The Business of Business Cards

by William D. Esteb

There are some doctors who gain solace from the notion that there appears to be an almost inverse relationship between one's business skills and one's healing talents. Since healing a patient's hurts is "more important," all too many doctors almost celebrate their poor business skills. The lack of a killer instinct when enticing a patient to begin care, or the tough-skinned firing of a staff member, is avoided at all costs. If one must revert to such savage interpersonal skills, then one must not be a very good healer, goes the logic. And while this isn't an endorsement for such Neanderthal business practices, thinking that being a businessperson and a compassionate healer occupy opposing sides of a coin is just not true. Being comfortable wearing both hats is not only fashionable, it's critical to one's success in the new practice environment of the 1990s.

This notion is especially apparent in the creation and distribution of a doctor's business card. It is such a small thing, normally 2" by 3 1/2", that it rarely gets the attention by management gurus that it should. It is often one of the first visible thing created by a new doctor to be used to create the first (and most lasting) impression of those who get one. While doctors may spend hundreds of dollars of their time and energy finding the perfect office location and hiring an attorney to review the office lease and then spend still thousands more on paint, carpet, and furnishings, the lowly business card is given 10 minutes of thought and costs just a few dollars to produce. Overlooking small details is a good way to sabotage a practice.

Why are business cards so important? Like an office brochure, they are a tangible (and portable) representation of your practice. While it may be just a small, rectangular piece of paper, a business card can be a powerful tool for growing your practice.

As I meet doctors at seminars and speaking engagements, I am stunned by the number of doctors who claim to own business cards, but don't seem to have them with them. Embarrassed, they pat their pockets, rifle through a veritable filing cabinet of a wallet, but come up empty. I think part of the problem is the printers who print business cards.

When you order your business cards they come in a cute little box. It's about the size of a large jewelry box, and it almost seems a shame to remove any. The weight of the paper, the smell of the ink, and the precision cutting of the cards that fit perfectly in the box, makes one hesitate before removing any cards from the set. A dozen or so cards are removed, placed in your wallet or purse and the rest of the box is put on the shelf, where all too often, they remain; a box of 500 cards lasting many doctors two, three or more years!

Part of the reluctance that doctors may have about getting rid of their business cards may be due in part to having had business cards shoved in their faces at conventions by aggressive computer software salesmen and headrest paper marketeers. Cleaning their pockets out and throwing away a handful of cards, obtained from "running the gauntlet" of a typical state association convention, can put one in the frame of mind that most cards are discarded (so to speak). How you treat business cards shouldn't be a judge of how others use business cards. Networking groups sponsored by the chamber of commerce are a good example of what a business card can do. The whole purpose of these groups is to find contacts in other businesses that might become potential customers.

If you'd rather not rub shoulders with the Realtors, seamless gutter providers, and insurance salesmen, that's all right. But what about the dry cleaners, car repairmen, and hair stylists? These and other types of service providers, who you are in contact with countless others, are logical recipients of your business cards. Get into the habit of giving a card out frequently to these other professionals. Unfortunately, many doctors think that once they've given someone their card, that it automatically goes into a little binder of some kind in which duplicates are frequently removed. Probably not. Keep in mind as you give your cards away, that your card may be given to a third party you haven't even met yet. Make sure people who encounter and influence others have an ample supply of your cards!

A business card is merely a simple and inexpensive way to accurately supply your name, address, phone number, and other pertinent information about your practice. It can serve as a form of aided recall. "I know a great chiropractor. She's not like all the other chiropractors you've heard about. In fact, I have her card. Here. Call her."

What does a good business card look like? Your card should graphically represent you and your office. If yours is a formal office, perhaps your card should be more corporate looking. If yours is a place where children and families frequent, maybe the graphic approach should be "friendlier." The tone your card projects is affected by the thickness of the paper, color of the paper, color of the ink(s), typeface, and layout.

If you recognize the importance of rapidly depleting your supply of cards by generously giving them out to everyone you encounter, consider a variety of designs. Perhaps create a Monday card, a Tuesday card, etc. A different card for a different day of the week! Then when someone politely turns you down, having received a card from you the week before, "Oh, you must of gotten my Wednesday card. This is my Thursday card. I have a different card for every day of the week, because I just never know who I might run into that might need a chiropractic doctor." Have fun with it.

Probably the most overlooked opportunity of most practice business cards I see is the empty back side. For a profession that the general public misunderstands, it seems such a waste to ignore the blank surface on the back. If you don't use it for recording appointment dates and times, consider writing a short paragraph for the back side. Maybe the paragraph on the back of one card describes your chiropractic philosophy. Another might explain what happens on a new patient's typical first visit. Another might explode a common myth about chiropractic. The opportunities to provide a quick, bite-sized, thought-provoking idea are endless. The first step is to stop looking at your business cards in the old fashioned, white-paper-black-ink limited vision way!

While you're at it, if the idea is to get as many cards as possible out into your community, why not provide cards for your staff? The expense is small, and the prestige it gives your staff with their friends and family is enormous. Make sure they understand the idea is to get rid of as many cards as possible. They don't do anything sitting neatly in the box they come in.

Get your business card professionally designed. Interview some graphic designers and explain what kind of image you want your card(s) to project. Look at samples of other business cards and letterhead designs they've worked on. Find someone you think you'd like working with and get going. The design and production may cost a couple of hundred dollars (get a fixed bid in advance), but you'll be amazed at what can be done with seven square inches on the front and seven square inches on the back.

Your business card is a small thing. And changing it won't save your practice or solve a new patient problem. Yet, reevaluating your card and how you're using it can increase the exposure of your practice in subtle ways. Gimmicks that instantly put 50 new patients on your doorstep are just that, gimmicks. Taking a proactive role in letting the world know where you are and what you do is not only a way to attract patients in quantities you can handle, it tends to attract patients with the qualities you enjoy serving. Which makes the business of chiropractic as enjoyable as the healing of chiropractic.

Excerpted from
Beyond Results
Originally published in 1995
240 Pages
US $24.95

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