And a Happy Countdown-to-Christmas Monday! (man, I’m really reaching…)
I’m taking a break from my medical narrations to chat with you lovely folks. I did four scripts this morning and I would like to bang out at least one or two more before I call it a day. I need to do a total of seventeen by Friday so I’m pacing myself. Actually, they’re not medical narrations. They’re e-learning recordings, but they feel like medical narrations because of the subject matter (chemistry) and the vocabulary & formulas, so there you go.
Anyway, what I really want to talk about today is business cards. I exchanged many, many of them with my peers at the VO Mixer last week (man, I’m still basking in the warm glow of that!) and I noticed a few things that I want to share with you. Just to be fair, my business cards sucked for a long time and now I finally have some that I like so I’m sharing not only what I noticed about the cards I were handed at the Mixer, but also what others have told me about my old cards.
TIP OF THE WEEK: Business cards can make a very strong first impression. Everybody has their opinions about what makes a good business card, so I’m gonna throw a few things out there, in no particular order.
1. Unless you own or rent an office/studio/building do not put your address on your business card.
2. If you are going to put a website on your business card, it should be either yourname.com or yourbusiness.com. As a VO talent, I would even shy away from putting Voice123 or Voices.com as a website on there. One business card I got last week had a MySpace address on it. Yikes!
3. Don’t describe your voice on your business card.
4. No images of microphones, please! It’s way cliche. Either have a logo that doesn’t include one or don’t put a graphic on your card at all.
5. If you’re not an actor or model, don’t put your headshot on your card unless your face exactly matches your voice and even then I wouldn’t recommend it. And even if you are an actor or a model, you should have a separate card anyway. Oh, and if you’re really, really good-looking, forget everything I just said and put your pic on there.
6. If I call the number on your card, please have a professional-sounding voicemail. If I visit the website on your card, make sure all the links work and you have demos on the main page.
Remember folks, your business card is the gateway to you!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: If I fret over tomorrow, I’ll have little joy today. Anonymous
STUFF!: What do you think makes for a great business card? Who has the best one you’ve ever seen?
From Tom Dheere’s apartment, this is Tom Dheere, GKN News…