Ordering business cards for a whole team without mistakes

Start with one approved template

Every team order goes wrong the same way: someone tweaks the layout for one person, then another person's title is too long and gets squeezed, and by card twelve nobody is quite sure what the standard is. Fix the design first and treat it as a template.

Approve one card completely, front and back, using the longest real name and the longest real title on the team. If 'Director of Business Development and Strategic Accounts' fits, everything else will. A standard card is 3.5 x 2 inches, and that space fills up fast.

Decide the rules before you collect names

Write these down and share them with whoever gathers the information:

• Name format: first and last only, or with middle initial, credentials (CPA, PE, RN) and pronouns?
• Title case: 'Sales Manager' or 'sales manager', and is it the job title HR uses or the one the person prefers?
• Phone format: (765) 555-0100, 765-555-0100 or 765.555.0100. Pick one.
• Which numbers appear: office, direct line, mobile, or a mix?
• Email format and domain.
• Whether everyone's card carries the same address, or each branch has its own.
• Back side: same for everyone, or blank?

Send the list as a spreadsheet

Put one person per row and one field per column: name, credentials, title, direct phone, mobile, email, location, quantity. Typing names into an email body invites copy errors on both ends. A spreadsheet can be checked line by line and reused next year.

Have each person confirm their own row. People spot a wrong digit in their own phone number instantly and miss it in everyone else's. Spell-check does nothing for a misspelled surname.

Proof every card, not only the first

You will get a proof for each name. Check each one for the boring things: spelling, title, every digit of every number, the email address, and whether the text still fits comfortably inside the safe area. Then send each person their own proof and get a yes in writing.

A reprint because of one typo costs more than the twenty minutes this takes. An email address with a missing letter looks careless, and worse, every message sent to it disappears.

Quantities and printing method

Not everyone needs the same number. A salesperson at trade shows goes through cards quickly. Someone in accounting may hand out a dozen a year. Order by role rather than one quantity for all.

For a team, the shop can often run several names together on the same press sheet when they share stock and ink. Digital printing is usually more economical for short runs of each name, and offset makes sense for large quantities or an exact Pantone logo color. Ask us how your order will run.

The usual team-order mistakes

None of these are printing errors. They are list errors, and a clean spreadsheet with each person signing off on their own row prevents nearly all of them.

• Two people with the same first name and the cards swapped.
• A mobile number that is the person's old personal phone.
• Credentials on some cards and not others, with no rule behind it.
• A title that fits on the proof only because the type was shrunk to 6 point.
• The old office address on the back of one batch.

Keep the file for the next new hire

Ask that the template be kept on file. When someone joins or gets promoted, you send one new row from the spreadsheet and approve one proof. Matching cards months later should be routine, as long as stock, color and layout are recorded with the job.

Keep the letterhead and envelopes consistent with the cards too, so the whole set looks like it came from one company.