Business Cards

This is the fun part. Business cards serve three huge purposes. The first one is easy advertising. That's the most important one of course. But the two other reasons are pretty huge too. Having a business card, something in print that says that your business exists, adds credibility to your business. It makes you look like a professional rather than someone who just whipped up a couple things on the weekend to sell. Even if that's all that you feel like you're doing, trust me, you're not. You're putting effort into creating an image and a brand that goes along with your items. And finally, having your own set of business cards will make you feel important. It's a huge confidence builder to see your name and your business name in print. Confidence is a tough thing in the beginning. At least it was for me, and I know it is/was for others.

I know you're excited to run out and buy your business card paper from the office store and jam them through your printer. And yes, I totally mean jam. Have fun with that. ;-) You've gotta do it. Not really, but I've been there. Once you're to the point that you're ready to have business cards, you want them NOW. Just accept that you aren't going to get to use every piece of paper in the pack.

Then once you've cursed your printer to an eternity of damnation and suffering . . . look over to the right side of the page for a link to Vista Print. Click it and go wild. Order the 250 free business cards. After processing and shipping they end up being about $8. And I recommend paying the dollar to get the Vista Print logo off the back of it. And look around a little while you're there too. Vista Print is a huge resource for cheap printing. And it looks great too. I've gotten window clings, yard signs, t-shirts, posty notes, all sorts of stuff. And they keep adding new things all the time. So get your business cards, and grab any of the other free things you want to. Then wait. If you choose the cheapest shipping option, it does take forever to get your things.

And don't go office space on your printer just yet. It will become one of your best friends soon.

Website

Create a website. That might seem like a huge step. It really isn't. Just throw something together to give yourself a web prescense. And if you have no clue what you're doing, use Blogspot. That is the program I've used to create this blog. I've also used it for my candle website. It's completely free. With a basic template, you have something set up within an hour. It's really easy to figure out with a basic template. It's only when you want to start adding bells and whistles that you may need help.

But don't worry about making it perfect. You just need a few things to make it adequate. Make sure you are using your business name, include a tag line. Mine was, "Light My Fire Candles, Custom Candles for Special Moments." Then include what you do, some type of contact information, and some pictures.

Getting Started

First things first. Before you get your business up and rolling, you have to have a few basic things together. What is your business going to do? Do you have a name for it? What is your mission statement? A mission statement is just a way to keep a larger goal in mind. My original mission statement was that I was going to make candles in a large variety of scents and presented stylishly. I later changed that to include all fragrance type products. I highly recommend having one just because it will help keep you focused. Most likely if you're a craft person, you like all sorts of different crafts. Try to rein it in a little so you aren't all over the place. You're going to be spread thin enough as it is.