King Pin Business Cards

The ‘make do and mend’ movement of the forties is coming back into vogue again. This has a lot to do with the financial climate but also environmentalism and the fact that we are looking back for design ideas to interpret into the now.

The self sufficient business owner can quite easily take it upon themselves to create their own stationery and business cards to save money and to put some of themselves into the brand. There is a lot to be said for this if you have the design skills to back you up. A design oriented businessperson can make quite a statement when creating their own brand. There is often a warmer feeling about it and it often feels a lot more authentic than an agency created one.

If you have a copy or Word, Photoshop, Illustrator or any of the myriad of other design packages out there you can make business cards. Whether for yourself or to sell as templates or brand designs. There are even free programs out there from which you can create half decent business cards with if you spend some time learning the program.

Doing it yourself will ensure you put a piece of you into the design. This will show up in the finished article and if you’re lucky, be noticed by your intended audience. It will also be original. Unless you are modifying someone else’s design for your own needs then chances are nobody is going to have a card the same. If you are using the same ideas with the rest of your company branding then you have the beginning of a completely original business identity.

In an increasingly global marketplace, originality counts for a lot. It makes you memorable, desirable and valuable. This is especially true if you are a creative oriented business. A good business card or stationery design can act as a mini portfolio and show prospective clients exactly what you are capable of.

For those of us with slightly less creative abilities there is still the option of using one of the programs to modify or create a template for a card or stationery. Just because we can’t draw or paint doesn’t mean we can’t make business cards. We will just have to work that little bit harder to be able to do it.

You can vary the shape, texture or material as much as the design to add that little something extra. Although chances are you won’t be able to print them yourself using a normal printer, the design itself can be quite popular as it’s another way to stand out from the crowd.

Whatever you choose to make or pay someone else to make, ensure that it is going to be original and eye catching. As Oscar Wilde said ‘The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about’. If people aren’t talking about you, they aren’t thinking about you, which means they aren’t doing business with you.

To print a business card is fairly straightforward. You can either do it yourself or pay a printer to do it for you.

For most traditional designs using light weight cardboard it is entirely viable to you to create a design in word and then format them so they cover an A4 sheet and print them all off. Most desktop printers will be able to print onto the cardboard as long as it isn’t too porous. Caution should be taken with the printer settings though, to ensure that porous paper or cardboard is selected. That will stop smudging and help keep the lines and edges sharp.

Don’t forget to specify double sided printing either, says the voice of experience. Don’t waste a whole sheet of full colour 400 weight cardboard because you forgot to set it up for double sided and didn’t line it up properly for the other side to match exactly. Make sure you line the card up EXACTLY so each card is printed both sides. The tolerances between cards is very fine and even a slight miscalculation can render the whole sheet useless.

Much easier to get a printer to do it for you. A professional job will almost always show through. It’s much better to spend even a little money to get a reputable printer to do the work for you. If you have one near you at least you can see examples of their work before giving them your money. Online is slightly harder to judge and you should only deal with a reputable firm.

Most printers online or otherwise will be happy to print business cards for you either to your own design or to one of theirs. They tend to prefer you to provide your own designs electronically in a .psd, .pdf or .doc format so they can format it for printing. The turnaround is pretty quick for a print job of a few hundred cards, generally within a couple of days, some within twenty four hours. Be prepared to pay a premium when wanting them in a hurry though!

Professional printers are the only viable option when wanting to play with different textures and materials. They will be able to select the proper ink settings for each one and ensure you get a good result.

Some companies like the inimitable Moo.com has made their entire business plan around business cards. There are plenty of other companies too, who offer similar services. Just Google business cards or something, you will get plenty of results for companies who specialize in them.

I can’t attest to their quality having never used them. Personally I prefer giving the work to my local printer. Local work for local businesses and all that. He in turn gives me work if a client of his needs copywriting. I win both ways! I get a good product for a good price and can discuss any issues face to face. I also get a local recommendation from a known company in my town.

