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Discovered! 505
Odd Enterprises

Hidden Dollars

How to Make
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Small Business
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You Can Own
a Business

Lee has made this occupation pay well by creating bird houses that have human faces, some that look like banjos, fish, clocks, etc. Seems that the birds like them as well as the customers! In fact, Lee claims that the birds leave the ordinary bird houses alone and fight over who will take possession of his unique houses.

Starting out as a spare time project, he has now worked it into a full-time deal. Another veteran coming out on top, I'm glad to report!

An example of the type he builds and paints is the house with a face. Eyes and a nose are painted or stenciled on the front, and a large hole (for the entrance) takes the place of the mouth, and this is bordered with lips. The finished job shows a comical face, with the mouth in wide-open amazement, the eyes seemingly staring down as if at the bird who is planning to make an entrance through the open mouth!

This is a good field to get into. I've said that before in "Discovered" and even mentioned a few ideas about unusual bird houses that are just as good as this one. One of these was the "white country church" bird house. The man who made these appealed not only to the bird lovers but also to the religious person. A fine combination. Speaking of miniature churches, a Californian makes such model churches working from pictures of actual churches. Sells his models to the churches themselves, who in turn use these replicas as a part of their fund-raising campaigns. Gets from $25 to $50 for each miniature.

However, these miniatures are not too small, but large enough to show every detail and also contain a special drawer in the back which is used for keeping the contribution money, building fund money, campaign money, or whatever it is for. This man claims that the unusual miniatures make the money-raising campaigns much more interesting and actually help to bring in more contributions.

Most of the models are painted white and have little bells in the towers and tiny crosses on the steeples. White picket fences, tiny lawns and trees go with the model churches.

Richard, who has a woodworking shop in New York State, has worked his bird house building into a very lucrative summer part-time business. He averaged around 350 bird houses a year, selling them all to passing tourists and kept up this average for some five years until the war intervened.

His wren and bluebird houses sold the best. Of course he changed his designs each year so that he could get the repeat business from some of his old customers. Many would want a differently designed house each year.

Richard says that there is always a demand for bird houses. He patterns his after the "Toonerville Trolley" type of building, or the kind that sort of leans over to the left and has a curvy or wavy roof. #122-124

U.S.A. . . . . TIN BOXES
If you are interested only in spare time profits at this time, consider the idea and project of Ann. She uses items that are usually thrown away, gives them a coat of paint, and finds many a buyer.

She'll take one of those tiny tin boxes that hold aspirin or other headache tablets, give it an attractive coat of colorful enamel, add an unusual design to the cover, and presto…she has a pill box! Fits into a woman's pocketbook and is handy. Makes a great hit with the women.

Using the same system, she takes a typewriter ribbon tin box, gives it a coat of black enamel, paints or stencils a bluebird (holding a letter with its beak) on the cover. Adds a finishing touch by stencil painting the word "Stamps" underneath the design. Here you have an unusual postage stamp box that will fit into the library desk, in the pocket-book or any convenient spot. Easy to find and keeps the stamps together where you can put your hands on them quickly.

Other small tin boxes can be used for similar purposes, such as the tin containers that first aid cotton, bandages, tape, etc., come in. #125

CENTRAL AMERICA
The six republics, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras will welcome you if you happen to be one of my readers who will some day head south for Central America with the thought in mind of starting a business there.

At the moment there are hundreds of ways to make a comfortable profit. Central America remains relatively free of buying monopolies, high tariffs, exchange controls and barter agreements. The average American knows little about Central America and that is probably why so few investors have turned to this part of the world.

Just to give you one example of the many opportunities awaiting some enterprising American, there is a lucrative chance to obtain plenty of alligator leather in Guatemala for manufacturing purposes, particularly handbags. A few years ago there was a thriving trade in alligator leather but the government discouraged further trade by imposing exorbitant fees for hunting licenses. This was done to prevent extinction of the alligators at that time. Foreign companies then left the scene and today the field is wide open because alligators are again plentiful and all restrictions have been lifted.

