10 Tips to Design the Perfect Business Card

Published on: 04 October 2017 Last Updated on: 22 July 2024

Handing out business cards is a good way to promote your brand and foster personal connections.

But, the creation of perfect and memorable cards clearly remains a challenge. Research shows: 88%—or 9 out of 10—of distributed business cards will be thrown out within one week.

How to Design the Perfect Business Card

So, what makes these tangible objects impressive?

A lovely design.

The perfect business card doesn’t only present your contact information. It also communicates your brand’s professionalism.

So, if you’re interested in making a positive impression, consider the business card design tips below.

1. Adhere to the Principles of Good Design

The perfect business card is a visual representation of your brand. It’s a determining factor in whether people trash your card.

And, the following elements of good design are important in capturing people’s attention:

Alignment and length
Color scheme
Content hierarchy
Typography
Kern
Layout
Tracking
White Space

2. Avoid Complexity in Design

When designing the perfect business card, you should aim for simplicity.

Simplicity in color and contrast to prevent overwhelm. Simplicity in fonts to prevent difficulty in reading.

Remember, you want a prospect or customer to reach out to you for help with their needs. And, by avoiding complexity, you make it easy for them to read your contact information, call your number, and partner with you for your services.

3. Provide Key Information

Above, we discussed simplicity in design. And, you can keep it simple by only presenting the information required to communicate who you are, what you do, and how to contact you. Details such as:

Name
Title, role, or function
Business name and logo
Physical address
Telephone number

If space allows, for social connections, you can also add virtual information. For instance, you can include:

Professional e-mail address
Website landing page or blog address
One or two professional social media handles
QR code

4. Emphasize Benefit and Value

You should also take it a step further and emphasize your benefits. In other words, the perfect business card should do two things:

Tell (or remind) people about what you can do for them
Tell (or remind) people about the value you offer

Limit your explanation to a line or two, describing your service, specialization, and value statement.

5. Consider a Nontraditional Shape

Can you choose the standard 3.5×2 inch horizontal rectangle/square?

Yes. But nowadays, you also have more creative options available. With die-cuts, for example, you can choose from a variety of shapes:

Circle
Folded
Half-Circle
Leaf
Oval
Rounded Corners
Single Rounded Corner
Slim
Vertical

6. Improve Your Card’s Appearance

Additionally, you can improve the look and feel of your business card, through imprinting. Again, you have several methods to choose from:

CMYK or Four-Color Printing
Embossing
Debossing
Foil Stamping
PMS or Pantone Matching System

Depending on your chosen imprint, “finishes”—such as lamination, UV, and spot coatings—can also positively enhance your card’s quality and design.

7. Invest in High-Quality Materials

Presentation is an important part of designing the perfect business card.

And, the quality of your chosen material impacts your brand’s impression.

You have a few choices, when choosing your card’s paper, weight, and thickness: regular, plastic, textured, thick, thin.

But, high-quality material is a better investment. How do we know? The National Institutes of Health’s research on haptic sensations found: physical touch can influence the impressions and thoughts formed about people and situations.

8. Ensure Branding Consistency

What you shouldn’t do, when designing your business card, is display a lack of cohesion in branding. If there are style, color, and typography inconsistencies in your marketing materials, then people will notice.

Remember, your brand identity helps customers and prospects recognize your business. And, when consistent, your business cards reinforce your visual elements.

9. Double-Check for Errors and Unreadable Text

You want customers to take you seriously. To trust you.

So, double-checking your business cards, before printing, is critical. Read, reread, and edit. Search for spelling, punctuation, grammar, layout, and omission mistakes.

But, don’t stop there. Also, make sure your business card is readable by:

Using at least 8 point fonts
Using font colors complementary to its background

10. Beware Printing Specifications

When designing the perfect business card, you must ensure optimal printing.

Many printers stop at a certain point. So, it’s important to consider the following specifications:

Bleed Area. You should include at least a 1/8” bleed area as it eliminates white space during printing.
Safe Area. The center of the business card is the safe area, so you want all your readable text and graphics there.

Ready to Design Your Card?

Now, you’re armed with 10 good design tips for creating the perfect business card. Use this Vistaprint coupon code to save on your next order. Will you apply them? If so, you’ll have what you need to increase your brand awareness, make a memorable impression, and even attract new clients.

