Improvability Blog

• What you write on your business card could be crucial to the future growth of your business
• And what you forget to write on your business card could cost you a small fortune!

WIIFM?

Your name, your logo, your brand name, etc. are all outrageously important to you but they’re of little interest to the client.  She couldn’t care less if you’re called Improvability, Kim Bolsover or Pernicious Petunia. 

All she cares about is what you can do for her, “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM)

Your swatch wallets are marketing tools

Think of the colour swatch wallets and fans as a marketing tool and make sure you include your business card in each one.

NB. The plastic sleeves in the fans have been deliberately sized to take a business card - clever, eh?

Your happy client will show her brand-new wallet to her friends, family, shop assistants, neighbours, work colleagues, etc.

Your contact details

To stand the slightest chance of these potential clients booking their own consultation with you, they need your contact details and some of them may not feel able to ask for them outright from your happy client so they’ll copy down your phone number when she’s not looking…

And for goodness sakes, tell people where you are! 

If you’re based in London and your happy client visits friends or family 400 miles away in Edinburgh, they need to know how far they’re going to have to travel if they really want to consult you!

A mobile number tells no-one where you are located and unless you used to work for the GPO* in the 1970s, you are unlikely to have the entire country’s dial codes lodged in your memory either.

You don’t have to print your full address but something like ‘Lower Bugle and surrounding area’ will give you a fighting chance of getting further work.

Corporate work

If you’re intending to work in the corporate arena, then you will need to use corporate ’speak’ on your business cards.  You can’t get away with ‘Learn which colours are your best’ when speaking to professionals - they’ll just think you’re a hobby housewife with aspirations beyond your skill level.

Your website URL must appear on your business card for corporate work and you most definitely need your email address. 

Using a free or cheap email service provider like hotmail, yahoo, aol, etc. will NOT enhance your professional status!

I’ve discussed this with so many professional business people who are just horrified that anyone could possibly expect them to do business with someone who won’t invest in their own domain name. It reeks of trying to save money (perhaps this could translate as ‘cheap’?).

If I saw this on a business card supposedly selling me a professional service, I’d find someone more professional pronto!

If you choose to provide services to both the personal and corporate markets, it might make sense to have two completely different business cards.

Interesting Info
* The General Post Office, or simply the GPO as it was more affectionately known, was once responsible for running both the Postal and Telephone Services of the UK.
Staff who worked for the GPO were sometimes referred to as ‘God’s Poor Orphans’ - my Mum was one of them, ‘poor’ darling! On 26th March 2001, the government-owned Post Office became a plc (public limited company) and with it came the controversial change of name to Consignia.
The new name was not popular in the UK and eventually, on 4th November 2002, was changed to Royal Mail Group plc. Thus the long-established and well-known names of  ’Post Office’ and ‘Royal Mail’ could continue.

Now, aren’t you glad that you know that?

"Kim,
I would like to do the ladies’ style, men’s style, corporate image, and advanced style and would like to know if you have any DVD training for them and how much is the whole pack?" DB, South Africa

DB, At the moment, the only self-study DVD course we offer is Colour in a Box. 

We are constantly being asked to do something similar with Ladies’ Style and will be looking at how to do that more closely soon. 

I want to see how the Advanced Colour Analysis Training Day and the resulting Advanced Pack work out first, so that I can gauge reactions and incorporate suggestions for improvements from ladies like yourself who have already registered for one or the other.

Thanks for letting me know that you would be interested in more self-study courses.  Without emails like yours, we wouldn’t even be considering it!

Question from a consultant who had recently trained with me

Sara is a 30-year-old accountant who is single but would love to meet a mate.

I did her colours a couple of months ago which she has really taken on board and she is wearing some lovely colours now - looks fab in cream and the light Spring colours.  She says she is getting lots of compliments, which is a good sign.

Her style session revealed she is a Natural / Classic which Sara seemed fine with and agreed with. She wears no jewellery, not even a watch and no makeup either. At work she dresses in a lovely coffee brown suit which she wears with a short-sleeved t-shirt!

Considering her profession should she wear a 3/4 or full-length sleeved top or does it not matter? She is not in touch with the general public at work, just her colleagues.

My answer

Accountants, lawyers, bankers, and serious promotion-minded office workers need a minimum of three-quarter sleeves.  You still need to create the right impression around your colleagues for them to respect your professionalism (or not, as the case may be). 

Short sleeves are for casual wear; when you wear them in the office you are saying that you do not take the job seriously. 

A round neck top is great for when she wants to be more approachable, especially to change in to when she meets friends (and a potential boyfriend?) after work.

However, at work when she wants to be seen as authoritative or to be taken more seriously, then a V neck would be useful.  However, as a Natural, Sara may feel a bit rigid in such sharp angles so I would suggest she try a soft cowl neck; this can often form a perfect balance between the two contrasting looks. 

As a very strong Dramatic personality myself, I find the cowl softens what could be read as a very sharp look when I wear a V neck.  Conversely, Naturals will find a cowl is a softer way of demonstrating a more authoritative look rather than a definite, sharp V neck.  Also, this will help Sara look more feminine and is something she could wear both to work and to meet friends.  Adding a touch of colour under her brown suit will also make her more feminine."

If YOU would like to learn more about adding styling to your colour, fashion or image business, check out the contents of my Ladies’ Style course.