Can a Business Card Get You a Job?

August 19th, 2009 No comments »

business card for jobsThis is an interesting question because of current job market conditions. “Keeping Your Job” is the new Promotion. Many people are losing their jobs at an alarming rate, and if you watch the news, it’s a tough job market out there. Competition is fierce for jobs, even entry-level positions. Pretty soon, unemployment will run out for a lot of people and the field will become even tougher.

So, can having a business card get you a job? It is certainly no guarantee, but it does provide a few advantages that can help your chances. And in today’s job market, any advantage over your fellow job-seekers is worth looking into.

Business Cards Provide Credibility – Add credibility to your resumẽ with a business card by clipping it to your resumẽ, or handing it to your interviewer. A business card gives the appearance that you really care about your profession, and take it seriously enough to get business cards printed.

Competitive Advantage – How many other candidates competing for the same position are going to have a business card? The answer is not many. Handing a business card to an interviewer makes them perk up and think… “Why does this person have a business card? What makes them think they are so special?”

It’s a simple trick that can work. Many interviewers scoff at the people who “glitter” up their resumẽ with pictures and large colored fonts. Most of the time, they want your resumẽ to be simple and to the point, and nothing is more to the point about who you are than a business card.

It grabs their attention because it is not expected. After an interview, you can hand someone a business card and they will look at it, and of course look at the name. This extra exposure to who you are isn’t much, but it’s unlikely anyone else is doing it.

Quick Contact Information – Interviewers have to file through stacks and stacks of applications to find a person’s contact information. Sorting through a stack of business cards is much easier. Firstly, not many people will be providing a business card. Then, it is much easier to sort through a short stack of business cards then a large pile of resumẽs.

What to Put on a Personal Business Card When Looking for a Job?

So you’ve decided to shock and awe your interviewer with a business card? Great, but what do you put on it?

First and foremost, you want your name and contact information displayed prominently. In this situation, it is probably not a great idea to add your picture or fancy design. Keep it short and sweet, and colors to a minimum. Address is not required, but phone numbers and email are.

For some professionals, you want to list what you do. This can include “Graphic Designer,” “Certified CPA,” “Licensed Dog Groomer.” Then quickly list your skillset, and years of experience: “14 Years Experience in Accounting” or “Photoshop · Quark · Illustrator.” If you have a portfolio online, then listing your URL on your business card is a must.

You want the highlights of your resumẽ on your business card, and nothing more!

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Overnight Prints Business Card Printing Review

August 19th, 2009 No comments »

Whether you’re new to the business card printing, or an experienced veteran, you will notice that there are more places to get your business cards printed than you could possibly ever use in a lifetime. How do you differentiate between the good business card printing companies and the not so good ones?

This is the first in a series from How-to Business Cards that will review the many business card printing companies out there. We’ll provide honest reviews so you can make an informed decision on where to spend your money.

Overnight Prints Review

There are printing companies that only print business cards – and then there are companies like Overnight Prints that can print everything for you. They claim to have over 1,000,000 satisfied customers, which is quite a lot. It proves that they have in business for quite a long time and know what they are doing.

While we will focus on the quality of the business card aspect, it should be known that you can pretty much get anything that is printed on paper at Overnight Prints.

overnightprints

Their printing services include:

  • Business Cards – For business or personal use. Use your own designs or use their online designer program. Right now, you can get 500 free business cards from Overnight Prints!
  • Postcards – Postcards for businesses can be used to advertise an company, a one-time offer, or special discount. You can mail these via the postal service, or have somebody deliver them door to door for you.
  • Greeting Cards – For businesses, these are perfect for “Thank You” Cards. Every time you meet a new client, have a business meeting, or close a deal, you should write a hand-written thank you card to that business. You’ll be amazed how few businesses do this, and the personal touch it provides to make you stand out from your competitors.
  • Rack Cards – These work well for handouts. You can promote an event, an special coupon, or whatever with rack cards!
  • Bookmarks – These make great hand-outs for buying customers and at conferences. Imagine someone buys from your store that sells candles. You drop a bookmark in a bag, and chances are they will use it. They will always have your store name in the back of their mind.
  • Brochures – Brochures are vital for almost every business, especially B2B businesses. You want something to hand out to potential customers that will explain everything about your business.
  • Letterhead – While you can print your own letterhead, it is sometimes more efficient to have pre-printed from a company like Overnight Prints. Custom letterhead gives your correspondence with other people a personal touch.
  • Envelopes – If you do a lot of mailing, it is a good idea to have customized envelopes. This makes your letter stand out from the crowd of junkmail that everyone receives.
  • Self Inking Stamps, Magnets, and T-Shirts
  • Mailing Services – This is a great service for people who promote via snail-mail. Let Overnight Prints handle your mailing set-up and postage for a fraction of the cost of most local printers!

