So you already have a design ready to be sent to that business card printing service. You had a whirlwind session with your graphic artist, and you are extra enthusiastic of how it will turn out. Hold on however. Before spending all that money in business card printing, you have to review every aspect of your business card before it gets produced 100 or 500 times over. Any mistake or design error that isn’t caught early enough can be detrimental to your business card. So reviewing them thoroughly  assures you that you will be getting the best quality business card that you can produce. This is what separates a great business card from other poorer quality and cheap business cards.

To help you out in reviewing your business card design, you need a checklist. Below is the standard business card quality checklist that most professionals go through to review business cards. Go through it one by one, and see if your business card options and designs are up to current standards.

Paper Stocks – First, and foremost is the business card paper stock or more specifically its card stock. Not all business cards are printed in the same type of card stock. There are differences in the thickness, coatings and textures for each type of business card stock. To be sure that you have the best quality business cards, aim for the card stocks that offer protective coatings such as UV and moisture resistant card stocks. Some card stocks may also have a sheen or glossy effect that makes it look better. Just ask your business card printing service for your options regarding business card paper or card stocks.

Now, for the quality of your card stock, simple try to bend it a bit and see if the paper follows the fold immediately or not. If the paper stock is easily bendable, then you have lower quality paper stock and you may want to change it if you like. Also try to test if the paper stock easily absorbs water, and if it sheens or not. Lack of moisture resistance and light reflectivity is also a sign of a not so perfect business card.

Ink Quality – Next, we have the ink quality. The business card printer’s ink quality can depend on the printer itself. There are several types of this. It can be offset printing, digital inkjet or digital laser jet printing. Each has a different way of embedding inks into paper, and also they have different types of ink. To test the ink quality, simply run down a few drops of water in front of your design. If the ink “runs” and is easily water soluble, you have a mark of a bad quality ink, and printer. So check this on your sample printing when it comes.

Design Composition – Next on the items in our checklist is the design composition or layout. This refers to the positions of your design and content elements in your color business card. It can be the placement of pictures, the positions of certain text, their font styles and of course the overall theme. Basically, you need to check if all the design elements mesh together to form a coherent design. This design must match the image that you want to project, and it also has to match the prevailing design standards of the time. If you design looks outdated or messy, then it might not be up to snuff for the best business cards out there.

Content Thoroughness – Lastly, be sure to have all the content that you need printed in your business card. The content must be as thorough as it can possibly be. Be sure to have your name, job title, company name, address, contact numbers, website information (if applicable), company logo, tag line and sample service/product list all included in your content information. Be as inclusive as possible so that you can maximize all the information that you want to give in one business card delivery. If your business card content is not this thorough, you may find yourself wasting time physically writing in the missing information which can be difficult. So check the content before going to printing.

That should be a wrap for the checklist on business cards. By going through a review process using this checklist, you should be able to print business cards that are high quality, professional looking and very attractive to business contacts. You won’t be wasting your money in business card printing if you do so.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit Business Card Printing and Cheap Business Cards

Business correspondence is being defined as a way of communication through the exchange of letters. These are the letters written or received by two or more parties which may come in the form of letters, emails, text messages, voicemails, notes or post cards.

By just looking at the above definition, we can generally conclude that business correspondence is a very important factor in the business community. It is like an exchange of events to and from the different points which are the involved business parties.

Business correspondence, being one of the most powerful tools in business agreements and other business deals, is actually evolving nowadays. We are now living in a computer era that’s why it is very understandable why there are gradual changes in the methods of business correspondence, from the way that is being written to the process of exchanging letters.

The product of the innovated technology when it comes to the business correspondence aspect is the electronic mail. Because of the email, the conventional ways of business correspondence are being phased out and the use of email is still being developed.

However, the use of paper is still not out of the scene. There are countries that still utilize this kind of method. Although email is on the big screen compared to the other types of business correspondence, let us still take a look with the different kinds of business correspondence.

The different kinds of business correspondence that we use nowadays are business letters, memos, faxes and emails. Let us have an overview of them all.

Business letters are the most established type of business correspondence. No one can ever imagine how long it has been in the business community. In fact whenever business correspondence is being talked about, business letter is the very first thing that would enter to our minds. The very respectful and most technical phrases that we can still see nowadays are first brought by the business letter’s techniques. It is also profoundly studied at schools especially when it is time to discuss technical writing.

