The following are some of the recent e-mails and letters that have been submitted by our dealers. If you’d like to add your success story here, please e-mail it to us and let us know if we have your permission to use your name.
Partnering with Retail Stores
Average income: $400-$600 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)
Finally Enjoying Retirement
Average income: $2000 per month
Scott, you asked about retirement. I gotta tell you Sue and I are finally enjoying it. Spent a number of years watching tv and sitting around. That’s not like me. I have been working my whole life and just sitting around does something to ya. Funny how we found ya’ll but as you know we were customers for about a year. Bought these pictures for many occasions and always had a great response. We saw you started taking dealers and jumped on and glad we did.
OK…Enough about that. We’re doing a little bit of everything. I have a display in the golf pro shop at a club about 3 miles from us. too bad they won’t let me play but that’s a whole other story. Plus there’s a local gal who’s selling real estate and she’s getting these cartoons for all her customers. That’s working out pretty good. We’re active in the community and Sue carries a bunch of samples with her in her car so there’s always some kind of fundraising event she’s in. You know we do some craft shows too. Not too many but during the summer and before Christmas there are a few that we love to go to. Don’t get me wrong, we love making extra money, and we need it too, but just getting out of the house, having something to do makes a difference. My grandkids love to come to the show and help out. The 4 year old sits under the table and helps her paw paw with the mats. We know alot of the people there and we have a crowd that always comes out when we’re there. It’s fun and we’re looking forward to these shows this Christmas.
One thing that happened to us when we got on a fixed income is that we started penny pitching. All of a sudden, saving $5 became a big deal. We started saving things like old shopping bags, soap from hotels, plastic containers. I guess it’s good for the environment because we waste nothing. But can I tell you how much I hate that? I was never rich but I never worried and planned things like we were doing. Last time we went out to a show we made a little over $400. It was like we won the lottery. We’re trying our hand at setting up in retails stores and have two places interested, one is a local diner believe it or not. But lots of folks in and out of there so could be good. I’ll have an update for you soon. Thanks for everything.
The following are additional letters that we have recently received from our dealers
Just altering our display slightly we did $400 in 1 1/2 hours!!
Karen Mannix
Just to let you know, the show went alright, we made about $580. We were told by other dealers that it was a bad show. One guy had been setting up for 7 years and he said this was the worst one. I took some digital pics of our booth, I will send them to you when I get them loaded.
Our main display was Friendly Folks but we had a smaller display of Name prints. I thought our display looked nice but I will be curious to see your comments. Good or bad? We had a LOT of lookers, people saying they were so cute, and how they had never seen them before. And of course the ones that say, "we are just looking for Christmas gifts, will you be here next show, we will buy from you then". etc... You've probably heard them all before. Call me when you get the photos but thanks for everything.Paul DeCarlo
I just wanted to first tell you that I had my first show this past weekend and it stormed and we all were put inside all over the school building in class rooms way out off the way with no organization due to the rain.
I had no computer and my display was not able to fit in the class room so I had it all rigged up, BUT... I still had a great show!!!!
I did about 1000.00 dollars in sales and with barely any traffic. What a great way to start off my new venture. Thanks so much for all the help. I am now back to back weekends for the remainder of the year. Go Tahmi!!!Tahmi
Things are going great thanks! I hope yours are good as well.
I did a 2nd show and did great. I had an order for 21 tote bags for a daycare! They seem to be my best item so far I have sold almost 35 of them.
Now that I know what to do at a show I will be doing plenty more providing I have a babysitter! One thing I did do was transfer some prints to a piece of cloth and have that as a table cloth, it looks great as well as showing different prints.
I love the new pictures and I would like the upgrade if possible.Heidi Beaty
I am so happy to finally have all of the pictures! The new ones are so cute! I'm already working on printing samples of "couples" prints for Valentine's Day.
My mother is getting ready to retire at the end of the month, but would kind of like to find something for her and her best friend to do to make some extra money afterward. Could I get extra copies of the disk and set them up as my employees?
Thanks for all you do at FF.
Tina Jones
Thank you so much for the sample order pad and the other forms. They are 1000% better than anything I would have been able to come up with. I will change them slightly for myself and I'm sure it will help with sales.
I wasn't going to mention this to you when I emailed you for the sample forms but I have to tell you that I have been dealing with a another company which makes personalized products and they are not nice people to work with. I get the impression that they don't care for me very much and it's obvious whenever I call them. I can't understand why because I always pay for whatever I am ordering.
On the other hand whenever I call you, I'm treated with respect and I get my questions answered without feeling as though I am troubling you. I really appreciate that.
So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I look forward to working with you real soon.
