Success is more than economic gains, titles, and degrees. Planning for
success is about mapping out all the aspects of your life. Similar to a
map, you need to define the following details: origin, destination,
vehicle, backpack, landmarks, and route.
Origin: Who you are
A map has a starting point. Your origin is who you are right now. Most
people when asked to introduce themselves would say, "Hi, I'm Jean and I
am a 17-year old, senior highschool student." It does not tell you about
who Jean is; it only tells you her present preoccupation. To gain
insights about yourself, you need to look closely at your beliefs,
values, and principles aside from your economic, professional, cultural,
and civil status. Moreover, you can also reflect on your experiences to
give you insights on your good and not-so-good traits, skills,
knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. Upon introspection, Jean realized
that she was highly motivated, generous, service-oriented, but
impatient. Her inclination was in the biological-medical field.
Furthermore, she believed that life must serve a purpose, and that wars
were destructive to human dignity.
Destination: A vision of who you want to be
"Who do want to be?" this is your vision. Now it is important that you
know yourself so that you would have a clearer idea of who you want to
be; and the things you want to change whether they are attitudes,
habits, or points of view. If you hardly know yourself, then your vision
and targets for the future would also be unclear. Your destination
should cover all the aspects of your being: the physical, emotional,
intellectual, and spiritual. Continuing Jean's story, after she defined
her beliefs, values, and principles in life, she decided that she wanted
to have a life dedicated in serving her fellowmen.
Vehicle: Your Mission
A vehicle is the means by which you can reach your destination. It can
be analogized to your mission or vocation in life. To a great extent,
your mission would depend on what you know about yourself. Bases on
Jean's self-assessment, she decided that she was suited to become a
doctor, and that she wanted to become one. Her chosen vocation was a
medical doctor. Describing her vision-mission fully: it was to live a
life dedicated to serving her fellowmen as a doctor in conflict-areas.
Travel Bag: Your knowledge, skills, and attitude
Food, drinks, medicines, and other travelling necessities are contained
in a bag. Applying this concept to your life map, you also bring with
you certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These determine your
competence and help you in attaining your vision. Given such, there is a
need for you to assess what knowledge, skills, and attitudes you have at
present and what you need to gain along the way. This two-fold
assessment will give you insights on your landmarks or measures of
success. Jean realized that she needed to gain professional knowledge
and skills on medicine so that she could become a doctor. She knew that
she was a bit impatient with people so she realized that this was
something she wanted to change.
Landmarks and Route: S.M.A.R.T. objectives
Landmarks confirm if you are on the right track while the route
determines the travel time. Thus, in planning out your life, you also
need to have landmarks and a route. These landmarks are your measures of
success. These measures must be specific, measurable, attainable,
realistic, and time bound. Thus you cannot set two major landmarks such
as earning a master's degree and a doctorate degree within a period of
three years, since the minimum number of years to complete a master's
degree is two years. Going back to Jean as an example, she identified
the following landmarks in her life map: completing a bachelor's degree
in biology by the age of 21; completing medicine by the age of 27;
earning her specialization in infectious diseases by the age of 30;
getting deployed in local public hospitals of their town by the age of
32; and serving as doctor in war-torn areas by the age of 35.
Anticipate Turns, Detours, and Potholes
The purpose of your life map is to minimize hasty and spur-of-the-moment
decisions that can make you lose your way. But oftentimes our plans are
modified along the way due to some inconveniences, delays, and other
situations beyond our control. Like in any path, there are turns,
detours, and potholes thus; we must anticipate them and adjust
accordingly.
Monday, September 28, 2009
HOW TO START YOUR OWN PAPER RECYCLING BUSINESS
One of the easiest - and in fact one of the oldest ways of
One of the easiest - and in fact one of the oldest ways of
making extra money is by collecting old newspapers and selling them to
a recycling plant in your locale.
Believe it or not, you can develop a very respectable income
collecting and selling paper to the recycling centers. It certainly does
not take any education, specialized training or experience; it's as
simple as saving your old newspapers and turning them in to a central
collection depot.
Some "paper recyclers" are making more than $100,000 a year in
this business. If other people are doing it, then there's no reason you
can't do it! About the only equipment you'll need is a pickup truck or
trailer that you can pull along be hind your personal car. We even
found one "old timer" who was collecting paper in this era with a
pushcart! While interviewing him, we found that he was deliberately
choosing not to expand, although he very definitely could have.
