Sam Leader of Flying Solo offered this story on setting expectations for customer contact: she got an immediate—though automated—company email reply that promised someone would “get back in touch soon”. Months later she still hasn’t heard from them.

She notes her frustration isn’t because they didn’t reply, but because they failed to keep the promise they made. The first (and only) step she offers to avoid disappointing your own customers is

…review what channels of communication you make available. If your business card includes your landline, mobile and email, then you must be prepared to handle all interaction that follows.

Keeping your promises

She raises an important point. While you may feel compelled to include every possible way for a customer to reach you, you’re better off only making promises you can keep. Take a moment to consider which contact methods work best with your personality, business practices, and office setup. Then:

• Include on your business card only the methods you intend to monitor daily
• Highlight your preferred contact method with color, bold text, primary placement, or a larger font size

What to include, what to leave out

Here are some ideas on what to add or subtract from your business card:

• Include office hours on your business card if you don’t intend to answer the phone whenever
• Include your US time zone (e.g., EST) if you have customers throughout the US
• Include your international time zone (e.g. GMT -5) if you have customers all over the world
• Omit your phone number if you don’t want to talk to people…crazy, I know!
• Omit your street address if you work from home and don’t want customers at your door
• Include your usernames for social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn if you monitor them daily
• Include your website URL, period. If you don’t have a website, get one—here’s why.

Online communication tools

And while you’re thinking about how customers will contact you, look over these online tools that can make incoming faxes, calls, and mail more manageable:

• Use uFax or MyFax for a silent, secure fax “machine” that costs less than a second phone line. Another benefit: no need to wait by the fax machine, you can read these faxes online from anywhere
• Consider uReach’s Find Me/Follow Me for a single phone number that will redirect customers to any of your phones or voicemail, depending on the time of day
• Try Google’s Grand Central for a single phone number that can route calls based on the caller. You customize which of your phones will ring and which voicemail message they hear
• Check out Earth Class Mail for an online mailbox. They receive your snailmail, scan the envelopes, and you choose whether they should forward, shred, toss, or—get this—open the mail and scan the contents so you can read your mail online. I can’t wait to try this!

There are certainly ideas I didn’t think of, and services I haven’t heard of. Feel free to comment on what I left out…

Summary

Business: More Than Coffee! Lounge, Restaurant

Pluses: Strong and simple layout, suitably soothing colors, readable font and text, effective graphics

Minuses: Too much text, blank back

What’s great about it

I love the mood of this card. The flowing lava lamp background appropriately resembles cream being stirred into coffee. The logo is a series of coffee-colored arcs, loops, and swoops at the top, while the bottom is a solid band that grounds (no pun intended!) the design . It feels both refined and fun, sleek and a bit silly.

The layout is common for vertically oriented business cards: centered text, logo at the top, and content below. The rare find is plenty of space between lines of text. The font is wee, but the extra space keeps each line readable. It also helps that related content is grouped by extra space above and below.

The text can get away with being so teeny because the font is clean and simple. Wispy details from a serif font—like Times New Roman—would have left the tiny text unreadable and cluttered the card.

Where help is needed

With such a long domain name, the email and website addresses could be pared down to clean up the bottom of the card:

• Drop the “www” from the domain name, since the “.com” at the end clearly marks it as a website address
• Drop the domain from the email address

The result would look like this:

mwiggs@

MoreThanCoffeeLounge.com

which communicates both addresses without the duplicate content that burdens the card.

And like many business cards, unfortunately, the back is blank. Because this coffee shop does indeed have more than coffee, there are lots of options for the back:

• a map of their location
• shop hours
• a list of their specialty items: fresh pastries and array of milks (soy, rice, and almond)
• a list of their Signature Drinks
• the daily soup schedule
• an abbreviated sandwich menu
• a reminder of special services: catering, private event hosting, and free WiFi
• a list or schedule of upcoming events
• Loyal Lounger program benefits

What would you do to improve this business card? Leave a comment…

It’s unavoidable. You’ll be attending a conference or seminar and be introduced to a “Director of East Coast Operations”, a “Vice President of Development, United States”, or a “CEO of Everything, Everywhere”.

So what do you, Master of Your Own Microbusiness, introduce yourself as?

Who the heck are ya?

You own your business, but doesn’t “Owner” sound inactive? “Owner” sounds like the business belongs to you but you don’t actually do anything—which is way far from the truth.

If you’re a solopreneur (like me) you’re doing it mostly by yourself. Does that mean you get all 27 job titles from Secretary to CEO, or do you have to settle on just one? You do all the work and get all the credit (and all the blame), but there’s no sensible way to put 27 roles on a business card.

And maybe it’s silly to play the Name Game at all, but what’s wrong with wanting a title that does more than proclaim you’re top dog in a one-person business—now THAT’S silly. How can you be “Director” when there’s no one else to direct?

