Order business cards

Christmas Fair daily countdown tip

It's business card time

Having some business cards for your stall is essential. You can have them on your stand for people to pick up and contact you if they want to think about a purchase, plus you can pop them in bags when people buy something, just so they remember who you are.

To help you on your way, we've picked some little nuggets of advice to creating the perfect business card.

Include only essential information

Business cards are tiny, so avoid the temptation to add oodles of information. Pretty much everyone uses the internet these days, so you can happily get away with just including your business name, a few words to summarise what you do, your email and the URL of your Etsy shop.

Keep type readable

Pick a clean, clear font and keep the type size reasonably large; the school of thought is no smaller than 8pt. The best combination is dark type on a white background. If you cannot live without your colour, just ensure that the text colour and background colour are complete opposite.

Say it with pictures

Use your cards as an excuse to show off your products. Most companies allow for 2-sided printing, so use one for your details and the other for a photo. Think of the picture side like a book cover.

MOO offers something they call Printfinity, which enables you to alter the outside image on your cards. So if you can't decide what to show, this might be a good option.

Use templates

A lot of online companies will provide templates for you to just drop your information into. This is great if you haven't got any editing software. If you want to do things manually, you should be able to download a template to show you where the cards will be cut. Make sure you keep important information away from this and if you use images, make sure they extend out enough. The cuts can't be 100% accurate, so keep within the lines and you shouldn't lose anything vital.

Check postage and printing times

This tip has come so early in the proceedings because of experience. When I wanted to create cards for the Autumn fair, it may have been a wee bit late in the day, ahem. I was therefore shocked to find that a lot of companies needed 4-5 working days to create the cards, with delivery time on top of that. Delivery could take another week, or there was the speedy post option (or the shame option for slow coached) which worked out costing more than the cards. Plan ahead and you won't have to pay over the odds.

Make your own

Of course, you don't have to get someone else to print your cards. Buy some good-quality card stock, create a design or stamp and create your own. It will take longer, but your cards will be a work of art in themselves!