Recently I’ve found more and more people fail to have a business card on them. I find this crazy as although many people argue that as today is a digital age, swapping details digitally will suffice. For me, it takes the personal essence out of that initial first meeting. If a business card is well conceived, designed in a way to reflect the business it represents, there is another opportunity to impress missed. The essence isn’t specifically about the content on the card, but the impact the quality of the card has on your new contact.
Now I bang on about quality business cards all the time. I have an aversion to cards that can only be described as cheap! But what is usually not clear from my rantings is “what should I put on a business card?”, as this is what I most commonly get asked. Now this isn’t really rocket science. Despite me saying that your business card has to make the best impression possible, that is just an opportunity based on the situation. The core function of a business card is to give someone your contact details. So depending on what contact is useful to both you and you prospect depends on what you want to add to the card.
Don’t forget the basics
There will still be a level of assumption about your situation and ability based on not supplying some basic information. An email address and phone number are a must, followed by an address. The address can be difficult as some companies do not like their address or want to keep it hidden for various reasons. That is fine, and if you have quite a solid brand following then that speaks for itself. However, if you are quite small, then not supplying simple details like this leaves an impression. Although you might be working out of your bedroom and are far too small to work with, working out of your bedroom isn’t a problem in itself – a lot of businesses have to start somewhere. But rather than shy away from that, try something different – without supplying your full address, you could list the locality, town and postcode. Not only can this look more aesthetically pleasing for some addresses but can have an air of confidence about it, adding to the impression you are trying to build.
Other than this, the rest of the detail is your call. Decide what’s important for your prospect to know, what is useful for them. Don’t feel you have to cram the card with everything you can get onto it. You’re not going to sell anything with what’s written on the card, it’s the impression you’ve made in the meeting that will help with that.
