Creating the Perfect Business Card
Part of being a professional dog walker is that you are advertising your business every time you take a dog out for a walk. One of the best ways to attract new clients is for them to see you on the job, providing A+ pet care. Besides having a branded shirt or hat with your company name and logo, your next most valuable piece of marketing material is a business card. Fortunately, it has never been easier to create a beautiful and professional business card that you can easily and affordably share. This Academy Lesson will help you create the perfect business card for your pet sitting or dog walking business.
At this point, you should already have a name and logo. If you haven’t quite gotten to those steps yet, we have some great resources to help you choose the right name and create an awesome logo for your dog walking business.
What Information Should My Business Card Include?
The standard size for a business card in North America is 2 inches by 3.5 inches. That’s not a lot of space to work with, so you want to create a clean design. It’s important to find the right balance of professional and eye-catching. You don’t want to overwhelm a potential client with too many graphics or too much information, making the card crowded and hard to read. Like with most other elements of starting a business, simple is usually better.
Here is what should be on your dog walking or pet sitting business card:
- Logo
- Business name
- What services you specialize in
- Your name and title (Owner, Manager, Founder, Head Dog Walker, Alpha Dog, etc.)
- Telephone number
- Address, or just the city/service area you operate in
- Email address
- Website URL
- Optional—you can add links to social media handles if you have space
All of the information above should be very clearly displayed. Choose a typeface that is easy to read—sans serif fonts like Arial and Helvetica are typically the easiest to read, but Serif fonts like Times New Roman and Georgia will do the trick as well.
Most businesses like to include their logo on the card. If you have a two-sided card, one side typically has your logo and name of your company. The reverse side will have more detailed information. Try not to include too much information or too many colors. Simple is better! If you are feeling stuck, try searching Google for a little extra inspiration. Also, keep in mind that these aren’t hard and fast rules, just some suggestions. Like your business, your business card is your own and should reflect you and your company. It’s okay to have fun with it, but please make sure it’s easy to read!
Online Business Card Designers
Countless websites offer online business card design and printing. We recommend doing some research and finding the designer and printer that works best for you. Most offer user-friendly design tools that make the process easy.
Here are some of the more popular sites for designing and printing:
- Vistaprint — One of the most popular sites for designing and printing marketing materials. Vistaprint offers relatively inexpensive business card printing, starting as low as $15 for 100 cards if you choose the most economical options.
- Canva — Another popular design-focused site that offers a variety of design tools and printing options. Canva also has a large selection of icons and illustrations to use. Here at Time To Pet - we love using Canva for nearly all of our design needs!
- MOO — A quality online designer and printer that specializes in business cards. MOO offers a variety of design and printing options, including next day delivery for when you need those cards ASAP!
- Zazzle — Offering everything from business cards to apparel, Zazzle is an online resource for getting pretty much anything custom printed.
Those are just a few business card printers to get you started, there are many more, offering all sorts of specialized services and printing options. A quick Google search should help you find them!
Once You’ve Made Your Business Cards, Give Them to Everyone!
Always have a handful of business cards on you when you are visiting clients or out on walks. It’s a great idea to leave a few extra with your current customers to pass them along to other pet parents that might be looking for services like yours. Customer referrals are among the most effective ways to grow your pet sitting business, especially if you are a new company. Delivering an incredible service is most important, but you should also make sure your customers are aware of your referral program and that it is easy to spread the word to their friends and family. Crafting a well-thought-out, well-designed, and actionable business card can make a big difference to your business.
In addition to keeping cards on you and in your car, definitely include your business card in all correspondence. Always have some extra cards with you to leave at local businesses in the area. You can also pin a couple up on that corkboard at the local coffee shop. Your business cards are like little billboards for your company, the more opportunities you give people to see them, the better!
