Upgrading Your Business Card: 3 Telltale Signs It’s Time

As a professional, working either freelance or under an employer, the way you carry and present yourself is crucial to others’ interpretation of how you conduct business. If you’re trying to snag a new client or make a new sale, your business card is one of the first impressions potential customers make about you. If you’ve never been through five separate iterations of business cards, you might not know that there are a number of telltale signs that reveal it may be time to upgrade; here are three of them.

• They’re falling apart. Nobody likes to waste things that are still useful, but business cards provide more than just contact information — they create an idea of who you are as a professional. Though your cards may be perfectly functional and contain all the right information, if they’re dog-eared or dirty from sitting in your wallet for months on end, people aren’t even going to want to touch them, let alone contact you in their time of need.

• Your information has changed. This one is pretty obvious; you definitely need to order new business cards if your current ones contain incorrect information. How are you going to gain new clients or business if your phone number or email has changed? Upgrade those puppies as soon as possible, or you’ll be as ignorant as your business cards make you look.

• They aren’t inspiring the right reactions. The last place you want your card to end up is in the trash or lost in some drawer somewhere. If your cards aren’t memorable, you are not memorable; if potential customers aren’t seeing a connection between your personality and your branding, it’s time to upgrade those cards.

Finding a printing company to handle the manufacture of your new business cards is the easiest part of the job once you’ve figured out what changes you want or need to make. However, it’s important to note that design graphics should be 40% empty space — since nearly half of your new business cards are going to be blank, it’s vital that you use your space wisely and only display the most pertinent information. As you begin handing out your crisp, custom business cards, you’ll notice the difference in reaction immediately.