The prices being paid for paper these days by the recycling
centers will astound you (and remember that the quotations we give here
may have escalated sharply since our research). For instance, old news
papers are commanding $50 per ton and more; used cardboard, $75 a ton;
and high grade office paper as much as $120 per ton. This kind of money
for used paper that you can generally pick up for free can move you onto
Easy Street in a hurry. Everything, of course, depends on how well
organized you are, and how hard you work at building your business.
Make no mistake about it, we live in a paper world. Americans
use 200 million tons of paper each year - for everything from daily
newspapers to books and cardboard boxes. After quick use, we throw away
at least 100 million tons of this paper, almost all
of which could be recycled. This means that there's about 8 billion
dollars worth of paper out there that can be collected and recycled each
year. So if you are looking to start a business with real profit
potential, what are you waiting for?
Just look around your own home. In the garage or basement, for
instance. What do you do with the old newspapers after you've read
them? How about all the mail you get each week? Chances are this waste
paper just piles up in some corner of the garage or
basement until one of the kids asks if he can haul it off for the school
or cub scout paper drive. Or maybe your wife and kids get ambitious some
weekend, clean out the garage and haul it all off to the collection
truck at one of the local shopping centers. (We said maybe!)
It's true that selling stacks of newspapers you've accumulated
during the past couple of months or so won't make you rich. In fact,
it's doubtful your own accumulation of paper will add up to a ton a
year, and that certainly won't amount to much in extra
income. But think about the tonnage involved in the stacks of old
newspapers you could collect from your relatives, friends and neighbors.
You could easily collect a l00-pound sack of old newspapers from the
people in your neighborhood each week - and that's your immediate
neighborhood.
And then think about the total extra income you would have when
you have hauled all this paper down to the recycling depot. If you're
serious, and get yourself properly prepared, you can easily make $300 or
more every weekend, and it won't involve all
your time. Some planning and effort on your part are the prime
requisites.
Start by clearing a space in your garage for storage. One side
of a two-car garage, or any 8 by 12 foot space should be sufficient. If
you have a garden shed that's dry, that would work well also. Some
paper collectors even rent space in a neighborhood mini-warehouse.
We've even seen some paper collectors store their collected paper on
pallets in their backyards, using tarpaulins over it to keep it dry.
The important thing is to have a space available to store your collected
paper until you're ready to haul it to the recycling depot.
Being a firm believer in doing as little as possible of the
physical work involved in any business, I recommend you hire people to
do a lot of this for you. By that I mean you should contact all the cub
scouts, girl scouts, and civic organizations in your area; tell them
you'll pay them money for the paper they collect and turn in to you. At
the same time, contact the counselors at the schools and colleges in
your area and tell them you'll pay them for all the paper they collect.
The idea is to get everyone in your area collecting paper for you,
eliminating the need to do the actual collecting yourself.
How much of the gross profit you allow or pay these people who
do the actual collection is up to you. The average rate is $25 to $30
per ton when you are getting $50 per ton.
In the beginning, you may have to make up a sign and tape it to
the side of your pick-up or car, and "pound the pavement" yourself, but
you would expect to do this in starting any business. Basically,
there's nothing to this excepting that it takes time you could be using
to do other things; but is there anything more important than getting
your new business "off the ground?"
A simple sign such as JOE'S PAPER RECYCLING SERVICE - Phone
123-4567, is about all that's necessary. You could have this made up on
a magnetic mat at most quick print shops. Have a college art student
make one up for you on butcher paper, or have a professional sign
painter produce one for you on heavy card stock.
With this sign on the side of your pickup, car, or trailer,
simply drive through the residential neighborhoods of your area. Park
in the middle of a block, get out and start knocking on doors, asking
the residents if they have old newspapers or cardboard boxes they'd like
for you to haul away for them. Generally, you'll get an armload of old
newspapers at every house. Simply carry them to your pickup or trailer,
then go on to the
next house.
If you'll set up a definite route to follow, certain streets on
certain days about once every two weeks, you'll find the homeowners will
have stacks of paper waiting for you. Regardless of whether the person
answering the door gives you a stack of papers, always leave a business
card at each home.
