All of a sudden I have a whole bunch of people booked for photo sessions of their pets this year, thanks to my Doberman breeder. I made her a Doberman calendar this year for Christmas and she showed the whole Doberfamily (our friends with her puppies/dogs), and now I have a list of people who want me to photograph their dogs for them. The problem is, they're all currently contacting me through Sue (Dobe breeder), so I want a way for them to contact me directly. I figured creating a Business Card would be a good way to do that. Problem is, I have no clue where to start. I've tentatively created one, but I don't like it. I need some help coming up with a phrase or something that attracts people, and explains what it is I do. I don't have a catchy name or anything, as it's not truly a business... so I was just going to use "Pet Photography by Devan Kun". Is that ok? Or should I come up with something else? I know a card needs to include the business name, my name, and contact info, but that's as far as my knowledge goes. Anyone have any ideas? I'm not very creative when it comes to this kind of stuff.
Business card help?
- Thread starter Toller_08
- Start date
Business name and/or your name, an e-mail address, website if you have one. Any other contact info, like phone numbers, CAN go on there if you want... but you can keep things from getting too cluttered if you just have a website and e-mail listed. Any other contact info could go on the website for retrieval later if somebody was interested. Tip: keep at least part of the business card white or light coloured so you could write your phone number on the card with a pen or Sharpie if somebody wanted you to. I exchanged business cards with a woman and we both flipped our cards over to where there was more white space on the back (even though we both used double-sided designs!) and wrote names and cellphone numbers. It wasn't necessary info for every individual out there but there was still space to jot it on there when we wanted to include it. Obviously if you just use a one-sided design you can just use the back of the card to write your phone number on.
My DI business cards just say Dogged Illustration, have my e-mail address, and the link to my Etsy store on them. No other text necessary since my business is illustration. The illustrations do the talking for me.
A note about e-mail addresses (and web URLs too) - make sure it's short, clean, professional, and you can SAY it to somebody and they can remember it easily and if they write it down, they won't be asking how, exactly, you spell it all. I'm pretty sure a friend of mine is still using an e-mail address that is long and convoluted. Keep it short and simple. Try not to get "clever" with spelling... it just confuses people if you have to say something like "It's photo, F-O-T-O," because your website is doggiefotosite.com or something.
You can definitely just use your name instead of coming up with a fancy-schmancy business name, a lot of photographers definitely do! If you think you might change your name when/if you get married, though, keep that in mind... I know a lot of business women who never changed their names just because they already had an established business under their maiden name and thought it was too much hassle to change it, LOL.
My DI business cards just say Dogged Illustration, have my e-mail address, and the link to my Etsy store on them. No other text necessary since my business is illustration. The illustrations do the talking for me.
A note about e-mail addresses (and web URLs too) - make sure it's short, clean, professional, and you can SAY it to somebody and they can remember it easily and if they write it down, they won't be asking how, exactly, you spell it all. I'm pretty sure a friend of mine is still using an e-mail address that is long and convoluted. Keep it short and simple. Try not to get "clever" with spelling... it just confuses people if you have to say something like "It's photo, F-O-T-O," because your website is doggiefotosite.com or something.
You can definitely just use your name instead of coming up with a fancy-schmancy business name, a lot of photographers definitely do! If you think you might change your name when/if you get married, though, keep that in mind... I know a lot of business women who never changed their names just because they already had an established business under their maiden name and thought it was too much hassle to change it, LOL.
Thank you so much for all of that, Beanie! It was very helpful!
I just finished creating it. It's pretty plain, but it's straight and to the point, and I included a few favourite photos as well as the url to my Flickr page (since I don't have an actual website).
Here's what it looks like:
Sorry it's so small! Obviously it'll be larger than that when it arrives (I ordered them online). Do you think it's ok though? The blurry part is my e-mail address and phone number, and the back of the cards will be blank.
I just finished creating it. It's pretty plain, but it's straight and to the point, and I included a few favourite photos as well as the url to my Flickr page (since I don't have an actual website).
Here's what it looks like:
Sorry it's so small! Obviously it'll be larger than that when it arrives (I ordered them online). Do you think it's ok though? The blurry part is my e-mail address and phone number, and the back of the cards will be blank.
I know you already ordered them, but you also asked so:
The dobie's ear tips are cut off. If you don't want to use a larger pic, then what you have in your signature is better, with most of the ears cut off so you get that nice close up. I think if you used your 3 photo signature on the blank side and put your info on the business side, that would have worked real well. Or just the photo of dance on the blank side. One nice photo tells exactly what you do. Then, make up a brochure showing a variety of poses and breeds.
