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No business, small or large, should be without business cards - they work hard for their size! There are a lot of things to take into consideration when designing or choosing your own. I've tried to include the most important ones here. What should they contain? Your business card should always answer these three questions: Who are you? What do you do? How do I contact you? So include any of these that are applicable to you: your name, company name, telephone number, email address, website URL and possibly your address (a PO Box number may be safer if you work with precious metals and worry about thieves). If you have a logo, include that - otherwise a picture of one of your crafts will go a long way towards helping people remember you. This can be a photo or a line drawing (you can use photo editing software to turn your photo into a drawing). If you like, you can also add a catchy tagline by your company name. One thing your card should never contain is typos - check, check and check again before printing! Nothing looks worse than a business card with the phone number or website address crossed out and written in correctly by hand. Project the right image Your card should support the image of your craft business. - It can be casual, but should never be sloppy or cheap looking (cheap card makes people think cheap products!)
- Some people have come up with wonderfully unique ideas to make their cards stand out from the crowd, but make sure they remain practical to keep in a wallet.
- Handmade business cards may work for you, as long as the text is printed clearly. Just make sure your handmade touches don't take forever or cost the earth, or you'll be loathe to give too many cards away! Rubber stamping could be a good option for papercrafters.
Design elements - Size - An unusual shape or size might make your card stand out from the crowd. However, I'd recommend using a standard size so that it doesn't get thrown away - if it's too small it will get lost, if it's too big it won't fit in a business card holder or some wallets. You could consider rounding or shaping the corners so that the size is standard but it still looks a little different.
- Black and white or colour - This is personal choice, though obviously colour is more expensive. An alternative to colour printing is black printing on colour card stock. If you are using a line drawing of one of your crafts this could look very effective.
- Weight - 80 pound (215gsm) card stock is the minimum weight you should use for your cards. 100 pound card stock will give an impression of luxury and quality.
- Card type - Standard business card stock comes in smooth, linen or laid - choose what compliments your image and your budget best. Another alternative if you're making your own business cards is printable handmade paper, which is actually more like card stock. It could work out expensive though.
- Glossy or matte - a standard guideline is to use a glossy finish for photos and matte for line drawings. Glossy is usually more expensive.
Whatever design elements you decide on for your card, it must be easy to read. Don't cram too much information onto your cards - and use an easily readable font size. What about free business cards? There are several online printing companies that occasionally give away free business cards (you just pay for shipping), as long as you don't mind an advertisement on the back. These are better than no business cards, but if you can afford to upgrade it will reflect better on your business. Advantages:- you can hand them out liberally and won't be tempted to be stingy with them
- as a starting point they're better than nothing if you're really broke!
Disadvantages:- the designs and backgrounds are on plenty of other people's business cards, and so are not unique to you
- the advertisement on the back means everyone knows they were free!
- the card is not always best quality, though it is often adequate
I use Vistaprint for my business cards. I originally began with their free cards, but now prefer and use their premium range, which still works out very reasonably. Making your own I started out by printing my own business cards using my PC and printer. Once again, there are pros and cons to this approach: Advantages:- you can print out only as many as you need at any particular time, so it's cheaper to start with - if you have them printed elsewhere there's usually a minimum of a few hundred
- you can change the design or your details if necessary - and won't have hundreds of wasted cards already printed
- you can be very creative and play around until you have exactly the look you want
Disadvantages:- Depending on your design, it might work out more expensive in the long run using your printer ink
- blank business cards for printing on can also be expensive, and are usually quite flimsy card stock. If you use perforated ones they don't look professional.
- I used to print on heavy attractive card stock, but then had to cut them up myself (I used a small guillotine - don't ever use scissors!) Eventually I got fed up of it and now I have them printed elsewhere.
Tips for using your business cards effectively Once you've got a stack of lovely business cards, make sure you use them! - Always have them with you - keep them everywhere, in your wallet, your car, your gym bag. And keep them in a business card holder so they don't get dog eared.
- Always give two cards away at a time - one to keep and one to pass on to a friend.
- Every sale should be accompanied by your card.
- Include your card with all your correspondence - even if it's not business related.
- Use your cards as scrap paper when you're writing something down for someone.
In a nutshell: hand them out liberally! Making it worth keeping If you add something extra to your business card that's useful to the recipient, they're much more likely to keep it and not just throw it away. - Print something useful on the back. A great idea for a home party business is to have a calendar or appointment card on the back for booking parties. Other ideas are a loyalty card, survey, coupon, conversion chart or map.
- Magnetic business cards are also more likely to be kept. They can be put on fridges or file cabinets, and once stuck on they're likely to remain there! As these are a lot more expensive than standard business cards, reserve them for your hostesses. That way she'll always know where to find your details if any of her guests wants to reorder, or if she'd like to book another party.
Other ideas - If you design your cards carefully, so they can be folded in the middle, they can double up as mini greeting cards or hang tags. This can help save money as you'll combine the print run and order bigger quantities.
- You can also design a folded business card in order to fit more information on it. This can then double as a mini brochure. Think carefully about what information you include though - the temptation is to fill every inch of white space, but it needs to look good and be legible!
Click here to send me your tips for creating great business cards!
 VistaPrint.com
I use Vistaprint for my business cards, and I'm very happy with their service. They often have specials on for free cards (which are good quality but have an advertisement on the back), but if you want to upgrade it still works out very economically. You can upload your own logo and design if you like too.
(UK)
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