Some paper recyclers offer to pay the people saving newspapers
for them, and having it ready for them when they make their collection
rounds. Generally, this isn't necessary. If you'll develop regular
collection days for each street or neighborhood,
you'll find the people putting papers out for you just as they set out
their garbage for collection.
There are even some paper recyclers who charge the people to
haul their paper away. This isn't advisable, because once you start
hauling rubbish, you'll end up doing clean-up work, and hauling more to
the dump than you do to the recycling depot.
Once you have your collection routes organized, you can hire
students to make your collection rounds after school, and haul the paper
to your storage center. You can set up crews of three - one to drive
the truck or car while the others knock on doors on each side of the
street.
Depending on how much paper each route gives you every two
weeks, you could have a crew working several routes each day for minimum
wage, probably so much per truck or trailer load, and expect to collect
a couple of tons of paper for every three hours
they work.
Again, by hiring other people to do the actual collection work
for you, you'll not only free yourself for other work, but you'll be
making more money: Three people can do more in less time than one
person.
The next thing is to set up an area-wide collection depot. This
could be a pre-fab building on a vacant lot, a vacant used car lot, or a
closed service station.
In setting up an area-wide (or neighborhood) collection depot,
you will need space - some sort of shed to store or stack your papers in
until you load them up and haul them to the recycling center where you
sell them. You'll need a scale to weigh them, and some sort of office
or desk space to manage your cash and books.
You'll need space enough for your customers to drive in beside
the scale and unload their papers, and at the same time an arrangement
whereby you can pay them immediately. A vacant service station would be
ideal. Your customers can pull in just as if
they were going to purchase gasoline; you could have your scales set up
between the driveways where the gas pumps are usually located, and store
your accumulating loads in the service area of the building.
In most cities or counties, you'll need a business license or
permit. For more details, see our report, Basic Steps To Starting Your
Own Business.
You'll need a couple of signs, one on each side of your
driveway. These will announce the fact that you buy old newspapers.
They need not be anything fancy, just simple attention-getting
announcements that you're open for business and paying money for paper.
Generally, the going rate for newspapers dropped off at a central
collection depot is $.02 per pound, and the papers need not be bundled.
This will give the sellers $40 a ton for dropping them off, and at $50 a
ton, that will work out to $10 per ton profit for you. (Again, these
rates are rising, so be sure you are absolutely current by checking out
the going price in your area.)
In addition to old newspapers, you should organize your time and
schedule to call upon all the businesses, stores and warehouses in your
area. Talk to the business owners or store managers and ask them if you
can haul away their old cardboard boxes.
If there's competition in your area, you might end up having to
pay for these boxes, provided they're clean. The thing to do is to call
upon everybody who uses paper products or cardboard boxes. Remember,
the more people you have giving you paper, the
more money you are going to make. Many already established recycling
services do not bother with the smaller stores and warehouses, but these
add up quickly if you are diligent in finding a number of them.
Check close by in your surrounding area, and find out if the
businesses are satisfied with their present pick-up service. Ask first
if you can "have" their old boxes; many of the smaller stores will give
them to you because it decreases the load for their rubbish service to
haul away. Where necessary, offer to pay per pound if they'll save them
for you.
As mentioned before, the important thing is to get everyone
providing paper for you - people collect and have it ready for you to
pick up when you drop by on your designated collection day. Besides
that, you start making really big money when you can park your truck in
one place and fill it up from a group of closely located stores or
businesses. With this is mind, you could conceivably drive through four
blocks, making one stop in the middle of each block, and have a ton or
more of paper or cardboard
boxes every fourth block.
One other thing you'll need in order to efficiently handle
cardboard boxes is a sharp knife with which to slit the sides of the
boxes and flatten them Out as you load them onto your truck or trailer.
A simple "handyman's utility knife" costing about $5 will handle this
chore for you with ease. When you buy one, though, be sure to buy an
extra supply of blades as well, because cutting through cardboard will
dull your knife very quickly.
Another paper products source: the offices in your area,
particularly those with computers. The age of computers has ushered in
more reports for offices than ever before, adding reams and reams of
paper to the average office trash basket. When you
visit these offices, take along a couple of "Save-a-Tree" boxes and ask
the office people to discard all their waste paper into these boxes for
you - letters, envelopes, outdated reports and files. You can usually
get the "Save-a-Tree" boxes at your recycling depot, and when full,
we're talking about 35 to 45 pounds of paper. Most offices will fill
one of these boxes in a week or two, depending, of course, upon their
volume of paperwork. And while you're on this kind of "foraging" trip,
don't forget to check in at all the print shops. They waste and throw
away almost as much paper as they sell.
