Beginner Advice (written July, 1995)

If you are just starting out or thinking about starting a mail order business, here are some tips that may help you to avoid having your bank account devoured by the mail order money eating monster.

Educate yourself without spending money – read as many mail order related publications as you can. Get on as many mailing lists as you can. Read, read and then read more!  Give yourself up to a year before you invest any money!

Most people who write articles on the mail order subject offer excellent information on every aspect of mail order and MLM. Most of them have been in the business for years and they know that they must write educational, informative articles in order to continue having their articles accepted and published. If you take your time and study these articles, you will gain a well rounded mail order education and it won’t cost you one thin dime.

What I do is cut out the articles that pertain to this business. Then I keep this information in a three ring binder. I organize all the information under separate headings so that I can locate a particular topic when I need it. You can do the same exact thing and it’s easy!

Just take your time! Make sure that you know which direction you are headed in before you start spending your money. Tune out all of the hype! Start and build a real business. Don’t throw your money away on unworkable, unrealistic, flaky programs. If the people who are trying to sell you these schemes are making so much money, why the heck are they trying so hard to sell them to you? Common sense tells me that people who are making boat loads of money have no intention of sharing it with people that they don’t even know.

Don’t be in a hurry to spend your money! Learn this solid business principle right now: “It is just as important to save money as it is to make money.”

Sure I know the old saying “it takes money to make money” but I can tell you this, “it also takes money to lose money.” I know that you have to spend money to start and build a business but you can learn to spend your money wisely.

Another good idea after you read the articles, call the author. Call around to different authors to get their perspective on things. One idea from me, one idea from another author and one idea from even another author can be how you round your ideas into one solid plan.

Don’t focus on getting rich! Get your head out of the clouds and get both of your feet planted firmly on the ground. Concentrate on building a solid business offering high quality products and services. Then and only then will you stand a real chance of making money in mail order marketing.

The author of this article is Larry Costello, President of All-American Print & Mail, 2200 Wilson Blvd #102-57, Arlington, VA 22201.