How To Start A Local Restaurant Placemat Ads Service

Businesses Always Need To Advertise!

The concept is simple to start a local restaurant placemat ads service, which is give free paper placemats to restaurants in your area.

Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Associate; therefore, this post may contain affiliate links for me to earn a commission. RuralMoney.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

But wait, there’s more!

The placemat ads you give them have either a prominent color ad or their menu in the middle, and two-inch ads around the edge.

These ads will make so much profit for you that if you run up against a stubborn restaurant owner, you can even pay him or her to take your placemats and come out way ahead.

They would be fools to refuse when you can earn $150 per ad!

You can charge even higher if the restaurant is in a high-end area such as the Atlanta Buckhead community.

The basic concept is to reach out to all of the businesses surrounding the targeted restaurant and charge them to place two-inch ads.

You know I always say, “Don’t be greedy!”

Show all the business owners that you care about saving them money—especially in view of the pandemic when so many businesses were shuttered.

The first step is to contact printers in your area and find out what kind of blank or ready-made paper placemats they can either print or have printed for you.

Or have this outsourced on Fiverr.

Get a quote on at least 5,000 including at least two-color printing.

Be sure to have the print date on each one to remember when it expires.

Compare your quotes and find the printer that will do the best job for the best price.

Make sure this is a printer who will work with you on the layout of the placemats, if this is new to you.

Show Me The Profit?

Once you have your printing costs, which will be your primary costs, you can figure out how much profit, can be made.

Your profit will depend, in part, on how many ads you can put around the perimeter of the placemat.

For example, if the placemat is 11” X 15”, you can put a total of 20 ads around the sheet, leaving a one-inch margin around the edge for the printer.

Divide the printing cost, together with your other estimated costs (phone, postage, travel, etc.) by the number of ads, and you have your cost per ad.

To illustrate, suppose you estimated expenses would be $600.

Divide that by 20 ads and you have $30.

This is how much each ad contributes to covering the cost of the placemat.

Now, figure a target profit margin.

In the Atlanta area, an ad that will be seen by 5,000 people over an extended period of time could go for $90.

This would be a $1,200 profit!

Now, make a list of the 10 best restaurants that would be likely prospects for this service.

1. Atlantic Station
2. Brookhaven
3. Downtown
4. Grant Park
5. Helen
6. Kennesaw
7. Midtown
8. Roswell
9. Buckhead
10. Little Five Points

The best prospects will be locally owned family-oriented restaurants that are visited by residents of the area.

Small, family-owned restaurants will be your best bet.

Not fancy fine dining restaurants, but ones where “eating” is casual and laid back.

How To Get The Restaurant Advertisers?

Offer to provide the restaurant 5,000 free paper placemats with either a large color ad or a color menu printed in the middle of the placemat.

Local advertisers will be featured in small ads around the outside.

When you say the words “5,000 free paper placemats,” you probably won’t even have to go any further!

If the owner’s a hard case, offer to pay them to take your placemats!

Offer $50 and 5,000 placemats.

This breaks down more barriers than you can imagine!

If the restaurant owner has a pre-made ad or menu available, this can be reduced or enlarged by your printer to fit the center area of the placemat.

Be sure the restaurant’s section dominates the placemat.

Now contact businesses that are in the immediate area surrounding the restaurant.

Good prospects will be video stores, dry cleaners, grocery stores, book stores, any business that is frequented by families—any business basically.

Tell them that you have an advertising opportunity, which will put their name and offer in front of 5,000 people for an extended period of time.

Contact as many possible advertisers as you can.

The more you contact, the more ads you will sell.

If your prices are competitive and you deliver honest facts, you should have an easy time selling the placemat ads.

P.S. Don’t forget to draw up a contract for each advertiser!

Now take the ads to your printer and lay out the placemat.

Put the restaurant’s ad/menu in the center, and the other ads around the perimeter.

Have the printer print the requested quantity, and deliver them to the restaurant.

It’s that simple!

This whole process can be done easily in less than a month.

But, even if takes you a month, the example above cleared $1,200 profit (or $1,150 if you actually had to pay the $50).

Once you have done your first one or two and know what you’re doing, you will find that you can run more (communities) than one at a time.

Do not make restaurants COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER in the same area!

If you run four placemats per month, you could clear over $55,000 per year!

This is just an example, and your profits could be higher or lower, depending on your area.

But, it should be fairly obvious that this can be an easy-to-run, profitable business that you can start part-time and quickly move into a full-time business.