If you’re looking to start a business that requires very little start-up costs and has the potential to offer a great return, a Grocery / Restaurant delivery business is the way to go. With the expanding use of the internet, people are searching more and more for a way to do what they simply have no time for.

The fundamental steps in beginning a Restaurant and Grocery delivery business are:

Choose an attractive business name.
Create a logo that will stick in peoples minds. Make it flashy and important. You can do this yourself with photoshop, but if you lack the artistic skills, you can expect to pay between $50 to $200 for a professional image.
DO NOT get a business license until you have established your client base a bit. The reason I say this is because taxes will burn you. The hassle that is associated with a new business can be easily avoided if you simply start small and take your time in going official. This particular business allows for that as you are providing a service that will (for a short time) go unnoticed in that respect. (BUT, you will want to eventually get your business license, especially because you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ACCEPT CHECKS WRITTEN TO YOUR BUSINESS WITHOUT IT.)
Start by ONLY accepting cash and checks. Eventually you’ll want to include cards, but the cost of the merchant account will overwhelm you if your income is not such that you can justify it. Don’t worry, surprisingly VERY FEW people will ever have an issue with this.
Get a website. Get a website. Get a website. You can get one set up through godaddy.com for less than $70 a year

Hand out flyers, posters, business cards and free crap. The return, most likely, will not be to your expectations, but it will cost you almost nothing but your time. Between all of the above methods, you can go to Kinkos and pay about $40 for everything. The posters will account for the bulk of that estimate.
Remember: A customer is contagious. If you get one and you treat them right, they will turn into two, three and four. Word of mouth WILL ALWAYS be your greatest source of advertising.
If you can afford it get an ad placed on your car. You should be able to find a full back window ad for under $130. This price is reasonable for an ad that will go everywhere you go.
Now you have about 30 returning customers. You might think about getting that business license. While it is not completely necessary, customers will find it comforting to write a check to a business rather than just some guy. You can expect to pay about $60-$90 for the whole ordeal.
Once yo have a business license and a business bank account, you’ll want to place about $200 in the account. Order a debit card and checks. When someone places an order, pay for it with the debit card, saving two receipts. One of those receipts is left with the customer and the other goes into a file with your other purchased receipts. Keep THESE receipts separate from your account expenses (gas, etc). When you deliver the food and the customer reimburses you for the food PLUS your delivery fee, place it all back into your account. Now you have $220. (Or so, depending on what you charge for delivery)
The checks that you ordered in step 10 are for YOU. When you want to spend some of that hard earned cash simply write a check out to yourself. In this way the records are clean and it’s obvious to the IRS what is what. There IS, however, the issue of letting the IRS know what is profit and what is simply returned to the account after purchasing the items. This is explained by the receipts you’ve kept.
When filing taxes HIRE A PROFESSIONAL THE FIRST YEAR. Expect to pay about $100 for this service.

Bottom Line:

Minus tax related expenses, you can expect to pay around $500 in total expenses. The good thing is that this can be spent as you get it and you’ve got all the time in the world.

This is an easy business to start. It will take hours of your blood and sweat, but financially speaking, it is one of the cheapest, most demanded ways to go.

Different business charge different amounts depending on the location and economy. Chances are you’ll get it wrong in the beginning, but soon you’ll find that comfortable price where you AND the customer are happy.

Whatever happens, don’t get discouraged. This will take time and patience but every town needs it and chances are if there’s one near you, YOU could be doing it for cheaper and with better service and customer satisfaction.

Starting a business often requires a lot of money to get the business going. However – service related startups can often be started for less money than most people would expect. A house cleaning business is one of those businesses. With just a few hundred dollars you can be up and on your way to entrepreneurial success.

Supplies

To be able to clean houses you will need a few supplies. Wal-Mart, Costco and Sam’s Club (or any other club membership warehouses) are great places to buy your supplies for less money. A good business rule to go with is that most customers expect you to bring your own tools and supplies. They do not want to go to the store and stock up on cleaning supplies before you come. What will you need? A step stool or small ladder (2 step ladder or 4 step ladder), industrial-grade bath cleaner and toilet bowl cleaner, an all purpose cleaner, high-grade window cleaner, soft scrub cleanser, carpet cleaner, furniture polish, wood floor cleaner, a set of buckets, a cleaning carrier and a bag of cleaning cloths and your ready to go. The initial set of supplies will probably set you back about $100.00 to $200.00. Try to buy wholesale sizes as it will save you money in the long run. Avoid being the cheapest stuff because often you just get what you pay for – cheap stuff. You want quality to be able to do a quality cleaning job. Quality work will impress your customers and make them to have you come back.

Some customers prefer certain name brands to be used in their house. This could have several reasons. Talk to each client if they have any concerns or preferences. Some people have health concerns and prefer to only use brand X as an example. Ask them to have sufficient supplies at hand if they want you to use their supplies. Important Marketing Tip: A special sales pitch could be to advertise that your service options include environmentally friendly cleaning supplies.

In most cases you will be able to use a customer’s vacuum cleaner. Find out in your pre-screening process if that will work with each particular customer or if they expect you to bring a vacuum cleaner. To keep your startup cost low you can make it a requirement that customers have to supply a vacuum cleaner.

Important: Do not use the same cleaning tools on different surfaces. As an example – it is highly recommended to use one mop for tile floors and a second one for wood floors. Different cleaners used on the same mop can have severe effects to surfaces they were not developed to be used for.

Fees & Prices

Pricing and fees you will be able to charge have several dependencies. The most critical dependency is your geographical location. An area with high incomes among a broad part of the population will allow you to ask for higher prices. You will also find more customers in such areas as low-income households are not really your preferred target group.

Important: Cleaning jobs should be priced by the project/job and not by the hour. There is a little psychology going on when looking at it from a customer point of view. The customer knows that he has to pay $75.00 to get the house cleaned it does not really matter to them if it takes you 3 hours or 5 hours. If the same job would be priced by the hour the customer might look more detailed at how long it takes you to get the house cleaned and eventually questions why it took you an hour alone for the 2 bathrooms in his house. Your customer as well as you will know in advance what the price for the house cleaning is. Customers will like the fact they do not have to expect any surprises if it takes you 2 hours more to do the job.

Pricing strategies: Cleaning a house is not always the same. You should differ between the initial cleaning of a place and maintenance cleaning. Imagine a rundown house – it will take you much longer to clean a really messy place compared to one that is cleaned on a regular base. If customers want to hire you on a recurring base the job should start with an “initial cleaning”. The initial cleaning should come at a price of about 50% above your normal rate for the same job. If you charge $75.00 for a 1,500 SQFT. home with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths the initial cleaning should cost the customer between $100.00 and $125.00. The initial cleaning protects both sides from disappointments and also assures that you are in a position to deliver quality work.

To find out what the going rate for house cleaning in your area is you should check out your competition. Get price information from established companies like “Molly Maid” as well as from the sole proprietor that works alone or only with a small crew. You also have to put a fair value at your own time and put that into consideration. Setup your own price list for houses of different sizes. Base your initial pricing on a standard house of 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and approx. 1,500 SQFT. of space. A 4 bedroom/3 bathroom house with approx. 2,200 SQFT. should drive up your price by $15.00 to $25.00. As a rule of thumb you can add $10.00 or $20.00 per 1,000 SQFT. of space of the house to cover your time and your expenses (instead of working with the number of bedrooms/baths).

Exclusions: Window cleaning, oven cleaning, and refrigerator cleaning are not included in standard house cleaning jobs. You should charge between $15.00 and $25.00 for ovens and refrigerators and about $5.00 per interior (normal sized / easy to access) window.

Important: Don’t work the market with prices too low. It will be difficult to raise prices later on when you are more established. Getting customers is not just a matter of pricing. Put into consideration how much it would cost you to hire somebody to do the same job and still make some money from the job for yourself after having to pay salary to your employee. Do put a fair value at your own work. Home cleaning is hard work.

flyers have long been used as promotional material. Start-up ordinary consumers and small businesses, constituents, because they are cheap and easy to manufacture. But there are big companies that are dependent on the leaflets, when they want to reach many potential customers. It is customary for the leaflets will be distributed on the street or left in a car window.

