Let me tell you how I got started on the ingenious concept (if I may humbly say so ;-) of The RipCard…and it is a True story. It will take you all of 5, 6 minutes or less to read it and I believe you will glean some important insights from it.

Here goes:
I have been promoting and producing high-end social events in San Francisco for over 20 years. I have always loved bringing people together, connecting, fun, friendly, and outgoing international friends and friends of friends. And I have done so very successfully. The key to understand here is that there is no way I could have done this all by myself, and you will see that here is exactly where the RipCard comes in.

For instance, in 2007, we had over 3,000 clients attend our Halloween Ball, and the year before we had over 5,000. (It was at a bigger venue: City Hall!)

I have been building my contact list for years and years, one person at a time. I have nurtured that list by staying in touch with them, inviting them to attend all kinds of fun events: from beach parties to happy hours, to concerts, fund raising events, and to large, upscale gala events

The hardest thing in promoting, or selling your services / product, is to get new clients. And if you are in business for yourself, you know exactly how important that is, especially if you are going to sustain and grow your business. Since there always is attrition (people no longer buying your services for whatever reason), you constantly have to evolve and come up with new ways to improve upon your sales and marketing skills to bring in new clients. Marketing and sales should actually account for at least 80% of your total business efforts. If you are not doing that, you are doing something wrong. Or so say at least all the experts that I have been learning from -- the Jay Abraham's, Mark Victor Hansen’s and Rich Schefren's of the world -- and they are experts in their field of marketing. Actually I credit a Major portion of the reason I am pursuing the RipCard to Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of Chicken Soup For The Soul, www.MarkVictorHansen.com . I recently met Mark in person to thank him specifically for being that catalyst for me. Here is a picture of him and me:

Anyway, how did I become so successful at promotion (READ: acquiring new clients) (If I might be so humble.) Well, it happened the following way. Please allow me to depict at scenario for you as to what exactly happened. One day I decided I wanted to have another social event. The first thing I would always do is to come up with the concept. Then I would lock down the perfect venue for that type of event. I would secure the DJs and entertainment, the sponsors, etc. Next what I needed to do was to sell the event. I had to get anywhere from 500 to 5,000 people to actually attend. And if you know anything about promotion / marketing / sales, it is usually only about 2 to 4% of the people you reach that will actually show up / become paying clients, through traditional promotion (versus online promotions.) So let's say I wanted to have 1,000 people attend. I would have to reach somewhere around 40,000 to 50,000 people in my target market. That is a tall order for anyone. So what I would do "in the old days," before I came up with the concept of the RipCard.com, I would print thousands of flyers, buy radio ads, talk to TV and radio co-hosts, etc.

When I was promoting, I would take the flyers I had printed up -- and they were always high end, four-color flyers, on nice paper -- and hit the streets of San Francisco. I would go to clubs, to cafes, stores, etc. And there is only so much you can do of that when it comes to time and costs.

That is when I came up with the idea of creating some kind of a card That is when I came up with the idea of creating some kind of a card that let me to give something of value first (this is a key point, to give something first) to a person I would meet at random in a bar, on the street, or where have you. So I would increase my chances of receiving what I wanted in return: their contact information, specifically their email address, name, and possibly, phone number. Now before, I was simply handing them a flyer and hoping they would come to my event. I knew that my chance of having them attend my event was much slimmer than if I actually could also give them a free pass. So early on, I started giving away free passes, but I still was not able to get what I wanted: Their contact information. So that is when, one day, I had one of those light bulb aha moments. What if I could create a card that both would give and receive? And that is what I did. Suddenly I was able to go up to someone on the street, in a bar, or in a store, and engage in a conversation about my event while handing them an elegant flyer, and then following up with the RipCard saying that I would be happy to give them a VIP pass in return for an email address. And guess what? It worked like a charm.

