THINGS YOUR LAUNDRYMAN WILL NEVER TELL YOU 1

HOW TO REMOVE RUST STAINS FROM FABRIC

No one loves clothes with stains on them, especially rust stains. They could be very annoying. And rust is one of the most difficult stains to remove, especially when they have been on the clothes for a long time. Rust stains cannot be removed by normal laundering. However, there are a variety of ways they can be removed. You probably have a laundryman that takes care of your clothes, but there is no harm done if you know these basic facts.

These methods are as follows:

1.      Lemon juice and salt: Lemon juice and salt are readily available, much less toxic and will often give great results. Lay the stained area over a towel. Sprinkle some salt on the stain. Squeeze lemon juice onto the salt and let the saturated area sit in the sun. Keep moistening the stain with lemon juice until it goes away. The sun and lemon juice together will bleach the stain out of the fabric. But before you apply it on the stains, first test on an inconspicuous spot to see if fading or bleaching occurs. If it does, well, you know best not to go on with it. You should have no problems with white fabrics.

2.      Lemon juice and steam: Spread the stained area over a bucket of steaming hot water. Make sure the flame is off so you don't start a fire. Sprinkle lemon juice on the stain and let sit for some minutes. Thereafter, rinse the stain. Repeat as necessary.

3.      Vinegar and Salt: This works especially well on old stains that has been washed and dried before. Moisten a soft cloth with white vinegar and blot the stained area with the vinegar soaked cloth.  Rub a thin layer of salt together with the vinegar onto the stains. Then allow it to sit on top of a towel in direct sunlight. Thereafter, rinse in water.

4.      Commercial rust remover: If all else fails, use some commercial rust stain remover. The remover ingredients combine with the iron and loosen it from the fabric, then hold it in suspension in the wash water. The compounds are poisonous if ingested, extremely toxic and can burn skin and damage appliance finishes. Use them carefully according to the manufacturers' directions, and rinse the clothes thoroughly. Just apply a few drops on the stain(s) and allow it to soak. Thereafter, rinse with water. Any acid remaining deteriorates fabrics so make sure to rinse a second time before hanging out to dry.

ADDITIONAL TIPS:

• If after treatment, the stains remain, you can repeat the steps.
• Do not put the clothing in the dryer because high heat will set the rust stains.
• Using chlorine bleach will make them permanent, so, avoid it.
• Do not dry the garment until the stain is completely removed. The heat from the dryer will set the stain and make it harder to remove.
• For sensitive fabrics, such as wool and silk, the best thing to do is to meet a professional laundryman.

HOTTEST 10 BUSINESS YOU CAN DO ON THE NYSC ORIENTATION CAMP

HOTTEST 10 BUSINESS YOU CAN DO ON THE NYSC ORIENTATION CAMP

As the new batch is preparing for camp, what are your plans? Are you among them, or are you already a Corper in service? Have you ever reflected on the vast opportunities that the thrice-yearly orientation camp could hold?

With my experience as a Corper, in addition to research, I have decided to share this information with you. This report is not meant to make you a billionaire overnight. But, with the little returns you make, you can start some bigger business after camp. Below are the 10 best business areas you can engage in as a Corper. Some of these businesses would require registration and licensing by the camp authorities, depending on how you want to go about it. So, read through the list carefully and chose a niche that best suits you.

1. BARBING/ NAIL FIXING SALON: You can operate a haircut biz in camp. During the 3weeks orientation, guys would love to shave their beards and trim their hair. Usually, electric items like hair clipper, electric iron, among other items, are never allowed into the camp; such belongings are often collected at the gate before entry. So, you would never be disappointed as there shall always be a long queue of Corpers waiting to have a hair cut.

You can also operate a nail fixing business for the ladies who would always want to pimp their looks. In fact, the number of your clients would be growing daily.

Special tips:

Ø  A clipper would be enough, unless you have a partner.

