1. Spend money on decent quality business cards. Home made cards just don't compare to the quality of professionally printed cards. Your cards reflect your business - do you really want your cards screaming cheap!

2. Always hand out two business cards - one for the prospect and one for them to handout to a colleague.

3. Enter your business cards in Free Lunch draws at restaurants.

4. Make your card unique in size, shape or texture. You want your card to stand out from the crowd. There are very nice folded cards that will provide more room to detail your services.

5. Leave your business cards everywhere you go - leave one on the table in a restaurant, post a few on community bulletin boards.

6. Tuck one of your business cards inside of library books - especially books related to your services. Perhaps someone who is researching databases will decide to save him or herself the trouble and will hire you instead!

7. Include business cards with your invoices, or bill payments.

8. Quite often, you will see vehicles lettered with their business info parked in parking lots - tuck your business card in the window on the driver's door.

9. Are you attending a trade or consumer show? Use your business card as a ballot for the many draws and contests through out the event.

10. When handing out a business card to a prospecting take the time to write a personal message on the back of the card. This could be a promotion or discount or even your cell phone number. This personal message can make the prospect feel special and will save your business card from the dumpster.

11. Make your business card useful. On the backside of the card, include a calendar, map, or even keyboarding shortcuts. Something that will encourage the prospect to hold on to your card.

© 2004-2005 Tanya Beaudoin o/a Office on Demand, All rights reserved. You are free to use this article in its entirety, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify Mrs. Beaudoin as to where the material will appear. The attribution should read: "Tanya Beaudoin, B.A. is a virtual assistant who specializes in e-solutions (including graphic and and web site design) and administrative support for small businesses and non-profit organizations.

Please visit Tanya's web site at http://www.officeondemand.ca for additional business related articles"