Professionalism

I was at one of the blogs I visit daily, so you wanna be published, Mary DeMuth's blog. Today Mary was talking about one of my hot buttons -- investing in a professional photographer for author headshots.

I commented on her post and decided to talk a little about that on my blog, and also about the importance of your marketing materials having a professional image.

Today I am going to share my business cards. I had a professional take the image and a professional designed the card according to my specifications. I wanted the card to say that I'm a writer without having to put that in the text. See what a great job 100 Proof Designs did for me?

Tash, the designer, went back and forth with me until I was happy with the look. I told her the colors I wanted (blue and brown) and that I wanted text ghosted in the background. I'm sorry that the scanned images don't do my cards justice. The background is a lovely shade of blue and the font is brown. She positioned my image and my contact text over some beautiful script, and ta-da! A professional business card. 

I also wanted to make sure the card would look and feel professional. I emailed online printers for samples and decided to work with clickbusinesscards.com. They were great to work with. I uploaded my order on a Monday and received them on Thursday. The finish I went with is called matte celloglaze. The cards are very substantial and the finish is soft like satin. You can also write over it without trouble. If you're going to the ACFW conference and want to see and feel my cards, just ask. Gosh, that's an odd/awkward sentence, isn't it??

If you're wondering why I have two it's because I was going to only get the couch one because I think it has a casual, friendly feel to it, but my friend Jan said my face was prettier in the other one. I know, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity." But for $40, it was worth it for me to have two cards to hand out, depending on my mood.  

Those cards were made in 2006, so they're a bit dated. But I haven't changed that much. 

I'll continue this conversation in the next few days with information on how to select a photographer, how to prepare for your photo session, and what to wear (or not) for the session.

In case you're wondering about my credentials, I've worked for different portrait photographers for several years. I've got the scoop!