Money From Nothing

September 16, 2022

With thanks to Phil Shepherd for this week's Random Dialogue contribution...

How some imaginative thinking made me £11,000 with just four hours work

In the 1980s I had a small advertising marketing and PR agency in the Health Food sector and one of my clients was a vegetarian foods manufacturer.

He specialised in dehydrated food mixes but wanted to create a range of frozen readymeals. The problem was that not only did none of the health food wholesalers have facilities to store and deliver frozen foods but at that time health food retailers didn't have display freezers. 

I persuaded a wholesaler to invest in a coldstore, frozen delivery van and a joint venture project with a hundred of his best retail customers whereby he would install a display freezer for each of them at half price. Half the monthly lease costs were paid by the retailer and the other half by health food manufacturers. (My client and a frozen yoghurt producer I found).

The retailers were locked into that wholesaler and could only display those manufacturers products.  

My client, who was paying me my standard monthly fee for marketing services, was very happy. It was all new extra business for him - indeed all extra business for the wholesaler and his retailers too. 

I was particularly happy as, unbeknown to all of them, I made an extra £11,000 from the project for myself. They never knew about it.

I worked out that the total amount of actual time spent on phonecalls and meetings to set all this up was four hours. (Btw there was no internet back then - how did we cope!!!!???).

So, I made an extra £11,000 for just four hours work. Can you figure out where it came from?

you may like to respond to Phil>>> here

News

Last week, at Guildford In Bloom

Rosamund Community Garden won a Gold award in the Wildlife Garden category >>>

and it was a Silver Guilt for the Tyson family

Sarah Swift organised a wonderful guided tour of the new Hilltop area at RHS Wisley Garden. Can you spot the swift boxes in the background?

💡Creative Nudge

"They're cheaper and more #environmentallyfriendly than shop-bought solutions." said Ruth. Read how she made these here

And Finally🎬

How to thrive in a recession.

It's easy, isn't it, to get caught up in the angst of the impending energy crisis and seemingly inevitable recession coming this winter. It's a hard fact that many businesses will struggle to get through it... READ ON

💬Random Dialogues 57

HERE'S one I made earlier.

🔌🔌🔌🔌🔌Five Plugs

8pm-8.30pm "Top Tips on Canva, Jane Tyson, you are a genius. If you need to take your Canva usage to the next level, Jane is fabulous" Sue Reeves, Resilience Coach. BOOK

10am-12pm. A great way to catch up with the local business community in Surrey. There’s no membership, no pre-booking required, just £8 payable on our APP in advance, or at the event

11am-2pm Are you concerned about the current impact of traditional farming on our planet? Would you like to learn more about one of the different food systems that may help us respond to climate change? JOIN

7pm-8:30pm, we're hosting our monthly free online event. CLICK

9.30am-3.30pm You will learn all about scything and spend some time in our orchard or meadow putting your knowledge into practice. Cost for the day £35. Contact Charlotte at [email protected]

Thank you for reading.

A Bit More Finally🎬

Fun with Fiona Ross at the Surrey Wood Fair on Sunday:

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