I would hand write on the back side of the card and INITIAL my Name (A.M.)
Then I would write +ONE (plus one). Which would mean they could bring this half of the RipCard to my event, and they plus a friend would get in for free. I would always customize the RipCard so that I gave them something that they wanted. Although it was a natural thing for me to give them a free pass to my event, I could just as easily have given them a couple of free drinks by writing that on the RipCard.

I will show you how you can GET VERY CREATIVE giving away stuff that is not even yours. While you will achieve the same result, actually many times even a much better result. But more on that a little further down.

I had been using the card for a while before I started seeing the analogy, how this card could be used for THOUSANDS of other businesses, not only event producers such as myself, but anything from restaurants, real estate agents and brokers, hair designers, dry cleaners, manicure stores, chiropractors, dentists, printers, clothing stores, yoga centers, workout places, network marketing people… The list goes on. Pretty much anyone who wants to find creative ways to attract new business, to build their contact list, and to get others to refer business to you -- in which you can TRACK who is sending / referring the business to you. And, MOST IMPORTANTLY, you can reward them for doing that. You know how it goes. If you have an existing customer that that keeps on referring you NEW CUSTOMERS, you really ought to take very good care of that customer, meaning reward him or her.

Ahhh…I almost forgot. I was going to tell you how you could work with the RipCard to give away things that are not even yours. Let's say for example you are a hair designer and you used the RipCard to attract more referrals and word-of-mouth. Well, your natural inclination would be to give a discount on your haircuts, or maybe some hair care products, which is obviously fine in itself. Instead, let's say you have a client that possibly would be very excited if you could give her 50% (or 25% -- I will leave that up to your imagination and negotiation power) off at a manicure / pedicure place, just for referring some clients to you, and one that just might even be located a few doors down the street from you.

Here is how I would go about setting this up. Oh -- let me ask you this first: Do you think a small, local manicure / pedicure salon down the street would be excited if you brought them a new customer? Probably, since they just like any other small storeowner would struggle with getting new customers in the store, they would be very, very happy if you did that for them.

Now, let me ask you this:Since the manicure store would not have spent any money on marketing or advertising, don't you think you would have some negotiation power? You bet you would. Next, what if you said to them, "Hey, Mrs. Owner of the manicure store, I happen to have the ability to refer you some brand new customers, some customers you actually would be very happy receiving since I have pre-qualified them. Tell me, if I personally recommended them to you, would you be willing to knock of 50% (or 25%) for any first-time customers to your establishment? And keep in mind, this is a customer you would never have had if it was not for me personally recommending them to you…"

I can almost guarantee you that they would say yes. If not, you know what to do: Next! If that establishment does not value what you will do for them, simply move on to the next.

Now get this….this would not only have to be a nail salon, it could be a dry cleaner, a restaurant, a dentist, a chiropractor, an attorney… The sky is the limit. The key here is to offer your customer something they want so that they in return will patronize your establishment.

SO….when it came to my party planning endeavors as explained to you, you will see that I did not only have to offer Free Passes to my Event. I could offer for instance a free salsa class, which would be provided by some of my business associates, who would be glad to get new clients referred to them. As a matter of fact, and I was not really going to get too much into this now, but if you set this up the right way, you can make a business proposition with the establishments that you now start referring new customers to, that is if you were going to continue sending them more business. You could negotiate a joint venture agreement with them in which you would receive residual (ongoing) income from all the customers you referred to them, for as long as they remained their customers. Now that is a mind-boggling idea in itself. The RipCard is tailor-made for setting situations exactly such as that for yourself with many, many vendors as you keep on creating value for ALL parties involved.

You will see more details and explanations of how to work with the Joint Venture (JV) concept under my Joint Venture link to the left, under the main link called "Creative Ideas."
That's about the size of it. This is how it all got started. As I kept on working on the concept I fine-tuned it and came up with better and better ideas of how to track who gave the referrals, as well as what incentives one could give away, and most importantly, how you could both use your existing customers and your associated businesses to help you draw a tremendous amount of traffic to your business. And this, my friend, you will learn more about under the link named: "How it Works."

Now.....what is your story? And how can we help you get more Clients?