Do you need Business Cards?

Just picked mine up from the printer!

If you'd ask me a month ago I'd have audibly scoffed, shot you a look of disdain and blurted out “no way!” Who uses business cards nowadays? In my last stint at Microsoft I managed customer accounts worldwide for Microsoft Teams - so every day all day with customers - and I never bothered getting new business cards. Often these were online meetings and if I hadn't met you, a quick look on LinkedIn told you everything I would've put on a business card. 

Business cards lost some of their mojo during the pandemic, but now that we're back to shaking hands and looking people in their real not virtual eyes, that tangible small card you hand to someone is a small gift and offering of partnership.

Small business is a different beast than the Fortune 500 companies that used to be my bread and butter. Last month I went to a small business mixer sans cards and I felt naked.  Like I was at a crypto convention packed with Tech Bros and Teslas and I didn't even own any Dogecoin. The folks running the local mixer collected a stack of each company’s cards, categorized them in a little box with dividers and then passed that full box around the table like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Each attendee carefully paged through and took the cards for services that they needed.

So last week I got to it and whipped up some cards for Wirepine. I used Microsoft Designer. Designer’s been getting a bit of buzz and this was the perfect project to try it out. Designer uses AI to create both written and visual content. I was a little confused why Microsoft was using AI for a new standalone product like this but take a look at Canva and you can see why they're doing it - AI office!  Great example of how AI is going to fundamentally change up a lot of stuff.

Anyhoo - Designer was fun and with a little playing I came up with a design I liked. I choose drafTech in Santa Rosa to print the cards. I emailed the PNG file straight out of Designer and voila!  Designer also created a video version of my design as an MP4 file that I can use for my socials.  My first reel on Insta - maybe Wirepine needs a TikTok now?

I considered adding a QR code on the back so peeps could go right to my site without the bother of typing but decided to keep the space for handwritten notes because well, pens. QR codes are super cool though and have a space in your Digital Marketing plan on cards or other campaigns printed or no. The pandemic did us a favor here and normalized them - restaurant menus anyone? It's super easy to gen up a QR code including your logo so anyone with a phone can immediately go to your site or whatever you're showcasing and you can even track the clicks or download a virtual business card like so:

Order of operations for this overall is design your logo, get your website up including naming with the right layout/content/store and once that's all set you can get biz cards printed and any other promotional material your business needs.

Hit me up if you need help with any of this!

Found a card for the first small business I created back in 1989 - a short 34 years, but a lifetime of tech ago: