MEN AND METHODS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 54, 27 November 1928, Page 15

MEN AND METHODS

BUSINESS PLANS AND IDEAS 'A' tip for salesmen: Make hay while the other fellows slumber. >» * ♦ Getting the other fellow's customers away from him is not nearly so important as keeping your own customers safe and .satisfied. » » ♦ A' baker has increased his sales by ttsing his delivery men as salesmen. When a roundsman delivers bread to a house, he also goes to the house next door and leaves a sample of some kind. He tells the lady of the home that he is delivering next door, explains the merits of his goods, and agrees to call a week later, when, if the sample has given satisfaction, he appeals for a trial. Each roundsman receives a small bonus for every new customer. » ♦ ♦ One good rule in seeking new customers is to give special treatment to every stranger that enters your shop, so as to induce him or her to call again. It it has been ascertained that a person has entered the shop for the first time a small gift may be handed to the customer, with the compliments of the firm. The gilt may be a calendar, early in the year, or it may be a blotter or fancy pencil. It is always wise to make an event of the first sale. The customer is pleased, and is jikely to call again at a shop where unusual courtesy prevails. Art in the Air. Probably the first televisioned advertisement in history was recently prepared in America by the N. W. Ayer Agency. A New York artist who was preparing an important drawing for a motorcar manufacturer, was delayed in his work on account of illness. In consequence, the drawing, and the advertisement of which it was a part, was not completed in time to make the mail connections. The artist televisioned his drawing from New York to Cleveland, whence it was carried by aeroplane to Detroit. Approval of the drawing was telephoned, and the stereos were cast according to the original schedule. Large-Seale Production. Many branches of industry are so thoroughly committed to large-scale production, even in a small country such as New Zealand, that it is interesting to learn that there are times when largescale production has decided weaknesses. As long as conditions warranted the production of goods for stock at times when the demand for immediate delivery was slack, large-scale organisations had the advantage, but with the increase in costs since the war and the uncertainty of the market in the past three years, the advantage has rather shifted to the smaller producer with less heavy fixed charges. Dor instance, in the clothing industry, the smaller manufacturer has the advantage over the larger one in that he can quickly adjust his output to the demand of the moment, can reduce his expenses to almost nil in case of necessity, and thus is ready for any emergency. Thus, in boom times, his competition is not felt, but when demand is at low ebb and the cost element assumes greater importance, he comes to the fore again. Operation of larger units is profitable only if a fairly high proportion of the machinery is active and profits increase in direct ratio to the increase, in activity. In other words, the profit on the last unit of possible output is much greater than on the first. How to Find the Right Job.

Because work is such an important thing in life, many people become overanxious about it and needlessly tie themselves up into mental hard knots about it; whereas, if they would just go ahead and do the thing that they really want to do, most of their difficulties would vanish, because they would not have time to think about them. This is the opinion of a young woman who has made a profession of helping people to find themselves in their work. The one piece of advice that she has occasion to give again and again is to go ahead and do what you want to do; not just think ahout doing it. If you cannot make a living by doing what you want to do, then do it on the side. Make an avocation or hobby of it Perhaps it will come in handy some day.

She recounted to me dozens of cases that she has known of or had contact with in which a hobby or avocation has helped people to solve vocational difficulties.

“I come across a great many people who do not know what they want to do,” said this young woman who helps people to find the right job. “Many of them have tried a hand at a variety of occupations without making a go at any of them. But if, with all their changes from this to that, they have been seriously cultivating an avocation, or perhaps several of them, that they really like, I can almost always be of help to them. Employers, .1 have found, generally like to have their employees have some sort of interest outside of their regular work, provided it has a recreational aspect to it and is not merely a device for making more money. It is not, of course, a simple task for a person to find out what he wants to do. Certainly, it isn’t often that he can discover it by theorising or sense it by intuition alone. Usually it is necessary to experiment. And if the right thing isn't hit upon the first time, it does no ham to try again. The danger expressed in that <;ld homily, Jack of all trades and master of none, is often exaggerated. So many come to me who are not enthusiastic Jacks of even one trade.”—Eranklin .8. Clark, in the “Saturday Evening Post,” Philadelphia.

Competition is the foundation of all business activity, and this competition maj' be of two kinds, the destructive sort, bred of economic ill-health and unethical methods, or of the constructive type, founded on fair dealings and sound economics.—Magnus W. Alexander.