Your Back Should Be Naked

Business cards tell a certain story about your business. Let's face it -- it's all about presence. The thickness of the card, the typography, whether or not you use a clipart, glossy or nay -- all are important and are vital to the success of a business card.

One aspect people sometimes forget about is the back of the business card. You can usually tell if someone had their cards printed at VistaPrint (forgetting to take off the logo on the back before ordering), but in some cases -- and I'm just as guilty -- the back has text, or text and photo, all over it! Worse yet, there may be a UV coating to protect the ink (yep, guilty as charged!). This causes many networkers distress, which I'll explain.

Networkers are very habitual, almost to the point of insanity. Many like to make notes on the back of a business card. These notes can include but are not limited to: day and time they met you, where they met you, what the function was, the name of your children, your favorite color/food/pet, and so forth. In a few countries, you must not write on the back of a business card, for fear of penalty of death! However, in the good 'ol U.S. of A., networkers like to, and mostly likely will, write on the back of a business card.

Here's a hint: one networker I met a few weeks ago had a system for their business cards. If this networker met you and you basically shook his hand with your business card, he would put it in one pocket with no notes. In the other pocket were the business cards of those who had given him their card only BECAUSE HE ASKED THEM FOR IT. These cards had several notes scrawled on the back. When I asked him why the difference, he told me the pocket with cards and no notes reminded him these cards were thoughtlessly pushed in his direction, like spam, and treated them accordingly; the other cards he came by through making a connection and conversation, and these were people he genuinely wanted to stay in touch with.

Keep your back naked -- you never know when it'll be needed! As for me, time to go undress my back (of my business card - gotcha!).

Happy designing!

Cheers,
Lisa