What is Business Card Networking?
Business card networking isn’t exactly a new idea, but it does have two definitions:
1. Networking event with the specific intention of passing our a business card and giving your elevator speech.
2. Using your business cards whenever you can to establish new leads.
Personally, I’ve only been to one of the former, and it was a complete waste of time. I didn’t generate any new leads, nor did I find any companies that I needed.
The latter however has been very profitable for me. Here is how I do it.
Keep business cards everywhere. If you are like me, you forget your business card case occasionally. When this happens, I have a few backup business cards stashed everywhere. I keep them in my jacket pockets, in the pockets of my suits, a few in my wallet, and even a couple in my glove box of my car. This way I am never very far from a business card even if I forget my business card case.
By having business cards wherever you are, you will constantly be reminded to hand them out, and when the opportunity arises, you’ll be able to give one to the perfect prospect!
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Time For New Business Cards!
A new client of mine recently handed me a business card as we were finalizing a deal. This business card was among the worst I had ever seen. It had a gradient fill on the background that was yellow fading to red. With colors like that, how can you pick a font color. For his business cards, he chose purple as a font color!
You thought that was bad right, well I’ve seen worse. I’ve seen burgundy fonts on a red background, blue fonts on a black background, and even someone who misspelled his own name!
So how do you know when it’s time for YOU to get new business cards? See if these 3 points below seem familiar:
1. People make a disgusted face when seeing your business card. This is not because the cards smell bad, this is because they are bad. Plain and simple.
2. People squint their eyes. People are squinting because the text is difficult to read. Hard to read text on a business card will lead it straight to the trash can.
3. People never say good things about your card. I’m always getting comments on my card. These range from, “Wow, nice card!” to “Hey, who designed this?”. If you aren’t getting feedback, ditch the card.
If one or more apply to you, time for a redesign!
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Should You Design Your Business Cards?
There are thousands of businesses around the world that rely on the outside help of graphic designers to design their business cards. On the other side, there are also thousands of businesses that design their business cards in-house.
Which side of the fence should you be on? Here are 3 easy ways to know whether or not you should design your own business cards.
You should design your business cards if:
1. People look at your first design and say, “Wow, that is really cool, who created that?” If people are indifferent, or don’t seem to care very much about the design. Find a designer.
2. You don’t have an idea of what you want already. If you want to design your business card because you know what you want better than anyone else, go for it. That is a great reason to design your own business cards.
3. You have a graphic design background. Maybe you create some kind of graphics in your job, maybe you went to an art school. If you have the qualifications to design other businesses cards, maybe you can design yours as well. However, remember that some great designers hire someone to create their business cards because it gives them an outside perspective.
Remember that even if you pay someone to design your business cards you don’t have to get those printed. If they aren’t exactly what you want, don’t settle. Business cards not only tell your customers something about you and your business, an ugly or unprofessional business card will make you leave them in your pocket!
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Glossy Finish Business Cards
I just finished designing my most recent business cards for AfterHim Media. These business cards would, in my opinion, look best with a glossy finish. However when I talked to a local business card printer, he told me that there are may different types of glossy finishes. He also said that there are many ways to create a glossy finish.
I asked him if some were better than others, because I wanted my business cards to look as good as possible, even if it meant it costs a little extra. I know this site is about free business cards, and I do have 3 sets of free business cards, these cards however, I wanted different than my free business cards, and plan to pay for them.
When I began looking at the examples of glossy finishes he had, I could almost instantly tell a difference! He explained that different paper quality caused a different finish and I quickly realized that I was overwhelmed and out of my league.
I would suggest that you find the company you want to buy your business cards from, and either email them or call them and ask them the differences and how you can get the best looking cards with the finish you want!