If you run a small to medium sized business than you are probably feeling the squeeze that everyone else is, little or no money for marketing and advertising campaigns. Well your business card is the often a great marketing tool that costs very little and can have compounding effects on your businesses revenue. Therefor it is important to design a business card that will create an impression of what you do and why you do it. Think of it as a tiny little billboard in your clients pocket that can give you a killer ad against bigger companies with bigger billboards!

Here are 3 Tips for Perfect Business Cards

The three most important factors to consider when designing a business card are: Readability, Clear Text, and Your statement.

By themselves and as a unit these three factors give you both an immediate effect and a lasting impression. If done correctly a client will know exactly who you are, what business you are in, and where they can find you, all within seconds of picking up your business card. But the real goal is to get the lasting impression, something that will remind that person of you the second your business vertical is mentioned in a conversation.

Here is an exercise: give your business card to a neutral person and ask them after 3 seconds to put it down and tell you who you are, where you work, and what business you are in. If they can’t do that, then you need to work on your message! I don’t ever look at anyone’s business card that long so it is very important for you, me, and them to send that message across lightning fast. So get rid of all the fluff and find ways to quickly send your message without bogging down their minds with stupid quotes or useless clip art.

Another common mistake people are making on their companies business cards is adding too much info. It seems a little counter-intuitive to say but really, how many phone numbers do you need to put on there? And the fax number, with two business addresses… is that really necessary? NO! All you really need in your phone number and email. Everything else can easily be found online and if someone wants to mail you something, you should hope to get a call first! So trim the fat and lose the extras. One more great thing that you can add on your free business card is your web address. If fact, this is a must. Your website is like a free freaking advertisement that people just flock to. Its a community and a sales method all rolled into one. If you you don’t have one, get one, then put it on your business card, yesterday. Also you could get special business cards printed that just are systems to push people to your website or social networking profiles… look into QR codes!

Now you want to communicate effectively and efficiently so lets go over what should be on your business cards. First put your company’s name and logo on that bad boy. Then if you have a tag line, include but in small font. If you don’t have a tag line just write what you do so people are left guessing when they are holding your piece of tiny paper. Then include your name, position, phone, email, and website. This should all read very clearly and should be a large enough font to keep older folks from straining (many of us are old!). If you follow these simple tips you will have an awesome business card that will get your customers faster than you can say apple sauce!

Now get to work designing your business cards so you too can grow your business in an affordable and fun manner!

So many people talk about the different things that you can get online for free or no cost, did you know that you can get free business cards online?  If you run any type of business this is a great way to save money, try new things, and make interns feel special!  The great thing is you can use these free cards for other things that the standard business cards.  Many people use them for Branding Cards, Calling Cards, or Sales Pitch Cards.  Recently people have been seeing them promoting upcoming products that just give a website address which asks them to subscribed to a newsletter.  This way they build a pre-launch market for their product.
So how do you get this killer deal? Well you can’t go local!  The printers won’t look at you too kindly when you walk in there and ask them for their business card for free! Many local places card between $40 – $60 for even the most basic designs… if you want color raise the price. So you need to go online to get the best deals.
There are essentially two ways that you can get these free cards

1. Use a Service like Free Cards to have them printed and mailed to you
2. Design and Print your business cards at home

Free Business Cards Online

The best way you can acquire your business cards is by using a service like the one we provide. We recommend our service for simple reasons: You get a professional printed product, a plethora of pre-made business card designs, and the ease of ordering. These cards aren’t going to look cheap and they are not going to feel like they were printed on notebook paper.  This is a product you can be proud of and know that other business professionals will treat them, and yourself, with respect.

Since these cards are no cost to you there are ENDLESS possibilities to their uses.  You can easily use them to promote small part time jobs, give them to your kids for lawn mowing business, sell homemade jewelry, promote upcoming shows, help sell houses, and more!  They can also be treated as personal cards instead of “business cards”. Meaning you just hand them out to people you meet on the street, in personal settings, or at church.  It’s a great way to keep people “mentally aware” of who you are.  These are a great way to help you appear to be a more professional person.

