Don't forget local businesses

I tried to order some new business cards from Vistaprint a few weeks ago. I had one of their super duper offers, and decided I couldn’t be bothered travelling to my local printers – much easier to let Vistaprint mail some to me.

I won’t bore you with the details, but Vistaprint are hopeless. Something went wrong in their system after I spent an hour designing the cards, and then it took two full days for their customer support to get back to me, and not solve my problem!

Their saving grace was Jerome, who works in one of their US offices. He picked up a desperate Tweet from me, and worked like a dog over two days to solve my problem. Finally he was let down by the company’s processes. Frankly, he deserves better support from his employer.

Anyway, the upshot of all this was that I took a screenshot of the card I’d designed and sent it to my local printer.

Straight away, he started adding value. He suggested some changes, fiddled with the colors and resolution, and sharpened the image. His proof captured what I wanted, but just looked so much more professional than my effort.

He called me yesterday and I agreed to collect the cards from him this morning. When I arrived, we headed out for a coffee and a natter. It was good to catch up with another business man on the island. While we were out, he introduced me to the owner of the bar we were in. We got talking, and the bar owner agreed to do some advertising with one of our sites.

When we got back to the office we agreed to a collaboration deal, which should be lucrative for both of us.

The cards? They were almost double the price of Vistaprint’s. But I think they’re twice as good, don’t you?

The message? It’s so easy to take the easy way out and order from the net. But sometimes, it pays to support local businesses. Because they add value and just seem to support you back.

Here are some other posts:

1/ Why bloggers need to invest in design

2/ Staying power – Viagra for bloggers

3/ Setting a budget for your blog