Facility9

I was pretty excited to get home today, in part because I need to recharge the air conditioner in my car. Driving around in a mobile sauna isn’t anywhere near as much fun as you’d think it would be. For the record, I never thought it would be much fun in the first place. That being said, you’re not reading this to hear about my solution to Active August. Today I was stoked to get home because my new business cards arrived today.

You see, a long time ago I had a great idea that I should order personal business cards that would reflect me. Then I promptly forgot about the idea because I couldn’t think of anything to put on the business cards that would really pop out.

Now, why would I want business cards? After all, my employer has given me a HUGE box of business cards… for free!

Here’s the thing: when I give out my card, I want people to remember me. They didn’t have a conversation with my employer, they had a conversation with me. When I’m meeting people, networking, speaking, dining, whatever, I want to make a personal impression as quickly as possible. No offense to my employer, but their business cards are very corporate. And rightly so, we give them out to potential clients in the work place. My business cards reflect my personality. That’s what I want people to remember when they meet me out and about – my personality, not my corporate presence.

Additionally, I always tell people to get in touch with me if there’s anything I can do to help them. I don’t check my work email very often – maybe once a day – since I’m on site at a client. Giving out my work email address and phone number makes it difficult for people to contact me. Personal business cards make it much easier to say “Here’s how you can get a hold of me. Don’t hesitate to call.” (Or something to that effect.)

I got my cards printed through 4by6.com and they did a phenomenal job. The entire ordering and approval process was a piece of cake. The fine people at 4by6 even got in touch with me when it turned out that I was an idiot and didn’t crop my image properly. They fixed the problem and put my order right back in the printing process. I ordered my cards on Friday and I had them by the next Wednesday (they were supposed to be here next Tuesday, I think).

I ended up choosing 4by6 for a number of reasons. First, they’ve been around for several years. I remember the stir they made when they first launched because of the high quality of both their website and the incredibly high quality of some paper samples I ordered several years ago. I was finally prompted to order because they introduced a new, lower cost, digital printing option (which makes more sense for low volumes). If you’re interested, check them out at www.4by6.com. They’re helpful and they produce an very high quality product.