Read also:

Tips For Small Businesses To Raise Funds For Their Projects

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Things To Keep In Mind When Looking For The Best Facility Maintenance

The importance of a well-managed infrastructure in the success of a business cannot be underestimated. A properly maintained commercial property ensures efficient delivery of services, a safe and healthy working environment, optimum worker productivity, and customer satisfaction. It adds value to an organization, so it’s important to keep it in great shape. Unfortunately, facility maintenance, upkeep, and repair can take up a massive chunk of a business’ operational expenses. The good news is that service contractors are specializing in commercial property maintenance without straining your annual budget. Outsourcing this business aspect is a cost-effective alternative that comes with several other benefits. Many businesses are now adopting this business structure. In fact, the global facility management market was estimated to reach $1.314 trillion in 2018. With the help of reliable building maintenance services, costs are controlled, resources are maximized, standard services are delivered, and compliance with health and building codes is ascertained. How to choose the right facility maintenance provider? Facilities maintenance is an important part of your organization’s day-to-day operations. Once you outsource it with a third-party provider, the facilities management services become an integral part of your business. Their quality of service, whether it is good or bad, will reflect on your business. Working with the inexperienced or ill-equipped provider can lead to a horrible partnership that can adversely affect customer satisfaction, business operations, and revenue potentials. This makes it vital for businesses to choose only the best. Facility maintenance specialists at CSG share with us some things to keep in mind before zeroing in on a provider for your business. Reference: Any company can make an impressive marketing material. However, make sure to verify the claims of a potential provider. Ask for references that can vouch for the quality of services they offer. Training and experience: Employees of the facility maintenance provider become a de facto member of your company. They play an essential role in your business’ daily operations. As such, you want a provider with skilled, trained, and qualified personnel so that your clients get the best service experience. Furthermore, this should also ensure that they can execute their duties properly. Ask about development and training programs for service employees. Look for a company that considers continuous this a priority. Flexibility: Choose a commercial property maintenance contractor with a wide range of capabilities. A reliable facility maintenance services must be versatile and be able to respond to the ever-changing needs of your business quickly. This will ensure consistency in the delivery of services, efficient work processes, and reduced costs associated with hiring a different contractor. If your business is expanding, consider working with a company that offers scalable services or customizable plans and programs. Supplies and equipment: An excellent facility maintenance provider should be well-equipped with adequate and appropriate supplies and equipment. Check their inventory to validate their claims. This should help you assess their capability to meet your building maintenance needs. Verify the quality of the equipment and products they utilize. Management and leadership: This is a crucial aspect of any organization as it can have a significant impact on how tasks and responsibilities are accomplished. Poor leadership can lead to failed delivery of services. You want to know who will be managing the account. Explore their existing organizational culture and see how policies are utilized to achieve goals. Transition process: With proper risk management and transition plan, a change in facility maintenance provider could lead to disruption of services. As such, you want to check how the provider can guarantee a smooth handover and avoid any interruptions that could affect business operations. Insurance: To avoid any liabilities while their personnel is working on your premises, make sure to check their current insurance policies. Availability: Inquire about any blackout times in a provider’s schedule. Also, check about how they deal with sudden requests for additional personnel or new tasks. Certifications: Certifications such as CIMS Green Building, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliant, and Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CMS) ensure competence and compliance of a prospective contractor. Inquire about the certifications that the provider currently hold. Read Also: How To Protect Your Business From Downtime

Tips for Building Relationships with Senior Managers

Managers are a special breed of people who lead by example, and if you have a team of senior managers in your organization, they also require motivation and leadership. Building and maintaining a strong relationship with your senior managers in an integral requirement, and with that in mind, here are a few tips on how best to build a good working relationship with your managers. Tips Of Building Better Relationships With Senior Managers Setting Achievable Goals: We all need to set realistic goals, especially those who manage others, and as their mentor, you should be helping your senior managers to set themselves attainable goals while making sure they are doing this with their teams. Once goals are set, it is important to keep them at the forefront of your mind, and should any employee underperform, the first things to look at is goal setting. There is also a great guide that explains how to set achievable goals, which you probably know anyway. Managing Performance: If you put your senior managers through a review of performance management training they will be better equipped to manage their teams’ performance, and this type of training course can be downloaded online, and for a single payment, you get to keep the very useful tools and resources that the course contains, and can use them in any way you see fit. You need to firmly establish the key elements of performance management, and by investing in a training program that you can deliver, you can help your senior managers to better manage performance. Dealing with Poor Performance: If a team player is underperforming, we must be careful not to negatively impact their morale, and with constructive analysis using a positive approach will help the employee to identify the causes of poor performance, while also helping them to rectify things. If you are at all unsure how to deal with poor performance, search online for a specific training course on the topic, and for a small cost, you can download dynamic training material that comes with full instructions for the trainer, and what’s more, you can use and re-use the materials, with zero restrictions. Managing Conflict: Conflicts among team players can literally destroy morale, and any good senior manager should be able to use a range of strategies to resolve conflicts in a positive manner, and it is always a good idea to review these strategies with your management team, and by downloading the right training course, you can boost your managers where it matters. Discipline is an important aspect of team management, and there are modules on managing conflict and maintaining discipline in the online training course, which you can access for a small investment. Your senior managers should look to you as their mentor, their guiding light, and if you source a dynamic training course that specifically deals with building relationships in senior management, you can deliver the contents to your team at your convenience. The material would be put together by recognized business gurus and designed to be very easy to deliver and comes complete with a step-by-step guide for the trainer. Read Also: The Best Dissertation Service With Personal Manager 3 Ways To Boost Employee Engagement In Your Business How To Make 360 Degree Performance Review Work For You!