Whether your card is cardboard, plastic, metal or fabric, a decent print job is essential to give that professional look. It’s no good having a cutting edge design if nobody can read your contact details when they need to.

Just about any hard surface can carry a print and from looking at business card designs that never worked, I think most of them have been tried already. I bought some off the internet once that cost me $45 for 200 cards. The site went on about quality and clarity of their print I decided to give them a try. I was most disappointed when my card arrived. The printing was blurry and wasn’t sharp or clear at all. The card cutting was also loose with threads sticking out of the edges of the card. Not good at all. That’s what you get for getting a ‘budget’ printer to do it for you. The company was supposed to be in the US, but the box was postmarked Singapore!

The overall quality of the card as well as the eye-catching design and clever wording is important. Business card printing needs to be sharp as there isn’t much space to work with. Fitting a decent amount of information into a small space is an exercise in itself. The font needs to be of a size large enough to be clearly read, but small enough that you can fit all the pertinent information onto it.

If in doubt you can print them yourself on a decent home printer. The Dpi of the printer needs to be enough that it can drop ink onto cardboard and remain sharp. Many of the cheaper printers will smudge or be too weak to handle the cardboard, if you are using it. I use an Epson D6600 and it handles the printing and the card perfectly well. The built in software even has an application that will fill an A4 sheet of it with as many cards as possible while still printing double sided.

If you want to use something other than cardboard then you would be better served getting a professional to print it for you. The raw materials can be quite expensive and a home printer won’t be able to print on many of the options open to a print studio. Plastics, fabrics or metal are certainly some of the materials in common use in cards today that you probably won’t be able to do yourself. Some printers give off too much heat to be able to print on plastic properly, or the heads can’t penetrate the plastic enough to get an image to imprint.

So as a general rule of thumb, check the quality of your printer either the commercial kind, or the connected to your PC kind. If you are using different materials, then definitely get a professional to do it for you. Your card is your brand so do it properly. The better you present yourself and your business, the more people are likely to trust it and you.

The best business card isn’t the one with the coolest design, brightest color or most tactile material. It is the one that provides the answer for someone’s problem. If you card tells people you can help them, and that you are there when they need you, then it will be a success. All the imagination in the world can’t make a success out of any brand if it says nothing and means nothing. Business cards are keys. Put them in the right hands and they unlock doors. That is their whole purpose and has been since time immemorial. Gone are the days when men in pinstripe suits swap cards before shaking hands knowing they will get a call because they are the only person in the area who can do what they do.

We live in a diverse and specialist society. Increased security and food production means more of us can specialize in some skill or other to make money. Never before have we had so much free time, or freedom to explore alternative avenues of employment or making a living. Working in a bank, office, factory or a trade was all there was. There would only be a couple of bank managers in your town, or a couple of insurance men. A business card didn’t have to do much then as you had a captive audience.

As the horizons drew further away and communications improved, we could look beyond our own towns and cities to a national viewpoint. Now customers didn’t have to deal with people they didn’t want to as they could look further afield. Skip forward a few years and the horizon expands again, and we can suddenly reach a global audience and a world full of people and businesses who compete for each and every customer.

Now the humble business card has a lot more work to do. It rests among many others in the contact book of a company, or the wallet of a contact. No longer can it sit there and merely wait to be used. Now it has to vie for the very short attention span of decision makers along with countless others.

It has to say, hire me! I’m the one you want! Or any other message you want it to convey. It has to be bright enough, different enough and attractive enough for a contact to not merely look past it, but attract and hold their attention. Hold that attention enough for them to make the decision to use the card instead of flicking to the next one.

The best business card isn’t the cleverest or the neatest, it’s the one that can grab someone’s attention and hold it. The best business card is the one that contacts keep until they need it, not end up in the trash as soon as they get back to the office. It offers solutions to problems and an easy way of getting the information to get you that call or email to come on over and talk about a problem you may be able to help with.

When you are planning your company stationery either rebranding or as a small business start-up, the kind of paper you use is one of the first things you should decide on. It will directly influence the design and how the finished product will look.

