Business Card Order

[crschmidt]

Just ordered business cards from VistaPrint. They were supposed to be cheap, but the shipping cost for two weeks is the same as the total price of the order. I realized as I hit the order button I should have at least called a local shop to check if they would be able to give me a better price.

This is the design, which is originally from this file which a friend helped me toss together from a modification of one of the templates.

Still, on the whole, the price wasn't bad. I've gone way too long without business cards -- it's becoming an issue way more regularly now than it used to be in the past, since I'm trying to get together a group of geo-people in Cambridge, and they all have cards -- and of course I don't.

I figure that even if I get a full time gig somewhere, having my own card can't hurt.

So, relatively soon, I'll be "Christopher Schmidt: Web Development" (times 500). I'm looking forward to this far more than I was my wedü cards for whatever reason -- probably because I actually have a use for these.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

A few suggestions from a stranger:

Change 'Web Development' to 'Web Developer'. Normally your title follows your name and 'Web Developer' describes not only what you do but also is a title. Consider 'Senior Web Developer' or 'Web Developer Extraordinaire'.

Change '151 Erie St.' to '151 Erie Street'

There should be 2 spaces between the state and zip code not 1 space.

Put the telephone number in the correct format for a US number like (603) 264-2294. Anything but the correct format makes you look like a non-conformist. Do not succumb to the creative flair of the graphic artist when it comes to the telephone number, it's lame from a business point of view. Finally ignore any international format as it is pretentious (like putting a + sign in front of the number or country code)

Also it appears that your telephone number has a NH exchange but yet your address is in Cambridge, MA. So, if this is a cell phone I would suggest putting the word 'cell' after the telephone number. The honesty will be appreciated.

Why not put your picture on the card or design a clever logo?

People that don't know you that might give you work are going to judge you based on your business card. From what I can tell you are young, ambitious and have a lot of integrity, compassion and honesty, why not convey that?

-v-

P.S. If you are any good I have some work for you. Comment to this post and I will contact you next week.

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

Part of the reason it's 'web development' at all is because the "Christopher Schmidt" and "Web Development" are dual purposing as a job title and as a company name/business messaging thingy. So, since I do Web Development, and I'm a Web Developer... I'm sure you see the dilema I'm in. Do I want to advertise for myself, or for myself as a company, or... who knows. I don't even now :) This is a first run for a good reason: Eventually I want to move onto something a bit more complex.

The phone number thing, I'll probably not take your advice on. It's one of my few non-conformist things: I don't like (this) for-mat at all, and I've always written my number with .s and not in a 'normal' style.

Do people really assume that a number is going to be a landline anymore? Among most of the people I talk to, they never use landlines anymore: everything has gone to cell.

I really like simple business cards, since my goal with business cards is not really to drum up business -- it's a way of greeting or making sure that people have a way to contact me once I've already impressed them. The other thing they're useful for is so that I can stop spelling my domain name/username out to people when we meet at gatherings -- it becomes a real PITA, and I know better than to expect that I'll actually email people back when I say I will. So, the entire thing is just geared towards being able to give people my name/url without writing it down or spelling it out.

I want to come up with an actual business name that I can work under, I just haven't yet, which is part of the reason why I'm not spending a huge amount of time/money on these: These are just social/calling cards, instead of 'seeking employment' cards that I want made up at some point in the future.

I am good -- but I'm also relatively limited on time. I'm interested in hearing about anything you might have to throw my way, but can't promise that I'll be able to pull it off without knowing how much time I'm looking at.