This shows how your effort the first time may be great and the reward very low, but over the next three times the effort diminishes and the reward increases. if you quit because effort doesn’t give the reward too soon you will miss out on a good idea.

No matter the idea you come up with to use to market your business the first time you try it is not the best time to evaluate it’s success or failure. Your effort the first time to pull off something is pretty high and it takes time for a good idea to truly take hold of your audience.

The very first time you try something you will spend a great deal of time, effort and money to pull off an idea.

Effort

The first time you try anything it is quite difficult. Just imagine if you learned to ride a bike using your present method of evaluating a new market idea. Would you have ever learned to ride the bike?

I think we all understand that the amount of effort due to the learning curve can be overwhelming the first time we try anything.

The first time I created a postcard to send out I had a lot of learning to do. I had to find a vendor. From my previous experience with business cards I realized I could spend a lot of money or no so much for the exact same quality. I had to shop around and investigate.

I went with the company SharpDots after getting a recommendation from a friend. It was a great recommendation.

My first layout was done by my good friend and creative director Tony Messano. We decided to use one photo on the front and my logo and return address as well as my web address on the back.

My first postcard cover shot

The back of my first postcard. I had a different logo then.

I also needed a mailing list and bought one of those as well. That took some time to find the best fit for me.

I printed the labels and bought the postcard stamps to mail them. I put the lables and the stamps on that first run of about two thousand postcards.

Reward

The phone did not start ringing a few days after the mailing. Not a lot of response to that mailing.

Effort

Now this second time I didn’t have to do all that much work as compared to the first time. I already had a printer, a mailing list and someone to help me with the design.

Some of the postcards came back and I had to investigate this time to get an address if they moved or delete them if they were out of business. How I did this the first time took some time to get a process down that worked.

Reward

I was getting some response. Still not overwhelming response.

While the phone wasn’t ringing off the hook, most everyone I sent the postcards to now have only seen my name two times in the mail. Now I hadn’t started a e.Newsletter at this time. I didn’t have a blog at the time either. So I was just sending emails to check on these prospects.

What was happening at that time was introducing myself and what I did to these prospects. I was branding myself. They were starting to see my images and my logo together. I was slowly starting to build a brand.

Effort

While I had down my process I decided to change up the layout on the back of the card. This was Tony Messano’s idea. He said maybe running a series of photos on the back along with the photo on the front would communicate I wasn’t a one shot wonder. After all everyone has at least one good photo they can make, my goal was to help separate myself from my competition as someone who can deliver multiple storytelling images.

My last postcard cover shot.

Tony had a different design, but I modified it a little here for the latest postcard. It has my new logo and we went to four color on the back. Not a lot of cost through SharpDots.

Reward

Today, I am getting more jobs and the clients comment often on my postcards as being a deciding factor on contacting me.

If after three times you are not getting any rewards out of an idea that is a good time to stop doing it. However, as you can see from the first diagram if you base your decision on the first attempt you would cancel some great ideas.

If you are just starting out, this is when you are trying to create a brand awareness of you. This is like you being a young entrepreneur like S. Truett Cathy who started Chick-fil-A. He started first running a diner in Hapeville, GA in 1946. He worked hard and it took time before he even invented the Chicken Sandwich. Since the first Chick-fil-A restaurant opened in 1967, the company has posted 43 consecutive annual sales increases. This was not an over night success, but one where they tried ideas and kept them if they worked.

Take your time to find a good idea and before you implement be sure you are ready to do it three times or you might quit before the big payoff.