as well as bringing enormous happiness to the children of parents who could not possibly afford to buy such toys if they were new.

As you can imagine, at Christmas time we have difficulty in actually meeting the demand, although we are busy throughout the year with birthdays, treats, etc.

We are both saddened, however, by the number of children now growing up with just one parent – saddened when we remember them coming to us, as couples, for their new born baby.

We only open two days a week, which is quite sufficient, but never turn anyone away if they call at other times. Although we don’t make a fortune by any means (although we always spend January in Spain with the Christmas profits), we are able to have just those little extras that so many people of our age can’t possibly afford.

There’s not many businesses that you can start with just a few pounds – earn a bit of money, and enjoy yourselves at the same time!