Monday, April 30, 2007

House Of Cards

After spending a small fortune – well, ok, just merely a few quid – getting some business cards printed for my fledgling web design business I’ve spent the last few days trotting around my home town of Leamington Spa, trying to offload some of my newly minted wares onto the counters of the friendly shop keepers that make up the business sector of dear old Leamo...

And aside from one shop (where I personally knew one member of staff) all of them replied in the negative. No you cannot display your flea-bitten cards here. No can do. Clear off.

It’s very demoralizing.

I realize it is of course the prerogative of every business owner to choose who, how and what they display in their own shops in the way of advertising but I can’t help feeling a mite peed off about it all. It really felt like a long line of doors being slammed shut in my face. One after the other. Bang bang bang.

Thanks for nothing, guys.

Welcome to the cut throat world of small business.

2 comments:

MOTHER OF MANY said...

My children told me yesterday about a recent survey which said that £1 in every £5 is spent in Tesco, a supermarket. Have you thought of advertising in Supermarkets where everyone goes? Our local ASDA is like a corner shop from 12MD>2PM and is filled with people from local businesses.I find that flyer drops to the businesses you specifically want to market can be a good idea as long as the fyers appear personalised(the blessings of photoshop).
Check out businesses that don't have websites to specifically target them,or check out the ones that do to see how crappy they are!
I think that marketing in your business is quite a specific game and you have to go to the target businesses and knock on their door.
I hope that some of my ideas are useful.

Steve said...

Funnily my wife suggested the exact same thing - Sainsbury's and Tesco. I might blitz them this coming weekend. I think you're right about targetting specific businesses too - especially those with dodgy looking web sites. It's nice to have an independent business advisor on hand! Many thanks!