Printing for Special Occasions – What do you do when you don’t have a business, but want something printed for a special occasion? Usually, custom printing from local printers on a small scale is quite expensive. You can use an online printer like Overnight Prints to get the job done quickly and cheaply.

  • Holiday, Birthday, Anniversary, Graduation and Wedding Printing – You can go to any stationary store and buy a box of cards for special occasions to send out to your friends and family. But what if you wanted to add a special touch? A family portrait or a customized message perhaps? With Overnight Prints, you can use their online designer tool to design your own custom holiday, birthday, anniversary, graduation, and wedding cards!

Overnight Prints Designer

In the graphic design field, expensive software is used to design business cards, brochures, and everything else. These software packages include Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Quark, and many others.

But in the real world, these software packages are too expensive to be practical for most people. Fortunately, Overnight Prints offers an online design tool that let’s you design your own products.

You get the features and tools that most professional design software offers, but for free. Add text with drop shadows, images and photographs, and custom shapes. Use the tools to crop, rotate, and layer your designs. While these tools are not a full graphic design package, you get all of the tools you need to design business cards, brochures, and everything else. Only basic computer knowledge is required to use this tool to build your customized stationary.

Overnight Prints Quality

While competitors move onto digital printing, Overnight Prints stays true to quality with true offset lithography. This type of printing offers 4800dpi screens which means great quality for text and images. The colors are rich and the fades are seamless.

They also use high-quality paper stock for business cards. If you add glossy coating to your order, expect a thick, professional business card that will stand the test of time. Their cutting is precise, so expect smooth edges on your business card order.

Overnight Prints Pricing

Overnight Prints offers very affordable pricing on business cards. 1,000 premium, full-color business cards will run about $45 with shipping. Add an additional $5 for double-sided printing. These are prices that cannot be beat by local printing companies.

Right now, Overnight Prints has a special promotion for 500 free business cards. Just pay shipping! You can design your card with their online designer, or upload your own business card file.

overnightprints

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Getting Busy with Your Business Card

August 5th, 2009 No comments »

You just got your new package of 1,000 business cards delivered. You’ve started a new business, and the smell of fresh business cards make it all the more real. So now what?

What are you going to do with all those business cards? They are not going to hand out themselves, are they?

Business cards are mini-advertisements for you and your business, and they go to waste if they’re sitting under your desk not being handed out. The best way to use your business cards effectively is networking – meeting new, like-minded business owners and employees.

When you first meet new people, you establish communication with your name and what you do, share stories, and so on. It’s common courtesy to exchange business cards at some point during the conversation. Sometimes people are interested in your services right away, especially if you offer something unique. Most times, your business card will be put in a stack and left there until the time is right and someone needs your services.

Potential customers, vendors, and even friends can be found at business networking events. These events include:

Chambers of Commerce – Every major city and most large towns have a Chamber of Commerce. Chambers are essentially groups of business owners and employees that represent the commercial interests of a town or city. Many, if not all, Chambers of Commerce have networking events where the members meet up in social settings, such as lunches and dinners. These casual events offer a relaxed atmosphere for meeting the local businesses in your area.

B2B (Business to Business) services like website designers and accountants can find great value at these types of events because they are full of other business owners.

Business Networking Groups – These kinds of groups are similar to Chambers of Commerce, but have no specific relation to any city or town council. They are usually made up of all types of businesses, and their sole purpose is to network with each other. These groups include BNI, LeTip, Rotary Clubs, and much more. A simple Google search for “your town + ‘networking’” should provide a great starting point.

Industry Events and Conferences – Almost every industry in the world has its own conference, and some industries have a lot more than one throughout the year. Industry-specific events and conferences are a great resource for meeting like-minded business owners.

These events also offer the opportunity to offer products and services that are niche-specific. For example if you design websites for dentists only, then a conference for the dental industry would be a great venue to pass out your business card.

Meetup Groups – Meetup is a website that lets people create groups for real-life meet-ups. You can meet up with all types of groups that may be interested in your services.

Of course, the opportunity to pass out your business card should not be restricted to only these events. Every new person you meet is a possible contact for you, and the only way they will remember you is through your business card.

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4 Things You Don’t Do on Your Business Cards

August 4th, 2009 No comments »

When designing and printing your business cards, there are an infinite amount of things you can do. Unfortunately, some people take great liberties with their business cards and do things that cause more harm than good.

Too Much Clutter – It’s tempting to fit everything you can about you onto your business card, along with your picture, some quotes, and then a photo of your cat. But resist the temptation to clutter up your business card with the unnecessary. Too much clutter leaves your business card unnattractive and less professional. Learn the techniques of white space when designing your business card.

Not Stating What You Do – OK, so you’ve decided to clean up your business card a little bit and remove the non-essential. Keep it short and to the point. But one thing you should never take off is what you do.