Business memos are not as deeply discussed in school compared to business letters. They are being considered as secondary or just a by-product of business letters. Business memos are less formal and have a more conversational tone.

Business faxes have been around much longer than business memos but because fax machines are not that available to most of the people before, it was not recognized until 1980’s. There are no established rules in writing faxes because it is being written the way that everyone considered appropriate. However, because there is now such a thing as faxing via computer, fax machines are now facing a slow death.

Email is a fruit of technology and can be considered as a blessing because you can actually send all the workplace communication and the like in just a blink of an eye! It is now the most widely spread type of business correspondence in the modernized business community. Because of emails, we can now say goodbye to a lot of inconvenience that other types of business correspondence give us. Although we can say that email is still in its infancy stage and there are still a lot of things to be realized, email has now definitely changed the flow of communication in the business world. We can also see that email is actually tremendously influencing the other types of business correspondence.

With the never ending demands and never ending searching for a more convenient way of life, it is not impossible that there will be other types of business correspondence that will arise. Improvements with the things that we have now are very imaginable. For as long as it aids in the success of the business world, without harming anyone, our all out support must be given to them.

What Is Business Sense?

 

By Eric Okeke

 

         

 

What is the principal thing you need to succeed in your business today? Money. Sure, you need it, but it is not the main ingredient for success. People .Of course they are necessary, but having them may not guarantee success. Excellent products or services. Well, this is a must to succeed. But you may have them and still not succeed. Promotions, visibility, marketing. These factors lubricate your business activities for success. So what is the principal thing?

Take this from the book of Proverbs. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom. And in your getting, get understanding. Riches and honour are with me. Enduring riches and righteousness . Translate this into your business, you get what I call Business Sense. As we progress into year 2005, it is necessary we refresh our minds on what this sense is all about. That is the mission of this article.

 

So what is Business Sense? How you do your business. Not really. Strategies for doing business. Well you may be correct, but not quite. Doing business with the sixth sense. No you are off the mark for though Business Sense has something to do with feelings, it has more to do with wisdom.

 

But what exactly is Business Sense? It is the application of wisdom for today s business, or simply put, common sense in business. It is more than knowledge, facts, and figures. It is copious use of ideas especially those that are so simple, ordinary, or basic that they are disregarded. It is insight, the ability to interpret developments and the business environment differently, and to see, discern, and use differently and profitably, what others see but ignore because they look so ordinary or appear foolish. If you put your attention on those simple issues and things about they way you work and live, and use them for business, you are operating with business sense.

 

Business sense. Two words, So profound, readily available, so simple to learn and apply, yet largely ignored. You can call it common sense. Though it readily abounds, it is not so common in acquisition and application among the professional and managerial class who rule the corporate world.

 

They have studied in the best schools locally and abroad, acquired the latest technology and skills, and apply the best management methods, but are still struggling with the challenges in the marketplace. It is as if the more degrees, diplomas, and certificates our professionals acquire, the less they make use of common sense in business.

 

Not so for traders at the Alaba International market in Lagos. What they lack in formal education they make up with a copious supply of business sense. Little wonder, virtually all the banks flock to wherever these traders cluster to set up branches.

 

No economic sector or concentration of businessmen/women or professionals who exchange value have been able to attract such corporate attention from the financial services sector in Nigeria. These traders thrive while many other sectors are complaining. Do not blame the banks for chasing the traders. They badly need the cash which these traders generate daily. That is why they gravitate towards the traders. No other group maintains such a gravitational pull on a sector as formidable as the banks.

 

A teenage boy who moves into this market to learn the trade begins from the fundamentals- book keeping, retailing, pricing, and delivery of goods. Within four years, he has polished his negotiation skills and with the dexterity he has acquired, he can sell coal to a tourist form Newcastle in the UK. He is well equipped to deal confidently with consumers who are becoming very articulate and demanding. The hard times has made them to be very price sensitive and value conscious in their purchases. Patriotic messages may not move them anymore to vote for your brands with the dwindling value of their money. Neither will promotional hypes do that anymore.

