There are twp major marketing reasons why you put your picture on your business card. The first is to make it easy to recognize you. This comes into play when you give someone your card and 3 months later they are trying to remember which card is you. Having your face on the card may trigger the memory where the name might not have done it. Another example is where you are mailing into a neighborhood. You are having contact with people who have never met you face to face. When you begin door knocking in the area, it may help for the person answering the door to recognize your face (and not call 911).
The second reason is more subjective. People make decisions about who you are based on how you look. There are marketing studies that show that people are much more likely to use the professional services of a person if they have had a chance to look at that person's picture....AND, if that picture looks like a "nice" person. The picture needs to be welcoming, friendly, helpful. Find a golden retriever and take a few lessons from that breed!
Glamor Shots? Just don't do it. The person in the picture may be drop-dead beautiful, but if you don't usually look like that most days, it causes a real disconnect between you and the people who get to know the picture of you. I had a serious itch one fall to go back to being red-headed. Being blonde is who I am most of the time, but there are periods of my life that are more red-headed than blonde. In the end, the reason I didn't do it was because it would have created too big a disconnect between the physical reality of "me" and the marketed image of "me". That is what is wrong with Glamor Shots. Have them done, frame them and give them to someone you love. Don't use them on your business card.
How often do you get a picture made? You know it is time when the person who takes your house pictures calls you up and tells you to get over to his place because you need a new head-shot (do you hear the voice of experience here?). I know an agent who is bald but his photo has a full head of hair.
Bottom line? That picture is your representative out in a wider world than you may realize. You want that image to be as true an image of who you are as is possible.
Now, go enjoy your day!
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