Branding in a Flash Week: Artist Business Card

This week we are interrupting our regular programming to bring you Branding in a Flash. This will be a five-day overview of how/what we need to do as artists to create and maintain our brand and build our Brand Kit.

Monday: Business Cards & Contact Info.
Tuesday: Resumes (yes, as an artist you still need one!)
Wednesday: How to build a basic Website and what it should include
Thursday: Online social networking
Friday: Real life networking

Business Cards:

Whether you are a dancer, a freelance writer, singer, or trying to make your living as an actor, you should have a business card. Since you never know whom you might have the opportunity to meet, it is best to always be prepared. For artists who do not run a traditional brick and mortar business (since we are our own business) it can be difficult to know what to include on your business card...or to even see the necessity of one.

Handing out your business card to the people you meet serves two purposes:

• it shows them that you are professional and serious about what you are doing
• it gets you in the habit of introducing yourself as a writer or dancer, etc. It is important for you to say and believe in what you are doing. If you won’t be confident for yourself, no one else will do it for you.

As an artist you should have a biz card with:

•  your best headshot (if you don’t want your picture on your card, make yourself a logo of some sort and include it- a picture or logo will help your card stand out and will also trigger the memory of the person you gave your card to)
• up to date contact information- your phone number (if you so choose) and a professional e-mail address (not the one from college- cutie21@goofoff.com)
• web address or blog address (or both- people will be able to look you up and see what kind of work you do)

Business cards save you time and eliminate error in relaying information. If you meet someone who asks for your e-mail or phone number, or who says they may know somebody who knows somebody who can help you (and yes, this does happen), you’ll be able to whip out your shiny business card (hello, professional!) instead of saying "2-1-2-9-8-7-6-5..." or "awesomewriter@writeawesome.com". If you do everything online and would like to instead build an e- business card that can be sent or linked to, try http://businesscard2.com/

Contact Information:
Certain connections prefer to e-mail people while others prefer to call. Hopefully you can make both options available to potential agents, employers, directors, etc.

• If you don’t want to give out your cell number to everyone you meet, try signing up for a Google Voice number. It will give you a brand new phone number that will ring directly to your cell phone while keeping your cell number private.
• Your e-mail address should represent you in a professional manner. Many people choose joe.smith@gmail.com or a variation of that. We will talk about owning your own domain later this week. If/when you do that, you will most likely be able to set up an e-mail address like joe@joesmith.com.

A simple (non-cluttered) card that expresses your artistic self in some way is best. Remember that your card is a part of your "Brand Kit" (along with your website, resume, image, etc.) and should be professional. Places like vistaprint.com or gotprint.com allow you to inexpensively build and design your card online.