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Business Cards From Hell

Business Cards From Hell
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I went to a business networking meeting recently and met some new people as well as mingled with existing acquaintances.  Networking events and business card exchanges, if done properly, are a great way to begin the prospecting and referral part of your marketing efforts.

But what always surprises me is the often useless and just plain horrible use of business cards by business owners themselves.

I consider business cards to be Networking 101.  They are the basic, entry level requirement for starting your relationship with prospects and clients.  They are the toe of the foot in the door for making a first impression about you and your business.  Yet I'm constantly surprised at how all over the map business cards are in terms of quality or the basic information they should provide.

Case in point, I actually got a card from a guy at a recent event for a display and graphics company.  Later, when I went to follow up, thinking we might have some synergies for doing business together, I looked at the card and lo and behold, there's no name on the card!  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  Everything but a name!  Should I just call the company and ask for "the guy who I met last night?" I don't think so.  Into the circular file with that one.  Opportunity lost.

So, to that end, here are my VERY basic tips for having an effective business card:

  1. Yes,  put your name on the card;  We might have had a memorable conversation but I'm really bad with names.  Help a guy out.
  2. Complete mailing address;  why would you not have this? Are you ashamed that you work from home (you shouldn't be);  are you ducking the Feds?  What?!
  3. Put your phone number that most increases the likelihood of you being reached.  If that's your cell phone, fine.  Whatever.  If you're going to networking meetings of any kind and meeting people and handing out your cards, guess what?  YOU'RE IN SALES!  You WANT people to be able to EASILY get in touch with you.  At least you should.  Otherwise, stay home!
  4. Make the card easy to read.  Sounds like common sense, but really tiny type in bizarro fonts with busy backgrounds is not creative --- it's just annoying.
  5. No strange shapes and sizes, cards made out of crepe paper or that are triangular or shaped like a giraffe just won't fit into my wallet, card scanner or business card holder.  Please keep them standard sizes.  I want to remember you, the person, not how odd your card was.
  6. Invest the $9.99 to have the words "Vista Print" removed from the back of your free cards.  If you're not willing to invest at least that much in your own business, why should someone else?

 





Business Cards From Hell - To learn more about this author, visit Gene Sower's Website.

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David Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website

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Gene Sower
(Visit Gene's Website) Website design New Jersey, email marketing, search engine optimization and online video production and distribution are all services that my company, www.SamsonMedia.net, provides. Before founding Samson Media in late 2006, my backround was in producing various forms of broadcast video communications projects for Fortune 500 companies. Projects included B-Roll packages distributed via satellite to news stations as well as producing satellite media tours, video news releases and corporate sales and marketing videos. Since 2001, I have helped to launch two dot com companies (About.com & On2.com), built and sold a third Internet business (www.lucythewonderdog.com) and currently help small to medium-sized businesses establish an Internet presence and improve their search engine rankings. At www.Samsonmedia.net, "We Build Websites That Sell".

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