There are many different types of paper to choose from let alone all the metals and plastics that are now increasing in popularity. The higher the quality of paper, the more professional looking the result. Although they will be more expensive that basic 3pt card, they are well worth the investment as the impression they give will be far better.

The ‘pt’ in 3pt refers to the Board and Point, and is printer speak for the thickness of the card. A good gauge is to use a minimum of 14pt so the card is durable and not flimsy. This is especially true if your card design contains a lot of color. A thicker card will prevent the color seeping through to the other side, which you may experience with thinner card.

My personal favourite is Ivory paper because of its superior quality and finish. It lasts a lot longer and stays tidier than normal card. It is a good way of achieving a classy, quality finish for any company.

Handmade paper is another option for people who like textures. They can be made up of many types of materials such as silk, wool, wood and loads of others. Just about any natural material can be made into paper. The different texture is an ideal way to set yourself apart and offering an in when meeting new people. A textured card is sure to evoke comment.

There is also such a thing as non-tear paper which is also a useful business card material. This is becoming more popular as the cost of materials decreases. It used to be expensive to use, but is now quite reasonable. It is a thin card covered in a light laminate which offers the non-tear capabilities. They are also damp proof and can survive a coffee spill, which is why they are being used more and more.

Art paper is my staple but not my favourite. A good quality business card paper with either a matt or gloss finish. It allows for a lot of design options and can take extra elements like photographs or fine images. It does cost a lot more than standard card but the result is well worth the expense in my opinion. Sitting the same design next to each other, one on standard card, and the other on art paper speaks for itself. There is simply no competition between the two.

Any design, no matter how expensive or beautiful will sink or swim depending on the paper stock it sits on. A good quality paper will transform the card into something to talk about and will exude quality, which is something worth much more to a business than the cost of the cards.

Someone once told me ‘my business card is something to remember me by’. I used to think that said more about him than his business contacts, but now I’m in the business world, I see exactly what he meant.

Travelling salespeople, insurance sales, company reps and a myriad of other business functions are carried out by face to face meetings. Some people’s business contact books run into dozens of pages. There is simply no way that you are going to remember all of their details. The business card is the ideal tool to stay memorable.

Although there is a market for imaginative and eye catching card designs, as long as the staple information is on the card, you will be fine. I have never seen someone flick through their business cards and give someone work just because they were bored at the time. People use your card for a good reason, and it doesn’t really seem to make much difference whether it was a plain white card or a carbon fiber one.

Most businesspeople don’t like wasting time, so ensuring all of your up to date details are in front of as many decision makers as possible is an essential marketing tool. Going to a lecture or Chamber of Commerce lunch armed with a pocket full of cards can get you a lot of contacts, and hopefully a lot of business.

There is more to a business card than a little 2×2.5” piece of cardboard. There are now electronic versions, and versions you can send from your mobile phone. The pretext is exactly the same, getting your information to people for when they want you. Moving with the times and having your details in a readable format on a Blackberry is as important as having a card in their Rolodex. Even Outlook has the facility to create a business card which you can attach to emails and append to contact lists.

The advantage with electronic cards is hyperlinking. You can link directly to your email, Twitter, Facebook or whatever with an electronic card. This save vital seconds for a potential prospect in getting hold of you. Marketing is all about getting a message across and convenience. A good marketing strategy is to take as much effort as possible out of getting hold of someone or acquiring information. A business card helps that by having all relevant information ready and waiting in one place. The less effort it takes someone to get in touch with you, the more likely someone will actually do it. The card only takes care of one aspect of this strategy though. The other half, the getting the message across is mainly up to you once your card has been used. There are subliminal pointers you can use in your card design. The tone and quality of the card can say a lot about you, and give an unconscious trigger to those who look at it. That will be discussed in another entry.

Think of your business card like a Visa, and never leave home without it, as you never know who you will bump into.

It is tempting to make your own business cards, as it is to put your own stamp on anything around you. From your home, car, wife or business, I guess it’s the modern equivalent of marking your territory.

