Tag Archives: small business owners

Five Ways to Order Business Cards

One of the best ways to network with other business people is at an event is exchanging business cards. Yes, there may be an opportunity to pull out a card at wedding or other events. Therefore, it is a good idea to have them on hand at all times. Business people obtain their cards from different sources. Corporations may order them for management and sales level employees from the catalog where they order other supplies. Self employed individuals and small business owners have that responsibility for themselves.

Many online businesses offer promotions on a regular basis. They produce embossed business cards and other types of unique business cards.

One of the more popular ones is Vista Print where you can either purchase standard, premium, or custom designed cards. They offer a chance at a 250 count for $19.90. Some promotions offer a certain number of free cards with the understanding that the customer pays shipping and handling fees. There are other ways to order business cards as well.

Everyone is not fond of ordering online just yet. They do not trust ordering outside the local area where they have less control over the process, or the outcome should there be a problem with the order. Office supply stores may be the best option for these types. They are able to sit face to face with the store representative and place the order, see the template, and the monitor the process along the way.

A print shop like Kinko’s specializes in this type of work. Special orders such as embossed lettering or something involving several colors of ink will be in qualified hands at a print shop. For people on the move, the telephone is still a popular invention. In summary:

  1. Catalog
  2. Online
  3. Office Supply Store
  4. Print Shop
  5. Telephone

These are all adequate ways of obtaining a business card that will represent what the business has to offer.

Multiple Marketing Methods a Must To Succeed

As small business owners, whether service based, product based, or otherwise based (see making money online or some variant of home based business) it is easy to get locked in to one way of doing things, including marketing, that ends up squeezing out other productive marketing methods. As a DUI defense attorney, I am all too aware of this.

Though I am a service based business, I am like many other businesses out there, and unique to the profession of law. Most of my clients I only see once in their lives (hopefully). Most people that get into trouble do so once and never do so again. That means I must constantly be refreshing my client base. Repeat customers simply aren’t a feasible option.

To begin, I focused much of my marketing efforts online. I dabbled in SEO before launching my career as a DUI defense lawyer, and understood the basics of climbing the search engines organically. I threw myself into it, but soon found out that in addition to the organic search, there were other opportunities I couldn’t overlook, namely Google Local and adwords campaigns. Singly each may be somewhat successful, but together they tend to build on each other.

As that was going on, I began to think of ways that I could expand my marketing efforts outside the realm of the internet. And I quickly realized a couple of things. First, past clients love to give out referrals if they feel like you did a good job for them. And second, there are a lot of people out there interested in information you are an expert at.

To capitalize on this I formulated a monthly postcard sent to all former clients with a “tip” on how to deal with the cops. It has all of my information and helps to remind them that I’m out there, not so much for when they get in trouble, but for when their friends, family, and coworkers get in trouble. I also set up speaking engagements where ever I can, including fraternities, bars, chamber of commerce meetings – anywhere. The topic? How to deal with the cops.

In the end, if you want to be successful at your business you need multiple marketing and money making methods. If you are service based it includes the things I talked about. If you are trying to make money online it might be adsense, affiliate sales, and product sales. Whatever it is, diversity is the key to success.