What to put on a business card in 2026

The five things that matter, the ones you can drop, and the Swiss particulars: four languages, legal form, and an address that does not expire.

Five things, not fifteen

A business card is read in three seconds, often standing up, often after a conversation half of which is already forgotten. It has one job: letting someone find you again. Five pieces of information are enough.

1. Your name, as people call you. No middle initial, no academic titles unless they are part of the trade.
2. What you do, in one line. "Career coach, Lausanne" says more than "Founder and managing director".
3. One phone number. The one you actually answer.
4. One e-mail address. The same one as in your signature.
5. One web address that gathers everything else: your site, your networks, your booking page, your photo. It is the only line that can change without reprinting.

Everything added to those five lines is paid for in legibility.

What you can leave off

The fax number, obviously. The full postal address, if you do not receive clients at your premises: the town is enough, the rest is on the web page. The five social media handles: nobody retypes them, and a single link to your page holds them all. The slogan. The logo that takes a third of the card. The long titles that say more about the org chart than about you.

A good rule: if a piece of information can change within two years, it goes on the web page, not on the paper.

The Swiss case

Language. A French card in Zurich, or a German one in Geneva, can be read, but it makes a faint noise. Two solutions: one card per language region, or a plain card (name, role, number) whose web page shows in the reader's language. That is what a Vizy card does: its buttons follow the language of the phone that opens it, and your content stays yours.

Legal form. If you work through a company, the company name with its form (GmbH, AG, Sàrl, SA) has its place, discreetly. It is part of the legal identity and it reassures. As a sole proprietor, your name is the company name.

Postcode and canton. "8001 Zürich" or "1003 Lausanne" read at a glance. The canton abbreviation is only useful when the town is ambiguous.

Formality. On the card itself there is no sentence, so no question. On the web page that extends it, stay formal in French, German and Italian unless your trade is on first-name terms.

The photo

On paper, rarely: there is no room and the print disappoints. On the web page, yes, almost always. A face is what lets people remember a meeting, and a contact with a photo is found faster in an address book. Choose a photo in which you are recognisable at the size of a stamp, on a calm background, face in the centre.

Paper and digital together

Paper is not dead; it has changed roles. A plain paper card, pleasant to hold, with a QR code on the back leading to the complete, current version, does better than either alone. The paper gives the object and the gesture; the page gives the content and the "Add to contacts" button.

And when you change your number, you change the page. The cards already handed out lead to the new version, and nobody notices.

One rule to finish

Everything that can change goes on the page. Everything that does not can go on the paper. Your name does not change; your role, your number and your diary do.