My new business cards arrived this past weekend. On the front they have my name, a listing of four areas of my expertise, and my email address. This is plenty enough information for someone to get in touch with me; however, given my dealings on the web, they lack many other communication options that I frequently use (e.g. telephone, website, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, mailing address, etc.). In addition, these are the first set of business cards I’ve ordered in at least seven or eight years.
Why the obscurity, and why no business cards for so long?
When you provide consulting services it’s important to know the type of client you’re targeting. While I aim to make the web easy for my clients, it’s important for them to have a certain level of computer literacy. If an email isn’t a sufficient means of first contact with me, then that person should probably look elsewhere for help. Being selective about who I work with saves frustration on both of our parts.
During the past ten years, I’ve provided web consulting services to a steadily growing list of clients. Some clients have been with me since day one, others have come aboard in recent months. I haven’t needed business cards because of client referrals and limited bandwidth. Getting other people talking about you and your business is the best way to grow. Service providers shouldn’t have to rely on themselves for sales. Concentrate on doing an excellent job for your current clients, and you’ll find that you’ll soon have your own “sales team” of satisfied customers.
Given my selectivity in taking on clients and my steady stream of referrals, Why get business cards now? As it turns out, I’ve been in several meetings lately where cards have been exchanged, and I’ve had nothing to give in return. I’m hoping this new set of cards will allow me to join in on the fun while keeping to my ideals of selectivity and new business by referrals. I designed these cards to start a conversation rather than seal the deal.
I discovered your blog whilst I was looking at the possibillity of adding zencart into my already existing wordpress site. I am not completely happy with any of the WP-based commerce plugins that I’ve yet tried, although dukapress comes close. And this post caught my eye. One of the things I love to do is create contact cards– not quite business cards, but a way to get in touch with someone after the party is over. My designs are pretty florid compared with your pared-down, sleek entity!
Very nice! If you have a link to your contact card designs that you’d like to share, post it, and I’ll allow it to appear on this thread.