Curbside Cash! . . . How A Set Of Stencils Delivers

29 replies
Lately I have been adding extra cash to my daily income by using a block of my afternoon time to solicit door to door. My target has been $50.00 extra cash everyday.

I bought a set of 6” number stencils and began approaching residents who lived on streets with sidewalks and corresponding concrete curbs. My pitch is simple. I ask the resident if they would like to have their house number address printed on the road side face of the curb directly in front of their house painted white or black in 6” tall numbers for $5.00.

For the past two weeks I have averaged about $40.00 a day for only about three hours of sales and painting work. I recommend this approach to anyone who wants to create real additional income now on a day to day basis, guaranteed. And the start up cost is peanuts.

The great thing about this work is you can do it according to your motivation. And believe me, it works. Folks like the additional convenience and security of having their house number right out front on the curb. It certainly makes it easier for their physical address to be located. It’s an good honest quick valued service for a fair price and not many turn it down.
#cash #curbside #delivers #set #stencils
  • Originally Posted by LastingLifeSuccess View Post

    Lately I have been adding extra cash to my daily income by using a block of my afternoon time to solicit door to door. My target has been $50.00 extra cash everyday.

    I bought a set of 6" number stencils and began approaching residents who lived on streets with sidewalks and corresponding concrete curbs. My pitch is simple. I ask the resident if they would like to have their house number address printed on the road side face of the curb directly in front of their house painted white or black in 6" tall numbers for $5.00.

    For the past two weeks I have averaged about $40.00 a day for only about three hours of sales and painting work. I recommend this approach to anyone who wants to create real additional income now on a day to day basis, guaranteed. And the start up cost is peanuts.

    The great thing about this work is you can do it according to your motivation. And believe me, it works. Folks like the additional convenience and security of having their house number right out front on the curb. It certainly makes it easier for their physical address to be located. It's an good honest quick valued service for a fair price and not many turn it down.
    This is a phenomenal idea. If you are looking for some quick cash I can totally see it working.

    The best part is, is that when you approach them about it for $5, they probably never even thought about it before. They see it is a good idea as well, and buy it off of impulse.

    Great share!
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    5 bucks it to cheap! Ask for 20 and you'll get more people saying yes. Great job on the hustle!
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  • Profile picture of the author Eddie Spangler
    ditto $5 bucks is too cheap..even if you dont want to go to $20, $10 is much better and pretty much just as easy to sell as $5. Then you only need 5 per day vs 10 to reach $50

    You may want to add a customized flair as an upsell. For example I knew a guy who did this in Atlanta who would add a small tomahawk (Atl Braves) to the work. People really loved it and a very high percentage would pay an extra $3-5 to have it done.
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  • Profile picture of the author SashaLee
    Hi there,

    Yes! You are selling this waaay to cheaply.

    Try pricing it at $7 and I guarantee you'll get just as many signups and you'll have increased your revenue by 25%.

    Make it $7 and have the additional team logo (great idea Eddie Spangler) priced at $3 and bring it to $10 even.

    We just started doing a lot of work with secondary schools in America - they are called High Schools as most of you already know - but their football, softball and baseball teams are very popular. You might want to make stencils for these too and offer people a choice

    Well done!

    All the best,

    Sasha.
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  • Profile picture of the author NewParadigm
    Someone did my neighborhood years ago, they put door hangers on everyones door w/ an official looking notice telling everyone they will be in the neighborhood in a few days on XX date. They left an envelope to put in payment and had them leave it on their door. Over half the neighborhood did it.
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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    I agree with charging more.

    Upsells:

    You could add an icon of the sport or activity their kid or the family is into - like a figure of a gymnast, a karate practitioner, a guitar, a football, a soccer ball... (Expanding on Eddie's
    idea and not trying to get credit for his moves.)

    Reflective paint so the numbers are visible at night.

    Yard signs which have their name and address.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveSki
    Originally Posted by LastingLifeSuccess View Post

    Lately I have been adding extra cash to my daily income by using a block of my afternoon time to solicit door to door. My target has been $50.00 extra cash everyday.

    I bought a set of 6” number stencils and began approaching residents who lived on streets with sidewalks and corresponding concrete curbs. My pitch is simple. I ask the resident if they would like to have their house number address printed on the road side face of the curb directly in front of their house painted white or black in 6” tall numbers for $5.00.

    For the past two weeks I have averaged about $40.00 a day for only about three hours of sales and painting work. I recommend this approach to anyone who wants to create real additional income now on a day to day basis, guaranteed. And the start up cost is peanuts.