If you intend to launch the campaign, a leaflet today that the Internet is the best place to find attractive and exciting flyer templates and designs. Many websites offer to design a brochure that people can download for free. They can record designs, add detail, and voila, you have a strong flyer ready to print.

Well, the pilot is able to give you more customers and a strong return of income. To help you in your brochure, to simple tips below that may be considered in the design using a template:

Always be careful with images, photos and text to go to the flyer. If you use a template downloaded from a Web client, you will notice that the editable field and in the template. This is done to find information and add in the areas of design, depending on the bonus you do. All necessary information is in the upper left corner or upper right corner of the page flyer. Quickly and easily readable. He must also download all images or photographs on the right provided in the template.

Using high-quality and high resolution images. All images and photographs are used, they must be put into place that can easily be seen through the eyes. You can store all your images in CMYK, RGB system is not it? Even if you choose free brochure templates, images with high resolution is still excellent and professional results. Tone and caliber images usually affects the products and services. So no high-resolution images will just waste your flyer.

Use a good and easily readable typeface and text. If there are courses specifically designed for imaging, there are entries for the report of its leaflets. Located in the flyer template, you often see the fonts you can use to write reports. Simply write your message and select the desired font. For a good idea of what type of fonts used, see the presentation of large companies. Be aware of how to print the lyrics and follow their example.

Choose a good supply of paper. Even if you only want to print an ad, the paper is still important. It is possible that using paper, stamina and endurance? If you go to your own design fliers to keep face important use sturdy paper so when it rains, your flyers are not easily destroyed. Ask your printer what kind of paper, preferably in a folder. Even if you invest in a good paper investments at the end of the year, when customers arrive and start selling.

Advertising

Spread the word. Let friends and family know that you have started your own home cleaning business. Ask them to spread the word at work and wherever they go. Personal referrals can help at this level to get the first customers. Serve the first customers as good as you can. These customers can be the make or break foundation. If you treat them like king they might refer you to their friends. Word of mouth is the most successful form of advertising for small businesses of that kind. “Word of mouth” can carry your business further and also help to cut down on marketing expenses.

Business Referral Program: I already mentioned the “word of mouth” advertising. Taking this a step further can really help your business to take off. Implement a referral program. Pay customers if they refer new customers to you. This can be in form of cash or free house cleaning services

Start advertising in local newspapers: Concentrate on the smaller local community newspapers and less on the large metro area newspapers. Pricing will be much more affordable. A local news paper in the area where I live gets distributed to about 75,000 residential customers (not households). A business card sized ad in a reasonable location costs around $95.00 per week. You can also just work with classified ads. These ads run anywhere from $10.00 per week to around $45.00 per week. If you can – don’t choose the weekly run, but go for a monthly or quarterly deal. Don’t try to put too much information into a classified ad. Keep it short, but easy to understand. Example: “Affordable house cleaning services. No job too small. Free estimates. (123)-555-1234″

Magnetic Signs or decals for your Vehicle: If you drive a decent looking vehicle use it for advertising. If you drive an old, rusty looking piece of the 80’s – skip to the next section. Car advertising can be very effective if you follow some basic rules. It has to look professional. The message has to be short and easy to understand. Do not drive like a maniac when having advertising for your business on your car. Magnetic signs can be purchased for around $75.00. Decals are available starting at around $25.00. Look at other cars that carry an advertising message to get ideas of what to do.

flyers: You could print nice looking flyers on your home computer, but I recommend to rather spending a little money on professional printing. Design a flyer first. Then talk to local print shops for pricing. You can also check out Internet printers like http://www.gotprint.com. 1,000 (color print) flyers at Gotprint.com will set you back around $125.00 + shipping. Try to beat that with your home computer. Paper, ink, time, and wear and tear will cost you 2 or 3 times as much. How to distribute the flyers? Start with hanging flyers on bulletin boards in supermarkets and coin laundries. Ask store owners in your area if they are willing to show the flyer in their store somewhere (if appropriate).

