I did this Little 'one man' Business and Full Time for over 4 Years back in late 90s' ...It was a Blast too , Check it out :)

in #business6 years ago (edited)

I was laid off at a Corporate Sales Job back in September 98'. Totally unexpected. I didn't know what the hell I was going to do. Until...

The Day After I was Let Go...

I wallowed in misery for a few hours then went to the grocery store to get some groceries. As I was hungry!

Low and Behold...

I was in line and at the check out , and I saw this Small Business Opportunities Magazine. I thought what the hell I'll check it out. So I put it in my food cart.

And this caught My Eye...

When I was going through this Small Business Opportunities Magazine, I saw an Ad for making $200- $1,000 with a small simple business and less than a $100 investment. Wow !!!

And Viola...

My little business was launched two days later. Where I actually started receiving money that very same day.

(Below) What was My Product ?? 911 House Address Numbering business. My neighbor's house number in San Antonio

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That's right , I charged $20 per house number to paint on curb.

It took a few mess ups to get this process down ( and it was when I lived in Nashvile, TN.) . I had stencil for the numbers and my background was green with white lettering. And I used reflective glitter on the white numbers so emergency authorities could find your house at night.

( Below) This is our house address number in San Antonio. The numbers were there when we bought the house.

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Conclusion...

I did the house numbers biz for a couple of years. Averaging about 10 to 15 a day at $20 a pop. The most I did in one day was 38 , and it took like 12 hours to do. Eventually I got into the Ornamental Address Sign biz and that was even more profitable. I got out of it in late 2002. But it was a really great time as I did it as a one man show right out of my bachelor's pad. Setting my own hours and paying my little Mortgage and everything else with it.

It gave me my first taste of being an Entrepreneur. And I never looked back :)

Cheers,
Robert

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That's actually a really cool business idea. Serves two purposes as well, better for emergency services response as well as friends and new people being able to find your home, but also its kind of cute as well. I really like the Texas flag street numbers, super cool. You could do a lot of creative stuff like for Chicago do the Chicago skyline with the address below it. For california do like a setting sun and a palm tree with street address. You could get really creative with this

Yep. You could definietly do that. I kept it simple. And the way I promoted it was pretty cool too. I would put Flyers on the post of mailboxes ( against fed. law to put it on or in mail boxes) and it would be kind of official looking saying for I.D. and Emergency purposes we are coming around the nieightborhood to put address numbers on the curbs. And the flyer went on to say if you want this Service please take the back of this Flyer and print your Address numbers on it. And then tape this to your window so we can see it from the street no later than by 7am tomorrow .

So I would drive around putting these flyers down the street. Come back the next morning to see who had the flyers with address numbers taped to window. Then start painting the numbers. And collect right there. Or come back later to collect if they were not home then.

well that was just brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was just shaking my head the whole time!!!! in amazement!!!!! :)

i was gonna say - why did you ever leave this job??? but... a better job with better pay is a pretty good reason :)

love it!!!

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah it was good but sometimes you decide to move on to other things.

yep! i understand :)
and it was a step UPWARDS so that's good! hehehe either way - awesome! i love people with motivation to try new thing like that. you made it work!!! and so stinking clever!!!! with the notes on the mailbox!

Your are a born salesman Robert. What an innovative idea and profitable too.

thanks @redheadpei. Not really but such nice words :)

That was such a great idea! I never saw that much here so someone probably could've made a killing do it here. Lol..you were certainly meant to go to the store when you did and see that magazine! Funny how things happen like that! Terrific post @robertandrew!!

That's a fantastic business, and helpful service. Nice first step into being an entrepreneur!

Thanks Princess for the kind words and stopping by :)

Great idea! I had heard of this hustle before and even had a guy ask about two months ago if we wanted it done when he came around.

The funny thing over the years the back trunk of my Honda Civic was dried green paint. Becuase the green paint I used would tip over all the time when I was driving. And it got all over the trunk and just dried.

Also, at least a 6 or 7 times I had to change my tires as it got punctured and went flat. This is because I was putting out the Flyers on the mailbox posts in my car. And was trying to get so close to the mailbox post to tape the flyer I would scrap up against the curb and the tire would catch a snag and tear and then go flat.

One of the most embarrassing things happened when a friend went out with me and tried putting a Flyer on the Post and the whole mailbox came falling down and the neighbors were right in the front yard. They started yelling at us and cussing. And we had to fix it later on.

Just hugely frustrating lol

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