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How To Retire Without Money
By Bob Belmont
CHAPTER 5 AMERICA'S
BARGAIN PARADISES
Page 3 of 9
Their names
are Arthur and Phyllis Economou and a few years ago their
business which they had developed in New York fell on bad
times in spite of the fact that they had worked themselves to
the point of collapse. Bankrupt, they left the north and went
to Florida where Art had to look for any job at all to keep
them going. In fact, he told me that at one time he washed
dishes in a second rate restaurant.
But neither Art nor Phil are the types to wash dishes for a
living—not for long. Art saw an opportunity, saved out of his
meager earnings enough to get it going.
And thus the
Florida Opportunity Bulletin was born.
The Economous
estimated that there must be literally millions of people in
the United States who would like either to retire or to get
jobs in Florida. Many, many of these had probably been
dreaming of it, or even semi-planning it, for years. Art
figured that they would pay to be shown the way.
He advertised
a subscription to the Florida Opportunity Bulletin for $1 for
six months in several northern newspapers in the classified
sections. The ad went something like this (I can't quote it
exactly):
Would you like to retire in Florida? Six month trial
subscription to FLORIDA OPPORTUNITY BULLETIN, telling you job
and investment opportunities. Articles giving you basic
information on how to retire in glamorous Florida.
For the first
few editions Art and Phil mimeographed the Bulletin getting
their information from releases from the U.S. Employment
Bureau, the Florida newspapers, from the library, from every
book and magazine that they could find giving pertinent
information on the subject.
The Bulletin
was a success from the beginning. The subs that came in more
than balanced all classified ad costs and the cost of
mimeographing and mailing. The subscription list grew, grew
and grew.
And suddenly
Art realized that he had a saleable thing here for Floridian
advertisers. He went around canvassing real estate agents and
others who would be interested in these thousands of
northerners who wanted to retire in the Southland.
And the ads
that these dealers ran (especially at first) really pulled.
Some of the Economou's advertisers claimed the Bulletin the
best medium they had.
By now the
Florida Opportunity Bulletin was being printed in magazine
form and on slick paper. A local printer in Coral Gables (near
Miami) did up the job for them, supplied them with necessary
"cuts" to use as illustrations for ads and such.
Art and Phil
took to running larger ads and considerably more of them in
the northern papers using even such mediums as the Wall Street
Journal. And, as the subscription list grew, so did the
advertising value—and Art upped, and upped again the
advertising rates.
>>> CHAPTER 5 AMERICA'S
BARGAIN PARADISES Page 4
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