Do not put flyers on car windows at local groceries stores and businesses. You might violate local laws or property owner’s permissions. Rather spend a morning in large residential areas and walk from door to door and place the flyers at the front door (bring plenty of scotch tape). You can even go a step further and ring door bells and drop of flyers in person and mention that you are expanding your services to that area to see if people are interested. DO NOT put flyers into mailboxes – that is against federal law.

Have you ever seen those advertisement door hangers? Pre-printed door hangers are pretty much an extension of hanging flyers at front doors. They are already shaped with an opening for the doorknob so that they can easily be put on a doorknob when walking by. Scan the Internet for best pricing or talk to local print shops. We do not endorse a specific shop, but we have seen prices for about 5,000 door hangers for $189.00.

Business Cards: Business cards can be a very effective marketing tool. Check out different websites on the Internet. Often these websites (like Vistaprint.com or Gotprint.com) have online tools to design your business cards on their website. Always carry business cards with you and use them frequently to market your business. Keep in mind – it is a little more cumbersome reaching a large group of people with business cards compared to using flyers.

Internet: Get a good domain name and have a website build for you. More and more people search for service providers online. It starts when being in need of handymen and does not end with finding a reliable house cleaning service. A website and an email address also leave a good impression on your business cards. Statistics show that a lot of working women shop for services around their house online while at work. Purchase an online listing in your local yellow pages. The Yellow Pages are still a great way of advertising your business. The online version on the Internet is gaining more popularity compared to the print version and a listing online will help you to get more customers.

You already know that you enjoy cooking. You have identified and targeted a niche for your services. You have the equipment you need ready to go. Menus, services, and pricing are set. Now, you just have to get some clients. So just how do you market your small business catering company?

There are myriad ways to market your business and get your name out there. Some are virtually free while others can be very expensive. Remember that the goal is to get your name out there so that the public is aware of you and create an impression of trust and reliability..

Much of the marketing for catering services relies on word of mouth. This means that you need to spend some time networking with others. You need to provide excellent food and services so that the next time a client wants to have an event catered, she or he will think of you. Also, satisfied clients will pass your name on to others looking for catering. In the end, word of mouth may be your single most important marketing tool.

However, there are others that you should not overlook. Below are some marketing strategies to consider.

Place an ad in the local newspaper, on your local radio station, or in the local yellow pages. Make sure these give some information about your services, your prices, and your hours of operation. Create a catchy headline to get people’s attention. You are going to have to market yourself through words so choose them carefully.

Start a website for your business. On the website you could have your menu, prices, hours, and services carefully listed. Make it easy for the client to find answers to initial questions. Make the site easy to navigate so that the client can find the information they seek. Believe me; a bad experience with a website isn’t going to entice people to call you.

If you are going to cater weddings, you might want to think about leaving brochures or flyers with other businesses who serve the clients you are trying to reach. For example, event planners, wedding dress shops, or wedding invitation engravers or photography shops might be a great place. Talk with the owners and see if you can post or place some advertising there for your brides and grooms.

If you are going to do children’s parties, think about placing promotional materials in party stores or near schools. Think of anywhere that children and more importantly, their parents are going to be shopping and visiting.

Pay a visit to company offices in your areas and tell them that you offer lunch catering services. Leave copies of your menus and prices. Offer to cater a small event for free or at low cost just to let them sample your products. You might think about bringing free samples to some of the businesses just to let them taste your wares.

You could also offer free samples of your food at local fairs or events in your community. This is a great way to let people sample your products and to network. You could also go to fund raising events for churches or local civic organizations. Contact the organizers and tell them that you could cater the events.

Go to your local convention center, museums, theaters, or charities that host events. Talk to them about your business. Show them how they can improve their bottom line by catering events and offer to work with them in creating those events. Leave them flyers.

When people hire caterers they are interested in the quality of the food. But what is often overlooked is the fact that they also are often celebrating a once-in-a-lifetime event. A child has graduated, a 25th wedding anniversary, a marriage. The clients want good food but they also want great memories. They want to know that the person catering their event will be someone on whom they can depend and in whom they can trust to deliver those memories and food is only a part of that memory.

