ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

 
A business card is merely a part of a branding system to provide someone with your contact information, it is not supposed to be an advertisement for your business.
 
As for the business name, cc, I liked Mane Mechanic, personally. I like the play on words, and the initials "MM" would be easy for people to remember. 
 
EDIT: And you have to remember who your target audience is for this little venture. Is it individuals or is it owners/operators of salons? If it's the latter, I have to believe that something more along the lines of "Mane Mechanic" would stick with them as well. 

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
See?

Can we fit Tools in the name somewhere? Salon Tools something-something. Come on, the chicks will love it.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Truth! People don't believe me when I say bad graphics can actually cause a business to fail - but it's true, I've seen it happen. Invest in a decent (non-cartoon) logo and apply clean sensible typography to all their pieces. They don't need much more than that. 

 zipper wrote: 
Hullo, I need a new belt for my Maytag.

 cc_rider wrote: 
You will rue dealing with vista print - guaranteed. if you want to go cheap, try overnight prints or psprint. vista prints can't even cut business cards square - a retarded monkey with a gaping head wound and a butcher knife could trim cards better than they can. 

 cc_rider wrote: 
Okay. You're doing the thing that drives me nuts. Business cards have a purpose. They're not tiny ads for your business, you walking in the door and introducing yourself is the best advertisement. All you need from your business card is a way for people to find your number. You could scribble it out on a sticky note ... and what you say next to the number to make them remember what the sticky note is for? That's all you need on the business card. Really. If you get too involved the phone number becomes secondary to the art (especially generic clip art) and all of a sudden people aren't able to figure out what the card is for.

 Leslie wrote: 
Dryer Doctor would be better. actually... Doctor Dryer.

 cc_rider wrote: 
Well I'm a chick and I think Dryer Daddy sucks, bigtime.

 manbirdexperiment wrote: 
I've been thinking about that too. I think SHC is out, 'cause a lot of people, particularly salon people, are not gonna get it. Cold War references are a bit passe, you know?

I'm not a huge fan of mane mechanic either, but the chicks seem to like it alright. Speaking of which, the women seem to like one that I had dismissed outright: DRYER DADDY.

I've been on vistaprint looking at layouts (sorry 'Bird), and they have a couple salon-themed ones. But 'Dryer Daddy' begs for something more unique, almost into the 'Rat Fink' style of old hotrod graphics. Maybe I need to crib some pages from Ed Roth and Von Dutch's books...

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Excellent point, Scott.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
I like simple and basic also - sometimes cute/clever just ain't. 

Salon Equipment Repair. Dot com. Last thing you want is for people to say "cute. what do you do?"
 

 manbirdexperiment wrote: 
ha! yeah, that'll work.

 zipper wrote: 
Appliance Service Specialists? 

 cc_rider wrote: 
I love The Mane Mechanic. Strategic Hair Command sounds like a name for a salon itself rather than being descriptive of your services. Ironfeather isn't a name that you coined, so it could be bad luck to use it (if you believe in luck).

Salon Appliance Specialists is all that's stuck for me so far. Plural is good because it reads as a group rather than a one-man operation, but it's a boring name.

Consider what acronym is formed by the names that you like. It doesn't seem to matter up front, but it can potentially matter later... Anyway... I'll say again that I love The Mane Mechanic, despite it being singular. That could be a good thing because it defines your company as THE one, which is a good idea. I'll ponder on my drive home. If nothing strikes, I'll ask Z. He's kind of an idea man.

 Leslie wrote: 
I think Rod said that, not me. But I'm not sure anymore. 

 manbirdexperiment wrote: 
Rob brings up a good point with the acronym. I don't care for Strategic Hair Command because it sounds too militaristic for me, but that's just me.

 cc_rider wrote: 
If it ends up being an acronym, consider how it feels to the mouth when spoken. I feel more comfortable saying, "Hey, let's call IFS." than I do saying, "Hey, get SHC over here."
I don't care for The Mane Mechanic at all. That's my 10 cents worth of ambiguous drivel.

 cc_rider wrote: 
After much consideration and input, the list is narrowing down to three or so finalists:

The Mane Mechanic - works into the 'mechanic' theme.

Strategic Hair Command - a bit silly, but salons are famous for punny names, like 'A Cut Above', 'The Hairport', 'Shear Insanity', et al.

Ironfeather Salon Services -
'Ironfeather' was the nickname of a mechanic buddy of mine: his shop was 'Ironfeather Automotive', and I have the large hand-painted sign from his shop hanging in my garage. And all of his mechanic's tools, and a bunch of his artwork too. The name has a personal connection, but I'm not sure how good it is, promotion-wise.

This is a lot tougher than I thought: I'm not totally sold on any of these, but I'm ready to make some cards to hand out...
Any advice from the wonderfully creative RP community?

Thanks!

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
It took me a second to get this.