Business Cards: What Not to Do

Your business cards should make an impression, but you need to make sure it's the right one. The wrong design decisions can take away from your message and leave whoever is holding them with a bad taste in their mouths. Here are some business card mistakes you don't want to make:

Forgetting Contact Information
The main point of a business card is to let people know how to reach you, so make sure yours does. It's not as simple as including a phone number and email address: You want to make sure there's a clear path to reaching you. If your email address is listed as info@awesomecorp.com, people may assume their emails won't go directly to you. Even if you're the only one reading emails sent to that address, it's important to list an email address that looks like it's going to you. 

Unreadable
Including all of the right information on your business card doesn't mean a thing if no one can read it. According to SitePoint, the best practice is to stick to easy-to-read fonts, and keep the size between 7 and 11 points. If your card includes color, make sure your font doesn't get lost. A busy background will decrease the card's readability, so be mindful of that as well. That said, a busy background probably falls into the next category of mistakes.

Too Trendy
Unless you're a designer, it's best to stick to the basics on your business card. Be mindful of the design on your card and how it represents you. If you're sure you have a stellar idea that will stand out in all the right ways, have some colleagues in your field take a look at it first. Ask them to use a critical eye, and hopefully they'll be able to tell you if your design says what you want it to (or if it says "WordArt" instead). 

Not Trendy Enough
While you definitely don't want to go overboard on design, plain business cards don't stand out. If all you have on your business card is white space and Times New Roman, it risks making no impression at all. Something as simple as an accent color can take your card from boring to bold. If you don't have a head for design, do not feel pressured to come up with something yourself. There are plenty of templates that you can use to make your business card the right kind of eye catching.