Moving Out Directory Business

Use the classified section of your local paper online and find "Moving Sales". These ads will have a phone number in the ad. Copy the number and paste into Google. This will give you the name, address, city, etc. Copy these back to a database of your choice. Do all the moving ads in the paper, remember you are creating a moving out directory. You will find them under merchandise for sale, yard sales, etc. The best way is to insert the word "moving" into the search box of your local online paper's classified section.

Now that you have the names of the people that are moving, sort them by telephone exchange. The telephone exchange number is the three numbers after the area code: Example: (845) XXX- 1234 Where the X's represent the exchange numbers. You know your area and if all the numbers are within say 20 miles then you can use them all. Otherwise, just pick the numbers that are.

Now in the same newspaper search for "Cleaning". This will bring up all the ads that have cleaning in them. Most of these will be one-person businesses advertising cleaning services and they will help form the base of your moving out directory.

Copy these and bring back to a new database. Almost all people that move clean the place up and a lot of them would prefer to hire someone else to do it, here is where your moving out directory starts to take shape.

Now you are ready to make some money. How much money you make is up to you. It will be decided by how much "work" you do. This is not hard work but you must start and work at it. You can do the same thing for all the painters, man with a truck, carpet cleaning, and many, many other businesses locating these services and making them a part of your moving out directory service.

The best way to tell you how you make money with this business is to describe how it came about:

I sold a cleaner an ad in my mini directory and then he asked if I knew of any other low cost ways of getting business. Since I was in the classified section of my local newspaper, I told him he could send a post card to all the people that are moving. I explained how to do this and he asked how much I would charge to do it for him. I told him fifty cents each to address and mail a lead generating post card. I then asked how many he would like mailed each week. Since he thought that these movers were about the best prospects he could get for his cleaning business, he said all I could get. I had to slow him down. I told him I could get about 15 per week in his zip code and I could work out from there and get as many as he wanted. The more he took the more travel he would have to reach each sale he made. We decided on 50 per week for a month's trial. Total $100.00 for a month.

I then printed up 15 sheets of 32lb stock paper with four post cards on each. Using an excel database I mail merged the addresses with a filter on the database for his zip code. Then did the same for the zip codes next to his until I reached 50. Total time to print and address the cards was 15 minutes. It took me a little time to get the names into the database and doing only one business would not be very profitable. Therefore, I called a painter. Tried to sell him my mini-directory and failed, but told him about the post cards. I sold him on to 50 post cards a week also.

Now why am I telling you about this business? I have too much on my plate right now to start & test another unknown business. Nevertheless, it looks promising and I would like someone to try it out to see if it can be profitable for them. The price has to be tested, the wording on the post cards need testing, etc.

You can begin to see the basic concept, so now I want to expand a little bit and show you how to make this more profitable.

First off, instead of sending a postcard for each business, what will work better is to come up with a Moving Out Directory. This would be simply a directory of businesses for people who are moving that may need their services. Contact each of these businesses as Skip explained above and sell them on the idea of being included in your moving out directory. Here is a list of possible businesses that offer services to people who are moving:

* Gutter Cleaning

* Heating and Air Conditioning Servicing

* Off Site Storage Facility (or PODs)

* Painting

* Moving Service

* Tree Removal

* Lawn Service/Landscaping

* Handyman

* Driveway Pavement Repair

* Deck Cleaning

* Window Repair

* Hauling

* Roofing Repair

* Property Management Service

* Exterminator

* Carpet Cleaning/Replacement

* Real Estate Agent

* Mortgage Broker

* Appraisal Service

* Home Inspection Service

If you can get one business from each of these categories to pay you, 50 cents per directory and you mail 100 directories a month that would earn you an easy $1000.00 a month. These businesses should jump at the chance to be in your directory because:

1) You offer them exclusivity (only one business per category allowed)

2) They could do this themselves BUT it would cost them more then 50 cents per address.

3) All the businesses above advertise in my local newspaper. They are spending much more then $100.00 a month and they are not getting anywhere near the targeted exposure you could offer them.

That is the idea in a nutshell. GO FOR IT!

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