So anything you can do to build trust is essential. Get yourself out to local charity events, little league games, wedding shows, or whatever. Let people become familiar with your face. Talk and network with everyone. Most people will choose a known entity over an ad in a magazine or in the yellow pages. So, get out there and sell yourself. Then you can start selling your business.

First impressions always last. They may change in time but they’re never forgotten. This is the reason why creating a good first impression is always important. In the case of meeting with a wedding make-up artist, first impressions can make or break the business transaction. Business cards also play a crucial role of projecting the image of professionalism. Business cards serve as the “right foot forward” in any business meeting. Professional business cards today can be conveniently printed using the services of an online printing company. What’s more, online printers offer cheap business cards printing at wholesale orders. Below are elements to consider when printing professional business cards.

Color-Standard industry colors are usually bright white. Bright white is clean and professional looking. However, make-up artist can choose to be more distinctive and creative by using other shades of white particularly ivory, cream or oyster. The wedding industry is not as rigid as the finance industry. Colors can be relaxed and soft. Online printers offer front and back full color printing of business cards.

Text and color-Select a font face and size that best reflects a personal image. Again to stand out, there is no need to stick with the industry norm or standard. The text type and color though, has to be legible and clear. Online printers offer reliable and added conveniences such as free digital proofing and sample paper stock delivery.

Information-Choosing the right information is crucial when printing a business card. Apart from the essentials such as name and contact numbers, it’s important to highlight information that will lead potential clients to a website or catalog of professional work. This detail can be very helpful to customers. It provides them directly with answers that they need. The inclusion of credentials such as affiliates and professional certifications contribute to customers’ confidence. As a business card provides limited space, both front and back should be printed with information. Printing a list of high profile weddings done at the back of the card establishes experience.

The title of my manual is How to Start Your Own Residential Window Washing Business so 98% of my business was residential window washing and that’s what I teach, but window washing is window washing whether it is residential or commercial.

Although I will say there are certainly some differences and a few twists when it comes to commercial window cleaning. So we’re going to talk about that and a whole more in this article

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The Approach

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There are 3 primary ways to approach a commercial window washing account.

1. This approach, in my opinion, is the best way. Just walk in, introduce yourself, and offer to provide a free estimate to get their windows cleaned. Here’s a sample conversation:

Store Clerk/manager/owner: Can I help you?

Window Washer: Sure…my name is Steve Wright and I own SparkleClear Window Washing in town. I was wondering if I can provide you an estimate to get your windows cleaned.

Store Clerk/manager/owner: Whaddya crazy?

Window Washer: Yabba dabba doo.

Sorry about that. Strike the last two from the record.

Seriously though…this approach gets to the heart of the matter very quickly, so if there’s any interest or lack of interest at all, you’ll know about it fast so you can move on to the next

location.

They may say “we currently have someone, so we wouldn’t be really be interested”, or they may say, “we have someone but he’s not too dependable so go ahead and give me an estimate”, or they might say “not right now, why don’t you leave me your business card and I’ll give you a call if we need someone”, or they might say “Man we’ve been looking for someone…when can you do ‘em?”.

If they’re not interested, always leave them one of your business cards anyway. Timing is everything and maybe at the present time, the timing isn’t right. A few months down the road, their current window washer might screw up, so they’ll be looking to tap into a new window washer.

In my monthly newsletter Window Washing Success Tips, you’ve heard me write about playing the numbers game. And that’s all we’re doing here. Say what you have to say, either do the

estimate or not, and then move on. The more accounts you talk to, the more you get, and the more you can sing “Hi Ho Hi Ho, it’s off to the bank I go.”

Although I personally don’t think there’s a lot of salesmanship involved in the above conversation with the store clerk, I have spoken to window washers who don’t feel comfortable just walking in off the street and asking to do an estimate.

So this leads me to the second way of approaching a commercial prospect.

2. Simply use a flyer as the door opener or “crutch”. And you can let it to do the “selling” for you. In a recent article, I talked about the use of testimonials so make sure you include 2 or 3 testimonials in your flyer.

With flyer in hand, I would say:

“Hi…my name is Steve Wright and I own SparkleClear Window Washing in town here. I just wanted to leave you this flyer introducing my service in case you may ever be in need of a quality window cleaning.”