So really, who the heck are ya?

One day my ex, a recreation facilitator, gave himself the subtitle “Director of Continuous Improvement”. A motivational speaker gave him the idea, saying that a job title should be more than what your business leaders have assigned you to do—it should be what you actually do.

That could be interpreted as living up to one’s given job description, but my ex took the extra step of assigning himself a new title that became his promise to keep. Whenever something needed fixing, he took it on and moved his department (and himself) forward with every task.

You’re a WHAT?

A “promising” title was great for his inner motivation and there was a notable impact on other folks, too. When he began introducing himself to customers and colleagues with both titles, a very cool thing happened…

Their eyes would glaze over when they heard “I’m the Recreation Facilitator”, but they were restored to avid interest on hearing “…and Director of Continuous Improvement”. People would respond with questions like: What’s that? How do you do that? You’re a WHAT? that inevitably started interesting—and interested—conversations that led to new business and/or contacts.

Oh! So you’re a…

So when you consider what you actually do for a living, what would be a compellingly accurate job title for you? I started calling Christine, my business coach, “Queen of the Nudge” because I can count on her to gently motivate me into keeping the promises I’ve made to myself. Let’s see if she puts it on her business card…

I chose “Digital Curator” for myself after reading an article on the value of recommendations. It perfectly encapsulates my self-assigned task to search, sift, sort, and share the best of what I find on the Web.

And what about you?

Are you a premier dog groomer who is really a “Queen of Canine Confidence”, or maybe a save-the-day computer technician who is actually a “Network Support Superhero”?

Take a moment to write down the valuable things your service or products bring to the world. From that list, compose a title that portrays your singular gift, makes a promise to your customers and clients, and will jumpstart an interesting-and-interested conversation.

Which is so much better than being a corporate “Vice President”, “Director”, or even “CEO”…they’re stuck with names, roles, and tasks assigned by others, but you’ve got your own business and are free to be and act and do as you like.

Pluses: Strong and simple layout, affordable high-impact color, appropriate font and text, effective graphics

Minuses: Text lacks hierarchy, blank back

What’s great about it

I love the straightforward layout of this card. The business name is the “headline”, and is aligned to the right and gives their bright, whimsical logo an eye-catching place at the top left.

Red is a powerful color choice, and that bit of color wouldn’t have to cost much. The squiggle is a fun finish in a subtler shade, and it effectively separates and highlights their domain name at the bottom.

The fonts are clean and readable, and an interesting angular contrast to the wayward flow of the logo and squiggle.

They’ve wisely included everything I need to Google Maps their location and/or give them a holler: the full address, telephone, and email address.

Best of all, this card represents their stylish and well-organized store perfectly! Seriously whimsical or whimsically serious, the shop feels the way this card looks.

Where help is needed

The first thing I would change on the front of this card is to highlight another item in addition to the bearer’s name and title. Further highlighting the website address would be a good choice—their home page has lots of goodies for a new customer: a map of their location, a list of classes, and a sign up for event and sale notifications.

Next, I would group the contact information by adding a bit of space before and after the street address. It’s just one big clump of info right now and it could use some air.

But the back of this card is what needs a lotta love because, unfortunately, it’s blank. A few things they could include on the back to directly impact their business:

• a map of their location
• store hours
• a list or schedule of classes
• a list or schedule of upcoming events
• an invitation to subscribe to their e-newsletter
• a reminder that they welcome special orders

What would you do to improve this business card? Let us know…leave a comment!

Unfortunately, these gems will also appeal to other folks with good taste. Using a template risks distributing business cards that don’t uniquely identify you. Your business card is your silent ambassador and it shouldn’t be a twin to anyone else’s.

That said, I appreciate (and benefit from) the jumpstart that templates offer. A blank page can be intimidating; it helps to begin with a template that has a compelling color palette or layout. Change the font, add your logo, and with a bit more tweaking you can arrive at an attractive and singular creation.

Which is great for when you’re starting up your business or have run out of cards. However, templates (altered or no) are not a long-term solution, and these galleries of exceptional business cards are a testimony to that.

I’ve included an example from each, but visit the sites to see dozens and dozens of these dishy bits of paper (or plastic, or metal, or…) in their original habitat.

Business Card Designs by Daniel Will-Harris

I love the way Daniel presents this collection of business cards he’s designed. Click on any card to get the design story of both the front and the back.

Business Card Designs Dzyn Lab

This is a tiny gallery, and some of the business card designs aren’t anything special, but a few are so yummy I had to include it.

DailyPoetics Business Cards Set Slideshow

This gallery of business cards is top notch. Their blog has the same collection of cards, but I think they’re better presented in this Flickr slideshow.

