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Perry Hall High School
Perry Hall, MD
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Sell school
spirit decals for cars! You've probably seen them before - black-and-white
oval stickers that usually have a few letters printed on them.
If you have one yourself, you know what the abbreviation stands
for (OBX for the Outer Banks, or LAX for lacrosse).
Perry
Hall High decided to have a thousand stickers made, at 21 cents
a piece. The decals were sold for $3 at school athletic events
and to the community at large - because Perry Hall High is named
after the town it's located in, there were another 28,705 potential
customers for the stickers. They ended up selling just under
three-fourths of the stickers they ordered, and made nearly $2,000!
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Small
numbers, big profits. Selling a 21¢ item for $3
doesn't sound like a huge moneymaker, but imagine selling
something that cost you $10 for $143. And then selling that
same thing 700 times. Business people call this markup -
and when you're working with things that are cheap to make,
it can add up to a healthy profit.
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Fads
are risky. Right now, oval car decals are popular. But
they may not be next year. Fundraisers are often planned
months in advance, so make sure your idea has some long-term
appeal, and won't sputter out when it's showtime.
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Sell
as broadly as possible. If you're selling something that
has limited appeal, your potential audience is much smaller,
right from day one. Think about what almost every student
in your school, or almost every parent, would be interested
in.
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