In the US, the Fourth of July is a dream holiday for those willing to hustle to earn an honest buck.
Most likely, the majority of your town is off for the holiday. And those that are off will gather someplace for BBQ, carnival games, fireworks, parades, etc.... in one central place for you to leverage!
Check for events around your town. Also, check in with the organizers, you may need to register as a vendor and you may not. If the event is too heinous on it's registrations and guidelines, find another event in another town nearby that's more laxed. I guarantee you can find an event nearby that you can still get in (and if you can't maybe you can show up anyway).
MOST LIKELY THERE ARE REGISTRATION DEADLINES. Just a heads up. Even if the deadline has passed, you might be able to ask the organizer if there are any open spots.
Vendor Ideas:
If you have a booth or cart, rent a snow-cone machine, soda dispenser, popcorn maker, cotton-candy machine, deep freezer (for popsicles, ice creams... buy in bulk from Costco, Sam's, Swans, etc), and other gear from a local rental store. Easy stuff. It's usually a hot day for most of the country, and the cold foods sell well.
Find a wholesaler and get a box of luminescent glow-sticks, glow-necklaces, glow toys (swords, wands, guns, etc), glow-in-the-dark shoe laces, etc. You can find these pretty cheap in bulk, and sell for extremely high margins.
Talk to your local massage school. Ask if any students would be interested in earning a few extra dollars while promoting their school for free (you absorb the vendor costs if they provide the equipment like massage tables and massage chairs). Charge for 5-minute, 10-minute and 15-minute back rubs - give the students 60% (they are doing the work after all).
Speak with local businesses to donate baskets, goods, services, items for a silent auction. This could also be done as a raffle. Find a charitable cause (or perhaps the organizing party) to donate the majority of the proceeds to. Tell the local businesses they get to advertise and get a tax-write off for the full value of the goods. You keep 50%.
My favorite idea: Goldfish. (I first experienced this as a kid myself.) Basically, it's beer pong. But instead of beer in the (clear, not red) cups, it was gold fish. Get a ping pong ball in the cup, you win the gold fish! Some cups have 2, some have 3, and some have Betta fish. Kids get three attempts for $1. Parents will need to figure out what to do with the fish once the kids win. And you might want to have a few $1 gift cards for Petco / Petsmart on hand just in-case you get a couple of "my fish died in the sun" traumas.
No matter what you are selling, get a cooler or three and fill them with ice and water bottles. Buy a few cases of 35 bottles at Costco for $4, sell them for $1 per bottle. Soda, Gatorade, RedBull, Iced Tea are also good stock-up items to sell at high margin.
Lead-Gen Ideas (no direct revenue... but it will build your business):
Promote a website, get email addresses, SMS signups, or other leads. Get some stickers printed (there's a few places online that deliver practically overnight) that say "Courtesy of XYZ" and have your marketing message on them (go to website, call #, send SMS to... lead gens will know what to do). Get a Radio Flyer Wagon, put a cooler on it, and fill it with ice and bottles of water with your sticker on it. Hand them out for free on the parade route or at the fireworks show. This will cost you maybe $100 to execute, but the branding and potential business go a VERY long way on a hot day.
Flyers and Business Cards - self explanatory. If you attach something of value, like candy, a free coupon, a glow stick, etc, they are easier to hand out. (And you might be able to get vendors and booths to hand them out for you.)
- Take a step further. Contact business. Tell them you are handing out flyers on the 4th to the local community. Tell them the amount you plan to hand out and ask if they want to advertise. Offer 1/16, 1/8 and 1/4 spaces on your flyer (print front and back).
T-Shirts. Red, white and blue. The shirt says something like "July 4th, 2013 - My Town, My State" with your URL plainly written. Give the shirts away. Tell people you have spotters handing out $50 gift cards/cash to random people the see wearing the shirts during the event.
Contest Boxes - You see these at local businesses already, usually for gyms. Buy some ballot-style cardboard boxes, and get some generic entry forms (usually included with the box). Print up promo flyers to tape to the box. You can give away something, like local business services/goods/certificates, cash, a kindle/ipad, etc. Those work best, but you can also have a non-incentivized promo (Get a Six Pack! Make Money Online!... etc.) and collect email addresses to send targeted CPA offers too. Hand them out to vendors and tell them you'll pay $10 for up to 100 entries. $25 for 200, or whatever they agree with.
All of these ideas are things that the whole family can get involved with, especially younger kids who love to be involved with these things.
This is posted in the sidewalk (maybe should be slowlane) because it's not really scalable, and it only happens once per year. But you certainly can have a lot of revenue on a holiday when most people are making nothing.
