Family Biz Card

Business cards are still used in business, but they will probably become passe as everyone eventually has the ability to beam personal contact information back and forth from their cell phone. But that time is not now, and there will always be a few who will still find it easier to just hand you a business. A few different businesses have started to look for a new niche in the business card market, and its a demographic that has yet to be fully exploited.

Many families barely have time for each other with obligations, responsibilities, commitments, dates, appointments, and meetings. All these other outside endeavors all involve other people who we need to coordinate, touch base, or confer with prior to the actual planned event. Basically, whenever we meet someone new we need need to fumble for pen or paper, or peck out a name and number on our cell phone to record the contact information. This is why family business cards are a novelty that probably still has a few good years left in it.

Calling cards first found favor in France in the 1800′s and caught on through Europe and America as an important social status. The height of the popularity of the calling card era coincides with the reign of Queen Victoria, Queen of England from 1837-1901

Business people usually have business cards, but that doesn’t mean there is a law stopping anyone else from getting them also; and, it might even make sense for everyone in the family to have a personal “calling card”. This was not uncommon back in the 1800s, and into the beginning of the 1900s, as families of a certain social stature had calling cards for all members. Some of the outfits marketing “family cards” are clearly aimed at moms who are usually responsible for arranging playdates, carpools and participating in various school functions. The idea of a “calling card”, which might be bereft of business information, can work for young adults as they start to enter the world of net working and contacts; or, as an alternative for singles who may prefer to keep their professional contact information seperate from their personal contacts.

There’s also a greater element of creativity which can be explored when one is not representing a company, but just an individual. There’s more freedom to use the various online design programs available to offer an image , a snapshot, of who you are on a personal level. Sometimes it might be a photo of the kids, the dog, the car, or perhaps some beautiful flowers or custom graphics. Companies like CardsForMoms.com are directed right at this new market, but any print service can fill the need .

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