Business Cards 101

Business cards are one of my pet peeves.

Especially business cards that take more than 10 seconds to figure out what you do for a business. A business card is nothing more than contact information written down in advance and when you want to give a person your contact information for them to keep.


Example #1

How long does it take to figure what the owner is trying to say? Maybe all they want to do is give away cheap photographs, one day of the year, on St Valentines Day?

The cursive type is too small & distracting. The business owner is distracted by the "Photographer" in her. She  does not sell her business on value but on cheap price. Would you refer this person? I wouldn't because she does not know what her value is.

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EXAMPLE #2

The business owner in this card spent a lot of time on layout & design. 60% of the card is a photo of his badge. The telephone font is half the size of his name and thus the name is more important than the telephone number. The business owner works in the Executive Service section which does not tell me a thing. Maybe a police officer working with Executives tells me I would not call him if I needed him to investigate a cold case or help me with a question of some sort.  I wonder if this is room for a CASE# written on the back of this card.
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What I look for in a business card.

Tell me how to contact you in and what you do in less than three seconds. Make the card legible as I wear glasses and cant see #1 font. Point of contact continues a telephone, fax, website and an address.

If you don't have an address then how can I tell where you are from?  Are you serious about your work or will you return my call in two weeks after the water stopped leaking in my basement?

Logos and graphics are distracting if they are not directly connected to the business. People end up wondering what the abstract logo has to do with the electrical wiring in your house.

GIVE the business card away! When handing out your card, give them two. Maybe that person will refer you to another prospect. Mark your calendar when you started handing out that stack of 250 cards. This will tell you how fast your are giving them away.

Carl Slicer