6. Don't sell yourself. It's okay to tell people what you do. Give your “30 second commercial" but stop after that. You're there to gather information and to meet people, not to sell.

7. People love people who are interested in them. Ask questions, listen and engage people. This is fastest way to develop rapport with someone. It's also best way to determine quickly if they're someone you should be doing business with.

8. Have fun, relax and enjoy yourself. People like being around people who are relaxed and having fun.

9. Don't corner people and don't get cornered. Manage your time and conversation so you can meet enough people to justify your time spent networking.

10. Offer referrals. The best way to begin a relationship is by giving someone something - like a referral. It doesn't cost you anything. If they're kind of person you want to do business with, they'll reciprocate and a valuable, long-tem business relationship could develop.

Networking is a time-honored way of developing business relationships. It can be done in networking groups or clubs. It can be done through Chambers of Commerce. It can be done anywhere you meet people. If you are active in your community or industry, you can easily network. Some people "network" while shopping for groceries! It all depends on your attitude and your focus. The more people you meet who might need your product or service, more potential customers you can have. It's up to you.

The headline needs to be:

*Believable *Appealing to emotions *Not more than sixteen words *In upper and lower case letters, not all caps *In quotation marks *Easy to understand

#6 Make it easy to read - People want to gather information quickly and aren't willing to plough through lots of text - use bullet points. You want a clean uncluttered look. Also - watch out for jargon, buzz words and technical terms. Remember selling acronym - KISS - keep it simple stupid.

#7 Doesn't need to be expensive - It obviously makes sense to use good quality paper and it's best to stick to white or cream semi-gloss or glossy stock. Your brochure needs to feel good in customer's hands - classy - quality image. It can contain as many pages as you like but why not consider a "one-page" which obviously has two sides.

You could have several "one-pages" produced, each relevant to market you're targeting. You could also produce individual one for each product or service that you provide. I have searched, frustratingly, through many a brochure trying to find specific information on a product or service.

#8 Laminate - buy a laminator (they're not expensive) and laminate one-sheets or pages from your brochure. They make information look and feel much better and encourage customer to hang onto them for longer.

#9 Friendly - Your brochure should give potential customer feeling that you're business is friendly and interesting to deal with. Depending on what business you're in, you might want customer to know that you're also "fun" to deal with.

Don't make your brochure too businesslike even although you're selling a technical product; remember you're communicating to a human being who is primarily driven by their emotions.

It makes sense to build a relationship with a graphic designer who you like and who understands what you're trying to achieve. However, if you want to have more control, there's software you can buy and internet sites where you can create your own stationary.