At this writing I have come across a report in a British Guiana newspaper that some ex-servicemen have decided to set up a unit in British Guiana for the purpose of trapping alligators for export of the leather.

Handbag production in Guatemala at the low prevailing labor rates can make a fortune for a man who knows something about handbag manufacturing. A small shop to start, then a gradual expansion as you export more and more bags. If you've ever priced anything made out of alligator, you know the fancy prices they command!

Your prayers will be answered if you have experience in the clothing line and establish yourself in Guatemala. Guatemalan cloth has a charm and distinction all its own and is just right for men's summer sportswear. The Guatemalan consul in New York City claims that there aren't any establishments in Guatemala that are manufacturing ready-made suits. He even goes so far as to urge cutters, with suitable amounts of capital, to go there for the purpose of setting up a men's suit shop and supply the local demand!

By teaching the natives American production methods, not only suits can be made at a large profit, but Panama hats. Most of the Panama hats are made in Ecuador, but Panama does make similar straw, hats. At this time the styles have not been popular with Americans. A clever hat designer with ideas, and not too much capital, could create models that would be ill demand in this country, by simply taking a dollar straw hat and converting it into a woman's hat which any miss in this country would be anxious to get her hands on, even to the extent of paying as much as $10.

We are told that straw baskets in Panama have been revamped into chic "pillbox" chapeaux and exported to New York, selling there for as much as $7.50 each.

If you care to pioneer in the fruit export field, you'll be welcome too. Central America is rich in tropical fruits. Here we find the cherimoya, guanabana, sapodilla, mango and mangosteen, all with exotic flavors. Folks here at home WILL buy these delicious fruits for their fruit bowls IF ways can be devised to get them to this country so that they can be sold at reasonable prices. A better way yet is to raise these same fruits here in the United States and thus save the expensive air cargo rates.

It can be done. Right here in the county in which I live I can visit a farm that is experimenting with such fruits and although it may take some time, at least one of the above mentioned tropical fruits…the cherimoya…is being raised on a commercial basis at this farm and sold to a luxury-type market in San Diego. At the moment cherimoyas bring from 60¢ to 90¢ a lb.

The cherimoya is unusual in appearance, looking like something between an avocado and an artichoke, with indentations all over the green skin like thumbprints or scaled like a pineapple. Tastes like a cross between a pineapple, pear, strawberry and banana, if you can imagine what that combination must taste like.

On this same farm, and other nearby farms, experiments are taking place with "passion fruit", feijoas, bananas, limequats, mangos, sapotas, cactus fruit, lemon guavas, cattleys, carissas, etc. A nearby neighbor is making tests with the mangosteen, a tropical fruit that is said to be the most delightful fruit in the world! Nothing like it, according to those experts and tourists who have tasted every type of fruit in this world.

Next to the cherimoya, the sapota seems the most likely tropical fruit to soon be on the fruit stands in this country. Tastes a lot like vanilla ice cream, or a cross between a pear and a banana. A fruit with immense possibilities, more so than any other tropical fruit that I know of, is the Mango. Called the apple of India, some have been raised on an experimental basis in Florida and California. Smooth-skinned with the appearance and color of a peach, but twice as large and juicy, the mango is said to make an excellent ice cream flavoring ingredient.

A few miles from where I live some attempts were made to start a packing house for the "passion fruit", an egg sized greenish-brown tropical fruit. Although quite delicious and not too expensive, the name seemed to scare away the wholesale dealers by leading them to believe that the fruit would bring out the "wolf" in folks, so the firm folded up.

However, I still believe that by raising a different type of passion fruit, perhaps a different size or color, and giving it a new "trade" name, the public would go for it. Just as in the case of the avocado, the real name of which is Alligator pear, not a very appealing name…hence the change to avocado, calavo, etc.

Speaking of avocados, the experimental grower in this country should be encouraged by the memory that some 35 years ago the subtropical avocado was just another orphan tropical fruit. Now thousands of farmers are making a good living raising them, and $5,000,000 worth will reach the market this year.

