My New Business Cards

I travel to 2-3 hot dog joints a week to do write ups for my Hot Dog Stories site. Sometimes I take my kids with me, sometimes I bring my wife, sometimes I bring a friend and sometimes I go alone.

No matter who is with me, I always end up chatting to the owner/operator and the patrons I encounter. I ask them all sorts of questions and tell them about Hot Dog Stories.

The question I am invariably asked during these conversations is, "do you have a card?" Up until now, my answer has been, "uhm, no."

Now I have a card and here it is!

I feel so "official."

I got the cards from Vistaprint. I designed it myself online and it only cost me ten bucks for 1000 cards! It was so easy and quick, I would highly recommend Vistaprint to anyone who needs new business cards. They even have FREE BUSINESS CARDS! You can get 250 premium quality, color business cards FREE! Order some for yourself today. Click here.

Now, when people ask for my card, I can say, "Sure! Here ya go."

My Card

When I was in high school I took a production printing class as an elective. We'd do print jobs for local businesses and we got experience in printing and running a business. We also got to print stuff for ourselves. I made up a thousand business cards that simply said "My Card" along with my name and home phone number. I handed them out at college and I'd give them to girls in clubs. It was a cute ice breaker and I got many a phone call from those little cards.

Once I got out into the wonderful word of sales, I always had business cards. When I owned my duct cleaning business, I had a $20.00 off coupon on the back of my business cards. My wife, who works in a Real Estate Office is always bringing home broker business cards with football and baseball schedules on the back. These always grab my attention. I even had magnetic business cards when I was in the mortgage business; they are like mini billboards on my customer's refrigerators.

One of the coolest business cards I ever saw was one of those picture cards that looks like it's in 3D when you wiggle it back and forth. It was from a guy in the printing business who printed all my business cards! His cards grabbed my attention so much I order all my cards from his company to this day; I can even order my business cards online from his company now!

I remember reading a book by the self professed "World's Greatest Salesman," Joe Girard, and he used to go to football games with a couple thousand business cards. Whenever the crowd would rise to its feet and cheer, he'd throw a few hundred business cards into the air! I wonder if the printing lobby paid him to write that?!

When I was in the mortgage business, I was going through about 500 business cards per month. They went into every envelope I sent-marketing mailers, customer correspondence, even my bills! I even put the old "My Card" gag on the back of my "official" business cards to help make folks remember me. Most customers found it amusing and it definitely set me apart from other mortgage brokers.

I have business cards for the Hot Dog Truck, but I don't hand out many. They have the "My Card" gag on the back too. I still send them in with my bills as a goof and I hand them out to customers who want to call ahead for an order. These business cards have my cell phone number on them, so they come in handy for all sorts of situations.