89. Set up a “Sharp Shop.”
Go the whole way and prepare to sharpen anything. Call your business The Sharp Shop. Get the tools and machinery to sharpen saws (including circular) tools, lawn mowers, scissors, knives, etc. Tell your trade the truth, that sharpening things is a real technique, and bunglers can hurt your tools. There are now special machines for sharpening saws, lawn mowers, etc. and of course tools and abrasives of the right sort. Write to Behr-Manning Co., Troy, N. Y., for a booklet of instructions.
You might have a side line, selling home power tools to hobby minded men.
90. Do Spray-Gun Painting.
With the new paint sprayers painting (of every kind) is quite a new technique, and in many ways simpler and faster. You can take on odd paint jobs and charge modestly because of this. Many people will be delighted at what you can accomplish in one hour. Get acquainted with the new technique.
91. Re-Cast Old Auto Batteries Into New.
That old automobile battery is far from worthless, and can, without too much effort or expenditure, be made into a new, strong battery. It’s a technique of re-supply. You can develop a right profitable business in this.
92. Sell Personalized Baby Record Books.
Every parent, especially when a first-born arrives, likes to make much of the newcomer in every way. There is no more logical or interesting way than to start a “Baby Record Book”, which will record every little thing about Baby—his weight increase record, week by week, his details of birth, growth, diet and the photos taken of him, and so on up to his first saying and doings. There is a record book especially designed for this, and no parent will lack interest in it. You can sell it freely.
93. Make Perfumes to Sell.
Don’t believe it if told that perfume-making is a complicated art. You can make, mix, blend perfumes from basic ingredients, and you can reap the extra large mark-up profit which is usual for perfumes. You can secure all needed supplies and very readily make excellent perfumes, to be labeled as you wish with your own brand name
94. Make and Sell Special Hand-Cleaner Soap.
There is an unbelievably large market for good hand-cleaner soap, to garages, filling stations, mechanic shops, factories, stores, homes. For cleaning the dirtier workers’ hands a special soap, a “hand cleaner,” is preferred to ordinary toilet soaps. It is a business.
95. Do Personalized Dressmaking at Home.
If you have a sewing machine and will study the most modern methods, you may make very good money being a dressmaker at home, for neighbors friends, etc. You can learn the “factory short-cuts” and special fast methods that insure good style, and use the various exciting new fabrics, and greatly please your trade.
96. Cover Buttons, Buckles and Belts to Order.
Very popular and snappy are the new made-to-order cloth-covered buttons, buckles and belts—with the cloth your customer wants, to match. They impart an “expensive look”. There is now a machine (costing only $17.30) with which you can readily and quickly cover these items, and make money. People are usually very willing to take off the buttons, belts, buckles now on dresses and coats, and put new cloth-covered, matching ones on. It distinguishes the garment at once. You can sell even to dress-makers, tailors, stores.
97. Open a Mending Service.
It is appalling how many persons are plagued by the problem of items in their household which “need fixing, mending, adjusting”, etc. And nobody seems to know where to go to get the “fix”. With modern repair tools and materials this isn’t too difficult for someone who wants a good business. Set up as “Mr. Fixit” or “Miss Fixit” or a “Mend Shop”—for damaged china, glass, thermos bottles, silverware, lamps, jewelry, antiques or almost anything. You can sublet some jobs, or take electrical appliances, or leather or other special items to other repair places. Handbags, gloves, shoes and other good leather objects can be repaired; zippers, even favorite girdles can be altered to fit changes in figure.
98. Be a Canape Expert and Supplier.
Hundreds of women appreciate a service of supplying unusual good hors d’oeuvres at short notice, for social occasions. You can learn from books how to make them and vary them; or go to a cooking class for special instruction. There are thousands of small and large social occasions at which canapes are served, and they are always a problem for most hostesses. Drop a card in mail boxes, advertise. You can also offer a side-line of ice cubes in quantity; delivering them in sanitary, leak-proof containers; also shaved ice; also paper cups; napkins, etc.
99. Supply Logs and Cannel Coal for Fireplaces.
People love fireplaces, but fuel for them, in cities and suburbs, is always a problem. People with fireplaces appreciate and pay well for well-cut wood, good cannel coal, etc. You can go out into the country somewhere and make arrangements for birch, old apple, oak and other woods, (or driftwood if you’re near the ocean), to be delivered to you, cut. You can get as much as 50 cents a log for good wood of 5 to 10 inch diameter, 18 to 24 inches long. As a side-line sell driftwood imitation chemical, which gives varicolored flame, like drift-wood.
100. Groom and Walk People’s Dogs.
A number of persons owning dogs find it inconvenient to groom, wash, trim or walk their dogs. You can supply this service. You can also be consultant on dog diet, health, etc. Some well-to-do persons are willing to spend good fees on various types of dog care. If you have the room you could even “board” dogs for clients on vacation, trips, etc.
101. Teach Bridge and Canasta.
Many persons would like to play cards, but know so little about bridge or canasta (or other games) that they are willing to pay to learn. You can set up a “club for beginners” in your home, at a fee. It will be a service many will profit by and enjoy. You can charge extra for serving refreshments.