Ø  You’ll need a small generator

Ø  Have another person around who is good at fixing nails

Ø  And of course, you have to be good with the clipper.

2. SELLING FOOD AND SOFT DRINKS: NYSC provides food 3 times a day to Corpers. But, upon that, there are some who would find it difficult not eating more, especially after the rigors of parade and other camp activities. Besides, there are some guys who do not find it welcoming to follow others on the queue for Camp food; they prefer patronizing the MAMI market for their meals. You can capitalize on this. Moreover, the MAMI market is always a beehive of social activities in the evenings. Guys and ladies get hooked up a lot on camp; mami market serves as a dating centre. To have an advantage over others in the market, take note of these special tips:

Special tips

Ø  Ensure that your stand is clean.

Ø  Make sure your meals are quite tasty

Ø  Have a generator and a refrigerator around to ensure that your drinks are cold. However, you can still operate without owning a refrigerator. Just arrange with a cool room or refrigerator owner close to camp. For a fee, you can have your drinks cooled for you. Also, you can keep your drinks quite cold by putting them in a cooler with ice blocks.

Ø  You can specialize on continental dishes, or local dishes. For a treat, you can let them have a taste of the award winning Ibibio/Efik delicacies – afang soup, edikang ikong soup, and ekpangnkukwo.

With these in place, you would be quite amazed at the number of people flocking your booth. Just have some waiters around.

3. PHOTOGRAPHY: With the thousands of Corpers on camp, engaging in different activities, for a whole 3 weeks, you can just imagine how much you can make from this business. There would be other photographers on camp, but, you would never lose; Corpers need for photographs could be insatiable. They would be taking shots till even a minute to leaving camp. As a Corper, you can prepare for this biz by going to camp with your digital camera, and photo papers. You can even buy a digital photo printer; you can still use it after camp to print pictures at your place of primary assignment. During camp activities, you would not be allowed in the mami market, but you can liaise with the registered photographers on camp to print the pictures for you with some compensation.

4. VIDEO COVERAGE: As a prospective Corper, you may find this area a bit difficult, unless you are a smart one who can find his way through. However, you can always go back for it, when a new batch arrives. Corp members would love to have their activities on record. With a good video camcorder, you are expected to cover all camp activities, there after, edit the whole stuff and burn it to DVD for Corpers to buy and take home after the Orientation exercise. All you do is to cover the major events and spectacular scenes. Be on ground with your camera when they are on queue for registration, food, and mountaineering and during the endurance trek. Those are the instances you can capture almost all Corpers on camp. To make it easier for you, you can have as many Corps members register with you, possibly with an initial deposit of some amount; give them identifying tags for them to wear so you would be able to recognize them during filming. It would even make sense to go to camp with a TV and DVD player. Corp members who see themselves on the screen would become very interested for a DVD from you.

5. LAUNDRY SERVICES: For a variety of reasons, there are some who find it hard to wash their clothes, and would be too glad to find someone who can wash for them even at an exorbitant fee. You can tap into this and make quite a fortune by opening a laundry stand. You can help to wash corpers’ khaki, T-shirts, socks, and boots for a certain fee.

Very few Corpers do go to camp with electric iron. Even at that, depending on the Camp, such items, as earlier mentioned, are normally confiscated at the gate by the security personnel during entry. As a result, Corpers would resort to patronizing the few laundry stands on Camp. You can combine washing and ironing, or more so, set up an exclusive ironing biz with the use of charcoal iron. I remember when I was on camp, I used to pay N50.00 for every item to be ironed; for my trouser, jacket and T-shirt, I paid N100.00. It sounds too small a fee, right? But, with the thousands of Corpers on camp who would want their kits to be ironed on daily basis, you can calculate the amount of money you can make. For ease of operation, follow these tips.

Special tips:

Ø  Label every shirt, khaki or jungle boot received with the Corper's unique State code, so that when the owner comes back to claim his/her khaki, you will find it very easy to locate it without any mix-up with other khakis that are with you.

