Digital business cards for startups and small teams: a practical set-up guide
By Online Business Cards Editorial Team | Published | Updated | By profession
Startups change job titles, addresses and even names faster than a print run lasts. Here is how to set up digital cards for a small team so they stay consistent and up to date.
Startups change quickly. Job titles change as people take on new work, the office moves or disappears, the website gets a new domain, and sometimes the company name changes too. Paper cards printed in month one are often wrong by month six.
A digital business card suits that pace because it is a web page you can edit. This guide is for founders and small teams in the UK setting up cards for the first time: how to keep everyone's consistent, what a limited company should show, how to handle leads and people leaving, and what it costs.
If you are new to the idea, start with what a digital business card is and how it works.
Decide a standard before anyone builds a card
Ten minutes agreeing a standard saves a lot of tidying later. Write down:
- Headline format. For example "Role, Company" or "Role, what you help with". Pick one.
- Photo style. Similar framing and background, so the team looks like a team.
- Brand colours and logo. Use the same template and colours on every card. Our guide to customising your digital business card covers templates and branding.
- Company links every card should carry. Usually the website, the company LinkedIn page and one main product or booking link.
- One main action per role. Founders might use "Book a call", sales "Request a demo", support "Email us".
- A short company line. One plain sentence on what the company does, reused on every card.
Our checklist of what to put on a digital business card works well as the base for this standard.
What a limited company should show
UK rules require a limited company to show its registered name on its websites and business documents. Its websites, business letters and order forms must also show its registered number, its registered office address and the part of the UK where it is registered, such as England and Wales.
Whether a personal profile counts as a company website is open to interpretation, so the low-effort, safe option is to add these details at the bottom of each team member's card, or on a company profile everyone links to. GOV.UK has a short guide on displaying your company name and details.
If you trade under a brand name that is different from your registered name, show both, so people can find you on Companies House.
Which plan for which role?
Role | Usual plan | Why
Founder meeting investors and partners | Business Plan (£90, one-off) | Bookings, contact leads and CRM
Sales or business development | Business Plan (£90, one-off) | Leads, follow-up and export
Technical or support staff | Brand Presence (£45, one-off) | Details, links and documents
As a mini-website for a local business
If your startup serves a local market, such as a café, studio or trade business, the company card can double as its first website: opening times, prices, reviews and a booking or enquiry form on one link you can put in your Google profile.
Pick the right plan for each person
Our plans are one-off payments, with no subscription, and each covers one person's profile.
- Brand Presence (£45) suits most of the team: details, links, documents, gallery, products, testimonials, templates, visibility and order settings, password protection and analytics.
- Business Plan (£90) suits the people who bring in customers: it adds bookings, enquiries, reviews, contact leads, subscribers, forms, a CRM, a card scanner and export.
You can mix plans. For a team of five, the arithmetic is (2 × £90) + (3 × £45) = £315, paid once, with the two founders on the Business Plan and three colleagues on Brand Presence. Add the plans to your basket on our plans, or contact us if you are ordering for a larger team and want to talk it through first.
Sharing at pitches, meetings and events
- Last slide of the deck. Put a QR code to the founder's card on your closing slide, sized so people at the back can scan it. Our QR code size and placement guide gives distances.
- Email signatures. Add every team member's card link to their signature, so every email doubles as a business card. See how to add a digital business card to your email signature.
- Events and demo days. Have the QR code ready on your lock screen or wallet, and follow up the same day. Our guide to using digital business cards at events covers before, during and after.
A digital card will not win you a client or an investor on its own. What it does is make it easy for the people you meet to remember who you are and get back in touch.
Leads: decide who owns them
If team members collect contacts through their cards, decide early where those contacts end up and who is responsible for them. For a startup, that usually means:
- Company ownership. Leads gathered while working for the company belong to the company, not the individual. Say so in your onboarding notes.
- One place to keep them. The Business Plan includes a CRM and export, so contacts can be moved into whatever system you use.
- UK GDPR from day one. Tell people what you will do with their details, use them only for that, and get consent before sending marketing emails. Our guide to collecting leads under UK GDPR explains each step.
When someone joins, changes role or leaves
- Joining. Build the new card from the standard and check it before the person starts sharing it.
- Changing role. Update the title and main action on the same day. Everyone who opens the card afterwards sees the change.
- Leaving. Update or take down their card, move any leads they collected into the company's records, and change any shared passwords. If the person had a printed QR code on materials you still use, point people to a colleague instead. Get in touch if you need help with a profile for someone who has left.
Keep a little paper if you need it
Some investors, suppliers and older industries still expect a printed card. If that applies to you, print a small run with the QR code to each person's digital card, and keep the printed details minimal so they do not date quickly.
Read next: Digital business cards for sales teams and salespeople and Digital business card ROI for professionals. You can also browse all our guides, or see how an online business card for small business works.
Small teams in other settings have their own guides: coaches and consultants and charities, clubs and community groups.
Frequently asked questions
Does everyone at a startup need a digital business card?
Not necessarily. Start with the people who meet customers, investors and partners, such as founders and sales. Add others when they start representing the company externally.
Can every card in our team use the same branding?
Yes. Agree a standard first, then build each card from the same template, colours and logo, with the same company links and company line.
Should a limited company show its registered details on staff cards?
UK rules require company websites and business documents to show the registered name, and websites, letters and order forms to show the registered number and registered office address. Adding these to each card, or to a company profile they link to, is the simple safe option.
How much do digital cards cost for a team?
Each person needs their own plan, paid once: Brand Presence is £45 and the Business Plan is £90. For example, £315 in total, with no subscription, covers a team of five with two people on the Business Plan and three on Brand Presence.
What happens to a card when someone leaves?
Update or take it down, move any leads they collected into the company's records, and change any shared passwords. Contact us if you need help with the profile.