Day 9 Create business cards for yourself

I needed a way to give people my personal contact information. I did not want to pass out old business cards from my old job. There were at least two reasons for that. Half of the contact information was incorrect. People could no longer reach me at my office number or company email address. And secondly, I did not want to be associated with my old occupation because I wanted to transition to a new career field.

A personal business card gave me a way to quickly and professionally pass on my contact information to others. Crossing out outdated information and scribbling new information on an old card does not look very professional. Writing my phone number on any scrap of paper and giving it out wasn't classy either.

A second thing I printed on my card was a job title or a job description of what I was planning to do. I used the label "Career Transition Consultant". I realized that people reading those words could pigeonhole me but I also wanted to help people remember the kind of career position I was looking for.

I discovered that adding the job description turned out to be very helpful. Most people reading the description said something positive and followed up with a question. "Interesting. There are a lot of people who could use help finding a new job." "What exactly do you do?" From these responses I gained confidence that people wanted this kind of service. Secondly, the questions they asked gave me the opportunity to clarify what kind of work I was looking for. And lastly, people started remembering me as that guy who wants to help people make career changes. People were associating me with the work I wanted to do and not the career I had done previously.

It is worth the time and expense to make business cards for yourself.