Just hired a lawn guy to mow for me (oh what a great relief this is
). When he came to see my lawn, he handed me a brochure and business card - homemade, inkjet printed, etc. They looked ok, but my reaction was
definitely negative. In my mind, he'd have done better not having the brochure at all.
He got hired anyway because he was nice enough and professional enough to overcome that, and his equipment definitely said "success". That's why it puzzled me so - he showed up in a 50k truck with a beautiful trailer, has nice equipment, but skimped on the $400 nice brochures would have cost... amazing.
Had he not been there in person, I would have felt his brochures were for some fly by night, part-time outfit, and I never would have contacted him (I contacted him initially because he does my neighbor's lawn. But I'm saying aside from that, on the strength of the brochure alone, he'd have never registered in my mind.)