And then just leave the flyer and off you go to the next store or business. Easy and fast.

3. This approach is a combination of the two listed above. You simply walk into the business with a flyer. I would say:

“Hi, my name is Steve Wright and I own SparkleClear Window Washing Service in town. I just wanted to stop in and give you this flyer to introduce my window washing service to you in case you might ever be in need of a quality window washing company. Oh by the way…Since I’m here, can I go ahead and give

you a free window washing estimate?”

I personally like number 1 the best but number 3 comes in a close second. Asking them a direct yes or no question is usually much more effective then just handing them something and then walking

away, like what happens when we use approach #2.

One last thing on the flyers…some window washers have created flyers that offer an introductory special regardless of the true estimate value of the store or business.

Overall people have told me the response has been favorable, but some window washers don’t feel like doing jobs for $10 (for example) when the true estimate value is $40.

I personally think it’s a great idea. It gets them committed to you so there’s a very strong chance you’ll be going back on a repeat basis. If not…you didn’t really lose that much. And

you did gain additional exposure for your business by being there working in your company uniform. Anytime you can do that, it’s a plus for sure.

In last month’s newsletters, I talked about why it’s important to not to make price the central theme of your business, but that was for your residential customers. Commercial is a whole different ball game. That’s one of the twists I referred to earlier in this article.

Speaking about pricing, here we go…

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Pricing

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Be cheap. How’s that for a short answer?

Yes…you do need to bring down your pricing vs. your normal residential pricing. The commercial side of the business is cutthroat and there’s some pricing wars going on. So you’re going to be up against some competition usually.

It’s hard to give you exact numbers without seeing the glass, but an average size pane of glass would be priced at $3 to $4. Keep in mind that the average size pane of commercial glass could be 2 to 3 times the size of a window that you would see on a house. The good news is that it’s just one pane vs. a two pane (or more)

regular double hung window at a house.

And then adjust upward or downward accordingly. What I mean is your final presented price is a judgement call based on 4 things…

1. Are you desperate for the business?

2. Did the store seem really interested or was it one of those “Yeah…you can leave us an estimate if you want to” kind of sentences.

3. Do you know or have an idea whether you might be competing against another window washing bid?

4. Are you providing an estimate to a store who currently has a window washer?

The best scenario obviously is if a store is desperately in need of a good window washer or they currently have a window washer who they’re looking to get rid of because of dependability and quality issues (you’ll hear this a lot).

In these situations, you may want to bump up the estimate a few dollars (just a few).

Otherwise, you may want to drop your estimated price a little bit. Again…use your judgement. As you probably know by now, the estimating process certainly isn’t an exact science.

Just remember that commercial window washing is all about price. There’s always another commercial window washer right behind you willing to do it for less.

With your residential customers, you’ll generally have the loyalty of the homeowner (unless you did a poor job), so they’re not going to make the change to another window washer to save a few measly bucks as readily as a business owner or manager would.

In Part 2, I talk about presenting the estimate, quality of the job, service contracts, and wrapping it all up.

See you then and happy cleaning,

Best Wishes,

Is your business card just for handing out at business meetings, because everyone else does so? Or is it a real marketing tool for you?

Provided you’ve got the design and content right (see my article ‘Networking Your Way to Profit: Part 3: Your Hidden Marketing Opportunity’) it can be one of the hardest working marketing weapons in your arsenal.

But only if you use it properly to position yourself.

And that’s where the quality of the card you use counts. It speaks volumes about you and your business.

Start-up business people know they need business cards. But often they go for false economy by using the cheapest methods possible to get their cards organised. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying a fortune should be spent on cards. What I am saying is the card should look like a quality card – no matter where it came from.

Self-Print Cards

The entrepreneur, sole-trader and individual professional sometimes print their own business cards using the many ‘business card’ products available and an inkjet printer. Be careful…

* The cards are often flimsy in order to feed through the printer and consequently give the impression of ‘a business with no experience or history’. Handing these out at business meetings in particular can send out the wrong, damaging message.

* Inkjet printing smudges and runs if it gets wet – again giving a less than favourable impression to the people you want to engage with.

