What will I be doing?

We've all seen the ads in the back of magazines: "How to Make a Million Dollars in Mail Order! Learn how: $10."

In that case, the answer is: Get 100,000 people to send you $10 each! But the real answer is: Sell things people need and want by mail.

Mail order isn't really a business. It's a way of doing business. It uses the mail service or package delivery services to market and distribute products and services. In most cases, these are products that may not be available locally. Typically, you'll need to have an inventory (or access to inventory) of a product, whether it's your own line of cookies--or eyebrow tweezers you can get from a cheap source.

What will I need to start?

To sell by mail, you need a product or service that others need and are willing to buy and receive by mail. It must be a product or service that can be easily delivered by mail. Elephants-by-Mail is a poor business idea. Elephant-Books-by-Mail is better. You will need knowledge of shipping methods and costs. Some products are easier to ship than others. Some must be shipped economically while others need to get to the customer fast. What shipping services you use depends on the customer's needs and willingness to pay.

Your mail order business depends on your knowledge of marketing--how to find and keep customers. The more you know about reaching your customers, the less you will waste on unneeded advertising in the wrong outlets, and the more efficiently you can target your customers.

Who will my customers be?

Who will buy from you sight unseen? Those who have developed trust in mail order products and who need a product they can't find otherwise. You may be the exclusive manufacturer of a product for fishermen. You may offer 100-percent satisfaction guaranteed on everything you sell. You may offer free overnight delivery. You may only sell to the affluent.

A Texas tamale maker dramatically expanded business by offering tamales by mail. I'm not kidding. The tamales, individually wrapped and frozen, are shipped via overnight freight to customers around the world. A brochure sells the product, a toll-free telephone number is used for ordering by credit card. FedEx does the rest. Sure, you can buy tamales at the local supermarket, but not these tamales!

To be successful in the mail order business you need to identify the customer and market niches for your product and reach them through the proper advertising and marketing. One way to do this is by purchasing mailing lists from other direct marketers.

How much should I charge?

In many cases, mail-order services have an hourly rate of $30 to $75. Most, however, prefer to use a markup or multiplier to cover the extra expenses of advertising and shipping. A common multiplier is three. That is, a product that wholesales for $10 is sold by mail for $30--or $29.95. Some mail-order businesses use lower or higher multipliers, but this one is the most popular.

How much will I make?

An efficient mail-order service can bring the owner an income of $30,000 to $50,000 a year in net income depending on what is offered and how efficiently it is sold. Mail-order businesses typically have a forgotten advantage over retail stores: "S & H" (shipping and handling charges). The mail-order price is $29.95 plus $4.95 for shipping and handling, which translates into savings for you because the customer is directly paying one of your major expenses--shipping and handling.

How can I get started?

First, identify your potential customers, learn about their needs, find products that fulfill those needs and learn to price and distribute those products efficiently. Also, read my book, Upstart Guide to Owning and Managing a Mail Order Business (Upstart Publishing), which includes hundreds of mail-order business ideas as well as specific information on pricing and marketing.

How can I use computers to increase profits?

Mail order businesses are using the Internet to reach a new and broader audience. Nearly all of the mail order catalog merchants of yesterday (Sears, Spiegel, L.L. Bean, etc.) now have huge online catalogs. So can you. Well, maybe not huge, but profitable. Besides standard website design software, you will need programs that access your product database as well as online payment services through a "secure server". Start your education today by seeing how other mail order business have profited online.