My Prize-Winning Business Card

Awhile back a customer at the print shop where I work ordered some deluxe business cards: Suede finish with raised spot UV. They turned out so nice that my brother-in-law boss suggested that we should design some like that for me.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been attending Chamber of Commerce meetings and other community events. We thought it might be good marketing for me to have really nice business cards.

And so, these are my fancy new two-sided business cards. They really do feel like suede… very velvety.

What I didn’t realize was the side benefit of winning prizes with those tactile cards.

Many of the meetings and events I go to have door prize drawings. Soon after my cards were completed I was at a chamber luncheon chit-chatting with others at my table like one does. We talked about dropping our business cards in the drawing.

One guy said, “Well, you know… it’s the ones who have the really nice business cards who always win the drawings.”

I hadn’t heard that before. “Really?” I said, “Because I just got some fancy new cards!”

But no. I didn’t win the drawing that day. So much for that theory.

However…

Prize #1

Two days later I was at a different Chamber meeting (I am involved in the Chamber of Commerce in both Post Falls and Rathdrum) and when they had their drawing I did win! The prize was a fun Wells Fargo basket with a stuffed pony, a cookie jar, and salt-and-pepper shakers.

A few weeks later I attended a Business Fair in Spokane Valley. It was one of those affairs where every booth has a drawing of some kind. I put my business card in every single one.

Prize #2

The next day I got a call. I had won this nifty picnic “basket” backpack! (It’s got a separate insulated compartment for the food and has been perfect for taking on the ATV.)

But that wasn’t the end of my winning streak.

Prize #3

The next month I won this pretty planter of impatiens with a solar light plus a 1-year membership to the Post Falls Historical Society!

What was interesting about that win was that the guy I had originally talked to about prize-winning business cards was at my table again. And he also won a prize that day!

Lest you think I win every drawing I enter, I don’t. There have been more that I didn’t win, than the ones I have. Still, it does seem like having the “right” kind of business card increases my odds.

And sometimes we are the ones offering a prize, rather than winning.

I put together this candy bouquet for a drawing at the chocolate event last week.

What’s the coolest prize you’ve ever won? I’d like to know!