Are Your Business Cards Your Business?

  Practically every motorcycle owner who purchases a bike from a dealer finds a way to personalize their machine. Some can afford only handlebar fringe or a unique saddlebag to separate themselves from the other factory-made bikes of the same model. Others essentially strip their bikes and create new ones.

Your business card is your means for personalizing your brand and stating your uniqueness. You can express your true personality or create a virtual business identify through your business card. Here are some tips to make your cards more effective.

• Your card should bear your name, position in the organization, the business name and logo, address, and information about how you can be contacted. If space is extremely limited, a web URL and phone number are more important than an address as detailed contact information can be placed on your web site.
  
• Use a standard size business card – 2 inches by 3.5 inches. If your card is too large to fit a card case it will end up in the back of a drawer on in the trash. Think about how many cards you receive in the course of your business and what you do with them!
  
• Use card stock on which people can write notes. Glossy and colors are expressive and memorable, but recipients like to be able to add their own notes directly on the card to better remember you. (I've long used glossy cards for their quality, and just recently renewed my card order for glossy front / uncoated back to follow my own advice.)
  

The purpose of a business card is to introduce yourself and invite communication with the person to whom you give your card. Make it clear, memorable, and informational.

Question: What makes you crazy about other people's business cards? What have you seen in a business card that you really like?