On the business side, I wouldn't have "please contact for prices and information". The fact that you have a business card with contact information is obvious. Leaving that out would have also given you room to have your address, since people would be bringing their pets to your place, and a physical address shows you are not a fly-by-night. From what I can see, your photos are really lovely.
The dobie's ear tips are cut off. If you don't want to use a larger pic, then what you have in your signature is better, with most of the ears cut off so you get that nice close up. I think if you used your 3 photo signature on the blank side and put your info on the business side, that would have worked real well. Or just the photo of dance on the blank side. One nice photo tells exactly what you do. Then, make up a brochure showing a variety of poses and breeds.
On the business side, I wouldn't have "please contact for prices and information". The fact that you have a business card with contact information is obvious. Leaving that out would have also given you room to have your address, since people would be bringing their pets to your place, and a physical address shows you are not a fly-by-night. From what I can see, your photos are really lovely.
I think it looks great!
I think different stages in business demand different tactics, and I think this design is great for you right now. Since you don't have a website with which to educate potential customers, the next best thing us to give them an action prompt like ,"please contact...". It's surprisingly effective!
I know I feel weird about putting my home address on things although it's true an address does convey stability, so if things get bigger one option is to get a p.o. Box. That way, whatever you have going on in life won't interfere changing business info all the time.
I think different stages in business demand different tactics, and I think this design is great for you right now. Since you don't have a website with which to educate potential customers, the next best thing us to give them an action prompt like ,"please contact...". It's surprisingly effective!
I know I feel weird about putting my home address on things although it's true an address does convey stability, so if things get bigger one option is to get a p.o. Box. That way, whatever you have going on in life won't interfere changing business info all the time.
Thanks everyone! I'll keep these tips stored somewhere for future reference -- a lot of them are very helpful.
Like I said, it's not really a major business right now. If/when it grows, I'll make some changes to make it look a little more professional if necessary.
I didn't put my address on it because chances are the dogs won't usually be coming to my address -- it often works better to photograph them in their environment, or their owner's favourite place to take them. They'll definitely have the option to come to me, but they'll also have the option to do one of the above as well. But if it's better to put the address on, I'll do that in the future also.
I wish I'd gotten all this info sooner, but hopefully the current one will work well enough for now. I don't want to start expanding my client base too much yet until I get more used to/comfortable with taking photos for other people -- for now it's plenty large for just a part-time/on the side thing.
Like I said, it's not really a major business right now. If/when it grows, I'll make some changes to make it look a little more professional if necessary.
I didn't put my address on it because chances are the dogs won't usually be coming to my address -- it often works better to photograph them in their environment, or their owner's favourite place to take them. They'll definitely have the option to come to me, but they'll also have the option to do one of the above as well. But if it's better to put the address on, I'll do that in the future also.
I wish I'd gotten all this info sooner, but hopefully the current one will work well enough for now. I don't want to start expanding my client base too much yet until I get more used to/comfortable with taking photos for other people -- for now it's plenty large for just a part-time/on the side thing.
I think your business card looks GREAT! I wish you all the luck and hope it takes off like a rocket Toller!
Sort of off topic, but still maybe relevant
When we have picked out photographers in the past (not pet photographers) they have come equipped with their portfolio (a big picture book or two). We could browse through and see their past work if they didn't have a studio/gallery to decorate the walls with their work, LOL. Now I know you have plenty of pictures of your OWN dogs to show (and they are GREAT), but a sampling (with permission of course) of past clients would be a good thing to consider as you are building so I would ask them as you go if they mind having this or that picture included in your portfolio
Not only as a "resume" of sorts, but it also might give prospective clients some ideas on what they'd like you to do for them too.
Just thought I'd toss that out there as you begin so you can start building your albums from the start
Sort of off topic, but still maybe relevant
When we have picked out photographers in the past (not pet photographers) they have come equipped with their portfolio (a big picture book or two). We could browse through and see their past work if they didn't have a studio/gallery to decorate the walls with their work, LOL. Now I know you have plenty of pictures of your OWN dogs to show (and they are GREAT), but a sampling (with permission of course) of past clients would be a good thing to consider as you are building so I would ask them as you go if they mind having this or that picture included in your portfolio
Not only as a "resume" of sorts, but it also might give prospective clients some ideas on what they'd like you to do for them too.
Just thought I'd toss that out there as you begin so you can start building your albums from the start
Ooooh! An album would be great. You can use your clients, but you can also use your own dogs and friends dogs to show elegant, cute, subdued, etc. photos. It really helps to give people a better idea of what they want. A fluffy puppy in a basket, a dog pawing at a balloon, dog and child asleep on a quilt, the flying leap photos with different backgrounds. Soon, you'll be ready for a website.