When you use our service you are guaranteed to find something you like or create it yourself. It’s as easy as choosing a design, entering the info you want, reviewing, and entering shipping info. They arrive fast and will leave you wanting more cards! We have over 20 different personal cards lying around that we use for tons of different ventures and promotions. Go find out what goes on a business card.

Home Printing

Another option to getting business cards for free is to use home printing. You can do this by having a high quality printer, buying thick printing paper, and making a custom design. There are lots of templates out there but you must make sure that they are compatible with your computer, software, and will look good on the final business card. The big downside to doing this from home is that you sacrifice on quality.  The cards will not have a crisp look of a professionally printed card and will possibly have tear lines and other “tell tale” signs of a cheap job.  These may be fine for home use but they should NOT be used for professional business interactions.

So if you are ready to make the jump, and be a pro, then try out our free business cards today!

Business cards have come along way from being a simple piece of paper that is used to share info.  They are advanced networking tools.  Along these advanced lines comes new technology that changes the way we interact using business cards.  Below are two examples of these technologies.

Scanners

There are several business card scanners on the market today, such as the IRISCard Pro and CardScan.  These are exceptionally useful because of their small size and portability. The great thing about these scanners is that they scan in more than just a picture of the card… They interpret the text itself, allowing it to be sorted and archived by the computer or management system you are using.  These are great to use when everyone passes out tons of free business cards.

This is extremely useful for the diehard networkers out there who don’t have time to sit around and hand enter cards or even sort them by pictures.  Many address book programs and other software suites can automatically inject the data into existing or new contacts!  They usually can tell the difference between the different types of information so it is easy for the contact to have it’s own name and contact info all presorted.  The great things about about this type of software are numerous, including the fact that it can sort out and save extraneous data that it finds on the card such as pictures and extra text that wouldn’t normally be put in the card.

Many of the scanners are small enough that they don’t have to be hooked in a wall outlet.  They are powered though the USB hub so as long as your computer is running, you can scan in your business cards!  This is great for road warriors, salesmen, or traveling business professionals.  There are also stationary models that are designed to work in more of an office setting.

Barcodes on Business Cards

A eastern company located in the country Japan know as DENSO Corporation has create at new type of barcode system call the Quick Response barcode.  This barcode differs from traditional barcodes because it has another scanning angle so it is two dimensional rather than one dimensional barcode we are used to seeing in businesses.  This type of barcode can contain much more information and can be decoded using common digital cameras, even ones located in side cellular phones.  This means that all your companies information and the info of the individual can be contained in an easy to read barcode that can be traded with other business professionals at events without ever moving physical cards.  This really represent a future for business cards, because now you can super customize one card and share the info while keeping the expensive card!

There are many more advances in the market of free business cards, these are only a few methods.  We will cover more later so stay tuned!

Free business cards are huge deal in the country of Japan. The tradition name for a Japanese business card is “meishi”. This name is from a history based in calling cards when phones came to japan.  To understand what it means we must break down the word.

Mei:

This word is the first Kanji character in the word and it is the word for name.

Shi:

The second Kanji. It is often misunderstood and believed to mean paper, however this isn’t true. The shi syllable in this form means flower thorn, and it also means to poke. It’s use in the Japanese “business card” comes from the history of persons of upper class asians cities, mostly in China, left a calling card in what we would know to be the letterbox of another businessman.  They would poke out the letterbox with their card.

It is very important to understand the Japaneses culture and the methods they hand out cards. The Japanese have a strict and formal method of presenting business cards. The person presenting the card holds it with both hands at the top corners and facing the recipient so that it can be easily read. It is customary that the presenter then tell who he or she is. Then the getter of the card should again use both hands to accept it, ensuring that all the writing is still visible on the card. Leather cases are carried around by many Japanese to hold their business cards – it is considered bad manners to place someone’s business card upon receipt into a back pocket. In general, the business cards of those introduced to somebody will be put at the back of that person’s business card case. Folding over or writing on business cards are also considered insulting.