There is much to be said for this though, as it adds variety and originality to things around us. The desire to put a piece of ourselves into something is an admirable trait and something that should be encouraged. Whenever we make an investment of any kind we build an attachment to that something. We are more likely to expend time and effort making whatever it is work, and look good. We place much less stock in things we can just buy without thinking about it.

When starting your own business it is tempting to try and do as much of it yourself as you can. From designing your brand, logo or stationery to your office heating. To either save money or make it completely your own. This is fine if you have the time and the skills to do it and make it work.

Take your business card for example. It’s a fairly standard shape and size, and there are practical limitations on what you can do, but a creative mind can create some excellent examples of an otherwise quite boring piece of corporate equipment. There are plenty of tools out there now that can help you make your own business card, and most decent desktop printers can print them for you.

The thing you have to consider is ‘will the finished article look professional enough for me’. If the answer is now then you shouldn’t be doing it yourself and should be getting someone in to do it for you. The expense may hurt in the beginning, but think of it as an investment, as the more professional you appear, the more likely you are to get business. Especially if your products or services are business to business ones.

Everybody starts somewhere, and generally small. It doesn’t mean you have to think that way though. Thinking big is the mark of a true entrepreneur and that kind of attitude should be encouraged at all costs. One of the secrets of making it in business is convincing your clients that you are bigger and better than you actually are. Then they will have the confidence that you can deliver. That’s when you start making money. Having a professional ‘face’ can disguise all sorts of mayhem behind the scenes, and as long as the client never sees it, it doesn’t matter. Anything about you or your business that your client can see needs to be squeaky clean, efficient and professional to give the right impression. Although people say they understand when a company is starting up, they don’t really, and won’t cut you any slack because of it.

Think of your business card as an aspect of your professional face. It needs to be clean, professional and inspire confidence. If it doesn’t do that, you won’t either.

The humble business card used to be one of the most effective weapons in any businessman’s armory. Is it still true today?

Business meetings are becoming more and more virtualized as companies try and save time and money. Having employees on the road is an expensive activity for any business, and in these harsh financial conditions, every dollar counts. With the advent of video conferencing, web meetings and other online collaboration tool, the traditional face-to-face meeting seems to be going out of fashion.

There would be the classic scene where two businessmen would both reach into their pocket like a quick draw and pull out a business card to give to the other. A whole industry sprang up around them in business card holders. Some of the designs were a little scary, and others just rubbish. A sleek black or silver case, or a wallet compartment would have done the job.

A quick look on the internet shows that there is still a plethora of companies offering business card services, from design to printing. If there is this kind of supply then there must be a demand.

The designs available have moved on a lot since the days of the door to door salesman or traditional bank manager. The little white rectangle with simple black writing was generally the only form it took. Some companies went a little further and added a company logo to add some color, but that was it.

So although they aren’t that expensive, are business cards still relevant today? I have been in business for myself for a little under a year, and I have only ever handed out one card. But them I’m a writer so I don’t get out much anyway. Some businessman colleagues of mine still use them on a regular basis. They view it as the quickest and easiest way to swap contact information. They work much better than a scribbled number on a post-it note, or on random pieces of paper. They are also much easier to identify than random numbers in your phone.

There is evidence that business cards and moving with the times too. There is a new version called ‘Social Networking Cards’. These contain all of a person’s social media contacts on one card. So instead of your business email, phone number and fax, is contains your email, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or other social contact details. I think this use is ideal. Say you meet someone at a festival or in a bar. Rather than trying to find a pen and writing a number on your hand in lipstick, you can swap cards. You don’t then wake up and spend ages trying to figure out what the digits where when they have smudged during the night. Might be difficult to give someone a false number if you are trying to avoid seeing them again though.

So I do think business cards are still relevant today, and their cousins, the social networking cards will carry the mantle for a long time to come I think.

