What to Put on a Business Card (and What Nobody Reads)
A business card is read in a completely different way from a van. The van gets three seconds from the car behind at a red light. The card gets handed over at the end of a job, or picked up off a counter, and then sits on a fridge door for months. Whoever reads it has time, and they’re usually reading it because they already want to get hold of you. That changes the rules: things that don’t belong on the side of a van — an email address, a social handle — earn their place on a card, and the back, which most people leave blank, is the most valuable free space you’ve got.
The front: the five things that matter
Your name. First name and surname, not just the company. People ring a person, and “it was Dave who did the boiler” is how you get recommended.
What you do, in plain words. “Electrician”, “Plumbing & Heating”, “Gardening & Fencing”, “Dog Walking”. This is the line most often dropped in favour of a clever business name, and it’s the one that makes the card useful six months later when it turns up in a drawer. If the name doesn’t say the trade, the card has to.
Your phone number. The reason the card exists. Make it the largest thing after your name, use the number you actually answer, and make sure it’s the same number as on the van, your Google Business Profile and your website.
Your email address. Unlike the van, this belongs here. Someone at a kitchen table will happily type an email, and plenty of customers would rather send a photo of the problem than ring. An address at your own domain — dave@smithelectrical.co.uk — reads as a proper business in a way a free one doesn’t; our piece on whether you need a business email address covers the why and the how.
Your website and the area you cover. A short web address, and a line like “Covering Hythe, Folkestone & Ashford” so people know you’ll come out. A long or hyphenated address gets typed wrong, which is a good argument for choosing a sensible domain name before you order cards rather than after.
The back: the space most people waste
Turn most business cards over and you’ll find nothing, or a logo the size of a beer mat. That’s a missed opportunity, because the back can do something the front can’t: ask for an action.
A QR code to your Google review link. The best use of the back for almost any trade. The card is handed over at the moment a job’s finished and the customer is pleased — exactly when they’re most likely to leave a review, and exactly when they never quite get round to it. A code they can point a phone at while you’re still packing up removes the “I’ll do it later” step. We’ve covered how to get your review link and turn it into a QR code; the short version is that it’s free, takes ten minutes, and the code should be at least 2 cm square to scan reliably.
Or a QR code to your website, if reviews aren’t the priority yet. Either way, print a line beside it — “Scan to leave us a review” — because a bare code gets ignored.
A simple call to action beats a slogan. “Call for a free quote” tells someone what to do next. “Quality you can trust” tells them nothing they’d believe from a card anyway.
A short list of services, if you must. “Boilers · Bathrooms · Landlord certificates” helps. Twelve in tiny type doesn’t.
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| Your name | QR code to your review link (or website) |
| Trade, in plain words | A line saying what the code does |
| Phone number, prominent | ”Call for a free quote” or similar |
| Email at your own domain | Three or four headline services at most |
| Web address and area covered | Social handle, if you actually post |
What to leave off
A second number. A landline you never answer or a spare mobile means the customer picks, and picks the wrong one. One number.
Every social platform you’ve ever joined. A handle is fine if you actually post there and the account shows your work. Five icons in a row suggest none of them are looked after.
Stock photos and clip-art. A cartoon spanner makes the card look like the template it came from. Clean type on a plain background dates more slowly. If you have a logo, use it small and once.
Anything that might change. Prices, a temporary address, “new customers 10% off”. A card lives in a drawer for two years; print only what will still be true.
The size trap
The standard UK business card is 85 × 55 mm. The standard US card is 3.5 × 2 inches — roughly 89 × 51 mm, wider and shorter. It looks trivial on screen; in a wallet or card holder, US-sized cards stick out of the top.
This matters because many free online design tools default to the US size, so it’s easy to design a card, upload it to a UK printer and have it rejected or resized with the margins shaved off. Before you start, set the canvas to 85 × 55 mm and add a 3 mm bleed on every edge — printers ask for it, and it’s what stops a white sliver appearing along one side when the cards are trimmed. Keep anything important 3 mm inside the edge, and don’t set text below about 8 pt.
What business cards cost in the UK
Prices vary by printer, quantity and finish, so treat these as typical figures rather than quotes.
Simple cards on standard stock — a few hundred, double-sided, matt or gloss — typically come in somewhere around £10–£40 from the large online printers. For a trade, these are genuinely fine: thicker card doesn’t carry a name and a number to a kitchen drawer any better.
Premium finishes — heavy stock, rounded corners, spot gloss, foil lettering — usually push a few hundred cards into the £40–£120 range and beyond. If the finish is part of the sell (a kitchen fitter, a photographer, a wedding florist) it may be worth it. For a plumber, it probably isn’t.
High-street printers tend to charge more for the same card but will let you feel a proof, which is worth something if you’re unsure about stock. Whichever route you take, order a small first run. Two hundred cards with a typo in the phone number is a mistake everyone makes once.
One name, one number, everywhere
The card, the van, the Google profile and the website are four places a customer might meet you, and they need to agree: same business name spelled the same way, same phone number, same web address. A card that says “D. Smith Electrical” and a Google listing under “Dave Smith Electrician” leaves the customer unsure they’re the same business, and uncertainty is where enquiries go quiet.
Here’s where we declare our interest: the card ends with a web address, and the web address needs somewhere to go. If you haven’t got a website yet, we build one from your Google Business Profile — your services, photos, hours and reviews — free, on a free .co.uk domain, live within 48 hours of the domain being registered, with hosting at £24 a month including VAT as the only cost. Claim your free website before the cards go to print, and the address on the back will actually lead somewhere.