Okay, don’t laugh. It’s a job and it can be a darn good paying one if you have a good route. Being a newspaper delivery boy isn’t what it used to be many years ago. Today, newspapers are much more efficiently run and the delivery services themselves have been upgraded drastically. Today’s paper boy doesn’t work anywhere near as hard as the paper boy of the 1970s. So if you’re thinking this is something that you don’t want to do, you might think differently after reading this review of exactly what a paperboy does and gets paid.
Paper boys of the 21st century have it made. Of course this isn’t a job that a 10 year old is going to be able to do anymore, at least not if he wants to make the big bucks. Today’s paper routes are much larger than they were years ago. So in order to work today’s routes you’re going to need a car, preferably one with a lot of trunk space. An SUV, van or truck may even help. Years ago, a route was maybe 100 papers. Today, a route can be up to 1000 papers if you get a really good route.
The first thing you need to do is contact the local newspaper in your area and tell them you want to route. They’ll ask you where you live and try to assign you one that is close by. They will ask you if you have a vehicle. When you get hired, they will give you a destination to go to in order to pick up your papers. Yes, you do have to pick them up yourself. They don’t deliver them to your door. On normal days there won’t be anything more to do than to pick up the papers and throw them in your car. But on Sundays things are a little different. The Sunday paper comes in sections and before you can deliver each paper you have to put the sections together. This can be very time consuming, so on Sunday you better be prepared to get up a little earlier and work a little longer. But it’s worth it because the Sunday papers are very expensive today and the commissions you get on them are very nice.
After the papers are put together you will have a route sheet to look at. This will have the addresses of every subscriber. You better either know the area well or have a map with you or you’re going to get very lost and your job is going to take you all day to complete. This is not good when you have people who are expecting their paper by 7 AM.
After you have delivered all your papers, you return home and report in to the main office that the route for that day has been completed. They’ll ask you the time of completion and how long it took you. If they see you’re taking longer than expected you may not keep your job long as this will lead to unhappy customers.
Years ago, when papers were 10 cents, you got paid 2 cents on every paper, or 20 percent. Today, the percentages are closer to 30 percent and with papers going for 50 cents a pop during the week and $1.00 on Sunday, you can make a nice part time income for an hour of work a day.
Being a paper boy isn’t what it used to be.
We’ve all heard the jokes about car salesmen, especially used car salesmen. We have a picture in our minds of these shady characters we wouldn’t trust with our pencils let alone with selling us an automobile. The truth is, car salesmen have a tough job. Think you want to sell cars for a living? You might want to read what follows first.
In spite of what most people think, selling cars is not as simple as just showing somebody an automobile and getting them to sign on the bottom line. The car selling process for a salesman is actually quite involved with many steps along the way.
For starters, most of the large car dealers have a sales force. This sales force is broken up into teams and shifts. Because most dealerships are open late, one shift takes the morning and afternoon while another shift takes the afternoon and evening. A dealership may have as many as 25 salesmen working for them, not counting finance people.
When a customer comes in, the salesmen take turns approaching them for help. This way each salesman has the chance to close a sale. If it’s slow, this puts everyone on equal footing. If it’s busy, then the salesman who closes his sales the fastest will make out the best. This is because if he is done and everyone else is with a customer, then he gets the next customer that comes in regardless of who’s “turn” it is. Customers are never supposed to wait more than 30 seconds to be waited on.
The first thing the salesman does is ask the customer what they’re looking for. After getting this info, he’ll show the customer several models in the price range or class that he wants. This is probably the lengthiest part of the process as the customer may have a number of questions and even ask for a demo drive. If a demo drive is asked for the salesman has to check in with the manager to get the keys. This is to make sure that a salesman doesn’t just hop into a car and drive off with it.
If after the demo ride and all the questions are answered the customer decides he wants to get the car, the salesman’s job isn’t done. Not by a long shot. The next thing he has to do is bring the customer to the finance office to work out the financing of the vehicle. While this is going on the salesman has to go to the prep department with the car. Here he tells the prep guys what needs to be done to the car, such as if any extra equipment needs to be added. It’s the salesperson who coordinates this whole process, making sure that the prep department gets the car ready for delivery and also making sure that the finance office takes care of financing.
After the car is prepped and the finance papers are all filled out, the salesman then gets the car from the prep department and drives it to the pickup area. After the customer is all done with the paperwork, the salesman escorts the customer out to the new car, hands him the keys and gives him his business card. He tells the customer to call if he has any questions.
The salesman then has to go back inside and fill out a report on the sale and submit it to his manager.
Yes, selling a car is not just selling a car.