A good friend of ours started such a business several years ago,

and he found it easier to sell the business owner by telling him

that 100 to 200 people were all set and willing to wear his

bumper sticker advertisement, because such people were known to

be in the area.

All this boils down to a recommendation that you talk to your

friends, neighbors and co-workers first. Get as many of them as

you can to agree to "wear" a bumper sticker. You might offer to

pay $10 for three months, or $5 for six weeks. With inducement of

money just to put a bumper sticker on their cars or trucks, you

won't have too many turndowns. One person we know runs an ad in

his weekly shopper newspaper, advertising the fact that he pays

money just for "wearing" a bumper sticker. And of course, don't

overlook the pulling power of all the bulletin boards in your

area.

This is an ideal business for constant free publicity writeups in

your local newspapers, plus interviews on radio and TV talk

shows. At first, you'll want as many people as possible to "wear"

bumper sticker ads. What you'll want to stress in any publicity

write-ups or media interviews is the fact that you've got the

"vehicles for exposure" lined up and organized so that any

potential advertiser needs only to give you a call, and you can

launch his advertising program immediately.

Next, you check w a number of printers and determine the cost to

to have bumper stickers made to order. Generally, you should be

able to get a thousand bumper stickers for $100 or less. Whatever

the cost, this initial outlay should be absorbed by your charge

to the advertiser.

So let's suppose you've got 100 people lined up to "wear" one of

these bumper stickers on their cars for six weeks. Figure the

bumper stickers will cost $100. Now, the problem of what to

charge the advertiser.

You should always charge on a "per-car" basis, i.e., on a basis

of circulation, as newspapers do. So, you charge $5 per car per

week, with 100 cars. This comes out to $500 per week, or $3,000

total for six weeks, from the advertiser. Subtract $100 for

getting the bumper stickers made, add $500 as payment for the

cars "wearing" the bumper stickers, and you would end up with a

profit picture of $2,400 for those six weeks.

In the beginning, you should be the one calling potential

advertisers and doing all the selling. Once you've got your first

program organized and running smoothly, your next step is a

natural multiplication of your efforts. Run an ad in your local

paper for commission sales people. Brief them on the basics and

get them out on the street selling advertisers for you.

The best time to launch a business of this kind is during the

fair weather seasons, or just in advance of general political

elections in your area. Once established, however, the business

can, and should sustain itself year round.

The selling "keys" to this kind of advertising are basically the

same as those enumerated for "word of mouth" advertising. You've

got people all over town spreading the word--talking about the

advertiser. And these people are saturating the area with the

advertiser's name and message wherever they go.

It's easy! It's simple! and it works! Compared with other, more

traditional advertising methods, bumper stickers advertising is

very low in cost.

One of the tricks of the trade is in using short, snappy, even

humorous slogans or telegram styled messages. For instance:

Anderson's Cafe---6th and Main---That's where I'm going---How

about you? Another idea is to make the lettering on the bumper

stickers luminous to the headlights of the cars following. Most

important, be sure to make your lettering easy to read, and the

message easy to comprehend at one glance.

Actually, you could start at the front of the yellow pages in

your phone book and probably never run out of places ready to be

sold on your -plan of bumper sticker advertising. Some of the

more traditional places to sell this kind of advertising include:

Taverns Pizza Houses

Physical Fitness Clubs Political Campaigns

Radio & TV Station Movie Theaters

Travel Agencies Trade Schools

Auto Repair Shops Insurance Companies

Flea Markets Newspapers

Appliance Repair Sporting Goods

Special Local Events

The important thing is to always be creative in your selling

efforts. Always show the prospect how his business can grow from

advertising in this manner, you propose, and how your method is

more positive, more responsive, and lower in cost than the more

traditional advertising.

Remember, too, the more clever or "catchy" the message on the

bumper sticker, the more it will make people talk and respond.

For ideas along these lines, go back to the yellow pages of your

telephone book and read all those short, crispy one-liners.

Remember also that advertising is a form of "brainwashing" and

the more people see the message the stronger that message is

imprinted in their minds. Therefore, when they need or are in the

market for the services or product offered by the advertiser,

they'll quickly refer to the strongest, easiest to recall

advertising message in their minds. And that, of course, means

that if the prospect sees a specific advertising message on the

bumpers of the cars in front of him day after day, when he's

ready to buy, that particular advertiser will be the one he will

patronize.

You can expand this business to include magnetic sign on the

sides of cars, saddle-back signs on the back of cars, and even

signs in the yards in residential neighborhoods. As I've

explained in this report, line up your "method of exposure,"

determine your costs and then go after the advertisers. It can be

a very easy way to achieve real wealth and independence for