Your Business Card: Is it working for you?

Tip: Your business card is an important and inexpensive tool to build trust and credibility as a solo-professional. Here are some tips to make your card work for you:

• Essential info to include on the front of the card: Name, phone#, email, web site, positioning statement.
• Only include primary degrees or qualifications (don't have a long alphabet soup of letters after your name. Showing off too many certifications may denote insecurity about yourself)
• If you work from home, don't put your mailing address, unless you receive clients at your home office. This avoids junk mail. Also, with Google Maps people can find you too easily and arrive at certain conclusions depending on which area of town you live in. If a contact absolutely needs my postal address, I can give it to them separately by e-mail or writing on the back of the card.
  
• If you do consulting or knowledge work, include a 1-800 toll-free number. It's inexpensive (ask me how) and denotes professionalism and that your clients are not only local (builds credibility)
  
• Avoid fancy logos, extra flaps, foil stamping. When in doubt, stay conservative and keep your cards simple and sober. The best people carry simple business cards because they don't need to show off.
  
• Use thick card stock, contrasting colors.White or light-colored backgrounds are easy to read, even in the poor lighting of networking events.
  
• Make it easy to read. If it scans accurately with an OCR like CardScan it's a good layout.