 

What business sense tells you is that consumers want more promotional information to guide them in their purchases. Two decades ago, a nursing mother in Nigeria would hardly glance at the nutrition facts on a tin of baby milk. Today, before she buys, she picks up tins of SMA and other brands of baby foods to determine the one that offers the best value for her money. Now you can understand why Nestle Nigeria Plc mounted a promotional campaign to teach consumers Nutrition Facts . That beverage and baby foods maker has caught the vision of business sense.

 

What about Guinness Nigeria Plc.. Its premium brand Guinness stout says: Guinness brings out the action in you. But what the brewery has failed to do is to explain how the consumption of Guinness will galvanize consumers into action.

 

Take this from Oceanic International Bank. Its lighted billboards in Lagos metropolis sends the corporate message in two words: Experience peace . Good promo. But in these days of consolidation, banking distress and all, Oceanic Bank will definitely make more impact if it sends out detailed promotional messages on how a relationship with the bank guarantees peace. That is the latest trend in corporate communications, a shift from promotional hypes to information loaded promotions which communication experts call infomercials.

 

Business sense means that corporate bodies, the professional and managerial class must bend down from their ivory towers; go back to the fundamentals of doing business which we so often ignore, and get connected to the consumer. These fundamentals or common sense are readily available but hardly appreciated or used. Business sense teaches vision, mission, ethics, corporate care, charity, courage, humility and defining your business properly.

 

Business sense is not taught in the real sense in academic institutions and managerial courses. The approach in these places is more academic that real.. This sense is acquired more through real life experiences, insightful observation, and learning the hard way in the School of Wilderness Experience. That is the essence of this article series, to complement the teachings of these unique business schools , and prompt professionals to use common sense and what almighty God has deposited in them.

 

Dan Thomas, founder and president of Focus, a management consulting firm in Polo Alto, California, USA, wrote a book titled Business Sense. In the book, he shows how managers can use core management processes he calls Five Freedoms, to achieve success. As Dan s book moves through the offices of corporate America, see how Ken Blanchard, co-author of One Minute Manager, described the book: The biggest problem in business today is that common sense is seldom common practice. This book is all about using common sense in business. If you have any sense, you will read it and share it with others . No need commenting on the common sense remark of Ken. The message is clear.

 

For you to acquire and apply business sense in your business, you need to humble yourself, have a large heart, be of lowly spirit, keep an eye on business fundamentals, and above all be close to your creator. That put s you in the right frame of mind to recognize and apply common sense. If you are fixated on your academic achievements, total quality management, best practices and all, you will not apply common sense. No one is jettisoning these management methods. They are very necessary. But you need to lubricate their application with common sense. That is what brings lasting results.

 

You may be agonizing how to deal with that management, production, or marketing problem
not knowing that the solution is one common sense application which you have not considered.

As I sign off today, take this classic example of a common sense solution to a big problem from the scriptures which most of you know more than me. The story of David vs Goliath. This giant had instilled morbid fear into the entire army of Israel. The solution for Goliath was readily available, yet no Israeli soldier or General saw it. Even if they did, they must have written it off as some managers in the corporate world are doing now as they confront the many Goliaths in the marketplace today.

 

The Israeli soldiers who lacked faith in God put all their trust in their spears and other armoury which paled into significance against Goliath s. It took the courage and common sense of a teenage boy, David who trusted almighty God. He dipped his hands into the brook there, picked five smooth stones for his sling and ran towards Goliath. You know the rest of the rest of the story. That was a simple solution for a big problem.

 

The common sense approach is even more real for today s marketplace. Dear professional, this is my call to you today: begin to apply wisdom in your business today. In subsequent articles, I will share my thoughts and the insights of other professionals like you on common sense in business. Apply them and it shall be well with you.

 

 

 

                                     

 

Eric Okeke is a consultant storyteller, author, editor, CSR specialist and a leading strategist in brand marketing and mobilising support for corporate/social issues. He has a background and training in Chemistry, Marketing and Financial Journalism.

 

As a business writer and speaker, Eric has recorded a distinguished career in financial journalism and media consulting. He holds an MBA in Marketing, and the professional qualification and membership of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.

 

Eric’s communications niche is “storytelling” which he is now using to empower professionals and improve business returns in Nigeria.