Let's Co-Op and Grooow!

I had wrote a post earlier that made a quick point about swapping marketing materials with other pet business owners to share with each others customers, and the idea keeps weighing on my mind. I've seen this particular version of sharing work wonders in another market I was a part of several years ago.

Not only did it prove to be very successful for those involved, but it was fun to boot. If you missed the concept let's review real quick:

**Petpreneur #1*** Verde Tree Organics -You're an organic pet bakery shop. You just opened up shop 6 months ago and while you're pluggin along and gaining a loyal pet parent following you'd like to expand and gain some online exposure as well.

**Petpreneur #2*** Shelby's Sweet Sweaters - You're a handcrafted pet sweater business owner. You've been in business for over 3 years and have never ventured to gain customers outside of your home town. Now you'd like to gain a following in neighboring cities.

Both business owners have business cards, or cute hand out cards that they give to all of their customers and parents. They meet at a local dog park one day and discover their common business ownership.

They decide to swap their creative cards with one another and hand them out to each others customers upon sales or generated interest.

**BINGO** new connections have been made and the potential to new business is organically fostered!

It makes perfect marvelous sense and it's a win/win situation for everyone. You share a product or service you believe in, have used or endorse and your customers grow even more fond of you and the trust factor is raised that much more.

Want to know how to get started? It's a snap and I'd love to show you just in case you need some assistance! A quick email or two should do it!

Brochures, Postcards & Business Cards...You Got Em?

It's an obvious question really, but sometimes in the frenzy of starting your new pet business, getting anxious to launch, putting together your budget, spreading the word little things like marketing materials may fall by the wayside.

Although you may be budget bootstrapping you can still find creative and innovative ways to keep you fresh in your pet parents minds. I'll share some good resources and ideas that you can use or add to.

-->1. Prints Made Easy.com - A fabulous website that I use often to print business cards and postcards. They have reasonable pricing and you can get your order sooner or later depending on your budget. If you can wait a couple of weeks shipping is on the cheap, if you need it sooner you may need to reconsider.

-->2. UPrinting.com - Yet another printing alternative that I use to prints larger volume marketing materials. Pricing here is darn good for when you're ready to order in the thousands. I like these guys because turnaround is especially quick and when I want something I usually want it yesterday so these guys really deliver.

-->3. Print Your Own - Yes there are still ways that you can print your own handouts and still be professional. It really depends on your design of what you're handing out. Personally I like to dabble with Adobe Photoshop and make all of my materials myself. This saves me in paying someone else to try to get my design vision right, only to have to make costly revisions along the way. There is time involved but in the end for me it was always worth it. Make sure to get cardstock paper and not just regular printing paper. This type of paper usually comes in many different colors and is measured in 'lbs'.

For instance a good cardstock is 115lb, it's heavy and feels sturdy in your hands. I've never really been a fan of printing your own business cards, simply because I have yet to see any that truly look or feel professional. If you can pull it off, than by all means go for it, and send me a copy I'd like to witness it. Business cards are so affordable now that if you can have them printed, I suggest you give it a try.

Or you might even try printing your own postcards on cardstock then taking them to a FedEx/Kinko type place and letting them cut them for you. Since cutting is where we run into postcards that look like...well like we cut them. You don't want that as your marketing message.

Having ready, professional marketing materials is not just a great way to spread the word about your awesome pet business, it's a way to keep potential and loyal pet parents informed about you and what you can offer them.

Now what are you waiting for, get to printing!