That Lucky Business Card

In the beginning of starting a business it’s fun to print your own business cards.  You can be creative and save money as well.  But eventually you’ll want to step up to the big league and order a professionally printed stock.  Just looks classier.

But until that day – when your home office is the official printing press – occassionally a few cards don’t make it through QC (Quality Control).  The ones that the printer spits out with smudged ink.  Or with the text cut off misaligned.  So what to do with those that didn’t make the cut?

You know all those raffles at networking events?  When they ask you for a business card?  Why waste a perfectly good business card in that bowl. When every card costs money that you don’t have – you start thinking like this.  So let ‘em have a smudged one instead.  As long as your name can be read (for the prize drawing) you’re good to go.

So now – I carry around a few of these damaged but still useful cards to networking events.  And if you get looks about the artistic quality of the card – don’t fret.  You know the real game that’s being played…

The Makeshift Markerboard

We all sketch out our ideas in different ways.  I love to visualize an idea on a huge canvas – say a markerboard.  If I could, I’d build miles of markerboard just to write on   But with a budget of close to nothing and living in a one bedroom apartment – options are limited.  But no worries, let’s see what we can do…

Using a wall in the bedroom that’s being remodeled, I taped up rolls of wallpaper on the reverse side.  Everything seemed to be going to plan.  But after a few hours I started to hear things slide and drop from the next room.  Going back into the bedroom I confirmed what was happening:  the rolls of wallpaper were falling down.  So much for the wonders of duct tape

But that’s ok.  Because as an entrepreneur you need to accept failure, learn from your mistakes and move on!  So it’s back to the drawing board.  As I lay on the couch in the living room staring out the balcony I thought… what else can I use?  Well, the answer was staring right in front of me!  (solutions are usually like that).  The glass balcony doors!  After testing a few dry erase markers – presto, it worked…

So now, day and night, I’m scribbling ideas on these glass doors.  Occasionally a neighbor across the way will pop out and give me a weird stare.  But that’s cool – I like being the oddball…

Oh, by the way – the cost of this project?  0$.