The Local Business Card has been ticking over slowly and now the time has come to crack it.

Sign up today. You have just about 3 months to try for free. Think of the savings you can make before the end of the year.

Nandos in Wind Street are offering a free bottomless soft drink with every cover you order (worth £1.95 each).

Taybarns are offering a free cover and bottle of wine when you book a party of 10 or more. And they've got a special student deal now at £4.99 without a card.

Zaal Indian Restaurant in Sketty are offering a 10% discount plus free coffee.

If you have a business you'll get a bucket-load of free e-mails you can send for free if you sign up to an account. And there's no monthly subscription, just down-to-earth value-for-money and a great product.

Beach Software, Star in a Jar, Atech Graphics, Valley Accountants, Best of Swansea and many other suppliers are offering discounts or special packages.

Getting a card is free. Sign up on the website now.

And to become a merchant and get some great publicity do the same, it's free for the rest of the year.

Bang that Drum!

Drumming up business is an old expression meaning go out and find some new customers.

Did you know it originated in the Wild West. When a travelling salesman arrived in a one-horse town he'd park up his chuck wagon and walk up and down the main and only road banging a drum to draw attention to himself. He'd shout out his message and draw a crowd to his wagon where he'd then sell off the back.

We should be doing the same. Not shouting and actually banging a drum, although this might work, but showing our face to potential customers or prospects. Getting that message about and if we can use modern technology, great. Add in a little light humour and away we go. The following videos were taken in seconds, straight off, one take. Not perfect but perfectly good to put your message across.

Why don't you sign up to become a Merchant, make a mini movie and send it to me. I'll put it up on the site. Don't feel confident? Don't like appearing on film? Think you make a lousy picture ? So do we all: we all think that about ourselves. What makes you different. I challenge you to make something short about your offer on the site. Make it funny. Be original but most of all just do it.

Marketing doesn't have to be expensive. You must do everything necessary to get in front of new people who might buy from you. Some ideas are targetted whilst others are scatter-gun. Use a mix.

Most of all do basics like foot canvassing or telephone selling. Remember you are building up knowledge and relationships, not usually selling, unless you have a bag of cleaning products, and you need to keep your eyes and ears open and shut your mouth. Just open your mouth to ask questions and breath. Most of all take action. You won't get business sitting on a chair in the office thinking and planning mid-morning. If you need to use time planning and thinking get there an hour earlier than usual.

And another simple way to drum up new business is to sign up to the Local Business Card. Don't even think about it - just click here and transform your sales results - it takes one step to start a successful journey.

If can do anything to help you be successful call me.

regards

Mike Leahy

Get it FREE. Here and Now

Good News!

Here is an exciting new FREE OFFER . FREE card and Merchant service until end of December.

So that we can grow fast and you can benefit immediately we are looking to populate the site.

Register now for a FREE card, valid until the end of the year. You can check out that there are real deals there: that you will save money or get something extra. All you need to do is go to the site and register. There is no need to go onto the Paypal account.

And in addition the first 50 businesses that register to become Merchants will be put on the website, in the Directory for FREE. This is a real give-away. That will give you chance to see the marketing opportunities we are giving you without you having to spend a penny.

Lets repeat that:
Register now and get a card FREE that will be valid until after Christmas.

So go to the site:

www.localbusinesscard.co.uk

Your card will be sent out by post within no more than 48 hours. We'll try same day!

Become a Merchant for FREE until after Christmas. This will give you the chance
to know it works for you and to take advantage of the run up to the end of the year - Xmas and the beginning of the Sales.

So go to the site:

www.localbusinesscard.co.uk

We'll send out your window sticker or drop it in to you. There is also a widget for your website with a link to us, some general information and any help you want to talk to us about.

So don't hesitate, do it now. Register and get either a FREE card or FREE Merchant account.

So what happens then?

The website will show all orders and the fortnightly e-newsletter will be packed with offers, either regualr to remind you, new merchants and special short offers. Just look up what you want, go out and save or get that little extra.

I believe that the card will be a valuable resource and save you real money, not just now but when the economy evens out. This will be the card that will make a real difference.

Get on the website and sign up. Your welcome pack will be posted straight out.

The Website has gone live today

Today is a big day for the Local Business Card.

The website has gone live. We have tested it and made changes over the last few days and there are more to come but take a look and get a feel of the Beta version.

You can join as a merchant and add in offers. And you aren't confined to just one. We want to site to be dynamic and work for both Merchants and cardholders. After all there is no point in having a card if you can't use it: and it's not worth going to the trouble of putting up offers if nobody comes to you as a potential customer.

