Easy Business Cards

It’s a simple thing to overlook, but it makes a huge difference to how people perceive your business – today, I’m talking about why I always have a stack of business cards in my purse, just waiting to be handed out!

Business Cards for Small Business Owners

I’ve always had that drive to start my own business, even when I was seven or eight and started my own “newspaper” and charged my family members 10 cents for one page print outs.

As a university student, I started two different businesses with friends that taught me a lot about myself and what kind of business I wanted to run. Not everything you love should be your business – you also need to enjoy the minutae and every day work involved in a business in order to feel fulfilled doing it. (Or at least I do.)

In the last few years, I’ve found the perfect sweet spot. Running my Montessori daycare part-time, keeping this blog, and doing photography from home for a variety of different clients (from other bloggers to big companies.)

However, something I’ve run up against a lot is that when people ask what I do, they are often incredulous and have a ton of questions. Sometimes it’s positive, and sometimes it’s a bit doubtful and disrespectful.

When people start asking “how does it work” or “what do I blog about” (or “what’s the catch”), I just reach in my purse and hand them a business card and invite them to check it out. My business card is a great visual representation of the content that I do, displaying some of my pretty pictures along with listing my social media accounts.

I love this strategy for a couple of reasons:

1. It moves my business from concept to reality – having a business card (and having it ready to hand out) suggests that your business is established and professional
2. It gives a point of connection and follow-up – people who are truly interested can connect with me or my social media accounts after our meeting and have the potential to become friends, readers, or customers
3. It gives a concrete understanding of my brand – seeing the pictures, people understand the “vibe” and content of my business (even if they still don’t understand how it works)
4. It shows that I have respect for my business and am organized
5. For the “disbelievers,” it puts the onus on them to figure out what my business is or “what the catch is.” They no longer need to pry me with questions to get the answers they need, I’ve given them all the sources to dig into and figure it out (which they probably won’t, but I appreciate that it tends to stop the invasive questions – especially the income ones)

I purchased my business cards from Basic Invite, which has a variety of options for customization without needing a background in graphic design.

Their business cards come in a variety of designs – from basic information-oriented cards, to highly visual cards with lots of photographs, to fun options like rose gold business cards or clear cards!

I was super tempted to go with the clear business cards because they are sooo cool but I decided that since photography is such a big part of my business (and the pictures can really help someone to understand exactly what it is that I do and share), I opted for one of their “drag-and-drop” business card designs.

I found a design that I liked (actually, the hard part was narrowing down which one to go with because I liked a bunch), uploaded the pictures I wanted to highlight along with my logo, and then entered in my contact info.

Shipping was super fast and easy and I had my cards within a week. (Which is great if you’re a week out from a big show or event and realize that you should probably have some business cards!)

I have a little business card holder in my purse now at all times which keeps my cards organized and clean, and also has an extra professional touch – even when I’m wearing yoga pants and a mom bun at the park.

Basic Invite also offers several gorgeous stationary options, including thank you notes, envelopes, note pads and stickers, so you can have fully branded office supplies – which are great for adding a special touch when you want to send a thank you note to a client.

I’ve made several great connections thanks to having my cards readily available (because trying to remember names can be tricky) and for all of the reasons listed above, I love that it moves me from someone who has an interesting hobby to an organized and professional business owner.

If you’re a work at home mom or entrepreneur, I’d love to hear from you about what your struggles or successes have been in establishing your business!