Does your business card pass the Five Quarter Test? Try it and see.

For your business card to lend a credible professional image to your business, it needs to be printed on heavy enough paper stock. Cards printed on flimsy paper tend to look less professional, get damaged easily, and beg the question of the seriousness of your marketing attempts to draw qualified prospects.

To give your business card the “Five Quarter Test”, take one of your cards and lay it across the top of a container with an opening at the top that is approximately 2½ inches across, about the size of a juice glass. Lay a stack of five quarters on top of the middle of your card, directly above the opening of the container. If your card bends significantly down toward the inside of the container, or if – worse yet – the quarters actually fall into the glass, your card is too thin to compete with sturdier business cards communicating a more professional image. Undoubtedly, some of those heavier cards are being distributed by your competitors to your prospective customers and referral sources.

Before you have your next batch of business cards printed, visit a printer or paper store and look at the paper stock typically used for printing business cards. Find one you like that matches or coordinates well with the other paper in your business identity package. In many stationary packages, business cards are printed on 80# cover stock. However, all 80# card stocks are not created equal. Does yours pass the test?

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com