The business card is perhaps the best salesman and partner that you can have. That is why it is essential that it contain much more than your name, address, and contact numbers and services. It should be designed keeping its purpose in mind – that is it’s a powerful sales tool. So start with the design. If you want to create a business card that contains a photo with gradient colours you can try using a glossy paper to ensure that the cards are printed as good as they look on the screen. Or else, you can get disappointed with the print out and if your disappointed the customers may also be

Also, if your card design contains background colour or images, you can use papers that have gaps between them as these gaps will allow you to make up for the unavoidable elusiveness of the printer paper system. However, most stock cards don’t have gaps so if you don’t want to have trouble with printing, make sure your photos, images and text are at 3mm off the edge of the card. This way the printer imprecision will not destroy your business cards making you have to start all over again at a cost.

When it comes to printing, make sure that the paper type that you will use is compatible to your printer (not all papers are). As inkjet and laser printer use different types of technologies, it is important that you only feed the correct paper into them and that is the one that is attuned to your printer choice. So for instance say you will be using a laser printer, using a paper with glossy coating can cause damage to the printer so not a good choice. Therefore the right choice of paper type will greatly affect your business cards print out and the better it turns out the greater the reward in people keeping them for reference.

There are also some strategies you can use in business card distribution. Apart from the usual handing out of your business cards during tradeshows, conventions, meetings and the like, tucking them in your products before delivery can be a good idea. Say you are a florist. You can consider tying your business card around the flowers. Or if use bags in packaging your products, you can staple or tie your card on the outside of the bag. You can also include you cards in your letters and invoices. And if you are really crafty you can slip in your cards into your designs – you can include them in your greeting cards, emboss them with your rubber stamps or blend them with your other artworks. There are so many ways to incorporate them into the deliveries you send out.

There are so many ways to go about it when it comes to designing and handing out your business cards that you should always be carrying them with you for the odd chance encounter, as you never know where your next client may come from. You just have to know how to utilize these possibilities to your advantage. Remember that your business cards can be your best salesman and partner, so make them work for you effectively.