How to make your business card stand out

A business card is one of the most important ‘currencies’ you carry. It can instantly let people know who you are and the company you represent – and if you run your own business, a well designed one can put you on the same level as people who work for much bigger concerns.

When you consider that the average business card measures about 10 centimetres wide and six centimetres deep, you have quite a small area in which to list all the important information you want anyone to know about you and your business.

That’s why a lot of people swear by a simplistic approach, with a card which contains just their and their business’s basic details. There’s a good argument for this, given that there’s a temptation to include more information, such as email and website addresses, as well as perhaps Twitter and Facebook account details, than in the past.

A business card, though, should not just contain these basic details. It is a way to encapsulate a business’s style and image in an easily portable format. So if your company has spent time – and possibly a great deal of money – to devise a unique and characterful logo, this should be included on your card.

Creating a business card which someone can easily spot from among a whole pile of them is also something which can be done easily with a bit of colour. Convention may well suggest that cards should be black and white, with perhaps one extra colour, to ensure that attention is drawn to the vital details contained on the card. But we are so used to seeing the world, and everything around us, in full colour, that we tend to notice items much more readily if they include a splash of bright colour.

Again, it would make sense to choose a colour which is either included in your business’s logo design, or one which people will readily associate with the type of business you are running. A gardener, for example, could add a splash of green to their card, while a business whose clientele is largely female – a beautician or hairdresser for example – may wish to use pink as a background.

It’s true to say that business cards can be every bit as individual as the person who runs that company. But they should not stray from the simple purpose of that small piece of strengthened paper, which is to get across the essential details about what a business does, and who the person presenting the card is, in as succinct and yet memorable a way as possible.

If you ask a professional, experienced printing company to produce business cards for you, the chances are they it will have plenty of ideas. You may be happy to go along with one of these, or you may have one of your own. But by combining your expertise of your own line of business with that of the professional printer, you can get results which can ensure that you get the impact you want.

This post was contributed by Christina Jones a freelance writer specialising in business essentials such as business cards and custom rubber stamps.