Ø  Have 1 or more partners for this business: Never attempt it alone because you can have over 300 kits on ground to be washed and ironed in a day. Corpers will be mad at you if you tell them that their kits are not ready when they are suppose to wear it to the parade ground the next morning.

Ø  Have a division of labour among yourselves (partners). While one of of you is washing, one shoud be ironing, another could be on the field, marketing and going from one hostel to another, packing dirty kits to the stand.

6. TAILORING SERVICES: You can also make money on camp helping Corpers to fix their wears. Most times, Corpers are given kits that are too large for them. As such, they would love to have the kits adjusted to their size. Other than doing adjustments, you can be sewing new caps for them, to replace the ill-shaped caps that are usually issued on camp. During exercises, shorts do tear. You just patch up the tear for a fee. Never underestimate this venture. You do not need to be a professional tailor. Just knowing how to maneuver the sewing machine is enough.

Special tips:

Ø  Have a sewing machine ready

Ø  Have some pieces of Khaki material handy for patch works and sewing of new caps.

Ø  You can even go with some pre-sewed caps. With these, all you have to do would be to just attach the NYSC logo within a few minute, without your customer (Corper) having to wait long.

Ø  Always tag your customers’ kits with their State Code respectively for easy identification and collection.

7. BOOK SELLING: You can also make money by selling books, magazines, novels, newspapers and musical CDs. All you have to do is to just have some good books ready. Have some good romantic novels as well; this would sure attract the ladies. You can make quite a hit if you have current sports magazines and papers available. You can embark on this business even as a camping Corper. Just endeavor to sell your books at an affordable rate, and you would see them rushing for your books.

8. PROVISION SHOP: You can open a booth, stock it with toilet soaps, medicated soaps, antiseptics(Dettol, TCP, etc), body lotions, creams, powders, hair relaxer, hair pomades, exotic body sprays, etc. these products are always on the demand, they are not perishable and you can always go back to camp when a new batch comes in. As a Corper, you can do this without a need to open a booth. Simply go round the hostels and introduce your products, you would never fail to have customers. When I was in camp, a roommate of mine used to go round selling body sprays. The guy sold off the stock before leaving camp. You can do same.

9. CALL CENTRE, PHONE CHARGING AND REPAIRS: I tell you, never underestimate this venture: it is a veritable oil well on its entirety. With the limited electricity supply in some of our orientation camps, you can make quite a fortune by simply charging phones and batteries for Corps members. In addition, people have an insatiable need to communicate daily, recharge cards are always on the demand. Why not tap into this oil well? You would never lose from selling recharge cards on camp because it is always on the demand. In addition, you can operate a call centre. There would be serious competition but there is no way you will not get your own share of the market and be smiling back home with your pockets bulging.

Tips:

Ø  You will need to have a small generator around.

Ø  Have enough desktop chargers available.

Ø  Like in laundry, you have to tag each phone and battery with each the Corper’s State Code to avoid mix up.

10. BOUTIQUE: Are you wondering how you can manage a boutique on camp? Hey, you do not need to open “Frankfik International” or more so a “Baguta”. Just a booth that has a good stock of men’s superior quality T-shirts, singlets, and boxer shorts. Most importantly, you can consider having ladies things – panties, tights, knickers, bum shorts, designer bras, sanitary pads and towels. After all, they make up the greater customer community.

Special tips:

Ø  Just make sure your goods are of superior quality. Selling substandard products would make them scurrying away to other marketers around.

Ø  Avoid the temptation of raising your prices, even if you are the only one selling.

These are the hot 10 business ideas that you can engage in during the 3 weeks Orientation Camp exercise. Other areas include operating a match viewing centre; configuring free browsers for Corpers; games centre; and photocopying/ lamination services.

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Comments and questions are welcome. Keep a date with us for another interesting topic.