    The great thing about this work is you can do it according to your motivation. And believe me, it works. Folks like the additional convenience and security of having their house number right out front on the curb. It certainly makes it easier for their physical address to be located. It’s an good honest quick valued service for a fair price and not many turn it down.
    When I use to paint addresses on curbs I often would make $200 - $1200 per day without having to do any door knocking what so ever... not even to collect payment.

    But I ran into some rural areas where I had to start knocking on doors as there were no curbs in those areas. So I switched to installing Address America's decorative night-vision reflective address signs. My profit per sign was $25 to $32 each.

    Orders went way up by goin door to door using the script and marketing materials that you can download for free at: http://EZPhotoCash.com/Address%20America.zip

    It was a great money maker but I stopped doing it when I moved to Australia in 2004. But I'm thinking of doing it here. The town I moved to had really cheap address stickers on the curbs provided by the city council several years before I moved here.

    Today most all of them are gone. Address America has really great reflective curb numbers that you can bond to the curb with a propane blow touch... very cost effective to buy, very profitable for you to install, lasts far longer than paint and you can feel good about doing something that can save lives!

    Cheers,
    Steve

    PS... After you finish addressing homes in an area... you could go call on all of your customers again and offer to install Peep-hole viewers in their doors for even more profits!
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    • Profile picture of the author midasman09
      Banned
      Ya gotta see this!

      "Curb Painting" with Go-Karts!


      I have a question though; What's in the bottle the guy is spraying on the curb after painting the white background?

      These guys get $20 per address.

      Don Alm
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      • Profile picture of the author zimbizee
        Anyone done this in the UK, concerned about local council regulations etc
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        • Profile picture of the author SteveSki
          Quote:
          Originally Posted by zimbizee View Post
          Anyone done this in the UK, concerned about local council regulations etc


          For the first 2 years I struggled with local council officials until I figured out how to approach them and by asking a set of questions (which I already knew the answers to) I would boxed them into agreeing that it was something that needed to be done.

          At first I was terrible at dealing with the councils... Click here to read a newspaper article from back in 1997 when the councils were giving me a hard time.

          But in 98 I finally cracked the code. I would bypass the council and go see the chief of police and have a chat. Asking things like... isn't it frustrating for fire and policemen to quickly locate the correct address especially at night and in bad weather?

          Then I'd shut up and give them a chance to tell me how they wish the problem could be solved. When I had a chat with the Police Chief of Scranton Pa, he told me how the council had pass a ordinance requiring all houses be properly addressed with large numbers and had it published in the papers announcing big fines for non compliance but he went on to tell me how they don't enforce the fines because of the public pleading they couldn't afford to address there house so hardly anyone had done so.

          He then said he 'endorsed' what I wanted to do so I asked him to introduce me to the city clerks who were in charge of issuing permits. He introduced me saying, I endorse his service, it's a good idea, set him up with the proper permits.

          I was getting anywhere from a 2% to an 8% response rate on the streets I canvassed with marketing flyers. Then I went to the Scranton paper and and looked up the article about the address ordinance. I then printed up 5,000 flyers and printed the ordinance on the back of my flyers and at the very top of the front of my flyers I added the words "Endorsed by Scranton Police Chief James Klee' went back to city hall and got permits for for 10 teenagers to post my flyers.

          Gave each kid 500 flyers and paid each of them $50 to get them posted the next day. I picked them up in my van, gave them maps of the streets I wanted covered with flyers and sent them off in teams of two, one on each side of the street.

          I drove around all day checking to make sure they got them all posted and weren't just throwing them into a thrash bin. By the time the last flyer got posted on a door that day... I already had over 200 orders. But I also received a phone call from Police Chief Klee's secretary who politely asked me to remove the Chief's name from future flyers.

          By the next day I had over 1800 orders for NightVision address signs and a full page article in the Scranton paper because some hot headed bloke called the paper complaining his elderly parents were tricked into ordering and he wasn't going to let them pay for the sign I had already installed. The article pretty much accused me of being a con artist and it had nothing nice to say.

          But a few days before posting those 5000 flyers I had printed up 20 large "Operation House ID" signs up and had staked one in the ground at the entrance to the industrial park where the local TV station was.

          They picked up on it, sent a reporter out to knock on several doors of people who now had my sings in the yards and they interviewed a lady who told them how her husband died because the ambulance could't find their address and how she wished she had gotten a reflective night vision address sign before it was to late.