102. Do House or Apartment Hunting.
Nearly all folk hate the job of searching for a suitable home or apartment to rent. A great many are perfectly willing to pay someone intelligent who will scour the field and line up one or two which will fit specifications. Then the choice can be made. You should not find it difficult to get business, especially in large cities where distances are long. A fee of $10.00 or more is entirely within reason. You may be scouting for half a dozen clients on the same trip. You may extend your services to aid in moving—planning, packing, supervising, etc.; or even to advise on decorating, painting, furnishing.
103. Make and Sell Rag Rugs.
Your grandmothers never threw away any rags—they kept them, braided them, for rag rugs, and very artistic and satisfying they were, too. Why not make a business of it, for there is today a revival of interest in such things as rag rugs. You dye the white or light colored rags and use pretty colors with commercial dyes, and braid and sew them fairly rapidly into rugs. You can even afford to give children money per pound for rags they collect. The trick is, for good rag rug making, to be sure to have the centers flat and not baggy.
You may be able to sell all you can make to stores; or you can hang out a sign and make sales at home, or by house to house call with a sample—at $2.00 or $5.00 per rug. They are popular also in bath room size. (For Hooked Rug Making, etc., see Item 61).
104. Teach Cookery to Young Wives and Girls.
It is a fact that the average bride today “does not know how to boil an egg”. She went to work or school during the years our mothers or grandmothers stayed at home and learned cookery. Therefore most women, especially engaged girls and brides, really need and usually would like a series of good, practical cooking lessons. There are too few facilities for this. If you are a really good cook you can readily persuade a dozen women to take a course of 10 or 20 lessons or more from you at $2.00 or $3.00 per lesson, (including food cost). If you get the patrons you could operate 3 or 4 classes or more.
Prepare a well-balanced series of cooking lessons and brush up your cooking knowledge, with half a dozen good cook books.
105. Organize a Knitting Class.
If you are a good, versatile knitter, and have patience to teach, you can get together a dozen or more women who want to learn. They will gladly pay $1.00 or $2.00 per lesson. You can keep up your end by constantly learning new techniques and suggesting new ideas and materials.
106. Organize Sketching Art Classes.
An incredibly large number of persons, of all age, have been developing interest and delight in oil, watercolor, charcoal painting and sketching. They like the idea of sketching groups (in spring, summer, fall season) going to interesting spots for sketching, on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays. You can organize such groups for pay, even though you do not yourself paint or sketch. You merely organize the group and charge a fee. Such people like companionship, and do not expect lectures or instruction, but learn from each other. You could also include a picnic lunch in your fee, and possibly the fare too. If you have a car it becomes even more attractive.
Hikes are also profitable to organize at a fee. The social feature often is a considerable attraction in such groups. In winter sketch groups could sketch in your home from life models or still life objects supplied by you. You could also supply good instruction books to beginners, and sell supplies.
107. Set up a Piano Tuning Service.
Most people’s pianos are out of tune. It is a service easily learned, if your tonal sense is good. It pays well ($2.00 to $10.00) and takes hardly an hour or more when you are skilled at it. You can make special rates for periodic tuning. A small local classified ad, and your card distributed to homes and apartments are all that is needed-plus of course a tuning tool.
108. Sell Foods Prepared in Your Kitchen.
A surprising number of flourishing food concerns have been developed by women, starting in their own kitchens. The Pepperidge Bread, Gras Noodle Soup, Wagner Pies, Snyder Candies are some of many examples of just a woman selling what she so excellently prepares in her own home and built into a large, profitable business. You, too, can sell some item of food you are specially skilled in preparing. There is even a trend now in large cities to sell entire prepared meals. Some frozen prepared dishes are also sold successfully. It is even possible for you to freeze foods.
First, be sure that what you have to offer is really a splendid product, one liked by nearly everybody. Then see that you solve the problem of delivering it in good condition. You may be able to sell some item (like cake, cookies, bread, pies) to retail stores, shops, restaurants, hotels, lunch counters, roadside stands, even railways and airlines. Or you may cater only to local homes. One woman built up a business selling to factory and office lunch rooms. You would do well to seek sales in fair quantity as this woman did, so as to be able to deliver in fair quantity, rather than small quantities at widely scattered locations. Give a bright name to your product, and package it neatly, colorfully.
It will astonish you to know that it is claimed that there are over 1600 products which a woman can sell from her kitchen!
109. Start Groups in Public Speaking.
Everybody should know how to get up before a group (small or large) and make a talk. It is nowadays a distinct handicap not to be able to do this. Therefore you would do well to make a little business in your home, of classes in public speaking. You don’t have to be a well-known speaker to do this; but you will need to be able to talk in an acceptable, clear way to a group. An important point is to insist that each one of the group get up at each lesson and talk on some subject. Study systematically, voice, diction, inflections, mannerism, gesture, posture, content, emphasis beginning argument, preoration, vocabulary, humor etc., all from detail provided in the book. You can charge a fee of about $1.00 or $2.00 per person inclusive of a copy of the book, for each of 20 or more meetings of the group, perhaps also inclusive of refreshments.