There is a marvelous opportunity for experienced farmers to try their luck with any of these tropical fruits. Any of the southern states, Florida, Texas, Arizona and California should be excellent testing grounds. Of course experiments could take place under glass in many other parts of the United States. Government experimental stations will be glad to offer any information they happen to have on the subject.

Don't forget cactus cultivation while you are making a study of the tropical fruit possibilities. A chap in Southern California has made a business out of growing such cactus fruit. About the size of a hand grenade with a green skin, the inside tastes and looks like watermelon. However, it has its own distinctive flavor. The "tuna" cactus produces the best type of cactus fruit.

A store, selling nothing but tropical fruits or unusual fruits, might have great appeal in the average eastern city.

Until such fruits can be raised on a commercial basis in the United States, it might be well to consider the possibility of importing the fruits from Central America. Air-freight rates are 53¢ a lb. from Guatemala City to New Orleans, so the fruit would have to sell at luxury prices. A clever advertising campaign in which the fruits were exploited as the "orchids of the fruit world" might induce many people to buy them.

The guanabana can be made into a fruit concentrate before being shipped to this country by boat. No need for air cargo in this particular case. The Central Americans make a delicious sherbet and fruit drink out of the concentrate. As yet the flavor is unknown here in the States, so it probably would go over with a bang.

Another opportunity for someone to settle in Guatemala and start an exporting business for this concentrate to the United States! If it goes over even in a fairly small way, a fortune is the result.

Some of the Latin American countries restrict new enterprises to citizens only. However, Guatemala allows outsiders to start a business if a license is obtained. Licenses are relatively easy to get. Honduras the same. Nicaragua the same, but for large firms the personnel must be 75% natives. You can start a business in Panama if you are a citizen or a prospective citizen, which just about covers anyone. El Salvador excluded foreigners who will compete with certain types of native producers (for native consumption). Other types, or exporting businesses, are O.K.

Further details can be had by writing to the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Washington, D.C. Or you can write to the individual consuls located in New York or San Francisco, or to the Chambers of Commerce in any of the large Central American cities. Honesty, fairness and friendliness will be appreciated and rewarded well in these countries. #125-128

U.S.A. . . . . "STROLLER" RENTAL
How'd you like to have a business with the name of "Toddler's Taxi Service"? A couple of G.I.s own a project with that name in a midwestern city. They rent baby "strollers" or the kind of wheeled baby seat that is pushed along the streets by Mother when she wants to take the baby along for a ride.

Not every household has one of these baby strollers so these fellows rent them out to harassed shopping mothers in the downtown section, charging 25¢ an hour. So far they have only grossed $40 a week but they have plans for expansion and a greater coverage of the city's shopping districts.

Speaking of toddlers, two more vets have started into business in the same district operating a "Prescribed Formula Service". Babies' formulas are made to order for the busy mother and they have, a list of some 70 mothers who subscribe regularly to their unusual service.

A charge of $4.00 per week is made so you can see that the enterprise must be giving each veteran a decent weekly wage after all expenses have been paid. They too have plans for expansion, supplying the same service to nearby towns.

Either one of these projects could be started in practically any community throughout the United States without too much competition at this particular time, because the idea is quite new.

A couple in Kentucky had so many requests for their baby scales and their baby bassinet from folks who wanted to borrow them that they decided to start a "Baby Bassinet Service" and make some profit out of this demand.

They rent baby scales and bassinets only, nothing else. Business has been so good that this enterprising man and wife partnership now have $500 worth of equipment for rental purposes. Does this give you an idea Right! Combine all the above into one "Baby Service". #129

U.S.A. . . . . STRAW FLOWERS
You folks who have always been interested in starting some sort of an outdoor project…have you ever thought about growing the so-called "straw flowers"?

Usually fresh flowers are too expensive for the average housewife to buy during the winter months. The housewife wants something to brighten up the home, during the dark and bleak winter days, something to act as a gay table decoration. Straw flowers are the answer because they are colorful and inexpensive and they last all of the winter.

I've been told that they are easy to raise. The summer time can be spent in raising them and the fall and winter months in promoting the sale of them.