Eric Petrowski
I just want to say thank you for all the support and help you have given me on the purchase of your product and what a pleasure it was talking to both of you. Again ThanksPierre Duvois
Janice,
We just wanted to send an email to tell you thanks for all of the information and help with joining the Friendly Folks family. You were able to give us all of the information that we needed and we were up and running within a week. We only want to work with honest and ethical companies and we say thank you. It has only been thirty days but things are going very well. Our first show, after setting up the display with bins as you suggested, went very well. All of the crafters were very excited and brought people back with them to the booth. We have had several repeat sales since selling our first cartoon pictures. We are looking forward to a bright future with endless opportunities.Lisa Jordon
Hello Janice,
Thank you for all of your help. I know we did not give you much time for our order, but you managed to get all of my order to me the very next day.
This business is sooo.. much fun and, it really makes people smile and enjoy looking at the pictures.
Adalice and I set up a little display with about 12 framed pictures, about five matted , and 2 magnets and 2 keychains. We knew going into it, that our display wasn't anything like what the training dvd had, but because it was
a last minute thing for us we tried anyway and did not expect to sell a whole lot, but to our great surprise on our first day we sold $254.00 and it took minutes to print and mat
them. Then on the second day we sold $89.00 to one person, That was with a very dull display. total $443.00 being their just 4 hours between both days. Not bad for a last minute set up. I am working now on building my display with all the bells and whistles, and I know that we are going to have great success with FREINDLY FOLKS . Thank you with all my heart, Janice
PS: Janice I took a sample wood frame to work and ended up selling three frames for and total of $60.00
and that took me less then 15min to make. That's just crazy.Nesvier Buros
Just wanted to let you know how happy we are that we have joined the Friendly Folk team. We have been doing craft shows since 1989. Last year was the best profit year that we have ever had. We concentrate on the bigger shows. These shows run 3 - 5 days in length and attract 5,000 - 30,000 people. The days are long and they are expensive to do but the profits make it all work while. Last year we did a 5 day show. We rented a double booth to allow comfortable traffic flow and had an amazing display. It all paid off with sales over $8500.
We have also been doing fund raising projects with schools and clubs. This has also turned out to be very profitable. There are no travelling expenses. We send them brochures, they send us the orders and we ship the finished products for them to deliver. At the customers expense. A get way to earn some extra cash from home!
We are looking forward to seeing what new things you have available this year!Eileen & Skip Fratelli
Just thought that I would drop you a line and let you know how this weekend went. It went great!! We did more in one day than we have ever done in any weekend since we started our business. We were the talk of the craft show. From what we were told, nobody else at the event was doing much of business as this was an outside event and it was a little chilly out and the attendance reflected that. We have decided that we have a gold mine. Everyone loved them. We sold more of our other items than ever before. People shopped while we printed off, matted, and in a lot of cases framed their prints. We found frames that we like at a wholesale place that I purchase a lot of my items at. They are very nice oak frames. Today, they were pulling frames off of the displays as our initial quantity of empty frames was no where near enough. We started the weekend out with 40 frames (including our initial display frames) and we now have 14 frames left. Jim is sitting here telling me about the day. Two of our kids had a cheer competition. I left him and my sister in charge. We had 3 displays up with 6 pictures on each and a small bin with just matted pictures in it. We had people buying our display pictures. We had done one for our local E.M.S. squad chief and her husband bought it for her right off the display. We did the same thing with one of our local hair dressers. One of her customers purchased the one I had on display. I am in LOVE!
Amy Paulison
Hi there! My name is Chantelle and I am most likely Friendly Folks’ newest dealer. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada and just recently started selling Friendly Folks products under my new business name, Personalized Designs By Chantelle. When I first discovered these eye-catching little cartoon pictures I found myself laughing out loud and imagining the different people on my gift list that they would be perfect for; which is ultimately what made me think this may be a successful business endeavour. I picked up the phone and called the Friendly Folks main office and within a couple weeks was all set up and ready to go. It really was that simple! The great part about this product is that you do not have to do a lot of work upfront, you actually print the image right on the spot during the shows. Many other products I had considered required a fair amount of prep work upfront, I liked that there was minimal work to be done at home with my busy schedule. I had hoped to start a small business to earn a little extra money so that I could reduce my full time employment hours and spend more quality time with my daughter. I am quickly realizing that this dream is very reachable. I have only done a few shows so far and the response is absolutely amazing, there really is something for everyone!
Chantelle Judge
Hi Janice,
Just wanted to let you know that we received our Friendly Folks Cartoon package today and had fun seeing what was in there. Glen installed the software but will call you tomorrow to get the password or whatever it is that he requires to continue.
Just some feedback for Scott...... We think the training video is excellent! Plus the software looks very easy to use. We're very enthused and look forward to making and building on our display.
Glen & Audrey
Janice & Scott
I am so excited to see what is coming, it feels like Christmas again. Before I purchased Friendly Folks I was a payroll administrator. I processed payroll and handled all insurance as well as layoffs for the company I was with. I use to get up at 5:30 every morning and not get home till 6:30 that night. I was always too tired to spend much time with my son. Friendly folks has made it possible for me to do volunteer work at my sons school and take him with me to festivals on weekends. We have become closer and he is such a help with the cartoons. Thank you for making it possible to spend time with my son and make money while having fun.
