Trade Groups Can Point Out Sources for Promotional Items

Q: My partner and I have a business designing promotional merchandise for feature films and are currently negotiating our first deal. Where can we find catalogs and locate wholesale promotional merchandise like hats, T-shirts and refrigerator magnets? Also, do you have any information on local fulfillment houses?

--Safronia Johnson,

To the Moon, Los Angeles

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A: Companies in the promotional industry design and manufacture items for all aspects of the entertainment sector--film premieres, press mailings, festivals, amusement parks, conventions, cast and crew and even radio screenings. Some provide a variety of services, others are more niched.

Start off by contacting two trade associations whose members include manufacturers, wholesale distributors and other companies involved in the souvenir and novelty industry. One is the Souvenir and Novelty Trade Assn. ([610] 734-2420); the other is the Promotional Products Assn. International ([972] 252-0404).

Additional sources to try would be the Promotion Marketing Assn. of America ([212] 420-1100), which services promotion service companies and manufacturers of premium merchandise, and the Direct Marketing Assn. ([212] 768-7277), which would have information available on fulfillment houses.

Local fulfillment houses handle everything from promotional items to press kits, productions and new-release distributions. Contact the following Los Angeles-area companies for more information: American Direct Mail ([213] 388-1305), Letter Excellence ([818] 848-5566) and Meyer & Sons ([213] 260-7222).

You might also try the 1997 Publicists Guild Directory ([818] 905-1541). The products and sources section will lead you to additional companies that may be able to help your business.

--Cookie Lewis,

Research consultant, Infomania, Sherman Oaks

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Q: I am a solo practitioner ophthalmologist working in Downey. Over the last few years, my patient volume and income have markedly dropped, due to the influx of managed care as well as reduced reimbursements from insurance companies. It has been difficult for me to secure managed-care contracts in my geographic area, where the population is primarily senior citizens or low-income. Do you have any recommendations?

--Michael C. Buchbinder, M.D.

Downey Eye Center

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A: My advice is that you should join locally prominent, independent practice associations and medical groups that have contracts with health plans for commercial HMOs, Medicare and Medi-Cal services. And you should do it right away.

There is hardly any fee-for-service medical care left in the Los Angeles area, which is one of the most HMO-penetrated markets in the country. Regardless of whether medical providers like managed care, they must accept it to preserve their businesses.

Contact independent practice networks of physicians and other providers who have contracts with health maintenance organizations and get yourself on their provider network lists. Negotiate carefully for your fee levels. And make sure, in your geographic area, that you contract with Medicare and Medi-Cal also.

--Albert Lowey-Bell,

Health economist and president,

ALBA Inc. health-care management consulting firm, Sacramento

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Q: I would like to start a home-based mailing-list business but have been unable to find any professional organizations related to that field. Can you help?

--Kathryn Wallace, Los Angeles

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A: The Encyclopedia of Associations, published by Gale Research ([800] 877-GALE) lists more than 23,000 national and international organizations with addresses and telephone numbers. You can search for the association you want by subject or by the name of the particular organization. The encyclopedia is available as a book, carried by most large libraries, or on CD-ROM.

--Barbara Lewis,

Centurion Consulting Group,

West Los Angeles

If you have a question about how to start or operate a small business, please mail it to Karen E. Klein in care of the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia 91016 or e-mail it to [email protected]. Include your name, address and telephone number. The column is designed to answer questions of general interest. It should not be construed as legal advice.