Читать книгу One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money - Harold Morse Dunphy - Страница 69

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A polishing cloth would seem an insignificant thing in itself, and it is, but often it is the little things that make good profit and a man in a western city, who understood this fact, made thousands of dollars by giving it practical application.

He bought a bolt of outing flannel of the cheaper grade, and from this he cut a few hundred small pieces of the proper size for samples. These he immersed in a solution which he had made, as follows: One-half pound of castile soap, shaved fine and melted to a jelly. When thoroughly dissolved, he added a gallon of soft water and 4 ounces of powdered pumice stone, coloring it with tincture of red analine. This gave him a polishing cloth that worked wonders with silverware, brass and other bright metals, imparting to them a lustre that but few of the high-priced polishes can give, and doing away with the mussy method of using a powder with an ordinary cloth.

Securing a number of good canvassers, he gave each of them 100 of the small samples, 100 full sized polishing cloths, and 100 imitation type-written letters addressed to “The Lady of the House,” asking her to use the small free sample which the agent would leave with her, and note its many points of superiority over polishing powders, etc.

Nearly every housewife would use the sample, and be so well pleased with it that when the agent called a couple of days later, with the full-sized cloths, at 25 cents each, it meant a sale in almost every case. The man who made the cloths gave the agents half the proceeds of all sales, and the other half he retained for himself which was practically all profit. By extending his sale to other towns, he developed a big business.