The first newsletter will go out when we have had some response. So watch out.

Sign up and you can cancel anytime in the first 3 months but I am confident you will save much more than your initial card fee. And it's free to be either a cardholder or merchant if you are a Local Business Forum member, or join. So join now and take advantage of the many associated benefits. There should be a link page in place within a day or so .

The Local Business Card is a great marketing tool, so if you run a business come on board right now and take advantage of the low low fees. These will be held if you sign up now but newcomers after September may see an increase. And, of course, it's a really powerful monitoring tool because you can see instantly if a new customer came in because of your offer or widow sticker.

You may wish to know that we'll be working really hard to promote the Local Business Card because we have a real believe in keeping trade local and helping local trade.

Watch out for the first window stickers

Watch out there's a Local Business Card Sticker about. The first went up last evening at a the Zaal Indian restaurant at Sketty Cross. This is a really great eating place and the feedback has been consistent "The best Indian food I've ever tasted". Well! You can't beat that. Cards will be available within a few days so order yours on the website and you'll start eating and saving. Better still . . .

So why not call Zaal's today and book a table now on 01792 203526. You can even sign up for your card at the restaurant.

Zaal are offering a 10% discount plus a free papadom & chutney tray to card holders. A meal for 4 people will give you a great saving . Just four meals throughout the year will probabaly pay for your card. So whenever you use the card again at Zaal's or elsewhere you'll see real savings.

The website is coming along really well. You'll be able to resister as a Merchant on line and put up your offers. You'll be able to apply for a card on-line with a credit card or Paypal. All offers will be there together with a Merchant Directory. Ben Wheeler of Beach Software has produced a great site based on the hard work put in designing by Matt Pugh of Star in a Jar. If you want a real marketing team that can handle on- and off-line marketing from concept to completion contact one of us in the Local Business Team.

Watch out for great offers in the coming few days on accountancy fees, the Market Mailer automated e-marketing system which will give you free transmisssions, web design, banners and other graphics, phography, accommodation and much more. This isn't just another card. This is the real McCoy. This is THE card.

Local Business Card arrives

So much has happened in a short. Where do I begin.

Before I recap here's a cautionary tale. Wanting to cut some costs I decided to move one of my phone lines to another service provider: and as I have free broadband dwon a BT line that is whom I changed to. So I cancelled and ordered. So far so good.

Now for the fun bit. The wrong line was terminated and so nobody could get hold of the family on the family number. That took 3 phone calls and 3 days to rectify.

Then I needed to inform the broadband company of the change. "No! We can't do anything until the number is active and then it'll take up to 10 working days" So I am without one number that most people use - ad I hope they all know my mobile 07976 364681. And I'm almost out of internet contact. Luckily I've borrowed a mobile internet dongle so I'm partially up and running. Planning doesn't help. Low tech lets us down every time - human intervention. On the other hand when you find someone who give great customer service then your problems are solved or at least diminished and you come away feeling better. The morals of the story are firstly plan your move carefully, don't expect anything to go to that plan, check to see if any element isn't right, be persistent in getting it put right, respect good customer care staff.

As a recap the Swansea Business Show was a great success. Don't take my word for it. Buy the cd now: you'll see and hear over 20 exhibitors talking about their businesses and giving live feed-back from the exhibition hall. I will put some of this up on the show website - click here.

We has a Uni-Bus meeting at Swansea University on 20th May and the two speakers talked about available funding for business either through the flexible funding scheme or university channels. It was a great meeting. Click here for the website

And now I'll move on to the Local Business Card. This is a privilege card focussing on business but that will benefit card-holders in all aspects of their life. The card was originally created for members of the Local Business Forum so that they'd benefit from each others services but it has become something bigger and better. It's a priviledge card that is available to anyone for a small fee. It will give the holder discounts and other incentives from a wide range of businesses ranging from car rental, through having a meal out, web design, accountants, signage and chauffeur services, and much much more. The card is a small plastic keyfob so you'll always have it with you, suppliers will have an easily recognisesable window sticker or web logo and there will be a regular newsletter and special offer broadcasts. It is the card to carry. And the huge benefit to suppliers will be the advertising and getting their message out through the website and newsletters. To become a founder supplier is easy and costs less than £1 a week. How is that for value? The card will give suppliers a great marketing tool that will help them through these difficult times: and we are all looking to save or get better value where we can.

From a germ of an idea this will spread rapidly because it's a simple low-cost concept that'll really benefit everyone involved. Want to be in at the beginning? Apply online in a few days, watch out for the completed website. Or just drop an e-mail now and you'll get an information pack by return. Watch out for window stickers appearing in shop windows near you.