Other Conventions of the Japanese and their Business Cards

If individuals are exchanging business cards in Japan, it is considered ill-mannered for the junior person in the introduction to extend his or her business card so that it is above the senior person’s card. During table meetings, business cards shouldn’t be filed away in the business card case, but rather placed atop the case on the table until the meeting is complete. The person of highest rank who has presented a business card at such a meeting should have his or her card placed on top of the case, and those of lower rank kept on the table beside the case.

Less Traditional Methods of presenting Business Cards in Japan

Most of the Japanese youth often don’t adhere to the strict conventions of business card exchange in Japan. Frequently, for example, they will pass a card to a new acquaintance with just one hand. It is normal for the recipient may also take it in one hand. However, it is still somewhat impolite for the recipient not to give the business card the attention that the presenter might expect. The recipient will “formalize” the receipt of the card by taking it in both corners, with both hands, and perusing it closely before filing it away.

There are many other traditions concerning Japanese meishi. It is remarkable to consider that in a culture that prides itself in being so advanced technologically, there is still a prominent place for free business cards in social exchanges.

So many ask why we Give out free business cards and wonder if their is a evil motive behind the process, well our answer comes down to this. Customer Acquisition Costs. By giving out free business cards we attract potential future customers. Is there a change that you will never shop with us again? Sure, but it’s worth the loss that we take when we give you free cards because we believe you will be so impressed with the quality that you will come back and purchase more or get any of our other products we offer! So it’s simple, it is cheaper for us to give you our product for free and hope you come back and shop with us than it is to go out and waste large sums of money on advertising. It all comes down to customer acquisition costs and customer lifetime value. You value far outweighs the loss that we take! Plus if you like them you help spread the word, and as most business men know word-of-mouth is the best marketing you can get.

How does this work out for you? So far the response has been great! Customers love the product so much that when they are out of business cards (takes a while before that happen!) they usually come back and purchase more (and they are still cheap!). So what do you have to lose by trying us out? If you don’t like the product you never see a bill and you never have to come back to us again! Now go get some business card for free!

There are so many people and businesses out there trying to get your attention, it is important that we take note of the different methods that they use to do so.  By noticing and acting on our knowledge we can apply what we’ve learned and put it on our free business cards.  For example, search the internet for almost any commercial term and take in how theses people are trying to reach you.  They use text, pictures, and emotions. We can put that in our business card design.

The first thing we should do is make our cards stand out by not just going with plain white or black!  Either apply a colorful background or modify the text so that it stands out on your pure white background.  Think of red letters on a bleach white card, would be pretty nice huh?!  The thing is you need to do something that people don’t expect to be noticed.

The second thing you can apply to your free business cards is to use a picture on the card.  This will add a sense of personality and homeyness that will leave the person remembering YOU not just the encounter or the business.  Why do you think real estate people do this? Because it works!  Business is always personal so play into that by personalizing your networking tools.

The third and final things your can do is to pay attention to your text.  There are so many combination you can use to make your cards stand out.  Change the font, or the lettering size, or even use other formatting options like a header in bold and a subtext in italics!  This will make certain parts of the card feel more important and will draw longer attention to your card. It can also bring attention to special deals or fact that you want mentioned, you should try it!

These methods will help get your own ideas boiling!  Put these tips to work and try it even on your own free business cards!  By using these tips you are sure to bring attention and new clients to your business. So get out there and market yourself, it’s never to late to be a pro!

To continue the cool business cards ideas here are some more!  Don’t forget to get your free business cards!

You can make use of other inexpensive household objects as well to grab the attention and make sure you won’t fit into the standard business card holder. Like this clothes pin “card”.

Ideally you would need to be relevant to the subject of your profession with your idea. Like this condom pack that is used by a divorce lawyer as his visiting card as well as distributed in bars as a direct marketing piece.

One more mini person at your service any time you wish to pull him out of your pocket.