It will pay you to contract for a quarter page ad, or the
largest ad available that you can afford, in the yellow pages of your
area telephone and business directories. Whether or not you advertise
the prices you pay in the ad is entirely up to you, but
generally it's not a good idea to do so, because you would be stuck with
those rates for over a year. You might word your ad to explain that you
pay one rate per pound when paper is brought to you, and another rate
when you pick up and haul away.
At the same time, you should run a regular classified ad,
perhaps even one with more words in the Contract Jobs section of your
daily paper. Your best advertising days will be Thursday through
Saturday. These are the days when people are specifically
thinking about cleaning up around the house or their offices. Also,
these are the days when people think about what they can do to earn
extra money.
This is the kind of business that "snowballs" with visibility
and word-of-mouth advertising. It will definitely benefit you, then, to
join the various civic and service clubs in your area, attend their
luncheons and mingle with the business leaders in your area. Volunteer
to assist in some fund-raising events, and whenever possible, become a
guest speaker and tell about your business.
It isn't hard to stand up before a group of people and talk
about your business, particularly if you know what you're talking about
and believe in what you're saying. It does take at least an outline of
a script, perhaps a few notes, a rehearsal and the essential ingredient
of enthusiasm.
Make your talk interesting and informative. Do some research
and present statistics on how much paper the people of this country use
each year. Explain the limited supply of timber, and the need to
recycle as much as possible. Detail how these facts
and figures opened your eyes, and caused you to do something about it -
to open your own recycling center. And then, lead your talk into
explaining how the recycling business is an avenue for everyone to
benefit: the ideal fund-raising endeavor; a cleaner environment; and a
chance to preserve some forest land.
Getting free publicity for a recycling center can be easy. In
addition to serving as guest speaker before civic and service groups in
your area, you may find radio and television stations and newspapers,
and even weekly shopping guides anxious to give
you time or space.
By all means, try to get a story into these people detailing
your grand opening, follow-up with appearances on talk shows, and press
releases about the different organizations raising money by collecting
newspapers and turning them in to you. Set up a contest among the
different organizations, with prizes for the teams or organizations
collecting the most paper. Hold special "Seniors' Days" when you pay
extra for all paper turned in by persons over a certain age. Keep an
eye out for angles such as the largest amounts turned in, and stories
about your regular collectors who keep turning in paper regularly until
they attain money goals.
Emphasize in your publicity contacts that recycling is a kind of
community service that benefits all citizens. You're cleaning the
environment, conserving timber, and putting money into the pockets of
all who participate. Think about it; submit press releases to the
media; calling them and inviting them to cover human interest stories
emanating from your business!
This business takes organization, some energy on your part, and
at least in the beginning, your time. But if you put forth the effort
as we have outlined, there's no reason you shouldn't easily realize a
very comfortable income with your own RECYCLING BUSINESS. It takes
effort on your part, but if you're looking for a lucrative business, you
have here a plan to act on!located stores or businesses.
One of the easiest - and in fact one of the oldest ways of
making extra money is by collecting old newspapers and selling them to
a recycling plant in your locale.
Believe it or not, you can develop a very respectable income
collecting and selling paper to the recycling centers. It certainly does
not take any education, specialized training or experience; it's as
simple as saving your old newspapers and turning them in to a central
collection depot.
Some "paper recyclers" are making more than $100,000 a year in
this business. If other people are doing it, then there's no reason you
can't do it! About the only equipment you'll need is a pickup truck or
trailer that you can pull along be hind your personal car. We even
found one "old timer" who was collecting paper in this era with a
pushcart! While interviewing him, we found that he was deliberately
choosing not to expand, although he very definitely could have.
The prices being paid for paper these days by the recycling
centers will astound you (and remember that the quotations we give here
may have escalated sharply since our research). For instance, old news
papers are commanding $50 per ton and more; used cardboard, $75 a ton;
and high grade office paper as much as $120 per ton. This kind of money
for used paper that you can generally pick up for free can move you onto
Easy Street in a hurry. Everything, of course, depends on how well
organized you are, and how hard you work at building your business.
