PRODUCING RESTAURANT PLACEMATS AS AN ADVERTISING
MEDIUM
The concept is simple:
Give free paper placemats to restaurants in your area
with either a prominent color ad or their menu in the
middle, and 50mm by 50mm around the edge.
These ads will make so much profit for you that if you
run up against a stubborn restaurant owner, you can even
pay him
or her to take your placemats and come out way ahead.
They'd be a fool to refuse!
The first step in to contact printers in your area and
find out what kind of blank or ready-made paper
placemats they can either print or have printed for you.
Get a quote on at least 5,000, including at least two-colour
printing.
Compare your quotes and find the printer that will do
the best job for the best price.
Make sure this is a printer that will work with you on
the layout of the placemats, if this is new to you.
Once you have your printing costs, which will be your
primary costs, you can figure out how much profit can be
made. Your profit will depend, in part, on how many ads
you can put around the perimeter of the placemat.
For example, if the placemat is 11 x 15, you can put a
total of 20 ads around the sheet, leaving a one inch
margin around the edge for the printer.
Divide the printing cost, together with your other
estimated costs (phone, postage, travel) by the number
of ads, and you have your cost per ad.
GETTING THE RESTAURANTS:
Offer to provide the restaurant 5,000 free paper
placemats with either a large colour ad or a colour menu
printed in the
middle of the placemat. Local advertisers
will be featured in small ads around the outside. When
you say the words "5,000 free paper placemats," you
probably won't even have to go any further!
If the owner's a hard case, offer to pay them to take
your placemats! Offer R300/$50 and 5,000 placemats.
This breaks down more barriers than you can imagine!
If the restaurant owner has a pre-made ad or menu
available, this can be reduced or enlarged by your
printer to fit the center area of the placemat.
Be sure the restaurant's section dominates the placemat.
Now, contact businesses that are in the immediate area
surrounding the restaurant.
Good prospects will be video stores, dry cleaners,
grocery stores, book stores, any business that is
frequented by families. Tell them that you have an
advertising opportunity which will put their name and
offer in front of 5,000 people for an extended period of
time.
Contact as many possible advertisers as you can. The
more you contact, the more ads you'll sell. If your
prices are competitive and you deliver honest facts, you
should have an easy time selling the placemat ads.
Now, take the ads to your printer and layout the
placemat. Put the restaurant's ad/menu in the center,
and the other ads around the perimeter.
Have the printer print the requested quantity, and
deliver them to the restaurant. It's that simple!
This whole process can be done easily in less than a
month. But, even if it takes you a month, the example
above cleared
R7200$1,200 profit (or R6900/$1,150, if
you actually had to pay the R300/$50).
Once you've done your first one or two and know what
you're doing, you will find that you can run more than
one at
a time. If you run four placemats per month, you could
clear over R330000/$55,000 per year!
This is just an example, and your profits could be
higher or lower, depending on your area.
But, it should be fairly obvious that this can be an
easy-to-run, profitable business that you can start
part-time and quickly move into a full-time business!
Goodluck!!!
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