When I was a freelance graphic designer, I tried just about every trick in the book to get work. Especially in early 2002 when our economy was in a slump and the market was saturated with laid-off graphic designers. I spent a lot of time at Elance & Guru.com, went to Chamber of Commerce meetings, set up a website, networked, and I even did some cold calling when I got really desperate for leads. I didn’t like spending money on marketing, but when I finally got a great paying gig and I couldn’t avoid the inevitable anymore.
My business card sucked.
Okay, maybe sucked is a little harsh, but I was a graphic designer. The last thing I wanted my business card to do was convey a message of “meh.”
And my business card was 100 percent “Meh.”
So I decided to spend some money on business cards. And not just any business cards. I wanted nice, full color cards on premium-recycled stock that would make the recipient say “Wow”. I spent weeks designing them. And I knew they would cost me a small fortune, especially back then when quality on-demand short run printing didn’t exist.
Small fortune indeed—my bill was around $1150.00. But you know what? My new cards were effing gorgeous. They were a mini brochure that folded up to the right size with a perforated traditional business card on the end.
When I started handing them out to people, they said “Wow.” Some people even put them into a special holder away from the other business cards they had collected because they didn’t want my card to get lost. People requested extras, they started conversations, and people remembered me because of them. And yes, I was able to attribute getting at least two projects directly to the great impression my business card made on a prospect.
My graphic design business never made me rich—it gave me a good part-time income while my children were little and while I went through my last pregnancy. So $1150 was a LOT of money to spend, in fact, it was the most I ever spent on anything related to marketing.
PREVIOUS PAGE