This type of flower is cut when the bloom is full and hung bloom downward in bunches until they are thoroughly dried. There are many different types of straw flowers, and attractive assortments can be grown and dried for the market. #130

U.S.A. . . . . TOY CLUB
We have our book-of-the-month club and our flower-of-the-month club and our candy-of-the-month club, and so on, but it remained for Jack to start a "Toy-of-the-Month Club".

The parent member receives a different toy for his child once a month by parcel post. So far his mailing of attractive toys to harassed parents has paid off. In a year's time he was able to build the business into a service with some 800 monthly subscribers. This should give him an excellent monthly profit.

Reminds me of the "Swaps for Tots" service in "Discovered". This profitable service also deals exclusively in toys on a swap basis. #131

PUERTO RICO
We've been told that there are not more than four shops in San Juan, Puerto Rico that are specializing solely in tourist trade and that only one of the four comes anywhere near hitting the "bull's eye".

If you are interested in this particular country, think that over.

A pocket-sized tourist guide book showing what there is to be seen and where to go would be popular in this country, yet we do not find any such guide on the island. The guide-book would also be a welcome advertising medium for the many retail shops.

It is said that there is hardly a major port in the whole Caribbean area that can't use a good night club. The opportunity is awaiting some adventuresome American. #132

HAITI
In Haiti the tourist is neglected. At least that is what our informant tells us. There is a need for a travel agent or travel bureau. A small office, a desk and an abundance of information is just about all one would need to make the start. By lining up honest taxi drivers, best shops, guides, etc., he can insure the tourist against having an unhappy stay on the island. He, or his wife, could conduct special tours to the scenic spots, the best shops, etc. Later on he could branch out to San Juan, Port-au-Prince and Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, all of whom seem to need tourist agents.

San Juan, for instance, only has one lone tourist bureau, while there should be room, we are told, for about four more.

One writer claims that a person can live on $500 a year in the Republic of Haiti and that around 200 Americans live delightfully untroubled lives on this magic island. A dollar is said to purchase the equivalent of five dollars. An average income in the States would allow a person to live like a king on this island!

Puerto Rico needs at least one well-managed restaurant.

The demand for a really GOOD restaurant is said to be enormous at this particular time and unfilled as yet. Remember this, if you intend to start a restaurant here in the United States. You'll have little competition in Puerto Rico!

Frozen food stores are popular here in the states and should go over well in the Caribbean Islands, especially if one carried only those foods that otherwise couldn't be obtained down there.

I mentioned the possibilities of putting an enterprise on wheels and making a success out of it in my other book. More and more trailers are being used for unusual businesses. In the British West Indies our correspondent tells us that a "shilling store", similar to our "Five and Ten", put on wheels or installed in a trailer or revamped house trailer, should give the owner a nice living. The idea would be to drive from village to village, setting up the mobile store for business in each place and staying there not for an hour, but from one to five days. Everything should cost a quarter, or a shilling, or less. A permanent "Shilling Shop" might go over as well as our Dime Stores if located in Port-of-Spain or Jamaica.

Odd names for businesses are the rage in the islands and throughout Latin America. In San Juan, there is a dry goods store called "Mr. Cheap", and a furniture shop with the title "Here I Stay". A bar in Nicaragua uses the words "Memories of the Future" on the outdoor sign. Another bar in Mexico City uses the name of "Monkeyshines Hall", and still another comes up with the appealing name "My Office". Mexico City also boasts of a butcher who calls his shop "World War II", having changed it from "World War I". These names are in most cases humorous and quaint, and similar names with appropriate Latin American illustrations might be adapted by American enterprise for showmanship purposes! #133-136

IRELAND
During the war, this clever little advertising enterprise was started on a busy street in Ireland, and according to our informant, the originator was obviously making a success out of it, although there was room for improvement. Perhaps one of my readers can bring about this improvement, but here in the United States instead of in Ireland.