Make no mistake about it, we live in a paper world. Americans
use 200 million tons of paper each year - for everything from daily
newspapers to books and cardboard boxes. After quick use, we throw away
at least 100 million tons of this paper, almost all
of which could be recycled. This means that there's about 8 billion
dollars worth of paper out there that can be collected and recycled each
year. So if you are looking to start a business with real profit
potential, what are you waiting for?
Just look around your own home. In the garage or basement, for
instance. What do you do with the old newspapers after you've read
them? How about all the mail you get each week? Chances are this waste
paper just piles up in some corner of the garage or
basement until one of the kids asks if he can haul it off for the school
or cub scout paper drive. Or maybe your wife and kids get ambitious some
weekend, clean out the garage and haul it all off to the collection
truck at one of the local shopping centers. (We said maybe!)
It's true that selling stacks of newspapers you've accumulated
during the past couple of months or so won't make you rich. In fact,
it's doubtful your own accumulation of paper will add up to a ton a
year, and that certainly won't amount to much in extra
income. But think about the tonnage involved in the stacks of old
newspapers you could collect from your relatives, friends and neighbors.
You could easily collect a l00-pound sack of old newspapers from the
people in your neighborhood each week - and that's your immediate
neighborhood.
And then think about the total extra income you would have when
you have hauled all this paper down to the recycling depot. If you're
serious, and get yourself properly prepared, you can easily make $300 or
more every weekend, and it won't involve all
your time. Some planning and effort on your part are the prime
requisites.
Start by clearing a space in your garage for storage. One side
of a two-car garage, or any 8 by 12 foot space should be sufficient. If
you have a garden shed that's dry, that would work well also. Some
paper collectors even rent space in a neighborhood mini-warehouse.
We've even seen some paper collectors store their collected paper on
pallets in their backyards, using tarpaulins over it to keep it dry.
The important thing is to have a space available to store your collected
paper until you're ready to haul it to the recycling depot.
Being a firm believer in doing as little as possible of the
physical work involved in any business, I recommend you hire people to
do a lot of this for you. By that I mean you should contact all the cub
scouts, girl scouts, and civic organizations in your area; tell them
you'll pay them money for the paper they collect and turn in to you. At
the same time, contact the counselors at the schools and colleges in
your area and tell them you'll pay them for all the paper they collect.
The idea is to get everyone in your area collecting paper for you,
eliminating the need to do the actual collecting yourself.
How much of the gross profit you allow or pay these people who
do the actual collection is up to you. The average rate is $25 to $30
per ton when you are getting $50 per ton.
In the beginning, you may have to make up a sign and tape it to
the side of your pick-up or car, and "pound the pavement" yourself, but
you would expect to do this in starting any business. Basically,
there's nothing to this excepting that it takes time you could be using
to do other things; but is there anything more important than getting
your new business "off the ground?"
A simple sign such as JOE'S PAPER RECYCLING SERVICE - Phone
123-4567, is about all that's necessary. You could have this made up on
a magnetic mat at most quick print shops. Have a college art student
make one up for you on butcher paper, or have a professional sign
painter produce one for you on heavy card stock.
With this sign on the side of your pickup, car, or trailer,
simply drive through the residential neighborhoods of your area. Park
in the middle of a block, get out and start knocking on doors, asking
the residents if they have old newspapers or cardboard boxes they'd like
for you to haul away for them. Generally, you'll get an armload of old
newspapers at every house. Simply carry them to your pickup or trailer,
then go on to the
next house.
If you'll set up a definite route to follow, certain streets on
certain days about once every two weeks, you'll find the homeowners will
have stacks of paper waiting for you. Regardless of whether the person
answering the door gives you a stack of papers, always leave a business
card at each home.
Some paper recyclers offer to pay the people saving newspapers
for them, and having it ready for them when they make their collection
rounds. Generally, this isn't necessary. If you'll develop regular
collection days for each street or neighborhood,
you'll find the people putting papers out for you just as they set out
their garbage for collection.
There are even some paper recyclers who charge the people to
haul their paper away. This isn't advisable, because once you start
hauling rubbish, you'll end up doing clean-up work, and hauling more to
the dump than you do to the recycling depot.
Once you have your collection routes organized, you can hire
students to make your collection rounds after school, and haul the paper
to your storage center. You can set up crews of three - one to drive
the truck or car while the others knock on doors on each side of the
street.
