I did it all wrong when I created a selling discount cards business at the age of twenty.
My basic idea for a selling discount cards business wasn’t a bad one, but it was poorly executed.
I was going too cheap on the card materials, to low on the pricing, and I had no sales experience.
Nonetheless, I did get five local merchants to agree to offer a discount.
It was a 10% discount to anyone who presented the card to them. This was about thirty years ago, by the way…
That part was easy, since it cost them nothing to participate (a mistake perhaps).
Moreover, I only approached businesses that could easily still make a profit after offering 10% off.
My vendors included a bookstore, a restaurant, an auto repair facility and a two others I no longer recall.
I promised each that they would be the only one of their type on the card (one bookstore, one car repair place, etc).
Have a plan for your selling discount cards business
Giving the card holder a reason to come to them versus any other business of the same sort.
It was called “The Christmas Discount Card” or something like that, and would be good for a year.
I planned to have them printed with the names of the ten businesses on cheap business-card stock for about 5 cents each.
Then I would sell them for $2 each.
A co-worker at the fast-food restaurant I was working at agreed to talk to her high school coach about doing a fund raiser and having students sell the cards.
He agreed, and we were offering them a dollar for each card sold, leaving us about 60 cents each after expenses.
He said he could get the kids to sell 1,000. What made me think making only $600 split two ways was worth the effort?
I was young. In any case, the plug was pulled when the school board decided that there had already been enough fund raisers for the year.
The selling of discount cards is done in a variety of ways.
But they are almost always printed on higher-quality cards than what we planned, and sold for more.
In fact, in that same town where I was living and planning my own venture, there was a card which was sold by the thousands each year for $39 each.
It included a free pizza (the card publisher reimbursed the pizzeria $2 for each tiny circle they punched out of the card–at least any that didn’t get lost), and a $10 oil change (the break-even point for oil changes at the time, and so a way to get new customers who would hopefully return and pay full-price).
How Much Can You Make with a selling discount cards business?
There are a number of companies that do this directly or as the provider of the service for groups who want to have fund raisers.
But there is not good data available on what they make from the cards, especially since some do that as just one part of their marketing company.
But lets speculate and say that the high-end offers of $29 or $39 net $10 per card after expenses.
Do an annual promotion in a town and sell 1,000 of the cards and you make $10,000.
Have these deals running in a dozen towns near you and your revenue would be over $100,000 per year.
I should note though, that a $10 card price is more common.
Ways to Make More | Related Opportunities | Tips
Some companies charge the retailers who participate a “registration fee,” which might cover the printing cost of the cards.
Keeping the initial investment down and increasing the total profits.
Cards should always have an expiration date, or retailers will be vary about participating.
Qualifications / Requirements
You must be willing to get out there and talk to retailers who might want to participate
You’ll need a thousand dollars to invest, in one form or another.
First Steps
Talk to those shop owners and see if there is any interest.
Talk to a print shop to see what it would cost you to print up a thousand nice plastic-coated cards and perhaps a flyer and envelope to go with each.
See if there are any groups who can do the selling for you, or see if retailers who participate are willing to sell them.
Make a plan, then crunch the numbers to decide if your plan makes sense.
Resources
http://www.fasttrackfundraising.com/discount-card-fundraiser.php – A company that helps you do discount card promotions, even supplying the forms for the merchants you sign up.
http://www.fundraising-newsletters.com/discount-card-fundraiser.html – An article on selling discount cards.