“Old Bill” Suggests—

Here is a true story of success:

“John Doe” and his wife were both born in a small town in Ohio. His parents died when he was young and he lived with a veteran florist. All his life he had been in the floral business. In 1929 he was making $100 a month as traveling salesman for a floral equipment company. His health broke down and when he recovered there were no jobs to be found anywhere.

He advertised for work and answered advertisements without result. Then one day he inserted a small and very plain plea for someone needing a reliable man to start and run a florist shop. Several answers came, the most favorable from two men who owned an empty store building in a Michigan city of 10,000 population.

With their automobile (a good car but their sole remaining asset) he and his wife drove to Cadillac and dug in. Their cash capital was $17 and that was borrowed. Donning overalls, he plunged into the job of remodeling a musty, dusty, smelly store into a perfectly luxurious and tastily appointed shop. In ten days it was finished.

Two advertisements at $70 each in the local paper, which created a sensation in that small city, brought on opening day 2,300 people by actual count. Since then, in three years, in the middle of a depression, he has saved enough to buy the store. He made the final payment last week.

Of course, he is proud of his shop (he is now building an annex to his greenhouse) and his lovely wife is as proud as he is. Last year he was host to florists from ten states for a trade conference. He is a member of FTD—flowers by wire—and sends and receives a batch of orders from this source almost every day. But what gives him the biggest “kick” of all is that distant dealers, on whom he called in his salesman days, frequenty have room for a “Hello, how’s tricks?” at the end of their code instructions.

ROYAL F. MUNGER.