Cathy Montrose
Hi Janice! I'M SO EXCITED!!! Anyway, I'm so happy to be "back in business". I'm copying Scott on this e-mail to let him know how wonderful you are (although I'm sure he already knows) and to thank you both profusely for hanging in there with me and helping me figure all this out. You "guys" are a class act and I'm so happy to be affiliated w/such a great organization. You can tell that (you) want your dealers to be successful and that's certainly a "win-win" for everyone! I'm really excited about this opportunity and some of the new things "coming down the pike" that Scott told me about. Anyway, I'll call you tomorrow Janice and get those shows from you...thanks for looking that up for me. Scott - thanks again for putting up w/all my tech problems when you were busier than a "one armed paper hanger!"
PS - can't wait to get my hands on the new products.
Mary Moton
Scott
I just wanted to take the time to let you know how nice Janice has been to me. She has answered all my questions and helped me with everything I have needed. In my opinion, she has gone Out OF HER WAY AND OVER THE TOP to be helpful. I have enjoyed all our business together and I look forward to our future dealings. Janice is ONE OF A KIND.Gale Parker
I just wanted to tell you that i am so glad i joined Friendly Folks.
Friendly folks has really put me back on track and has already produced a nice profit for me.
Thanks to Janice she has been a great help to me in many ways. My husband is not real trusting on the different work at home programs. Even he is glad i have joined into this. Imagine that! Janice has even helped me with that issue and he is all for me moving forward. I am ready to get things rolling. It has just been a tight budget getting started.
The support with friendly folks is amazing. Every program I have been a part has not had the support you guys have. Janice knows how to get the wheels rolling. She has helped me getting my ideas moving and gives me
her ideas as well to get working. Without her help I don't know if i would have seen how positive this program is and how profiting this work is.
I am thankful for the extra supplies for my kit. With me not working and being a stay at home mom i have not had my own pay coming in so i had to work a little bit harder to get my starter money together. But I knew after talking with Janice, this was a great opportunity and it would be worth it.
I look forward to being with Friendly Folk for a long time. I just can't tell you enough how much she has help me with getting everything together. I am grateful to you as well for giving me the chance to work with Friendly Folks.
(thank you Kathy for such kind words!)Susan Arguel
I have come across your website purely by accident. Please do not be mad has I say this but I've already check into your company. I am pleased to see your company has an B+ rating with the NJ BBB. You have been in business since 1993 that as you already know is 16 years. Only one complaint in the last 36 months. For this I salute you Sir. Not many companies can get by today with such a remarkable track record.
I'm glad I found you because I already started with another business which turned out to be a scam. I should have looked into them, they have an F rating. All that said, I have been in the marketing and customer service industry for 20 plus years. I acquired much experience and knowledge in those years and now want to move out on my own venture. Your company seems to be a perfect match. Please send me more information on becoming a Master Dealer. With much anticipation I wait for your reply.
Nick Castela
This is a touching e-mail that I received from the wife of a wonderful dealer, who I had not heard from in awhile. Gordon will certainly be missed.
This is Betty, I'm Gordon's wife. I apologize for not sending a note sooner - I've seen a couple of email from you, but haven't had the heart to reply. I'm very sorry to have to tell you that Gordon passed away very suddenly. It was quite a shock to our daughters and I and to everyone else who knew him.
We have loved the Friendly Folks - Gordon had so much fun when we went to shows and he had the opportunity to introduce the designs to the customers. He really thrived on this business!! Over the years, I have mainly given them as gifts, but Gordon really was quite the salesman!! He had the gift of gab and was quite the advocate of why people NEEDED one of these designs. This gave him so much happiness. He loved going to the shows and helping people pick out just the right thing. We were thrilled that he had this because he really enjoyed selling it.
We miss him terribly - he was one of a kind.
Betty & Gordon
for helping me get started. You guys have been great. If it was not for Janice's help and support I don't know if i would have made it this far. That being said i just wanted to send a extra thank you to you guys.
Kathy Arguel
The following is in reference to Mary-Anne's daughter who has some medical issues:
She has really benefited from me running a home business. When we go to the shows, she goes around and talks to a lot of other vendors and learns a lot about both business and life. At 13, she has helped me design and maintain our website, design and print up all our advertisement materials. She sees me trying to grow my business and replace my former salary and tries to come up with more ways to do it. To me it can only help her become more independent and more realistic about future career choices and education. When I first went to university, it was because my parents basically expected me to. I wasn't very motivated as I wasn't doing it for myself until my 4th year probably. So Friendly Folks is really helping her. Thank you.
Mary Anne Arielli