Most likely, the majority of your town is off for the holiday. And those that are off will gather someplace for BBQ, carnival games, fireworks, parades, etc.... in one central place for you to leverage!
Check for events around your town. Also, check in with the organizers, you may need to register as a vendor and you may not. If the event is too heinous on it's registrations and guidelines, find another event in another town nearby that's more laxed. I guarantee you can find an event nearby that you can still get in (and if you can't maybe you can show up anyway).
MOST LIKELY THERE ARE REGISTRATION DEADLINES. Just a heads up. Even if the deadline has passed, you might be able to ask the organizer if there are any open spots.
Vendor Ideas:
If you have a booth or cart, rent a snow-cone machine, soda dispenser, popcorn maker, cotton-candy machine, deep freezer (for popsicles, ice creams... buy in bulk from Costco, Sam's, Swans, etc), and other gear from a local rental store. Easy stuff. It's usually a hot day for most of the country, and the cold foods sell well.
Find a wholesaler and get a box of luminescent glow-sticks, glow-necklaces, glow toys (swords, wands, guns, etc), glow-in-the-dark shoe laces, etc. You can find these pretty cheap in bulk, and sell for extremely high margins.
Talk to your local massage school. Ask if any students would be interested in earning a few extra dollars while promoting their school for free (you absorb the vendor costs if they provide the equipment like massage tables and massage chairs). Charge for 5-minute, 10-minute and 15-minute back rubs - give the students 60% (they are doing the work after all).
Speak with local businesses to donate baskets, goods, services, items for a silent auction. This could also be done as a raffle. Find a charitable cause (or perhaps the organizing party) to donate the majority of the proceeds to. Tell the local businesses they get to advertise and get a tax-write off for the full value of the goods. You keep 50%.
My favorite idea: Goldfish. (I first experienced this as a kid myself.) Basically, it's beer pong. But instead of beer in the (clear, not red) cups, it was gold fish. Get a ping pong ball in the cup, you win the gold fish! Some cups have 2, some have 3, and some have Betta fish. Kids get three attempts for $1. Parents will need to figure out what to do with the fish once the kids win. And you might want to have a few $1 gift cards for Petco / Petsmart on hand just in-case you get a couple of "my fish died in the sun" traumas.
No matter what you are selling, get a cooler or three and fill them with ice and water bottles. Buy a few cases of 35 bottles at Costco for $4, sell them for $1 per bottle. Soda, Gatorade, RedBull, Iced Tea are also good stock-up items to sell at high margin.
Lead-Gen Ideas (no direct revenue... but it will build your business):
Promote a website, get email addresses, SMS signups, or other leads. Get some stickers printed (there's a few places online that deliver practically overnight) that say "Courtesy of XYZ" and have your marketing message on them (go to website, call #, send SMS to... lead gens will know what to do). Get a Radio Flyer Wagon, put a cooler on it, and fill it with ice and bottles of water with your sticker on it. Hand them out for free on the parade route or at the fireworks show. This will cost you maybe $100 to execute, but the branding and potential business go a VERY long way on a hot day.
Flyers and Business Cards - self explanatory. If you attach something of value, like candy, a free coupon, a glow stick, etc, they are easier to hand out. (And you might be able to get vendors and booths to hand them out for you.)
- Take a step further. Contact business. Tell them you are handing out flyers on the 4th to the local community. Tell them the amount you plan to hand out and ask if they want to advertise. Offer 1/16, 1/8 and 1/4 spaces on your flyer (print front and back).
T-Shirts. Red, white and blue. The shirt says something like "July 4th, 2013 - My Town, My State" with your URL plainly written. Give the shirts away. Tell people you have spotters handing out $50 gift cards/cash to random people the see wearing the shirts during the event.
Contest Boxes - You see these at local businesses already, usually for gyms. Buy some ballot-style cardboard boxes, and get some generic entry forms (usually included with the box). Print up promo flyers to tape to the box. You can give away something, like local business services/goods/certificates, cash, a kindle/ipad, etc. Those work best, but you can also have a non-incentivized promo (Get a Six Pack! Make Money Online!... etc.) and collect email addresses to send targeted CPA offers too. Hand them out to vendors and tell them you'll pay $10 for up to 100 entries. $25 for 200, or whatever they agree with.
All of these ideas are things that the whole family can get involved with, especially younger kids who love to be involved with these things.
This is posted in the sidewalk (maybe should be slowlane) because it's not really scalable, and it only happens once per year. But you certainly can have a lot of revenue on a holiday when most people are making nothing.
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