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