110. Get Up a Clinic on Home Money Earnings.
There is very widespread interest in this subject, and women can definitely help each other in this matter. This was recently illustrated May 1953 when the N. Y. State Dept of Commerce, and the Ogdensburg, N. Y. Chamber of Commerce, Cooperating with the Women’s Club of Lawrence County, N. Y., and its County Home Bureaus, held a “Business of Your Own” clinic. This was the 33rd Clinic, and they have greatly aided women who want to make money at home.
This suggests a money making plan in itself; be smart, organize such a clinic yourself at your home, for your local neighborhood, and charge a dollar admission. Meet every week or two; use this book as a basis of discussion, and obtain each other’s suggestions and ideas on a suitable line of business. It will pay well those who come to your clinics, for they may get some or all present as customers! Even after women start a line of business, they will find it valuable to come to the clinic to discuss difficulties.
111. Develop Souvenir Items for Local Tourist Trade.
If you live in a region frequented by summer vacationists or tourists; and particularly if you are located in a tourist region, or on a main highway, you have the opportunity of developing a business of your own in many items. It can be either food or merchandise likely to appeal to tourists, or souvenirs of the region, or antiques, or even general items of interest and usefulness. A lively interesting display sign, and if possible a showing of the goods, may be all that is needed. The erection of a uniquely artistic stand or cabin close to the road may be advisable. Anyone who has traveled much around the country by auto will have seen hundreds of such small businesses, selling everything from dogs, pottery, hooked rugs, antiques, plants, needlework bedspreads, candy, and an endless variety of other items.
There must be sharply marked display and appeal, not merely some crude small sign. It may be a good-paying plan to move to a home on a good automobile road, for the specific purpose of selling to passing autoists.
112. Take in Transient Autoists Overnight.
If you have a roomy, comfortable home on or near a well-traveled automobile highway, you can get automobilst overnight boarders. Many travelers, some distance from home (especially over week-ends) welcome a place to stay overnight in a home, so that they will not need to travel fast at night to get home, or to a city. They may prefer such accommodations to the “motels,” or there may be no motels in the vicinity. Autoists willingly pay $2.00 per person per night for such accommodations in a neat, well furnished home with modern facilities and good clean beds. Hundreds of women with large houses and small families have found this a surprisingly easy way to make a fair income. Good illuminated signs on the auto highway at 3 or 4 points are important. Also discrimination in acceptance of guests.
113. Make and Sell Artificial Flowers.
Easy to make at home out of materials that you can buy, and you’ll be surprised what lovely flowers you can make. A lot of people like to buy them. Take a basketful and go door to door—you’ll see what happens.
114. Make, Trim, Sell Women’s Hats.
You don’t have to open a full, fledged millinery store—you merely need to make a couple of dozen good hats in your own home and invite people to see—and buy. If you have already—or can learn—a “flair” for making up a becoming hat, you have a skill that is in demand.
115. Open a Greeting Card and Gift Shop.
The market for greeting cards, gifts is truly surprising. No matter how small, you can hope to make it go if you will contact the greeting card manufacturers and stock up on attractive displays; and in addition handle a limited line of gift items suitable to your town or neighborhood.
116. Learn to Make Leathercraft.
People always are willing to pay a premium for leather goods “with a difference”, an individual trade. You can learn the art of leathercraft, and make something lovely and highly saleable out of ordinary leather goods.
117. Crochet Ties for Men.
Knitted ties (of quality) are popular with men. You can make a most salable item out of simple materials. For a dollar you can buy a kit for making one tie, and learn the art.
118. Make and Sell “Samplers”.
These are much liked by many householders. There is a wide variety of designs possible in needlepoint, and they fetch good prices when neatly framed. Illustrations, sayings, mottoes, etc. are used. Some people make collections of these samplers. Some tablecloths, tea sets and rugs are made with this needlepoint method.
119. Re-design, Modernize Kitchens.
Any number of people find that their kitchens are out of date, inefficient, unattractive—whereas today the kitchen has come forward as a main room of the house, and even little parties are held there! You can make a neat fee ($25.00 to $100.00) planning, arranging, supervising the remodeling of people’s kitchens.
120. Do Mirror Silvering.
You probably never meet anyone, or heard of any concern doing this. Yet it is a business which can offer a good service. Many people don’t know that old mirrors can be resilvered; and new mirrors can be made to order and size, using plate glass. It takes no great technical skill, and commands a good price.
121. Take Magazine Subscriptions.
There are now nearly 30 million magazine readers, and it should be obvious to more of them that it pays to subscribe by the year, and save 30 to 40% in cost over newstand price. Arrange to be a subscription agency, at a saving to subscribers; not for one magazine or group, but for any and all periodicals. You’d be surprised what you can do by intelligent handling of this business, as there are general agencies for it.
122. Sell Popcorn or Potato Chips.
It has become a by-word how popcorn selling has zoomed allover the U. S., particularly in movie theatres, etc. Freshly made popcorn is, admittedly, delicious eating. So are potato chips. Look into this as a business.
Continued in Pt3…