On-line Printed Cards

There are many websites offering free business cards. A selection of designs is available and you can add whatever details you want. The cards are often a good quality weight and feel good to hand out.

There’s just one thing that spoils these for you…

If you are only paying postage the company supplying the cards has to have some means of recompense. And they have… YOU are doing their marketing for them.

They print their website URL on the back of your cards, so every time you hand one out you are advertising their website and, by default, you are also implying you don’t consider your business cards important enough to pay for them.

If you don’t take your business cards seriously – why should anyone else?

By all means use these sites; they can be very cost effective. But, as a minimum, pay the small amount they ask to remove THEIR website details off the back of YOUR cards.

Of course if you’ve read my previous article: ‘Networking Your Way to Profit: Part 3: Your Hidden Marketing Opportunity’ you know what should really be on the back of your card, don’t you?

Test it for yourself: Close your eyes, and feel your business card. Does it honestly give the impression of quality, professionalism, trustworthiness and integrity?

If it doesn’t, you just might be throwing future sales away when new business contacts get the wrong impression about you.

Designing dental business cards for kids should be fun, colorful and friendly. We all grew up thinking that going to the dentist is a huge ordeal and entails a lot of pain and discomfort.

A great idea to employ in your design is the use of graphics. Children are drawn to color and most especially to cartoon characters they can relate to. Choose vibrant and lively colors in your font and material to use. This will give it a friendly vibe. Just make sure that the colors you use will complement the color of the material you will be using as well. As a rule of thumb, use two different colors for your font. Do not use more than three colors as this will make the design look tacky.

Aside from the color, choose also a friendly font design. You can include helpful tips and suggestions about the importance of dental health and having regular check-ups to avoid any possible damages.

Cartoon characters, especially those that are familiar to children these days can make your dental business cards even more enticing. You can have these cartoon characters customized according to your preference. For example, you can have a Batman or a Superman dentist. Or you can show these familiar cartoon characters going to the dentist and having their teeth checked. This will show the kids that even super heroes go to the dentist and it is cool to be in league with them.

Another fun thing to do is to have dialog boxes with these cartoon characters telling them its time for them to go to the dentist to have their teeth checked. Use this medium to communicate directly to children.

And as always, do not forget to include all the necessary information about your practice like your address, clinic hours, website and e-mail address in your dental business card.

Have you thought about promoting your business in a more proactive manner than a few ads or flyers? Have you thought about any methods where customers will come to willingly? One such way to promote your business or cause is through event marketing. What is event marketing? It is essentially an activity of some sort related to the selling of a product, promotion of a business, or pushing of a type of service. It may be any number of things, but it is a unique and effective type of marketing that may suit you.

Event marketing can involve an event as simple as a sporting event. If your business promotes and sponsors a charity softball tournament for instance, that is essentially event marketing. How, though, do you choose the right event to make your marketing strategy a success? There are a couple of things to consider.

First, your event marketing should be something that will appeal to your target market. Your customers or potential customers should have a profile of some sort. And you, as a business owner, should know what the profile is. If you don’t know your customers, guess what? You aren’t going to be able to market to them. Your event should cater to that customer profile specifically. For your event to be a success you should appeal directly to your customers so that it is appealing to them. For example, if you sell sporting goods, do a sporting event of some sorts. If you sell magazines, do a book drive or a book signing event at your store. You must ALWAYS target your event to the profile of your customers.

Second, your event marketing campaign should also have some value to those attending. Make sure there is a good reason for them to attend other than just hearing about your products or services. They are not going to attend it just to hear a 15 minute commercial. Make it worth their while. Provide specials or discounts, offer free samples, promote a charity, or allow them to have fun like at a golf outing. Just make sure you are not putting on a big commercial where everyone will feel like they have wasted their time in attending. Give them reason to attend and give them as many reasons to do so as you can. Make them feel special and appreciated and they will reciprocate the feeling by being a loyal customer.

Event marketing is not only effective, but also is a fun type of marketing you can do for your business. It is an opportunity to have fun and to mingle with customers and potential customers while promoting your company in an active manner. Choose something of value and something that your customers will enjoy and your event marketing campaign will undoubtedly be a success.