As soon as you finish your doula or other childbirth professional training, you should get yourself some business cards. Yes, an eye-catching logo and catchy business name will help to brand yourself, but you don’t need to wait until you have those to let people know you are in business.

The easiest and most inexpensive resource for business cards that I have found is VistaPrint.com. The site has an extensive variety of free cards to choose from, or you can pay for extra upgrades to add customization. Paying a little extra for your cards also removes the VistaPrint advertisement on the back of the cards. In fact, you can pay to put text on the back of your business cards. Why not put a couple of short statements that explain what you do on the back of your cards?

Once you have a logo and business name, you can upload them to the VistaPrint site and create your business card. The cost is usually around $20 for 250 cards, with discounts for buying more. I’ve found that by being a member of some of the online reward websites like MyPoints.com or Upromise.com, if you go to VistaPrint through those sites, you receive even greater discounts.

In addition, membership in these reward programs give you points for free gift cards (MyPoints) or money for your kids’ college 529 plan (Upromise).

There is a tradeoff for using VistaPrint. You need to be careful when you’re going through the checkout process, because VistaPrint will try to upsell you a variety of other things that you may or may not need, like address labels, business card holders, and other types of stationery. Just go slow when you make your purchase to be sure you don’t inadvertently add anything you don’t want to your shopping cart.

So if you don’t have business cards yet, go and order some now! Then, you can:

• Give a couple to everyone you know and let them know what you do.
• Go to baby and maternity stores and find out if they have a resource area where you can leave some cards.
• Include one in your bill payments to local vendors. Who knows who will open it!
• Go to networking meetings and give them to people you meet there.
• Create postcards or brochures at VistaPrint and distribute them with your business card to local OBs, midwives and birth centers.

I’d love to hear how other birth professionals use their business cards to market themselves.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Inexpensive Marketing Tip #2 – Website
2. How To Be Taken Seriously In Your Doula Business – 5 Tips
3. Marketing in Small Ways Every Day
4. A Double Dip – Marketing and Easy Income Tip for Birth Pros
5. Life After Training – Part 3: Learn about Business Ownership