Depending on how much paper each route gives you every two
weeks, you could have a crew working several routes each day for minimum
wage, probably so much per truck or trailer load, and expect to collect
a couple of tons of paper for every three hours
they work.
Again, by hiring other people to do the actual collection work
for you, you'll not only free yourself for other work, but you'll be
making more money: Three people can do more in less time than one
person.
The next thing is to set up an area-wide collection depot. This
could be a pre-fab building on a vacant lot, a vacant used car lot, or a
closed service station.
In setting up an area-wide (or neighborhood) collection depot,
you will need space - some sort of shed to store or stack your papers in
until you load them up and haul them to the recycling center where you
sell them. You'll need a scale to weigh them, and some sort of office
or desk space to manage your cash and books.
You'll need space enough for your customers to drive in beside
the scale and unload their papers, and at the same time an arrangement
whereby you can pay them immediately. A vacant service station would be
ideal. Your customers can pull in just as if
they were going to purchase gasoline; you could have your scales set up
between the driveways where the gas pumps are usually located, and store
your accumulating loads in the service area of the building.
In most cities or counties, you'll need a business license or
permit. For more details, see our report, Basic Steps To Starting Your
Own Business.
You'll need a couple of signs, one on each side of your
driveway. These will announce the fact that you buy old newspapers.
They need not be anything fancy, just simple attention-getting
announcements that you're open for business and paying money for paper.
Generally, the going rate for newspapers dropped off at a central
collection depot is $.02 per pound, and the papers need not be bundled.
This will give the sellers $40 a ton for dropping them off, and at $50 a
ton, that will work out to $10 per ton profit for you. (Again, these
rates are rising, so be sure you are absolutely current by checking out
the going price in your area.)
In addition to old newspapers, you should organize your time and
schedule to call upon all the businesses, stores and warehouses in your
area. Talk to the business owners or store managers and ask them if you
can haul away their old cardboard boxes.
If there's competition in your area, you might end up having to
pay for these boxes, provided they're clean. The thing to do is to call
upon everybody who uses paper products or cardboard boxes. Remember,
the more people you have giving you paper, the
more money you are going to make. Many already established recycling
services do not bother with the smaller stores and warehouses, but these
add up quickly if you are diligent in finding a number of them.
Check close by in your surrounding area, and find out if the
businesses are satisfied with their present pick-up service. Ask first
if you can "have" their old boxes; many of the smaller stores will give
them to you because it decreases the load for their rubbish service to
haul away. Where necessary, offer to pay per pound if they'll save them
for you.
As mentioned before, the important thing is to get everyone
providing paper for you - people collect and have it ready for you to
pick up when you drop by on your designated collection day. Besides
that, you start making really big money when you can park your truck in
one place and fill it up from a group of closely located stores or
businesses. With this is mind, you could conceivably drive through four
blocks, making one stop in the middle of each block, and have a ton or
more of paper or cardboard
boxes every fourth block.
One other thing you'll need in order to efficiently handle
cardboard boxes is a sharp knife with which to slit the sides of the
boxes and flatten them Out as you load them onto your truck or trailer.
A simple "handyman's utility knife" costing about $5 will handle this
chore for you with ease. When you buy one, though, be sure to buy an
extra supply of blades as well, because cutting through cardboard will
dull your knife very quickly.
Another paper products source: the offices in your area,
particularly those with computers. The age of computers has ushered in
more reports for offices than ever before, adding reams and reams of
paper to the average office trash basket. When you
visit these offices, take along a couple of "Save-a-Tree" boxes and ask
the office people to discard all their waste paper into these boxes for
you - letters, envelopes, outdated reports and files. You can usually
get the "Save-a-Tree" boxes at your recycling depot, and when full,
we're talking about 35 to 45 pounds of paper. Most offices will fill
one of these boxes in a week or two, depending, of course, upon their
volume of paperwork. And while you're on this kind of "foraging" trip,
don't forget to check in at all the print shops. They waste and throw
away almost as much paper as they sell.
It will pay you to contract for a quarter page ad, or the
largest ad available that you can afford, in the yellow pages of your
area telephone and business directories. Whether or not you advertise
the prices you pay in the ad is entirely up to you, but
generally it's not a good idea to do so, because you would be stuck with
those rates for over a year. You might word your ad to explain that you
pay one rate per pound when paper is brought to you, and another rate
when you pick up and haul away.