          It took me another 3 months to flyer the rest of the streets in Scranton and had to hire several helpers to get all of the signs made and installed quickly.

          I also had placed a sticker with my contact details on the post the signs were mounted to which got me more orders. After that I started approaching all of the volunteer fire departments in the surrounding rural areas and told them I would donate $5 to them for new equipment if I could print "Endorsed by Them" on my flyers.

          Then by taking a demo sign door to door and using the 30 second sales presentation from my Marketing Materials I got up to 80% of the homes I canvassed to purchase a sign.

          Then Address America came up with the idea of custom name plates and sport fan plates to sell ad add on which gave me something to do during the winter months by going back and showing them to all my customers.

          Address America would make and print the name plates for me and ship them to me and a name plate took less than 60 seconds to attach to a sign.

          Cheers,
          Steve

          PS... Beware because if you do this business a lot of hot headed low lifers will not read flyers carefully & will cry scam. I had one druggie who threaten to kill me because his dogs torn the inside of his house apart while he was away when they heard one of my workers walk up to the front door to leave a flyer. The idiot recoded his threats on my voice mail and got busted a day later. Others will be jealous of you when they see all of the signs reflecting back at them when they drive home at night from working a job they hate. They will realize how much money you are making from counting the signs they see going up and will love to criticize you... so you have to have thick skin... it's not for wussy's.
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          • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
            Epic story bro! Hustle days for sure! Smart way you leveraged the Police department and the local news station. HAHA!

            Originally Posted by SteveSki View Post

            For the first 2 years I struggled with local council officials until I figured out how to approach them and by asking a set of questions (which I already knew the answers to) I would boxed them into agreeing that it was sometime that needed to be done.

            At first I was terrible at dealing with the councils... Click here to read a newspaper article from back in 1997 when the councils were given me a hard time.

            But in 98 I finally cracked the code. I would bypass the council and go see the chief of police and have a chat. Asking things like... isn't it frustrating for fire and policemen to quickly locate the correct address especially at night and in bad weather?

            Then I'd shut up and give them a chance to tell me how they wish the problem could be solved. When I had a chat with the Police Chief of Scranton Pa, he told me how the council had pass a ordinance requiring all houses be properly addressed with large numbers and had it published in the papers announcing big fines for non compliance but he went on to tell me how they don't enforce the fines because of the public pleading they couldn't afford to address there house so hardly anyone had done so.

            He then said he 'endorsed' what I wanted to do so I asked him to introduce me to the city clerks who were in charge of issuing permits. He introduced me saying, I endorse his service, it's a good idea, set him up with the proper permits.

            I was getting anywhere from a 2% to an 8% response rate on the streets I canvassed with marketing flyers. Then I went to the Scranton paper and and looked up the article about the address ordinance. I then printed up 5,000 flyers and printed the ordinance on the back of my flyers and at the very top of the front of my flyers I added the words "Endorsed By Endorsed by Scranton Police Chief James Klee' went back to city hall and got permits for for 10 teenagers to post my flyers.

            Gave each kid 500 flyers and paid each of them $50 to get them posted the next day. I picked them up in my van, gave them maps of the streets I wanted covered with flyers and sent them off in teams of two, one on each side of the street.

            I drove around all day checking to make sure they got them all posted and weren't just throwing them into a thrash bin. By the time the last flyer got posted on a door that day... I already had over 200 orders. But I also received a phone call from Police Chief Klee's secretary who politely asked me to remove the Chief's name from future flyers.

            By the next day I had over 1800 orders for NightVision address signs and a full page article in the Scranton paper because some hot headed bloke called the paper complaining his elderly parents were tricked into ordering and he wasn't going to let them pay for the sign I had already installed. The article pretty much accused me of being a con artist and it had nothing nice to say.

            But a few days before posting those 5000 flyers I had printed up 20 large "Operation House ID" signs up and had staked one in the ground at the entrance to the industrial park where the local TV station was.

            They picked up on it, sent a reporter out to knock on several doors of people who now had my sings in the yards and they interviewed a lady who told them how her husband died because the ambulance could't find their address and how she wished she had gotten a reflective night vision address sign before it was to late.

            It took me another 3 months to flyer the rest of the streets in Scranton and had to hire several helpers to get all of the signs made and installed quickly.

            I also had placed a sticker with my contact details on the post the signs were mounted to which got me more orders. After that I started approaching all of the volunteer fire departments in the surrounding rural areas and they them I would donate $5 to them for new equipment if I could print "Endorsed by Them" on my flyers.