The business is said to only require a minimum outlay, and yet offers possibilities of earning up to thirty pounds a week regularly in England or Ireland, and perhaps a great deal more in this country. It is therefore worthy of the attention of the man who is desirous of starting out on his own.

Such a business is that of running a small advertisement shop. Briefly, it can be described as a shop in which the window space is devoted entirely to the display of small advertisements, at a fee that is less than that charged for inserts in the local paper. However, the fee isn't always an important factor because folks may want to use this advertising service as a supplement to the running of classified ads. They may want to reach prospects in one particular section of the city, or in a certain neighborhood (where the advertising shop or shops happen to be).

The first step in starting such a display service is to acquire suitable premises. It will be found that the best business will be done in the poorer districts and the suburban shopping centers. There are a number of empty shops in every town and city ideal for such purposes. The main requirements of the shop chosen is that it should have a good window area. For, naturally, the more advertisements you can display, the greater will be your weekly income.

Your calculations of income will be based on the size of the plain postcard…roughly five inches by four inches. The fee for insertion of one ad…and this is irrespective of the number of words…will be sixpence per week (12¢).

Assuming then that we have a shop with a window area of eight feet by six feet (quite small), and that the rent of this shop is 30 shillings per week, we can quickly arrive at the maximum possible income. Such a window will hold three hundred and thirty-six postcards…and 360 sixpences come to about eight guineas ($41.00). Our profit, then, would amount to eight pounds 18 shillings ($35.60) a week. It will be seen that the larger the window space, the greater the income that can be made.

Upon opening the shop, offer to put a free advertisement in your window for all customers for the first week. Collect as many as you can, for these first "free" advertisements are important and are the "sugar", so to speak, that will draw the flies.

Next, obtain a supply of plain white postcards. Write, or better still, type out each advertisement on a separate postcard, giving full details of the article for sale, the price (if given) and the name and address of the person wishing to sell the article.

Then have a poster either printed or painted by a show-card artist. This poster will inform all who read it of the terms on which ads are displayed in the window, and will invite them to make use of the facilities offered.

In the center of the window, put your poster…bright and attractive…yet neat and business-like. Then on each side of the poster arrange your "free" ads. Poster and cards are neatly fixed to the window with stamp hinges. On the back of the postcard write the date seven days hence. For example, if you are putting a card in the window on June 14th, write June 21st on the back. Each evening, before you go home, make a tour of the windows and remove all those cards that are time expired.

As you progress, you can, if you wish, start to put up notice boards inside the shop, to which further advertisements can be fixed. Naturally, as they are not in such a favorable position as those in the window, you should charge slightly less for them…say four pence per week. And do not overlook placing a notice in the window informing the public that there are more ads inside.

You can also catalog your ads by sorting them out under different headings, such as "Clothes", "Furniture", "Tools", etc. A neatly printed slip will divide each section from the next.

When you have successfully established one shop, then you can look around for other premises…and perhaps open several such shops in different parts of the town. If each shop draws an income of twelve pounds ($50) per week, you can well afford to pay an efficient girl, or several girls, depending on the number of shops, to run them for you at a weekly wage of five or six pounds. Four such shops, ana you are making around 25 pounds a week ($100).

Some retail stores in England place a few such ad cards in the corner of their windows or on boards outside their premises in order to supplement their profits from the regular sales. They charge as much as 8d (16¢) per week.

In this country (even in England at this particular time) due to inflated prices, a much higher advertising fee per week would have to be asked. But, as newspaper classified advertising has doubled its rates, you can still offer a valuable service.

The interior of the shop will not require much furnishing. Just a counter or a table for a counter. Or perhaps instead, a second hand desk. Several chairs complete the picture. Point out to your prospects in your circulars or on your showcards that a newspaper classified ad, while it certainly reaches a wider public (and a lot of the public out of your district that you perhaps do not want to reach), is finished the day after issue. While your display card advertising is on view 24 hours a day, reaching the particular section of neighborhood you want to contact, and does so for one whole week.

The successful firm mentioned at the start of this story was charging 2 shillings (40¢) per week some time ago and may have raised their rates to a higher fee by this time. Their policy was to give a discount to business advertising if booked for a long period of time.

