A business card is one of the first marketing pieces for anyone in business. Having that 2-by-3.5” piece of paper with your contact information on it seems to impart to the world that you’re serious.

If you go through a lot of business cards--say, in your festival booth--it’s usually easier to have them printed in bulk quantities. However, if you’re just starting out, large quantities don’t make sense. Batches of ten or less might be best. Trust me, next month-- after you have lived with them and passed them around a bit--you’ll want to make changes.

More and more of us, including me, are printing our business cards on our home printers. I do so much of my business online, that bulk printing of cards is silly. I’d be stuck with them for years. Paper companies make it easy to print your own cards by providing clean-edge cards. We just print and, when the ink is dry, separate. No messy perforated edges. There’s nothing wrong with printing your own business cards. In fact, it can be to your advantage. For instance, artist John T. Unger prints multiple images of his sculptures and allows his patrons to choose which one to keep. (Today’s customers love having choices!)

Regardless of whether you print your cards at home or use a printing service, make sure they meet professional standards. Use good quality paper. No flimsy stuff allowed. If they’re cut by hand, get the lines straight. Don’t scrimp on ink and print using the setting for highest quality. (If you don’t know how to adjust the print quality settings, learn.)

What should go on your business cards? Like John, you may want an image of your art. This helps people remember you. If you have a logo, which I don’t usually advise for fine artists, it can be featured in place of an image. But a logo and an image together might compete with one another. (Remember, we’re talking about a very small space!) In addition, you need your name, address, website URL, phone and email. A number of artists don’t use their bricks-and-mortar addresses on their marketing materials. If you are in this boat, I suggest you look into getting a post office box. A physical address, like your business card, connotes stability and your intent to stick around for a while.

Whatever you put on your card, always, always, always give people more than one way to get a hold of you--particularly if you tend to use only an email address. Email is extremely unreliable these days and, speaking from experience, it’s quite frustrating trying to follow up with artists who have given me only an email address. For some reason, my email can’t get through and I have no other way to contact them.