            Then by taking a demo sign door to door and using the 30 second sales presentation from my marketing materials I got up to 80% of the homes I canvassed to purchase a sign.

            Then Address America came up with the idea of custom name plates and sport fan plates to sell ad add on which gave me something to do during the winter months by going back and showing them to all my customers.

            Address America would make and print the name plates for me and ship them to me and a name plate took less than 60 seconds to attach to a sign.

            Cheers,
            Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author SteveSki
        Originally Posted by midasman09 View Post


        I have a question though; What's in the bottle the guy is spraying on the curb after painting the white background?

        These guys get $20 per address.

        Don Alm
        Not sure what he is spraying. When I painted curbs I would use a brush and did the background in a forest green colour. Then using interlocking brass stencils held against the green background I would use white paint for the numbers, then before removing the stencil I would take a salt shaker with reflective powdered glass beads in it and dust the white numbers to make them highly reflective.

        Cheers,
        Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author ThePromotionalGuy
        Don,

        Originally Posted by midasman09 View Post

        I have a question though; What's in the bottle the guy is spraying on the curb after painting the white background?
        When I managed a very large hardware store we had a huge paint department. If memory serves me it's possibly a quick dry solution.

        I also noticed that the white rolled on paint is thick but the black spray paint is thin. This could also be a wet on wet process they developed. But with a little research and your keen skills you'll uncover what it is.

        The white paint might also be an undercoating or primer that needs a quick sealer. The white paint reminds me of the reflective aluminum roof coating paints that seals and protects trailer roofs. Once it dries it protects from water leaks and seals cracks and is highly reflective at night.

        Go over to the Home Depot on Aviation Dr and talk with the paint guys. Also ask them about moisture applications, surface cleaning along with asphalt, tars and oils. Don't forget about climates, cold, hot, humid and dry. Oregon weather is nothing like Florida weather so application(s) could be different and require different procedures per region.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alton Hargrave
          I would be careful in this because for decades, some folks have run numerous scams associated with address curb painting. The most common scam was to cause people to believe the city was doing this and that they should go along with it and pay. When people finally figured out it was not the city, they tended to feel scammed and sometimes the anger resulted in city ordinances against against curb painting.

          Some operators went to far as to paint addresses on all of the curbs before submitting theirselves for payment. Many people felt obliged to pay up since the painting was done.

          As a result of all this and more, the practice is poorly regarded in many places especially by middle-aged and older folks that remember. And, is illegal in certain places.

          As for myself, I wish every house had a clear address. Nowadays, many houses and businesses don't post their address.
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          • Profile picture of the author BigFrank
            Banned
            Originally Posted by Alton Hargrave View Post

            Nowadays, many houses and businesses don't post their address.
            In our county you must have these prominently displayed for police, fire and EMS purposes.

            Cheers. - Frank
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  • Profile picture of the author DaniMc
    I was doing this when I was on hard times...back in 2001 - 2002.

    I charged $15 each and I made around $150 a day doing it.

    I also had all my lawn mowing, hedge trimming, car washing stuff in the car - I would find several things to pitch. I could pitch each and every house SOMETHING.

    It's a good way to scrape yourself off the bottom of the barrel.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joe J
    As mentioned already, make sure you get permission first.

    About 3 years ago, we had received new pavements when right after, there is a knock on the door.

    The idiot was trying to get me to pay for what he and another guy had already done.

    The other guy was "painting" numbers on my next door neighbor's curb.

    He was using a coffee cup full of with what I'm guessing was paint and he was using a rolled up piece of newspaper as a brush and was free-handing it.

    Well, I don't have to say how awful it looked but the moral I guess is: no matter how great your work is, please get permission first.

    Joe
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    • Profile picture of the author IneedProfit
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    • Profile picture of the author SteveSki
      Originally Posted by Joe J View Post

      As mentioned already, make sure you get permission first.

      About 3 years ago, we had received new pavements when right after, there is a knock on the door.

      The idiot was trying to get me to pay for what he and another guy had already done.

      The other guy was "painting" numbers on my next door neighbor's curb.

      He was using a coffee cup full of with what I'm guessing was paint and he was using a rolled up piece of newspaper as a brush and was free-handing it.

      Well, I don't have to say how awful it looked but the moral I guess is: no matter how great your work is, please get permission first.

      Joe
      Smart marketers don't do the business that way. You always get permission to do the job first. Just posting flyers alone will get you orders without having to speak with the home owner. The flyer instructs them to order by writing their house number on the back of the flyer and taping it inside of a front window so it can be seen from the street.