What are the benefits associated with crowdfunding for businesses?

In present times, the influence of business is undeniable in everyday life. There are different aspects of the economy that is solely dependent on how well the various startups of the country prosper. Marketing the business along with the funding can together ensure how well it would thrive in the long run. There are different ways in which any type of business can be funded, and if you implement the right method, you can see a significant profit in the minimum possible time. To make sure your business is thriving, you should take calculated risks as well judiciously. If the company fails which is a factor you cannot completely rule out, you will suffer losses, and that would lead to a debt crisis which at its extreme can lead to bankruptcy. One such method of funding which is comparatively less risky is crowdfunding. What is crowdfunding? There are different methods of funding a business like self-funding, crowdfunding, angel financer, bank loans, business schemes, and so on. Among these, crowdfunding is considered among the safest choice when you have a beautiful business plan and need a lot of money that you cannot get from one single source. In the case of crowdfunding, one can appeal with a proper business plan at a funding forum. And those who are interested in being the shareholders or clients for this kind of business can invest in it by getting in touch with you. There are several different benefits associated with crowdfunding and when you have a proper understanding of how it operates you can quickly make the most of this kind of funding. Easy access to capital : It is not easy to get the necessary funds for any business. However, when you have a secure network of people who have the capacity and are willing to invest in your project, you can quickly come across the necessary funds for the business. You can connect with other entrepreneurs as well who may be interested in investing in your business plan in particular. There are various reward-based crowdfunding platforms which help entrepreneurs to raise funds from a community that has a common interest in the kind of business proposal that you have. You can even give tangible gifts or rewards for funding the business like free samples of your products which can get them even more interested in supporting the company that you are trying to establish. This way, you can gather the necessary fund from scratch over a reasonable period. Reduces the risks : Starting a company is a very challenging task, and there is often a very high-risk factor associated with the venture. But with crowdfunding, you can avoid the risk to a large extent since you would be able to learn a lot about the market value of your business and whether this is a feasible and profitable idea at all. You would be able to understand the possible reception that your product is likely to get through a crowdfunding campaign. Only those people who are passionate about such a product would show interest in funding. When you know the number of people who are interested in funding your business, you can estimate the possible outcome of your campaign. Moreover, your company receives a lot of attention and marketing even before it rolls out through crowdfunding. You have a chance of earning consistent profit through the business and so would be able to pay off all those who have funded the business eventually. Validate your business concept : When you are looking for more institutionalized investors, the first and foremost question they are likely to ask you are - why should they invest and do you have any guarantee that your business plan would succeed? These are tricky questions with no easy answers for any business owner. However, when you are opting for crowdfunding, you can show the proof of concept which can convince them to invest in your dream venture as well. A successful crowdfunding campaign would mean that many people are welcoming your product and business concept and there is a good market value of the business that you are starting. The initial success would assure formal investors like banks to give you loans without worrying about the chances of non-payment unless there is a major crisis in your business. The number of people investing in the company also shows the trust and integrity that the masses show towards your brand even at its initial stage which can help to boost your reputation for the future. New and innovative brainstorming : The crowd not only comes up with the funds but they can even provide you with new ideas which would help your business to prosper. New and innovative ideas about the different aspects of the company would ensure that you can cover all the loopholes in the business plans. The entrepreneurs can engage the crowd in a brainstorming session as they would want to have a say in the business where they are investing. Through their discussions and comments, you can even come across good suggestions and ideas which would benefit the company in the long run. Moreover, you can even get legal suggestions about avoiding debt and also debt settlement reviews from different people through their experiences. Consult your lawyers about this and find out what is applicable for your business. This way you can make sure that your business is safe and secure as well against any business trouble related to finance. Conclusion : There are different advantages associated with crowdfunding. It is much safer compared to other methods of funding, and you can rest assured to avoid any debt-related crisis if you can successfully implement the different types of crowdfunding methods. The choice ultimately rests on the business owner about how to collect funds and use them successfully for the company. It can be concluded that business management becomes easier than ever before when you have a proper conception of the process of funding that you are implementing.

10 Tips to Design the Perfect Business Card

How to Design the Perfect Business Card