Making money with Friendly Folks requires no previous sales experience. Our cartoons sell themselves. The trick is finding how, where, and when. Over the years, our dealers have developed a number of ways to market Friendly Folks. Some are featured below:
Partnering with Retail Stores
Average income: $400-$1000 per week
Hi everyone! My name is Linda Conner and I’m happy to share with you how my Friendly Folks business is going. With two children in high school and one “just getting there,” I have become a human transportation device bringing my kids from one event to another. Ed and I were surviving (on his salary) but over the past few years our credit cards started creeping up on us. At first we were paying them off every month but then, well, we just started paying the minimums. And I’m sure you know how that goes! Facing the reality that I’d have to go back to the working world, I took a shot at starting my own business. But with my kids, I needed to find something that would allow me some flexibility. After trying every “work from home” business, (excuse me…scam) out there, I decided to look for something real and stumbled on Friendly Folks through the Internet.
I fell in love with the cartoons right away and thought of how many people there are looking for a unique gift. I drove to a bunch of local gift shops and realized that NO ONE had anything even similar. So I got started and decided that I was going to partner with retail stores to start off with since I knew I had something neat to offer. I followed the instructions in the Dealer Resource Center on how to go about that, like what to send and put in the envelope, etc. There was no selling involved, which was great for me. I printed out a letter and sent it to a bunch of gift shops in my area with a sample picture. Within a couple of weeks, I had three stores on board. Within two months, I had 4 more.
To give you a rough idea of how we’re doing, each store sells about 12-20 items a week and I make around $6 on each sale. I’m definitely not a millionaire yet BUT….it’s bringing in around $600 extra a week which helps A LOT! We’re following the Dave Ramsey baby steps (highly recommended) and so knocking our credit cards off one by one. There’s lots more to go but each one inspires us to keep going!
My goal with Friendly Folks is to increase the amount of stores we’re in so it’s generating $1,000 a week. That’s my magic number and I know I’ll get there real soon. Then we’re going to set aside a little bit every week so when Christmas rolls around, we’ll have the rent money for a mall kiosk. Of course, I’d also like to upgrade from my 1980′s kitchen too! But first things first…out of debt, money for the kids college and then my dream kitchen!!
I wish everyone reading this good luck for an amazing 2011….I’m looking forward to meeting all of you at the next dealer conference in New York City! Can’t wait!
By the way, in case you were wondering about our picture, Ed and I went skydiving! I was shakin like a chicken the whole way up but it was totally worth it.
Linda & Ed Maraganti
Arts & Craft Shows
Average income: $500 per one day craft show
I purchased my business back in July of 2010 and I’ve had some very successful craft shows and fund raisers since that time. I thought it would take awhile before I made money but we were doing well from the first time out and made our initial investment back in just over two weeks. That’s almost unheard of these days so thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this. If things keep going the way they’ve been, Sue will be able to finally quit her crappy office job so she can be home with our boys very soon.
The craft shows have been a good source of business for us. We get there early, get set up and wait till the customers start coming through. My wife handles speaking to everyone (she loves to talk!) and I work the computer. The way you taught us to set up the display works well. It allows people to look through all the cartoons and make a decision without any pressure. Sometimes they look for a second and buy something. Other people will stand there for 20 minutes before they place an order. No worries! Luckily, we never have to say the “can I help you thing.” Usually if someone has a question, they’ll just ask.
Depending on the show we’re averaging about 40 framed pictures. During the summer it was around 25-30 but with Christmas coming up, most of our customers are looking for a readymade gift. At $12 for a matted picture and $20 for a framed picture, we really don’t have much of a price issue. At the end of the day, we’re walking out with around $800 in our pockets. But it was a little less during the summer so I’d have to say on average we earn around $500 for a one day craft show.
The one thing that everyone should know about craft shows is that you absolutely need to be a people person because you’ll be talking to people all day long. Luckily most are really nice and we’ve gotten all kinds of phone calls and thank you presents from our customers who’ve given the Friendly Folks cartoons as gifts.
One thing I also wanted to say was thanks to the office staff for putting up with my phone calls while I was learning everything and for getting the orders that I’ve placed out the same day. I’ve picked Monika and Jon’s brains way too many times and they’re good sports for putting up with me.
Bill & Susan Bartram (with sons Justin & Sam)
Fundraising
Average income: $1000 per fundraiser
This is the perfect business for me. I’m blessed to have found you guys and everyone calls me “the cartoon lady” now! And you know, I’m okay with that! My kids love telling everyone about Friendly Folks…little salesmen!….thanks kids! And thanks to the great information on the Dealer Resource Center, I just landed two fundraisers for next month.
The first is for a marching band with around 150 kids. Imagine if each one sells just 3 pictures. Just three! That’s easy. the school and I each will earn around $2,000. Not bad for just a few phone calls. The second is at a day care center. I’m not sure of the total head count but all told there are a lot of kids that go to this place. With that, the day care is passing out catalogs to each of the children to bring home with an order form attached. Also, we’re setting up a display in the lobby so the parents can view the different products in person when they pick their child up. Everyone is really excited at the school. Guess they were tired of wrapping paper and chocolate. Hey..that’s good for me.
For anyone reading this who wants to know more about doing a fundraiser, call the office and pick their brain. But here’s a little primer..Basically you don’t want to sell anything. That’s a big no-no. Instead, you get organizations and people excited by making free samples for them. So if they love it, they realize that everyone in the organization will love it too. It’s actually as simple as that. Then it becomes just figuring out the logistics. How much money will they get? Who’s going to make the cartoon? What’s the selling price. You know, stuff like that. My best advice is to give the organization as much of a percentage as you can. For example, alot of companies go for a 50/50 split. I give them 60% and they like that. More money for them means they’re going to work harder to get hundreds of cartoons sold. And you don’t have to do any of the selling at all. So if you only make $8 a cartoon but they sell 300 of them, well, that’s $2400 for you sitting on your butt! So give them a little extra and you’ll be the fundraiser that they pick. And remember, there’s thousands of organizations out there who need this desperately. Churches, synagogues, schools, day cares, camps, charitable organizations, marching bands….the list goes on. Every group needs to make extra money and they’re all looking for a creative way to do it. So good luck to everyone and have fun! The “cartoon lady” has to get back to work!!!
Charlene McGinnes (with her little salesmen)