      It lets them know that you will do the job and leave a collection envelope afterwards for their payment. They can leave it under the door matt for you to pick up or you can just knock on their door after their work hours to collect your payment.

      Or set up a website and collect payment in advance.

      In snow area's however... curb numbers are useless when they are covered by snow, mud and leafs or if a car is parked in front of it. Plus you have to be in front of the house looking at the curb to see it. But the double sided reflective address sings can be seen from 500 yards away especially at night... they reflect like a beacon.... even looking in the rear view mirror while driving at night, if you drive several hundred yards past the sign, just tap your break pedal and in your mirror, you will see the numbers light up off of your brake lights!

      Of all the things I've worked over the years the two top money earners were Address America and http://EZPhotoCash.com I haven't installed an Address Sign since moving to Australia in 2004. But whenever I want an extra $500 to $1000 all I do now is to spend 20 to 30 minutes pointing my camera at a child and then turning the snaps over to our team of digital artists who turn my plain shots into fantasy portraits!

      The photography is a much easier business to do for those who own digital cameras and likes people. If you are to shy to talk to people then you can still do the addressing business by using magic marketing flyers to do the talking for it. But with photography... you will have to interact with parents and children a bit.

      I am posting some video's below showing how to make the signs along with a 20 minute recording of an Address America webinar done this April.

      Cheers,
      Steve





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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    I always thought that adding a flashing LED light that someone could turn on for an emergency call would help emergency personnel locate the house faster. Especially at night in a rural or mountainous area.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonthewebmaster
    Banned
    I have done this for years as a way to make money on the weekends. My mom and her boyfriend did it alot growing up and that's where I learned how.

    My best saturday doing this I made $350. Typically working all day I can make at least $200. Working 4 hours I almost always make about $100. Sometimes only $50.

    I still do it today actually I am going to knock doors for a few hours as I need some extra money right now and I stocked up on more paint yesterday.

    This is a great way to make cash if you are not afraid to knock doors. The startup costs are small and I charge $10 per number or two for $15. Some homes have two driveways or are on a corner lot so those I like to push the up-sell. When I go into nicer neighborhoods my price goes up to $15 for one or $20 for two.

    On a side-note I have tried passing out fliers for this and got no response. It took longer for me to place the fliers on every door in the neighborhood than if I had just knocked anyway. The best results I have are when I just knock the door, quickly explain what I am doing and ask if they want it. The next question is usually how much? and that's when I smile, shrug, and say "$10 buck" and wave my hand as if that is nothing. This closes almost 50% of the time at the door. Sometimes I have to low-ball them and give them a "senior-citizen" discount or something to $5 and still get the deal.

    Anyway, hope this helps anyone thinking about doing this for some extra cash. It works! you just have to know how to paint them on and how to talk to people and get out there and knock some doors!
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonthewebmaster
    Banned
    Also speaking about flashy upgrades,. if you go to walmart and get the rustoleum paint that has the shiny beads built in, then paint the numbers white shiny bead on black background they will reflect light at night. My customers love that and I charge $10 extra for that. I also put a shiny clear gloss over it when I am done for extra reflectiveness.
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  • Profile picture of the author CurbNumberscom
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  • Profile picture of the author DIABL0
    I remember seeing this in magazines like income opportunities that I use to read all the time looking for that next business to start before the internet existed. I do remember something about using reflective paint so emergency vehicles could see at night.
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  • Profile picture of the author David K
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    • Profile picture of the author BigFrank
      Banned
      Did fundraising for our little league baseball team by doing this - over 50 years ago. :-)

      Cheers. - Frank
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  • Profile picture of the author David K
    I've been in the curb address number painting business continually full time for 29 years and the income has certainly been satisfying for me - as well as being honored to perform this life saving, nominally priced service.
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  • Profile picture of the author colzinfobiz
    Man...It ceases to amaze me how clever some of you guys are.

    Really enjoyed reading some of these posts, especially when you have to be self motivated all day long
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  • Profile picture of the author PennyBurgess
    You are a true inspiration! That's a real rock and roll life right there! There are tens of threads here where people are crying foul how they don't have enough money to get started!
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  • Profile picture of the author moneymax
    Awesome business. I have been doing this for over 20 years. Due to knee arthritis I don't do it as much, but I still on occasion get out my paint bucket and make a few hundred dollars when I need to. I charge $25 and I also paint a team logo. Awesome posts everyone. Thank you. Al
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