Why use a professional brochure?

If you want to do business with anyone, you have to look the part. You would not likely show up to an initial meeting in a boardroom with torn jeans and a muscle shirt. On the contrary, you would likely dress up for the occasion and wear dress slacks and a business like shirt or blouse.

The same needs to be true for a business brochure. Besides the business card, the business brochure is your first step forward. The brochure tells the potential customer not only about your company through the content but also how you regard yourself in terms of professional design and print. If you produce your brochure on your home printer, it will show through whether you think it will or not. Professional print jobs use better quality paper and better quality inks. You should not have your brochure photocopied; you need to have it done properly.

This is not an advertisement for your local print shop; it is an advertisement for looking good from your first step forward. If your company does not look good in print, then the customer will wonder what kind of quality he is to expect from your work. I am not saying to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on design and print, I am saying that you need to have a place in the budget to have it done right. It is much harder to convince a customer to come back than it is to convince them to use you in the first place. If you cannot afford a brochure, at least point them to your website where the information is located.

Take a look at what your competitors are doing. If they have a really slick brochure, you can be guaranteed that they are getting greater opportunities for more business. It is sometimes how you look that counts. Who would you rather do business with; a poorly dressed slob or a neatly dressed professional?

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people