I’m cur­rently redesign­ing my busi­ness card, because I’ve always hated the one I have. Dur­ing my entire career I’ve had only one or two cards that I thought were really well-executed, but I’m picky. And the next one will blow them all away to atone for past mediocre cards. I’ve been handed a lot of busi­ness cards over the years, and it’s a reg­u­lar occur­rence that you can size up the busi­ness right away by the card you are pre­sented. And some­times it’s a pass/fail test. Con­sider what some of the cards you’ve been handed might say:

• Light stock, rough edges: Office Depot tem­plate meets home inkjet printer. Not a seri­ous contender.