Most business owners don't realize the importance of using a
simple business card to generate tons of 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.

The three main 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 five trucks and seven 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.




(c) Copyright 2005 Affordable Concrete Cutting, Inc.
Robert Short is a professional concrete cutter, seasoned
article writer and an expert on search engine optimization
and linking. He is responsible for ranking our local service
company's website at number one on all major search engines
for more than a dozen keyword terms. Our website now generates
as much revenue as our main service business. Visit our
website for more articles on linking and webmaster resources:
http://www.affordableconcretecutting.com/construction_seo.html