Business card stock can be an important consideration when designing business stationery. Depending on the brief, it can be card, plastic and even metal. The card could be plain or coated, different weights and thicknesses. Plastic stock can be flimsy, thicker or unbendable. Metal can be plain, brushed or coated and you can even get wooden or cards that are also CD-Roms.

A plain card is the simplest and most popular material to use for a standard business card. A good quality one would be pulp board as it isn’t as rough as a lot of the cheaper cards many companies use. A good quality printer will use 400gsm weight card at the very least. The ‘gsm’ is the weight of a square meter of the card, so the bigger the number the better the card. This is normally twice the thickness a lot of printers use generally, but is worth any extra it costs in quality.

A coated card will have a gloss or satin surface providing and shiny or soft finish. These can add an extra impact to the card if good quality card is used. Art board would be the card of choice here, again not usually something a lot of printers will offer as standard.

The plastic cards can be translucent or full color and generally only come in the one shape as most printers are unable to die cut them. They end up the same size as a credit card but can be varying thicknesses, from super flimsy to the same thickness as a credit card.

Using plastic business card stock has a definite impact to it, and allows for many design variations, as well as having limitations. They will be a lot of hard wearing and therefore last longer than a standard card. They will also resist tearing, smudging, pulping and fiber loss that card suffers from.

Metal cards are the ultimate design statement for a business card. Generally made of stainless steel the design is chemically etched into the surface or precision cut into the surface, depending on the printer and the design. You can have colored metal too if your design allows it. Once the card has been cut or etched a durable electrophoretic coating is applied to the card in the color of choice. Needless to say, the best looking cards are also the most expensive with the colored metal cards costing around $550 per 100 for a 300 micron thickness. Move on up to a 400 micron and the price goes up to around $700! Definitely the card for the successful and ostentatious business. Especially as you then give them all away!

The stock you can use is growing all the time as new printing or etching techniques are discovered and refined. We can form almost any element into any shape we want, we just need to be able to append information to that shape and make it meaningful to make it worthwhile.

If you are starting a company in these difficult times you need every advantage you can get. Especially if your business will be mainstream instead of niche. Competition is rife, and companies are fighting over the few customers out there.

Your company brand and strategy has to be effective from the outset if you are going to make your business a success. A brand may seem a little far along the road for a sole trader or small studio, but it is something that should be considered and decided as early as possible. Preferably before the launch of the business. If these details are all sorted before the launch then you can concentrate on making money and increasing your client base instead of concentrating on the minutiae of your organization.

Part of that brand is the business card. An oft overlooked part of any brand or corporate stationery. It would be easy to think that in today’s online business world a business card has no place or real relevance. Well I’m here to say that simply isn’t true. It is important for you to make a business card when designing your own brand. A lot of business is still conducted face to face, and the card is still a part of that ritual. A burgeoning businessperson will find themselves needing to do a lot of networking at functions, meetings and business activities. Having a collection of good quality business cards in your pocket will really benefit you when meeting new people. Especially if you can produce it slickly and it looks good.

It won’t be quite James Bond, but even Joe Average can create a stir with a cool card that says all the right things about him and his company. Your goal in any situation where you meet other businesspeople is to become memorable. Now that isn’t by dancing on the table in your underwear after too many Jack Daniels, but by being cool and professional and presenting yourself and your company in the best light possible.

If you are backed up by a good brand and a seemingly quality, professional company then you are off to a good start. Some people don’t trust new companies but many will give them a try to see what a fresh approach can do. These are the people you need to cultivate and your business card is the first step in that process.

Ensure your card and your brand reflects you, your company and its values. It doesn’t necessarily have to reflect you now, but where you want to be. There is nothing wrong with having a corporate brand even if you are a sole trader, as long as it doesn’t look like you have delusions of grandeur. In fact it may give you a head start when your company grows and evolves into a highly successful corporation!

Make a business card if you don’t already have one and carry it with you at all times. It isn’t much good having a cool one and leaving them at home all the time. Make a new checklist before you leave the house or work each days, keys, wallet, phone, cards. That way you will never leave home without them.