Technology has done its best to change the way consultants do business but there is one domain that even e-proselytisers can’t see dying out: the paper-based business card.
Unlike most other charms freelancers use to create a good first impression, the decades-old business card can woo clients without the consultant needing to speak or even be present.
In a report into the popular business tool, the Financial Times said the cards are rooted in 17th century Europe as social calling cards, with their foray into work following three centuries later.
“When we pick up a card, we can immediately feel its weight, texture and any embossing – and the font also effects how we perceive someone and their business,” Louise Mowbray, a London-based personal consultant told the paper.
“From a personal branding perspective, business cards should always be appropriate and not only be an authentic representation of you and your business today but also what you aspire to.”
Corporations tend to roll out a conservative-looking business card, in line with their enterprise-wide branded identities.
Consultants, however, can use this sober card to complement their own paper-based business card: simplicity, elegance and quality are good starting points, Ms Mowbray said.
And these guidelines to create a good first impression are universal, unlike the fashion in how business cards are received depending on when they are presented.
Drop your card in Japan and expect the recipient to bow, hold the card in two corners and make a comment on its quality, hopefully remarking on your astuteness for putting your details in Japanese on the reverse.
In contrast, such custom or pomp, depending on your view, around business cards is rare in North America and Europe, where domestic business-types can seem aloof when handing them over.
In the US as a whole, however, the content of the business card might scream vanity to continental citizens, particularly Brits, as it is not unusual for Americans to include their photograph.
But this does serve to differentiate the business card in a pile of them: even if Mr Bloggs has chosen a similar logo, paper or graphics to yours, he lacks your unique, and hopefully employable, facial features.
And standing out in the competitive world of business cards is what it’s all about, according to Alan Brightman, Yahoo’s senior policy director of special communities.
On his business card, his details are also reportedly printed in Braille, not just to appeal the narrow 10% of people who understand it but also, so he can raise awareness about the communities he works in.
He reflected: “People take it, realise it’s different and look at it… that makes it a better card.”
This is not necessarily a green-light to go wacky with your business card design, yet business-types in creative, crowded and sales-led marketplaces are seen as having the most room to break the mould.
Apr 30, 2008
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