The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1909)

56 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. ADVERTISING AND QUALITY Should be the Keynotes of the Policy of the Dealer Who Desires to Win Trade. If many of our business men went after trade like the mail order houses, and as persistently, the out-of-town business would be reduced to a minimum. Many of the retail dealers in the country towns are handicapped for lack of capital to carry the assortment needed, but they buy too many of one thing-; do not spread their capital out enough, The result is when more goods are needed, their capital is tied up in stock and not available for new goods. One of the greatest hindrances to the retail dealer in the country towns is his lack of advertising, it must be admitted. The mail order houses spend millions for advertising, using circular letters and. booklets. If every retail dealer would do more circular advertising, coupled with judicious newspaper advertising, then he would see an increase in his sales. Circular letters and booklets of seasonable goods should be sent to each family in each dealer's neighborhood. Nearly all manufacturers will supply electros of their goods, and the local printer can put them in shape. Don't be content with sending a batch once in two or three months. Send them every two weeks at least and get busy right now. Make your prices attractive. You can do it if you will, "and keep everlastingly at it." A personal visit to talk about seasonable goods goes a long way towards success. Go out among your customers, suggest goods, take their orders for future delivery early enough so you will be sure to have the goods when needed, and last of all, talk "Quality! Quality!! Quality!!!" That is what counts after all. 4. Thou shalt not wait to be told what thou shalt do, nor in what manner thou shalt do it, for thus may thy days be long in the job which fortune hath given thee. 5. Thou shalt not fail to maintain thine own integrity, nor shalt thou be guilty of anything that will lessen thy good respect for thyself. 6. Thou shalt not covet the other fellow's job, nor his salary, nor the position that he hath gained by his own hard labor. 7. Thou shalt not fail to live within thy income, nor shalt thou contract any debts when thou canst not see the way to pay them. 8. Thou shalt not be afraid to blow thine own horn, for he who faileth to 'blow his horn at the proper occasion finds nobody standing ready to blow it for him. 9. Thou shalt not hesitate to say "No" when thou meanest "No," nor shalt thou fail to remember that there are times when it is unsafe to bind thyself by a hasty judgment. 10. Thou shalt give every man a square deal. This is the last and great commandment, and there is no other like unto it. Upon this commandment hangs all the law and profits of the business world. NECESSITY OF INITIATIVE Coupled With Action in the Fight for Success— IVIen With Initiative Command Higher Salaries, but Are Scarce — What Sort of Men the Great Merchants Demand. GOOD BUSINESS COMMANDMENTS. The following ten commandments have been compiled for the modern business world by Graham Hood: 1. Thou shalt not wait for something to turn up, but thou shalt pull off thy coat and go to work that thou mayest prosper in thy affairs and make the word "failure" spell "success." 2. Thou shalt not be content to go about thy business looking like a loafer, for thou shouldst know that thy personal appearance is better than a letter of recommendation. 3. Thou shalt not try to make excuses, nor shalt thou say to those who chide thee, "I didn't think." Initiative and action, not routine or dependence, are necessary to the success of the young man of to-day. The proprietor of one of the largest retail houses in New York said the other day that he could afford to pay 50 per cent, higher salaries if he could get hold of men who possessed judgment and initiative. Do you know what that means? It means the power to do the right thing at the right time. This merchant said that most of his young men were too mechanical. They learned to do certain things in the earlier days of their experience, and they did those things over and over in a mechanical way each day. They fail to put thought and study into their work. "That's the reason," continued this merchant, "that there is always room at the top. We find it more difficult to fill satisfactorily one $5,000 position than it is to fill ten $600 positions." The reason is obvious; young men in business are too mechanical. They don't take the trouble to prepare themselves for better positions. Another merchant in New York recently hired POST CARD VIEWS OF YOUR OWN CITY MADE TO ORDER $5.00 FOR 1000 IN TWO COLORS 6/aiianSH i(wtr. Qy/uwbus. 0 $7.20 FOR 1000 In Hand Color Send for Samples By our new photographic process. Made from any fair photo. Delivered in two or three weeks. Our hand-colored cards are the best made in America VALENTINE, EASTER, FLORAL, COMICS, ETC. MAKER TO DEALER NATIONAL COLORTYPE CO. Department 9 CINCINNATI, OHIO a young man for an executive position at a salary of $3,500 per year. This young man had been at work about a month when the two were having a talk one evening regarding the policy of his department, and the young man referred to the method employed in a similar department of a larger store. "They pay $2,000 a year for an assistant up there," said the young man, "and they also pay the best prices for piecework, so that the manager has only the finishing touches to do and the rest of his work is largely supervision." "Pshaw,'' was the reply, "that's one way of doing things, but you can do anything with money. What we want is to accomplish the same thing without spending nearly as much money. Give me the man who can do things! I got you because I thought you had initiative. So far you are working out all right, and if you continue you need have no worry about your future. When our business reaches larger proportions you will be relieved of a great deal of detail, but even then I feel that we can accomplish practically what the other concern is doing at a great deal less expense." These remarks are straws that show which way the business wind is blowing. The great merchants want men of action; men who think; men who watch the work — not the hours. As Mr. Clairfield said recently in The Iron Age: It is results that count. Don't be an automaton. Don't be too dependent upon others. Remember the old saying — "The more oversight, the less pay." "EXPERIENCE" OUR FRIEND And a Friend of the Most Practical Sort Who Should be Cherished by Business Men — How We Learn by Mistakes and Profit by the Experience of Others — Interestingly Discussed by John K. Le Baron in The Evening World. He is a wise man who profits by the experiences of others. Few of us do. Most men ignore that valuable school and tempt fate against great odds until their own failures and losses teach them the lesson they might have learned from others. Coleridge says: "To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed." That is because we insist upon foolishly learning every lesson from our own hard knocks. Much of Thomas Jefferson's success and influence were due to his making it a point to profit by the experience of others. He always made it his business to talk with those whom he thought knew more than he, and to talk to them upon the subject which he thought they knew most about. The experiences of others make a safe ladder for our ambitions. Franklin learned some of his most valuable lessons from the ants. When Benjamin West was a very small boy he learned from the Indians how to vitalize the juice of the pokeberry and other plants. When, a little later, he developed his art tastes he profited by the experiences of the red men, for he was too poor to buy paints. The Quakers' were not art connoisseurs and young West found small encouragement in his art aspirations. Without paints his hopes would have been vain had he not learned his lesson from the savages. We do not gain all our profitable experiences from those above us in the scale of endeavor. Nor do we get all our valuable ideas from the successes of those whose experience we consider. Pliny, the elder, says, "the best plan is to profit by the folly of others." There are as great lessons to be learned from defeats as from victories. The headstrong man is the one who is most given to putting his head in a noose and then pulling the string. He forgets that better men than he have made costly mistakes. Don't expect at the outset to know more than the man who does know. "Experience keeps a dear school, but fools