What Your Business Card Says About Your Contracting Company…or Doesn’t!

I was out visiting a client today when I dropped my Blackberry into the street, which then proceeded to get run over by two cars. As I waited at the Sprint store for the repair man to fix my phone I started rifling through the business cards left by previous customers on the cork board. Since I was at the Sprint store which is part of Nextel most of the cards were for local contractors… right up my alley!

I usually take a couple of cards each time I come across one of these boards as long as there’s more than one left. I follow-up with the company letting them know where I found card and asking if they have gotten any results from their efforts. But something was pretty shocking about the batch of cards I had to pick from today.

Of the 10 or 12 cards on the board only 4 had anything more than a name, address and phone number. That’s right, only 4 listed an e-mail address or website. And of those 4, only 1 had a slogan. Ready for it? Watch out cause this one is going to knock your socks off!

“Specializing in home remodeling solutions”

Just takes your breath away doesn’t it? Ah the power of marketing. Listen, I get it, not everybody has the ability to be creative, but you have to put a little more effort into your brand than that don’t you? Think about it, your business card is one of the least expensive tools you can use to market your contracting business. When you consider that every contracting company large or small has the same opportunity and uses the same materials to create their business card you suddenly realize the playing field is pretty even…unless you write copy like that slogan above!

So, here are some tips on getting the biggest bang for your business card buck:

* Always use the best paper you can afford and whatever you do don’t print cards out from home
* Make sure to include your company’s tagline on your card
* Give details on your product or service
* Include a small map showing the cross streets to your office
* Show photos of your products or even a small before and after picture
* Include an email address and website

And my biggest pet peeve of all…list only one number to reach you. Whatever number you have the ability to get to all the time (usually a cell phone), list that number. No one cares about your office number and main number and cell number and backup pager number. Just give them one number to call!

Contractor Business Card Conclusion

Whatever you do you should think of your card as a mini billboard for your contracting business. But most importantly, your cards don’t do you any good if they are sitting in your wallet or worse, still in the box from the printer back in the office. Your business card will do wonders to help you grow your contracting business if you use them the right way…give them out to anyone that will take one!

Photo Credit: EnnuiDesign


14 responses to “What Your Business Card Says About Your Contracting Company…or Doesn’t!”

  1. Nice reminder Darren. I have argued with people (family and drinking buddies) about only having one number on my card. I find that if you eliminate excess, unneeded choices people are more inclined to take action. That applies to many things having to do with business. Never heard anyone say ‘hey, I was going to contact you sooner but you didn’t have your fax number on your card…’

    Have the choices available but don’t overwhelm them with indecision! Great post!

    • Thanks Roger! I appreciate it! One number reaches around the world, why do we need more?

  2. More sound advice.

    I think the marketing experts we painters and builders have turned to traditionally, the guys who have set the yardstick, aren’t hard wired either beyond cookie cutter generic pleasantries. Think Yellow Pages type organisations. Page after page of the same old “Highest quality, competitive pricing, friendly staff” ads. All meaningless phrases, but phrases that have been adopted universally and plonked on business cards.

    • Andy,

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting! What took you so long to get on the weekly tips list?!?

      • only just spotted the FREE newsletter link at the top? And I get your blog updates most days, so never twigged there was more.

        • Then thats a bad job on my part from a usability standpoint. Maybe I need to get my own site review!

          • Even the masters have to revisit sometimes!

            Hang on, now I see that big FREE in the sidebar. Has it always been there? Maybe Im just not curious enough to find out what is free. Maybe if it had “goldmine” or some smarter word in there?

          • Hey Andy, no, I just put the free there a week ago. I love the smarter word thing! That’s funny. No more compelling word in the English language than free. Even in the Queen’s English I would imagine?

          • Free? No!

            One says “gratis” round here, don’t you know! Nothing like a bit of the olde Latin to stand out from the hoy poloy.