Caution ... it's hot! (Biz Idea)

When you buy your morning coffee do you usually receive a "hot coffee" sleeve on your paper cup? Although, putting a cardboard sleeve on hot coffee cups is a common practice followed by many large franchised chains, it is less so with the small independent cafes. Instead, the small guys and gals usually "double cup" to protect their customer's hands. Those who follow this practice of double cupping using expensive cups instead of the cheaper cardboard sleeves frequently do so because they simply don't have the sleeves.

Here's how one young man filled "a need" and you can too!

1. He made simple written agreements with the owners of small cafes that they would use (distribute) the cardboard sleeves if our guy supplied the sleeves to them at no charge.

2. He called on medium-to-large local companies, auto dealerships, retailers, taxi companies, etc. and sold advertising on the sleeves.

It's important to remember that after the customer drinks the coffee the sleeve can easily be slipped off the cup and retained. This opens up lots of advertising and promotion potential for the advertisers. One advertiser may only want their company logo printed on their sleeve. Other advertisers may want their sleeve to essentially serve as a coupon that must be returned to the advertiser to receive a specific discount or other benefit, etc. I guess by now you can see that the advertising options are almost unlimited.

How is the guy doing who I referred to earlier? You decide. The last time I checked he was doing over EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS per year in sales. Yes, there's huge money to be had when you combine a need (or want) with creative marketing. I should mention that if I were to implement this program, instead of providing the sleeves for free to the café owners, I would charge him/her the wholesale cost of the sleeve including the printing plus 10 percent. Then, I would keep the entire advertising revenue for myself. This is a perfect one-person business. Go for it!