At the same time, you should run a regular classified ad,
perhaps even one with more words in the Contract Jobs section of your
daily paper. Your best advertising days will be Thursday through
Saturday. These are the days when people are specifically
thinking about cleaning up around the house or their offices. Also,
these are the days when people think about what they can do to earn
extra money.
This is the kind of business that "snowballs" with visibility
and word-of-mouth advertising. It will definitely benefit you, then, to
join the various civic and service clubs in your area, attend their
luncheons and mingle with the business leaders in your area. Volunteer
to assist in some fund-raising events, and whenever possible, become a
guest speaker and tell about your business.
It isn't hard to stand up before a group of people and talk
about your business, particularly if you know what you're talking about
and believe in what you're saying. It does take at least an outline of
a script, perhaps a few notes, a rehearsal and the essential ingredient
of enthusiasm.
Make your talk interesting and informative. Do some research
and present statistics on how much paper the people of this country use
each year. Explain the limited supply of timber, and the need to
recycle as much as possible. Detail how these facts
and figures opened your eyes, and caused you to do something about it -
to open your own recycling center. And then, lead your talk into
explaining how the recycling business is an avenue for everyone to
benefit: the ideal fund-raising endeavor; a cleaner environment; and a
chance to preserve some forest land.
Getting free publicity for a recycling center can be easy. In
addition to serving as guest speaker before civic and service groups in
your area, you may find radio and television stations and newspapers,
and even weekly shopping guides anxious to give
you time or space.
By all means, try to get a story into these people detailing
your grand opening, follow-up with appearances on talk shows, and press
releases about the different organizations raising money by collecting
newspapers and turning them in to you. Set up a contest among the
different organizations, with prizes for the teams or organizations
collecting the most paper. Hold special "Seniors' Days" when you pay
extra for all paper turned in by persons over a certain age. Keep an
eye out for angles such as the largest amounts turned in, and stories
about your regular collectors who keep turning in paper regularly until
they attain money goals.
Emphasize in your publicity contacts that recycling is a kind of
community service that benefits all citizens. You're cleaning the
environment, conserving timber, and putting money into the pockets of
all who participate. Think about it; submit press releases to the
media; calling them and inviting them to cover human interest stories
emanating from your business!
This business takes organization, some energy on your part, and
at least in the beginning, your time. But if you put forth the effort
as we have outlined, there's no reason you shouldn't easily realize a
very comfortable income with your own RECYCLING BUSINESS. It takes
effort on your part, but if you're looking for a lucrative business, you
have here a plan to act on!located stores or businesses.
HOW TO OVERCOME FAILURE
One of the greatest obstacles to business success is fear, especially the fear of failure. Unsuccessful people are usually so afraid of failure they avoid risks that could lead to failure. To increase your success rate, you need to be willing to increase your failure rate. The fear of criticism is one of the deadliest forms of fear. We are usually afraid of someone coming up to show the defects in what we do. Most of us do not enjoy criticism at all and that is natural. But we cannot jeopardize our God-given dreams because of the opinions of other people. We must handle criticism wisely.
Sometimes, there are lessons to learn from criticism if we carefully examine what is said. Some other times we should just forge ahead despite whatever has been said. Critics will only run out of business when we stop achieving our God-given goals. We cannot stop because of them.
Another cause of failure is the fear of death.
It seems like the fear of death kills more people than death itself. We must have a correct attitude to death. While death is inevitable, we must believe by faith in God that we will not die before our time.
Dear friend, say to yourself right now: “I will not die, but live to declare the works of God.” Amen.
There is also the fear of ill health. We must combat this also with faith in the Word of God. Jesus took our sicknesses and pains on the cross and by His stripes we are healed.
Another major reason why people fail is the lack of a definite purpose.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. There is power in having a definite purpose in life. All things work together for good for those who live according to God’s purpose. If you are carrying out God’s assignment for your life, He will back you up all the way. Do you believe that what you are doing is what you were born to do?
Now, the first thing to do when we experience setback is to examine the reason for our setback. We must ask questions. This will help us, where possible to avoid a re-occurrence.
Secondly, we must seek counsel from those who have overcome similar setbacks in the past. The value of mentoring cannot be overemphasized for an entrepreneur. Someone has been through the same situation before.
