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

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm)

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

Do not wait until you have a fancy logo to get some cards and stationery.  This is often a procrastination technique and a way that people justify NOT getting their stationery done because they are thinking, “Well, I don’t have my logo yet.” 

The truth is, you need to have a business card. For a stand-in until you have something snazzy, you can go to Kinko’s, Office Max, or Office Depot (and the like) and buy the plain old cards you can run through your printer.  Get the ones that are ivory, cream or white cardstock and that are already scored for tearing into business cards. Put your name, contact information and so forth on there and print up a few.  Believe me, that is better than not having anything.

There is one networking group I belong to – eWomenNetwork - and I can’t tell you the number of times that people come to the event (which has as its whole mission for women to network with one another).  There will always be someone there who says, ”I don’t really have a card. Let me just write down my stuff on a piece of paper” and then she grabs some scrap of paper out of her purse and scribbles down her information.  This does not leave a great impression, unfortunately. 

Even just having a plain white business card gives you something to hand out and say, “I’m just waiting for my final ones, but this has all the important contact information you will need.”  The same holds true with the stationery: You do not have to have fancy stationery; you just have to have something (besides notebook paper) so that when you are sending letters, thank you notes, inquiries about a product, marketing letters, or any other type of professional correspondence, that has your name, contact information and so forth.

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll give you some additional tips to keep in mind, but I wanted to convey the ideas FIRST that you need to have something, long before you have something ‘perfect.’

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

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm)

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

When starting a business, how much letterhead and how many business cards do you think a person should start with? The big “breaks” in cost seem to be at 2000 sheets of letterhead and 1000 business cards.

Here are my thoughts, based on owning 2 small businesses and coaching numerous other entrepreneurs.

Someone can go through 2000 sheets of letterhead in a big hurry – so don’t worry that you’re going to be burdened with too much. You can use it for marketing, invoices, cover sheets on handouts, etc. This will help you get your “brand” out there and will help you use lots of the stationery, so don’t worry about having some kind of giant stash that you’ll never use up.

And, in case you are worried that you want to change something about your stationery, your business cards, or your other materials, having 2000 sheets to start wit is not so much that you are going to be stuck with something that is out of date, incorrect, or that you don’t care for.

With business cards, if there is a significant break at 1000, then you might as well get that many – and then DON’T BE SHY (or stingy) about handing them out! Whenever people get new business cards, it’s as if we think we have to hoard them. The opposite is true! We need to be giving them out freely, leaving them various places, carrying piles of them with us, going to networking events and having them ready to give to those who ask, etc.

Once you have definitely established your brand and you know that your stationery information and format (including address, website, email, and other contact information) are fairly stable, then you can go for one of the higher price breaks (5000 sheets if you do a lot of direct marketing), but until then, 2000 is a gracious plenty.

Having professionally-designed stationery (including business cards and possibly envelopes, too) is one of the ways you can let others know that you’re serious in your business. It’s not just a hobby, it’s a career, a job, a calling, a passion, a business.

If you want additional ideas for moving your small business forward, be sure to consult the Life of E’s blog:

http://meggin.com/lifeofes/wordpress/

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

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm)

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

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Meggin_McIntosh