Impression Management – Your Personal Presence – Business Cards & Stationery

Posted on September 15th, 2009, by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D.

When you are managing the impression that others have of you – and making sure that your professional presence is communicated, it’s wise to spend time thinking about your stationery and business cards.

When you work for an organization, there is a certain look that everybody has for their business cards and stationery (whether it’s good or bad). But when you are an entrepreneur, then you can have business cards and stationery that look however you want them to. Regardless of whether you currently work within an organization and have a side business or a business that you are building for when you leave your ‘day job,’ you want to make sure you have your cards and stationery that are ready to convey the professionalism and personality of your work. Here are some ideas to consider:

Think about the paper you are printing your card and stationery on. This includes the weight, the colors you choose, the fonts used, and so forth. You want both your card stock and your stationery paper to be something with a little ‘heft,’ rather than something flimsy. It needs to be of substantial quality, although it does not need to be heavy. Particularly if you are printing your own cards right at the beginning, the stock won’t be very thick since most personal printers can’t handle that without jamming.

Have your materials proofed by MANY others. Don’t trust yourself or even a professional proofreader. Check everything and then have at least 5 other people check every detail. It doesn’t look good (to say the least) if you have to cross out or write over the top of something on your card because it’s wrong. I’ve seen misspelled words, letters omitted from domain names, phone numbers that were short one letter, and more. Eek! It could happen to any of us.

Get various bids and opinions. Before you go ahead and spend hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars getting your business cards, stationery, and envelopes printed by a professional, do two things: 1) Have your job big on by more than one company and 2) Give samples out to people you don’t know. Ask them what they think. It might hurt your feelings (I have had that happen before, i.e., having gone through various renditions of my logo and overall business look, there were times when people would say, “I don’t really know what this is.” I thought, ‘What do you mean you don’t know what this is?’ Then later on, as it got more and more professional, I started getting a better and very different kind of response. Note: Don’t ask if you don’t want people to tell you, but it is worth asking if you are interested in the feedback. You might save yourself a lot of money.

Managing the impression that others have of you takes focus and reflection. One of the easiest ways is to start with good quality stationery and business cards.

Often it’s just the simple ideas that help us give the right impression of ourselves and our businesses. And if you want additional ideas for moving your small business forward, be sure to consult other articles on this Life of E’s blog where we have topics ranging from money to productivity to speaking to writing to coaching to business set-up and more are featured there.

And, to make sure you are productive in your personal and professional life, you’ll want to access the resources at

**http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com

Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do via seminars, workshops, writing, coaching, & consulting. www.meggin.com