Cutting business. In it he explains how he built his business almost completely
by good use of business cards. When you read his story be thinking about how
important business cards are to your business. Like a lot of things in life where
the importance is what you make of it, your business cards can be as important
to your business as you make them.
The title of the ARTICLE:
How to Build an Empire With Business Cards
by Robert Short
"Today, most business owners don't realize the importance of using a simple
business card to generate tons of new customers. It simply does not matter
what kind of business you are in, you have to utilize this primitive business technique
in order to grow your business fast and to maintain that growth.
The three major mistakes people make when marketing with business cards are:
1. Not having a business card.
2. Being stingy and only giving out one card per person.
3. Not giving a card to every person they come into contact with.
Not having thousands of business cards at your disposal at all times is not only stupid it is
a crime against your business. If an employee of yours stole as much money from you as you
lose from not utilizing business cards, they would go to prison for a long time. With today's
super low cost business card printing prices there is no reason not to have business cards
and an abundance of them for that matter.
I started my professional concrete cutting service business with absolutely no capital
and grossed almost $400,000 in my first eight months of business. My only means of
advertising was business cards. As many of you already know, it can sometimes take up
to an entire year to get your ad placed into your local yellow page directory and it can be
quite costly to a new business. The following are techniques that I used to generate tons
of business from business cards and I believe that these same techniques can benefit any
type of business.
1. I started with an eye catching logo and had a design that really said "this guy is a pro."
It is worth the modest initial investment to get your cards designed right.
2. I kept my message "short and sweet." I have seen way too many people over do it with
tons of bulleted text that cause confusion with the reader. I do concrete cutting and a few
other services that relate to it but my business cards say only "Concrete Cutting."
3. I ordered my cards in quantities of 5000 at a time. Too often do I see new business
owners print cards off of their computer and literally "ration" them off.
4. I never gave out a single card! I always handed out at least five at a time and sometimes
more. I still look at my business cards as "lottery tickets." The first job I get from the
batch pays for all of them so the rest can pay off huge. If they get thrown in the trash –
Who cares? There are thousands more where those came from.
5. Any time I would meet someone in the construction trades I would hand them a stack
of cards. I hand them to people that are standing next to me in line at the Home Depot or
that are pumping gas across from me at the fuel pumps. I get questions like
"What are these for?" or "What do you want me to do with these?" and I just simply say
"You may not need my services now but when you do, you'll know who to call." At the
same time, I am thinking, "I don't care what you do with them, they were basically free
and the fact of the matter is that I get hundreds of calls from people that say "Remember Me?"
"I met you at the Exxon Station or at parent teacher's night." Or "John Smith
gave me your card and said I should call you" yet I have never heard of John Smith.
Or "I've got your business card on my desk and I don't know where it came from but
I need your services." I simply hand tons of my business cards out to people and the calls roll in.
6. I buy a mailing list of contractors from a list broker and I simply put three business cards
in an envelope and mail a thousand envelopes at a time. I do not put an expensive brochure or a
flyer, I simply put three business cards in and I get hundreds of calls and referrals from the mailing.
I now get hundreds and hundreds of calls from my existing customers and my yellow page ads
but I still use business cards more than I ever have. I now have six trucks and eight employees
and giving out business cards in the same fashion as I have described above is part of their job
description. They have all seen the power of business cards and that business cards ensure each
of our survival and actually gives them a good feeling knowing that they got a specific customer.
If I contact a new customer and they happen to mention that one of my men did not give them a
stack of business cards then I immediately contact the employee, ask them if it is true and explain
to them that it is part of their job, then I hand them a big box of business cards and tell them not
to let it happen again, ever."
Copyright © 2006 New Hampshire Concrete Cutting
and Core Drilling, All Rights Reserved
http://www.affordableconcretecutting.net
-------------------------------------------------------------
Written by: Robert Short
New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling
provides concrete cutting and core drilling services
to the contractor and homeowner in New Hampshire or NH.
Visit our website at http://www.affordableconcretecutting.net
for more information on concrete cutting and core drilling.