The prices mentioned herein are just examples to figure with. Your costs and profits would be different in this country because of a difference in prices, wages, costs, standard of living, etc. But it would all work out…in the long run…to about the same percentage of cost and of profit. Sounds pretty good to me and I've read through quite a few of these "advertising" plans. This sounds like it has excellent profit possibilities for operation in every large city, or group of towns in the United States. #137

U.S.A. . . . . COMPLETE REMEMBERING
Margery is another one of those enterprising persons who is operating a sort of "remembering service" today. However, she has a few different angles and twists to her service, so we'll deal with it here. Might be of interest.

For the cost of her greeting cards (she sells a line of cards) plus 3¢ each for handling, she will remember to mail these cards out on the proper date for all important occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc.

This more complete "remembering service" really does ALL of the work and it is no wonder that Margery has many customers to her service who use her facilities and lists for special occasions.

The customer can select his own cards or she'll do it for him. She'll even sign a year's supply of cards for them in advance of sending out, copying the customer's signature as closely as possible. Or the subscriber can sign his own cards.

The fact that this woman is a paralytic cripple and had to be dependent on relatives until she opened this clever service, is enough, to make many of my readers snap to attention! #138

ARGENTINA
An Argentinian, on visiting the popular seaside resort of Mar del Plata, noticed a lot of waste land in the residential district. Most of it had been purchased by folks who had intentions of some day building a summer cottage when prices of materials come down, if ever. Most of these lots were sold on the installment plan at high prices so it is highly improbable that the buyers will be ready to build for many, many years.

Most of the lot owners live in cities 100 to 500 miles away. For these reasons nobody cared enough to molest this gentleman when he started to make use of this land. What does he use it for? Potatoes and nothing else! He has all of these vacation resort lots growing potatoes and he sells them to the nearby resort hotels without any trouble, as it saves them the trouble and high cost of hauling them in from the cities.

This is fine for the summer months but when winter time arrives he has to use his other plan, which is also ingenious. The resort town becomes dead during the winter months. Many home owners need someone to look after their property, to act as a caretaker two-thirds of the year.

This chap offers to keep their gardens trim, or perhaps just look after the property, in exchange for the permanent use of any sheds or cellars, etc., that might be on the property which could be used for raising mushrooms!

Here is a man who has no overhead the year around, no expenses, so to speak. No rent, no taxes, etc. When he sells his products at good prices he is realizing a clear profit on his efforts alone.

I think the same plan could be worked right here in this country in any of the thousands of resort towns by an enterprising farmer…or even an amateur gardener could give it a try.

This plan is also unusual for another reason. It is probably one of the few, if not the ONLY, business plan of recent times, to be published outside of Argentina, about an Argentine enterprise, due to the present form of government in that particular country.

In the U.S.A. Ernie raises mushrooms for the midwest's largest cities, operating from a huge cellar on his little farm in Missouri. He now has 20,000 square feet of mushrooms growing at one time and his cellar is said to be the largest in the state.

Twice a day his wife packs them in pint and pound cartons for shipment by train to St. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago. Instructions for cooking and a few recipes are enclosed in each carton. "The one word for mushroom growers to remember", says Ernie, "is constancy. A constant and even temperature of around 54 degrees F., constant moisture, and constant darkness, must be maintained".

The first winter, in the heart of the depression, Ernie took $1,250 worth of the mushrooms out of his cellar. Since then he has retired from his regular job and is now putting the mushroom "farm" on a commercial basis, using hired labor to help out.

Two brothers in New York State started what turned out to be the largest mushroom farm in this country. In abandoned caverns and mines along the Hudson River these two brothers grow millions of pounds of mushrooms. The help wear miner's lamps on their caps and work amongst the hundreds of wooden trays that are filled with growing mushrooms. Special removable trays are used, which is one of their new ideas, instead of the immovable type. This allows the help to clean replacement trays, which takes time, while the present crop is growing. This doubled production when it was put into practice.