People have stacks of business cards they go through to find someone or something. If they are sifting through cards. it is highly unlikely they will remember what you do if it’s not written on your business card. A common place to put your Title or Service is directly under your name.

Be Obnoxious – If you haven’t heard the story, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, once had the title of “I’m CEO, Bitch!” on his business card. Being the founder of the biggest social network on the planet does not mean you can be obnoxious or pretentious. It’s more true when you’re looking for investors that will make or break your business.

Business cards should be professional no matter who you are and what you do. People will not take amateurish business cards seriously, and will skip over them or throw them in the bin.

Square Business Cards – You can be as creative with your business cards as you want. Glossy, rounded corners, die-cut – the options are limitless. But one thing you do not want to do is deviate from the standard business card size.

It may seem unique and “cutting-edge” to be that one, oddly shaped business card in a stack, but it’s not. It’s annoying. Business card holders, scanners, and every other tool related to business cards are designed for the standard size card.

Of course, there are more things than just these four items that you shouldn’t do on your business cards, but we can leave that for another post.

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What Should Be On Your Business Card?

July 17th, 2009 1 comment »

Are you designing your own business cards for the first time, but don’t know what to put on them? What if you print 1,000 business cards and you forget something when they are delivered? Well, here is a handy checklist of the information that should appear on your business cards:

Name – This is obvious. But do you use initials or your full name? Use the name you are most commonly called, and do not use nicknames (especially when dealing with professionals)

You want your name to stand out, so try to make it bigger than the rest of the text on the business card.

Credentials – If you are a CPA, P.E., etc, then you want to list it on your business card, especially in a professional setting. This adds credibility to your business card and lets people remember you better.

Title – This your position at your company. For example, it can be “President” or “Creative Director” or “Manager.” If you are a small company or one-person freelancer, avoid using titles that make you sound far more important than you really are. Use a title that lets people know what you do.

Address – Once again, credibility is key here. Without an address, many people will assume you work out of your basement (if you do, that’s OK – Get a P.O. Box or UPS Store Box). And of course, you want to show it off if your office is located in a swanky part of town!

Telephone, Cell Phone, and Fax Numbers – The easiest and fastest way for people to get in touch is through telephone. While many people are migrating to e-mail, most professionals still want the personal touch (and fast) that telephone provides.

Email Address – Some people prefer e-mail over telephone, especially for things that aren’t urgent. To come off as more professional, register a domain name (even if you do not have a website) so you can have an email address like myname@mybusinessname.com. Having a @yahoo.com or @gmail.com address comes off as amateur.

Website Address – After you hand a person your business card, the first thing they do is check out your website to see what you are all about. You do not want to forget your website address, especially if it is part of your marketing mix!

Professional criteria – If you need to display license numbers or registration, make sure these are on the card as well. This can apply to real estate brokers, therapists, and so on.

Photos (optional) – If you want people to really remember you, you can use a photo on your business card. Photos are better suited for professionals, like chiropractors, doctors, and real estate brokers. If you do include a photo, make sure to have it done professionally. Candid photos and home pictures won’t cut it!

Too Much Information?

Experienced designers know how to place all of this information on a business card without it becoming too cluttered. But if you are doing it yourself and you don’t have much design talent, you might have trouble getting everything in place so it looks good.

You always have the option of printing on both sides of the card. One side can include your important information, like name, phone and email, while the other side can include your address information, services, and website address.

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Standard Business Card Size

July 17th, 2009 1 comment »

Business cards contain all types of colors, pictures, text, and textures. But one thing remains the same for all (well, most) business cards – the size.

The Standard Business Card Size is 3.5″ by 2.0″

standard-business-card-size

Safe Area

When designing your business card, you want to keep all text in the “safe area.” This keeps the text from being on the very edge of the card, or worse, cut off! When business cards are printed, they are printed on sheets then trimmed to the standard size.

Sometimes, the cutting process is not always 100% accurate, and there can be a few millimeters of difference between the location of the text from card to card. Be sure to keep text out of the 1/4 inch area inside the card!

Bleed Area

The final size of your business card will be 3.5″ wide by 2.0″ high. (Reverse for vertical business cards).

With today’s fast, 4-color process printing, it’s very common to see colored backgrounds, flashy designs, and photographs used on business cards.

When using these backgrounds, you want to add 1/8 of an inch to each side of the business card. This is called the bleed area, and ensures that your cards have a full colored background when being cut.

If you designed your business card without a bleed area, and you had a colored background, there is a very good chance you will end up with a blank stripe (where nothing was printed because there was no bleed) running down or along your business card. Once again, this has to do with how business cards are cut from their final sheets.

Adding a bleed means your business card design will be 3.25″ wide by 2.25″ high during design. All you have to remember when designing with a bleed area is to make sure your background goes past the standard size into the bleed area.

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