Thirdly, we must develop a positive attitude again.
Failure is never final and a trial is never terminal. We cannot afford to identify ourselves by our failures. Failure as an event is different from failure as a person. That a venture has failed does not make us failures as persons. Don’t run yourself down. Just tell yourself you will do better next time.
Then, we need to make new choices. Success is not a matter of chances; success is a matter of choices. Success or failure is determined by decisions. Whenever we experience setbacks, there must be a change in the choices we have made. We must be prepared for change. Failure can be a sign we need to change direction. And we must choose first of all, to begin again. Learn as much as possible from your mistake, but focus on your vision. That will help you to put the situation in proper perspective.
Dear friend, it does not matter what the situation is today. You can rise again. It is not how high you fall that matters but how high you bounce. Begin to work out a new strategy. Be prepared to take a risk again. It is better to fail at something than to succeed at nothing.
Finally, take action. Do it again and again and again until it works out. We cannot fail until we fail to try. And I pray that your next attempt, under God’s guidance will be a resounding success.
TAKING BUSINESS RESULT-ORIENTED INITIATIVE
In teaching patience, there is a common saying, “Wait for your ship to come in”. John L. Mason, however, once said, “Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to meet it”. Our societal and educational structures produce people who put the responsibility on others to make things happen for them. We want others to create opportunities for us. Although we are now in a democratic system where the success of the society is actually left to the people, we are still waiting for the government to create our world for us. We do not exercise the power we have to create the kind of country we would like to live in because of our mind set. Most people wait for something to happen before they react, because being reactive frees us from taking responsibility for our actions. It is easier to put the blame for our failure on someone else.
Life, however, is not a reaction, it is an action. People who are highly effective in life are people who are proactive. They do not wait for things to happen, they make things happen. One of the greatest needs of our country at the moment is entrepreneurs. Our country needs people of action. Entrepreneurs are people who refuse to surrender their lives to external forces. They are people who take initiative.
The world is designed to be run by man’s internal forces. As a man thinks so is he. True freedom begins from inside and not from outside. The journey from failure to success is an internal trip. True wealth begins from within you. Those who surrender their lives to external forces never succeed. To succeed don’t wait for perfect conditions, make the conditions perfect.
Entrepreneurs use time and chance as raw materials to create a favorable condition. People who take initiative use time productively. It is frustrating to see people wait for things to happen and allow time slip by. Without a conscious effort to convert time to one’s advantage, it will be lost. People who take initiative go out and do what they need to do; making most of opportunity and not waiting for things to happen. They do what they have got to do to make things happen the way they want them to be.
Be a man or woman of action. Take the initiative by simply making the first move. A lot of people know what they ought to do but they do not do it. One of the major differences between a success and a failure is action. 95% of people know what they should do but would not do it. A lot of people also know what they should not do but they do it because they feel like doing it. Lots of people have plans and interesting ideas but they never do anything about the ideas. It is not impossible to start a business. Check out those who have made it in business and learn from them. Do not sit around hoping that something bad will not happen to you. Go out there and take control of the external forces that are on ground and make things work out for you. Get on the offensive.
In conclusion, here are four qualities involved in taking initiative:
- Have a clear vision. You have got to be able to see your new world in your mind before you start creating it. When I look back today, I realize that I had seen my present world before it came to reality.
- Push yourself to act. All objects remain at a state of rest until a force is applied. There is no company, city or nation that built itself. You must understand that in this life problems don’t solve themselves. A beautiful future won’t create itself. Push yourself to do whatever must be done to create the kind of future you want. Whether you are afraid or not, just make the move.
- Be willing to take risks. Not acting is riskier than acting. Not taking a risk is the biggest risk in the world. Don’t hesitate. Take the sting out of failure by feeling the fear but acting anyway. Act boldly. Act now.
- Double your ‘failure’ rate. Failure is not failure until you stop trying. You increase your chances of succeeding when you increase the rate at which you try things. The most interesting thing is that the world will not remember you for the many things you tried that did not work but for the one thing you did that worked. Get out of your comfort zone. Success grows out of failure. To increase your success rate, double your failure rate.
There are several areas in our nation today screaming for attention. In my mind I see a new nation but you and I have to dream, plan and work to turn it into reality. Only those who make moves make waves.
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