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Posts Tagged ‘Quality’

To write a business plan for a new salon, entrepreneurs often look for sample plans on which to base theirs. Great care must be taken to make sure that the sample plan is high quality and worthy of being used as a sample in the first place. Many websites proclaim that they offer sample business plans and here are some ways to know if the plan you are looking at is worth the paper it is written on.

Proofread and Edited

Before even getting into the content of the sample plan, look to see that it is proofread, devoid of typos and spelling errors, and edited for grammar, repetition, and clarity. Anyone who is serious about writing business plans know that there is no greater immediate turn-off to a potential funder than poor proofreading and editing. You wouldn’t leave typos or bad grammar in your résumé and your business plan is just that – a résumé for your intended business. If the writer of this sample says this was a successful business plan, read no further if you find it hasn’t been carefully prepared. It is highly unlikely that the plan received funding in that case.

Standard Outline

Creativity should not generally enter into a plan’s outline and order of sections. Successful plans follow the basic business plan outline, which you will find described more or less the same way in most books and websites. This standard outline leaves nothing out, covering all of the areas investors want to see. If you see major deviations from this outline in the sample plan you are looking at, be warned that this either had to be an exceptional plan to overcome its odd outline or it was written by someone who ignored the basics.

Clean and Simple Look

A successful plan will have a clean and attractive graphical look. You shouldn’t see numerous fonts and inconsistent headings which can make the plan look more childish. You certainly shouldn’t see clip art which is not specific to the business and does not add anything to the plan. Graphics should either be charts or graphs which provide a clean representation of important information, relevant photos of the business, its location, team members, or competitors, logos of the business or its competitors, or other images with a clear reason for their relevance to the plan. A plan which doesn’t follow these basics is tipping you off that the content within may not be the best to serve as a sample for your salon.

So you already have a design ready to be sent to that business card printing service. You had a whirlwind session with your graphic artist, and you are extra enthusiastic of how it will turn out. Hold on however. Before spending all that money in business card printing, you have to review every aspect of your business card before it gets produced 100 or 500 times over. Any mistake or design error that isn’t caught early enough can be detrimental to your business card. So reviewing them thoroughly  assures you that you will be getting the best quality business card that you can produce. This is what separates a great business card from other poorer quality and cheap business cards.

To help you out in reviewing your business card design, you need a checklist. Below is the standard business card quality checklist that most professionals go through to review business cards. Go through it one by one, and see if your business card options and designs are up to current standards.

Paper Stocks – First, and foremost is the business card paper stock or more specifically its card stock. Not all business cards are printed in the same type of card stock. There are differences in the thickness, coatings and textures for each type of business card stock. To be sure that you have the best quality business cards, aim for the card stocks that offer protective coatings such as UV and moisture resistant card stocks. Some card stocks may also have a sheen or glossy effect that makes it look better. Just ask your business card printing service for your options regarding business card paper or card stocks.

Now, for the quality of your card stock, simple try to bend it a bit and see if the paper follows the fold immediately or not. If the paper stock is easily bendable, then you have lower quality paper stock and you may want to change it if you like. Also try to test if the paper stock easily absorbs water, and if it sheens or not. Lack of moisture resistance and light reflectivity is also a sign of a not so perfect business card.

Ink Quality – Next, we have the ink quality. The business card printer’s ink quality can depend on the printer itself. There are several types of this. It can be offset printing, digital inkjet or digital laser jet printing. Each has a different way of embedding inks into paper, and also they have different types of ink. To test the ink quality, simply run down a few drops of water in front of your design. If the ink “runs” and is easily water soluble, you have a mark of a bad quality ink, and printer. So check this on your sample printing when it comes.

Design Composition – Next on the items in our checklist is the design composition or layout. This refers to the positions of your design and content elements in your color business card. It can be the placement of pictures, the positions of certain text, their font styles and of course the overall theme. Basically, you need to check if all the design elements mesh together to form a coherent design. This design must match the image that you want to project, and it also has to match the prevailing design standards of the time. If you design looks outdated or messy, then it might not be up to snuff for the best business cards out there.

Content Thoroughness – Lastly, be sure to have all the content that you need printed in your business card. The content must be as thorough as it can possibly be. Be sure to have your name, job title, company name, address, contact numbers, website information (if applicable), company logo, tag line and sample service/product list all included in your content information. Be as inclusive as possible so that you can maximize all the information that you want to give in one business card delivery. If your business card content is not this thorough, you may find yourself wasting time physically writing in the missing information which can be difficult. So check the content before going to printing.

That should be a wrap for the checklist on business cards. By going through a review process using this checklist, you should be able to print business cards that are high quality, professional looking and very attractive to business contacts. You won’t be wasting your money in business card printing if you do so.

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