Starting a Business? Place your Business Cards in….

Are you starting a business or a small business owner?  Wild Women Entrepreneur CEO, Ja-Nae Duane, offers tips from her upcoming book, “How to Start Your Business with $100.” Here is an easy marketing tip:

I make it a point to market my business in every possible situation, including the times when I’m browsing books at the local public library or bookstore.  While doing my own shopping, I’ll simply prop my business cards into relevant publications.  By utilizing similar methods, you too can land new clients while showing creativeness and ingenuity!

Even in the depths of the digital age, people continue to rely on hard-copy books as sources of information.  Imagine this scenario: A web/graphic designer – we’ll call her Susan – is seeking to expand her client list. She arms herself with a stack of business cards (a must for EVERY business, large or small) and heads down to her local library or bookstore.   Concentrating on the most appropriate library sections – such as “Technology,” “Art and Design,” or “Small Business” – she inserts several business cards into as many relevant publications as possible.

A few days later, a fellow entrepreneur in dire need of a website for her own business visits the same library in search of information on web design. She picks Web Design for Dummies from the stack. As she flips through the pages, growing more and more daunted by techie lingo, she finds your business card… and pauses.  It’s like a god-send!  Silently, she ponders: “Should I really suffer through the stress of purchasing design software, and spending countless frustrating hours trying to design a website? I could really use that time to focus on my own work.  Maybe I should give Susan a call and see what the rates are like.”

Just like that, Susan has landed a new client. This technique is simple, effective and most of all – FREE!

Let’s get going! Perform a web-based search of the most popular books in your industry (Amazon.com is a great place to start).  Take note of these books and locate them in your nearest library or bookstore.  Place your business cards into these books and other publications in the same area of the library.  It is helpful to place your cards into relevant sections of books as well. For example, the above-mentioned web designer might have placed her cards into the section of the book that describes costly design software. Such a maneuver is like an unspoken sales pitch!

Feel free to share your tips and your stories below. We would love to hear from you!

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