The Humble Business Card and Street Performing

Never underestimate the power of the business card – you never know where it may end up.  A business card is a marketing tool that you can never afford to be without.  Simple and effective – your name, your website and your telephone are the main points of information that you want on them.  After that it is up to you – you may want a photo or image to make your card stand out and make your potential client remember you – some people have their address and email on it too.

Different cards for different occasions

When we are traveling internationally we have a business card with simply name, website and email address.  This enables us to keep our information relevant to our location for example if we pick up a mobile phone in an international destination we can simply update that information on our website.  That way when we got the opportunity to check our email we could contact anyone who was interested in us attending their festival or an event.

Example 1

When we moved back to Cardiff we were doing street work and a lady with her child got a balloon from Veronica, asked her for a business card saying that she worked in Cardiff Stadium – Veronica pointed her in the direction of where I was just about to start a street show.  The lady came up afterward to me too and I too gave her a business card.  One week later we got a phone call from Cardiff City Football Club and were sitting in the boardroom negotiating a deal for us to provide the entertainment at the family stand for every home game for the season.  Twenty-four games later they came back to us and we are now midway through out the second season with CCFC.  We have our 24 dates mapped out in advance and we can work around them and still travel off to different festivals and towns to street perform.

Example 2

One rainy Sunday on our drive home in the North of Wales we stopped off in a little town in  Mid Wales for a cup of coffee in a grand old hotel – to be honest, there was nowhere else open!  We got chatting to the owners, explained what we did and left them with a business card.  2 months later we got a phone call from the owner of the hotel looking for a Christmas family entertainment package from Veronica and myself.  It was a well-paid gig with a nights accommodation thrown in and a lot of fun as well!

I could give examples of numerous bookings we have received throughout the years doing street performing and handing out our business cards – weddings, christenings, student graduation balls, family events, festival…. the list goes on.

So – remember – don’t leave home with your business cards!