Friday Ketch-I mean, Catch-up

Though I do feel about as thick and slow as that pastey burger-dancer.

12 noon on Friday, and I'm well along on my postcard-addressing. Plenty to go, plenty already sent. Next time, these things are getting addressed by the printer. My hand does not care how impersonal that may be.

It's been an interesting week for BFC. Wednesday evening I attended the Pleasanton Tradeshow, an event I've been to nearly every time it's been put on for the past 4 years. It's not a bad place - plenty of examples of commercial writing, and free goodies. Who needs OfficeMax when you can get a year's supply of pens and Post-Its at one of these?

However, most of the businesses there were small and fighting for market share. While you'd think that would make them highly susceptible to the idea of copywriting boosting their bottom line and profitability, very few would even entertain the idea. I'd have to spend at least ten minutes at each booth trying to show them the value, and fighting eye-glaze every step of the way. Frankly, I'd rather cold call. And that's saying something!

It was not all bad though - I saw some good friends and colleagues there, and we caught up for a while. It's good to have people I can rely on in case I need their services - a printer, a master networker, & a business coach, among others.

I did get one valuable piece of information, too: the city's 2005 business directory. Even more names, numbers and email addresses. Now all I have to do is figure out which method of contact I should use - cold calls, cold emails, postcards, or some combination thereof. Pass the catch-up.