Idea: How About A National "Help" Line?

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Mail order dealers better get geared up. Everyone in America is thinking about starting their own business. A large majority of these people will choose mail order because they don't like selling door-to-door or face-to-face.

Newcomers to the mail order industry normally ask the same types of questions. Us old-timers remember the misconceptions and misunderstandings we had when we first began our business. Who helped us? Someone always came along that we formed a friendship or telephone relationship with that taught us. Some of us spent time reading articles written by other people (like the report you're reading now). Someone, somewhere has to help a newcomer in mail order to become successful. It's inevitable!

A lady at the grocery store the other day said she'd like to get involved in mail order. I handed her a tabloid to look through at her leisure, but she said she would feel strange writing to these ads since they were all from large companies! She had no idea that if she opened her own mail order business, she would have a company name also and appear to be one of these large companies too! This is just one of the many misconceptions newcomers have toward the mail order industry.

Another misconception is that mail order is a rip-off world - which we know is entirely untrue! Some of the best products and services are obtained through the mail! Just look at Walter Drake and Lillian Vernon as examples! Ed McMahon and Dick Clark even jumped on the mail order bandwagon with their Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes!

The general public entering mail order for the first time cannot understand how the concept works. They are used to going into a store, looking at an item and purchasing it. Mail order (as we all know) is quite different. In fact - it's so simple to start a mail order business that most people can't believe they can do it. But with the proper education, these people can become thriving, money-making companies - ones that will remember YOU as introducing them to the market.

The Idea -

If someone started a National Help Line for questions and answers for newcomers it would not only be a big help - but a fantastic money-maker for its owner. All it takes is establishing a 900 line (how about 1-900-FUN-MAIL) to handle calls and a person to answer the questions. In fact, you might use the service to direct business to other mail order dealers by having them submit monthly dues in order to have business referred to them.

Suppose a newcomer wanted to get involved in publishing their own booklets. Several competent mail order publishers would buy the right to have this type of business referred to them. The newcomer calls your 1-900 number (an income for you) and you refer them to the mail order dealers (another income for you). If handled honestly and legitimately - this could turn into a pot-of-gold and help our entire mail order and small business industry as a whole!

The only thing left to do now is advertise the 1-900 number service you have. Initially, you will have to invest into advertising; and with something of this magnitude you should advertise in some national publications as well as adsheets and tabloids. National publications like Small Business Opportunities, Income Opportunities, and Entrepreneur will give you a much greater circulation. Also - don't overlook the opportunity to advertise in your local Penny Savers and community-type newspapers. These rates are normally lower than one-day advertising and could generate lots of initial business for you.

Another benefit to the person who would be establishing the 1-900 hotline would be that he or she could promote their own products and services, as well as obtain names and addresses of hot prospects; in which they could sell in the form of mailing lists.

One example of this idea in action is being done by Thomas McCrary, owner of USA Printing & Advertising. You call his USA National Opportunity Hotline at (708)429-4301 and respond to advertisers you see in his monthly tabloid. These ads all have a 3-digit number to call so you can leave your message.

Although this is only one type of idea for using your phone to generate profits for you - the area is still open to start a "900 Number" service for newcomers interested in starting a mail order business. I don't think it will be long before someone does this - but you may still have time to get the idea off the ground in your own neck of the woods!