Rethink your business card

Don’t take your business card for granted. There are many ways to maxi-mize your message while minimizing your costs. You can have a quick printer make the cards for you or print them yourself on a color ink-jet printer. The advantage of using a printer is that the card stock is sturdy, and you can add special features such as raised letters. The disadvantage is that if you have to change anything (your phone number, address, e-mail address), you will have to throw out all your old cards and go back to the printer for more.

At a minimum, your business card should include the following:

Your name

Company name

Business phone number Cell phone number

Business address E-mail address Fax number

• The URL for the company website.

In addition to all the information listed above, here are some tips for designing your business card:

Use a splash of color. Design your card in an attractive color that fits your company image. However, don’t use too many colors. You can have a graphic artist design a simple, one- or two-color logo or you can put your name or company name in a colored font.

Use both sides of the card. Rather than trying to cram all your con-tact information on one side of your business card, keep the front attractively simple and use the back for detail information. If you need even more space, use a folded business card format.

Leave space for notes. Leave space on the reverse side of your busi-ness card for you or the recipient to write notes. For example, if you attend a seminar and the speaker offers to send you additional information, you can write the specifics of your request on the other side of your business card. When the speaker goes through all the business cards collected at the event, your note will remind him or her what you’re requesting.

Avoid conspicuous titles. To make an impression or as a matter of pride, you may be tempted to include a title for yourself on your business card. You might want to avoid including a title such as president, CEO, or chairman on your business card. When you’re a one-person business, clients may question the purpose of such a title. Actually, the only time you’ll have

to use a title is when you sign contracts, particularly if you are acting as an officer of your own corporation. If you think you must have a title on your business card, you could use owner, principal, or consultant.

Reprint rather than mark up. If you have to make a change to the information on your card, have new ones printed as soon as possible. Avoid trying to salvage the incorrect cards and save money by scratching out the incorrect information and manually writing the new information. You can do this in a pinch if you are close to getting new cards, but hand-written corrections to one’s own business card project a poor image.

Put extra business cards where you need them. Have you every rushed out of the house to go to a professional meeting or a social event and realized that you forgot your business cards? You can minimize the situations in which you are caught without extra business cards by staging stacks of business cards in places and with items you are most likely to have with you when you leave your house. Consider storing your cards in your wallet, car, briefcase, personal organizer, and backpack.

Laminate copies of your business card. Someone should do a study to determine whether more business deals have been done in a Jacuzzi or around a swimming pool than on a golf course. When you attend water sports, you don’t have to leave your paper business cards behind. Laminate some copies of your business cards and stuff them in your bathing suit.

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