Seen other amazing business cards online? Leave a comment that points us to them…

Getting a start on your logo

A great place to start is the morgue. That sounds grim, but it’s just publishing jargon for a collection of samples you’re saving for later. Starting a logo morgue is quick and simple, just grab a folder and label it “Brilliant Logo Ideas”. Next, keep your eyes open when looking at magazines, reading the newspaper and browsing the Internet. As you find logos with text styles, colors, images, and designs that you’d like for your own, clip or print them and add them to your morgue. If you spend a lot of time on the road, watch those signs and billboards; carry a digital or disposable camera to record your finds. Print or develop your shots and add them to your morgue. Got scribbled sketches on napkins? Ideas from family and friends? Put them all in there.

Discovering your logo theme

When your folder is bulging with favorites it’s time to play! Spread everything from your morgue folder on your desk and look for a theme. Ask yourself:

• What colors do they have in common? Are there lots of cool blues and greens or are there more vivid reds and oranges? Do you lean toward straightforward black and white?
• Is the imagery similar? Are they mostly simple clip art or did you choose more detailed illustrations? Are they realistic or abstract?
• Does the text look the same? Do they have simple lettering or are many a decorative font that’s a logo all its own?

You’ll likely come up with other questions along the way. Take the time to write down both the questions and your answers. When you get a feeling for you’re going for, fiddle with design software on your own or hire a design pro. Compiling and assessing a morgue takes some time, but it’s a fun bit of prep work that puts you one step closer to a symbol that perfectly expresses your business identity. TIP: Morgues are first-rate for collecting all kinds of design ideas. Keep separate folders for: distinctive brochure designs, notable business cards, clever ads, and compelling copywriting.

Logo Design: Links & Books »

Logo Ideas On The Web

IdeaBook
Chuck Green’s site has instructions on creating a distinctive logo from clipart and a visual guide to the logo design process.

Books With And About Logos

Letterhead & Logo Design 10
by Top Design Studio

Logo Design That Works
by Lisa Silver and Cheryl Cullen

Got a favorite website or book on logo design? Lemme know down below!

It’s no accident that designers call your coordinated set of business cards, letterhead and forms a “visual identity package”. Your skills and effort are the brains behind the business, but the items you distribute present its unique personality.

This is why it’s critical to have interesting and memorable materials that are uniquely yours.

Beyond Your Inkjet

Still, printing services can be expensive, so most micro-business owners make do with home office tools and materials to save money. Unfortunately, most pieces are printed with run-of-the-mill inkjet printers with lukewarm results. With fuzzy images and indistinct text, they scream “Amateur!” at every reader.

Inkjets are far better than they used to be, but you’re still better off with waterproof, monochrome documents printed with an affordable black-and-white laser printer than color documents printed with one of the better inkjets.

If you want color in your identity package and don’t own a color laser printer, have your pieces printed at Kinko’s, your local quick printer or an online printer like CatPrint.

What’s Inside?

As you’d expect, business cards and letterhead are the key parts of an identity package, but they’re only the beginning. Everything you send to potential or existing clients should coordinate and wear your logo, business name, phone number and website address. Be sure to include your tagline wherever possible:

Typical identity package items:

• Business cards
• Letterhead
• Envelopes
• Return address labels
• Forms

Not-so-typical items:

• Customized Post-Its^®
• Postage stamps
• Mailing labels
• Note cards
• Invitations

Your identity materials are the things that get mailed, dropped off, handed over, passed over, tacked up, referred to, filed and remembered. They speak for you when you aren’t there to speak for yourself, so make sure they’re saying what you want people to hear.

And hey, if you don’t feel up to the challenge of creating your identity package on your own, hire a design pro.

TIP:
If you’re creating an identity package on a tight budget, get fewer cards or sheets rather than settle for cheap paper. Choose one or two colors—instead of or in addition to black—over quantity. If color is unaffordable, try for colored paper. Better to have only a handful of cards on quality paper than a crateful of cards on flimsy stock.

Did I leave anything out? Leave a comment if you think of a something fun and personalize-able to add to an identity package.

Identity Package Links & Books »

Identity Packages On The Web

The Print Guide
The Print Guide has compiled a list of the printing industry’s top suppliers to make shopping for printing services more convenient. Arranged by category (cards and forms, stationery, labels, etc.) with feature articles and an extensive Printing FAQ.

Do-It-Yourself Identity Packages

iPrint
Upload your logo to their site and use their templates and easy-to-use web interface to design your items. If you would rather do your own layout, don’t let the templates on the first pages discourage you-everything is customizable. Online ordering and plenty of shipping options.

Beginner’s Graphic Design Books

Non-Designer’s Design Book, The (3rd Edition)
by Robin Williams

Robin Williams Design Workshop
by Robin Williams

The Big Book of NEW Design Ideas
by David Carter

Do you have a favorite website or book on letterhead and such? Leave a comment to tell us about it…