When they started after World War I, the brothers only had $200, but in three years they were growing more mushrooms than anyone else had ever grown. In peak years as many as 12,000,000 have been grown.

An abandoned mine shaft in Massachusetts is being used for this by another ambitious man. His tunnel runs nearly 300 feet into the side of a hill. The mine produced limestone at one time. #139

CHINA
In China today we find an unusual bank, located in Chungking. Anyone contemplating entering business for themselves would do well to consider the following method of doing business. It could be applied to any type of project and is bound to help bring success.

This Chinese man made a list of all the things that irritated him as a bank depositor. When he opened his bank, he saw to it that these irritations were eliminated.

He made his bank a 365-day-a-year bank. Had it remain open each night. Installed a service in which the depositor could telephone and have a messenger bring the cash no matter where he might be. He made sure that there was a friendly spirit at work in the bank, even serving tea to his customers.

As I have said, the same procedure could be adapted to other new ventures. As an example, a man starting a restaurant could make a list of things that irritated him as a restaurant patron, and work with this list when he formulated his plans for his own restaurant. #140

ENGLAND
A young lady in England, just released from the Service, looked about for some sort of service that she could start, something that would allow her to be her own boss. Having had some experience in operating a comptometer, she gathered her financial resources, borrowed a little more, and started out by purchasing a second-hand comptometer machine. She offered her services to all business houses and retail stores within a five mile radius of her home.

Out of 80 letters sent out to these people, she received 18 replies from businessmen and shopkeepers who were willing to employ her for a day or a half-day each week, at a set fee, to post their ledgers and undertake other figure work in which the comptometer is used. Her fee was four shillings an hour, or 80¢ to $1.00 in our money.

My last report on this project indicates that this girl has made a large enough profit to operate a small car in which to convey the comptometer machine, and is arranging for another girl to assist her.

Some of my lady readers may find this idea just what they have been looking for. I know that there are many of you who can operate a comptometer and who also long to work for yourself and yourself only.

I don't believe you'll have much competition from services similar to this because I don't believe there are any as yet in this country. #141

AUSTRALIA
While looking through a magazine one day, an accountant, living in Seattle, came across a news article about the many firms in Australia that were losing vast sums yearly in bad debts. Evidently these businessmen did not have the credit facilities that we have here in America.

He followed up this conclusion with some actual research and found this to be true. There were no credit bureaus in Australia.

So he left his job and took a boat for Australia…just like that. The decision to leave so quickly was partly due to his growing sick and tired of his job. Upon arriving in Australia he opened the first credit bureau in the country, with the help of an Australian partner, of course.

It was a wonderful success, beyond his fondest hopes! They soon opened a second agency, so that he had bureaus in both Melbourne and Sydney, the largest cities in Australia. He sent for his wife and two children, and now has nice homes in Melbourne and in Seattle and travels back and forth by steamship between his American home and his Australian home when he feels the urge.

A veteran made up his mind to stay down there after the war and he's carved a future for himself by starting a disposable baby diaper plant and wholesaling the newly designed diaper to every part of Australia.

Another veteran decided he'd stay in Australia too and after looking around for some time picked the importing business as his field. He had noticed that the Australians didn't seem to know how to make good coffee. He put his finger on what he thought was the reason and started importing coffee dripolaters from America. No doubt he'll someday start a manufacturing plant of his own here and make these dripolaters in Australia.

Hubert, another of the many enterprising veterans, has organized a tourist travel service and he'll be ready and waiting for the unprecedented tourist traffic from the United States which will start arriving in Australia during the next few years!

Two more veterans have started a ten-piece orchestra, 50% Aussie and 50% Yank, and call it the "Aussie-Yank Swing Orchestra".

Another chap hopped on a boat and went all the way to Australia recently just to start a shop that will handle all the popular American magazines. I suppose he made arrangements with many of the magazine distributors here before he left. Our magazines are extremely popular with the rest of the world at this particular time.

