A headhunters card with instructions ‘read it then eat it'

The classic is perhaps the packet of seeds business card, appropriate obviously for gardeners and other people that work the soil.

A perforated card from a divorce lawyer

A second hand store

Business card from a dentist

Acupuncturist card

business card from a personal trainer

Lock picking business card from a security consultant

and most complicated of all:

A business card containing a series of gears that when operated show the persons contact details

Or

An AVR microcontroller circuit board business card

The ultimate: The business card that calls for you

Apparently the parts are cheap to buy but require some talent to put together. If you have the time you can build your own autodialing business card too (Geek points available on request).

The future?

We’ve been promised digital newspapers and the like for years. The idea being we all have flexable displays that draw little power and can be easily updated. Recently Esquire magazine had a section of their front cover using an early version of this technology. Maybe in the not too distant future we’ll have business cards made from “e-ink” too.

Yesterday I spent about £40 on 250 high quality business cards from Whitesparks. It’ll be nice to have something tangible! I decided to use Whitesparks as I’ve used them before for SIE flyers and posters. I’ve had bad experiences with both the DIY and certain low cost printers that advertise by flyer inside books bought from Amazon. I’m also not going to go down the route of those machines you see at train stations. My friend Rob tried that and they were rubbish. You get what you pay for and I want to give the best impression (doesn’t everyone?).

Talking of giving a good impression, I’ve also done an email signature so if you get an email from [myfirstname].[mysurname]@mynewreg.com hopefully you’ll be impressed with the legal jargon and the fact I can spell my name correctly.

I was reading the FSB (no, not that FSB, the other one) magazine Business Network and noticed a bit of research commissioned by Microsoft. Apparently of the surveyed people 53% said they were more likely to use a small business if the have a professional website and email address. 41% also admitted to shunning local firms which use a personal email address.

I appreciate none of this means anything unless I can tie it up with a business but before you build a house you must lay the foundations (and other annoying metaphors like that).