Aug

Take control of your writing and public speaking career by utilizing all those business cards you have been collecting over the years-the ones you have tossed Famous First Edition a drawer and forgotten. Wait before you throw them away. Those cards are a valuable professional resource for your writing and public speaking business.

Like most people, for many years, I collected business cards from people that I later did not remember and had forgotten the circumstance or occasion at which I met the person. Needless Dunny say, the cards became so useless that I couldn't so much as drop the people an email reminding them how they met me. This problem prompted me to start a new habit--make a note on the back of the business card to remind me where I met the person.

The first thing I did was to gather all the cards from the various places I had tossed them. Then I grouped them by category, such as attorneys, doctors, business owners. Once I had established the groups, I rubber-banded them together, quickly realizing I that stacks of rubber-banded--together business cards would not be useful.

On a visit to an office supply store, I noticed inexpensive, three-hole punched plastic business card holder sleeves to place my card collection. I also bought enough binders for the sleeves to satisfy my categories. Place your attorney cards in a binder; doctor cards in another binder; and so on. Be sure to label your binders on the front and spine so that when the binders are shelved you can distinguish your doctor card binder from your attorney card binder.

When I had finished assembling and labeling my binders, I had an impressive collection of potential contacts, clients and customers on the shelf. Okay, now that the business cards are organized, now what? I opened a binder, studied the cards and decided I did not have the time to enter each one by hand into my computer and I did not want to spend money to hire someone to do it.

The decision was easy. I bought a business card scanner and software that would make it simple to input the information from my binders into an electronic file system, which I could then transfer to email address books and other date systems. Some scan in full color and some scan only in black and white. All help you to digitally categorize, organize and keep track of your contacts easily. With the notes to myself that I jotted down on the back of the cards, I can make a note in the software about the contact entry. After entering my contact data into a digital form, I saved a working copy to my hard Dracula Lives printed out a hard copy of my contacts on paper, threw the cards away and recycled my sleeves and binders for a new batch of cards.

Now that I have my digital data in a useable format, I can use these contacts to create lists of contacts for tradition mailing lists and e-mailing lists for newsletters I distribute and for events that I sponsor to show off my work and sell my books. The speaking events can be in the form of a book signing or a seminar, both of which are fantastic ways of showcasing yourself as a public speaker.

If you have an office in a building, you can secure a conference space for free or a minimal fee. Pick a great topic-your book! Marketing your book is as easy as placing copies on a table at the back of the room for sale along with copies of your latest newsletter, which can also market your book.

Collect new business cards in a handy office supply business card catcher on the table. Make some gourmet coffee and buy a few exotic pastries and, for a very nominal investment, you can build your actual participation list and give them an opportunity to network, 1954 Dan-Dee baseball cards those business cards that you tossed into a drawer and forgotten.

Now, you can enter the public speaking arena without having to wait for an invitation to give a talk or to contribute to a newsletter. Superman collection of contact data in a digital form, organized into neat categories, allows you to send out your very own periodic newsletter and to encourage a few of your contacts to bring a guest to hear you speak at a free event. Be sure to ask for RSVPs, in case you become more popular than you thought possible.

Sunny Nash, an award-winning writer, public speaker, photographer and independent producer, created http://www.sunnynash.com to help writers, photographers, producers other creative artists find information and links to help them in their careers. Sunny Nash is the author of the family memoir, Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's and creator of Shopping For Hope, a black-and-white photographic study of storefront churches across America.