If you are considering the possibility of starting some sort of business in Australia one of these days, don't overlook the leather field. Kangaroo leather could be exported to this country from Australia because it makes wonderful ladies' handbags that are said to be almost imperishable. Kangaroos are not dying out in Australia. In fact, they are so numerous in certain sections that they are considered a pest. An abundance of crocodile leather would act as a supplement to your kangaroo leather exporting business. Crocodiles are plentiful in the northern section (river territory) of the country.

Raw sheep hides can be purchased from the raiser (just as the above two leathers could be bought from the trappers) and exported to America. It is claimed that during the war these beautiful sheep-skin rugs (white or dyed in various colors) were snapped up fast by thousands of our soldiers. Department stores in the United States would find them ready sellers for bedroom decoration or for the front of the living room fireplace. It is supposed to be easier to export things out of Australia than it is to import things into Australia (looking at it from the point of view of the businessman located in Australia). The path is a smooth one, at the moment, if you are located in Australia and wish to export.

The two main cities of Australia are Melbourne and Sydney. Both have over a million population and greater Melbourne covers over 250 square miles. Sydney is supposed to be much like an American city, while Melbourne is said to look something like Glasgow, Scotland. The sunshine and clear days, the fantastic wild life that is to be found just outside the cities, the vast numbers of gum trees, black cockatoos, wild flowers, all make Australia a place ten times better to live in than many other parts of the world.

If you are interested in the country instead of the cities, perhaps you'd like to raise "paw-paw" trees. Charlie Dargie has a farm 150 miles away from his market in Darwin, 1000 miles away from the next nearest town and over 300 miles from the nearest railroad. Raises 1,300 acres of the unusual crop besides two acres of bananas, four acres of peanuts and four acres of watermelons. Do you get an idea of the vastness of the country and the still undeveloped virgin territories? Only one person to every 100 square miles! That's how many people there are in the 523,000 square mile Darwin Territory today.

Any reader who is interested in obtaining further details should apply at the Australian immigration office in New York City or in San Francisco. These offices have just been opened and will receive applications and make selections of immigrants under the government's new plan for assisting former U.S. service men to obtain passage to Australia. Probably all other types of immigrants will receive attention at these two offices too. #142-147

BOOK MODELS
Run a Model-Booking Service in your home! The market? Models are needed by large stores, advertising agencies, magazines, sponsors…by every type of organization at one time or another. TV uses them quite often. Various functions and exhibitions use them. Photographers, painters have a steady need for all types. They search for new faces…constantly…everlastingly! If you have a new face…something appealing…your model will be wanted and the BIG agency model will be turned down.

You have as good a chance as anyone in this game. You can even register attractive and usual types of children and men. You charge around $20 an hour or more. Ten percent of this is your commission. No wonder our Couple grossed $225,000 in a single year! Register as many as you can. Have their photographs, descriptions and all interesting facts about them, in your files. You'll have no trouble attracting models to register with your agency. It makes no difference if it is in your apartment or a spare room in your home…or an attractive downtown office. If you can get work for the models, if you can provide new, fresh, appealing faces and figures to the clients, you will get plenty of business no matter where you are located.

You can advertise your service in trade magazines reaching business men, in local newspapers, classified ad sections. You can get free advertising by listing them will all advertising agencies, commercial art studios, artists, painters, fashion shops, magazines, TV stations, photographers, etc. You can make up a small attractively printed catalog listing what you have in your files. You can illustrate this catalog with examples of the type of model available. Or you can pass out glossy photos of your models with your name, address and phone number on the back.

If you can learn what your clients use and need and file this data away, you will be able to find what they want in the coming future. If your wife is a partner in this service she can arrange to photograph the models or have this work done by a good photographer. She can call on your clients and prospective clients…either by phone or in person…or both. She can carry with her an attractive portfolio of model photographs…showing them in different poses, different costumes.

If the model herself happens to have bathing suit pictures, photographs showing poses made for competitive firms, by all means include these in your files and in your portfolio and advertising literature. One could even pose the models in poses that may possibly suggest advertising ideas to your prospective client. You would need a good filing system and a good card index system together with a telephone and that is about all. Start in your home, get a fancy office later, if you wish.