The digital business card
A QR code on your business cards, your van or your quotes. Customers scan it, see your card — photo, trade, phone number — and save you to their contacts without typing a thing. Six templates made for site work, with your own photo.
How to make a digital business card
Step 1
Pick a template, add your photo
Six site templates, six general ones. Name, trade, company, phone numbers, email, address, website — and a note to say what you do.
Step 2
Print the code wherever you like
In the corner of your paper card, on the van, at the foot of your quotes, on the site board. The code never changes; what it opens does.
Step 3
The customer scans and saves you
The phone camera opens your card. One “Add to contacts” button and you are in their phone — photo included. No app and no account for them.
Six templates
What you see here is the card as your customer will see it on their phone: each preview is drawn by the same component as the page that opens on scanning. Six general templates (Classic, Corporate navy, Elegant black, Nature green, Creative purple, Health blue) sit alongside them — an electrician may well prefer Elegant black.
Safety orange
Safety-orange banner, warning chevrons.
Site badge
Yellow and black edging, framed photo — access-badge style.
Blueprint
Design-office blue, drawing grid in the background.
Timber craft
Wood and cream tones, understated — joinery, carpentry, crafts.
Raw concrete
Full-width photo, concrete grey — engineering and structure.
24-hour call-out
Emergency red, number up front — plumbing, electrical.
As soon as you type your name, the gallery shows your details in every template: you try them, you do not guess. Your photo is resized in your browser and you choose how it is framed; each template gives it its own frame.
The paper card has three flaws, and everyone knows them
It still has its uses — you hand it over, people keep it, it looks professional. What it also needs to do is not get lost, and not be wrong six months later.
The paper card ends up in the glovebox
Handed over on site, slipped into a pocket, found three months later — or never. The customer who wants to call you back scrolls through their call history looking for your name.
A new number means 500 cards in the bin
New mobile, new address, new company name: everything printed is wrong overnight. And the old cards keep going out, because they are there.
Nobody copies a number in work gloves
A whole mobile number typed by hand on a dusty screen, with one wrong digit every other try. One scan, and the number is saved exactly as it is.
One code,
Most digital business cards are made to be shown on a screen. This one is made to be printed — on what a tradesperson already has to hand. The same code everywhere, and one card to keep up to date.
On your paper business card
The code in one corner, and the card is still the card. You keep handing it over in person; what changes is that it no longer goes out of date — and the customer has nothing to copy.
On the van
Side panel, back doors, rear window: the neighbour who wants “the same” scans it on the way past, without having to come over and ask for a card. A sticker, not new signwriting.
At the foot of quotes and invoices
The customer reads your quote again that evening, at the kitchen table. The code under your name saves you at the moment they decide. The same code on every document, so your letterhead never has to change.
On the site board
Fixed to the hoarding while the job runs, it tells the neighbour planning an extension next year exactly who built this one — and gives them your number on the spot.
On the installation itself
Boiler, consumer unit, water heater, gate motor: a discreet sticker. Two years later it breaks down, and your number is right there — not the first call-out firm found online.
At a trade show or on a stand
You hold out your phone, they scan it, you are saved. Or a “Scan me” sign on the stand, for the people walking past while you are talking to someone else.
Business cards for tradespeople:
Every template is open to everyone. These are the ones each trade tends to pick — and the note on the card does the rest: it says in one line what you do.
Plumber, heating engineer, emergency call-outs
The “24-hour call-out” template puts your number up front, in emergency red. On the sticker on the boiler, that is the number people look for at two in the morning.
Electrician
“Site badge”, with its yellow and black edging, or “24-hour call-out” if you take emergency work. The customer saves your number before the fault, not during it.
Joiner, carpenter, timber trades
“Timber craft”: wood and cream tones, understated. The note lists your specialities — roofing, timber frame, decking, fitted furniture.
Painter and decorator, plasterer
“Creative purple” for a decorator with flair, “Classic” to keep it plain. The note reads “Interior · Exterior · Wallpapering” — what the customer wants to check before calling.
Builder, bricklayer, site manager
“Safety orange” with its warning chevrons, or “Raw concrete” with the full-width photo. Job title and company readable at a glance, like on a site pass.
Handyman, multi-trade, property maintenance
When you do a bit of everything, the note beats a logo: “Refurbishment · Small building work · Electrics · Plumbing”. “Classic” or “Corporate navy”, and the customer knows what to ask you for.
What actually changes
Two differences from the paper card — and from the chip cards you are offered to buy.
Printed once, current at every scan
The pattern of the code does not hold your details: it opens your card. You edit it from your dashboard, and the next scan shows the new version — on the paper card handed out last year as on the sticker on the boiler. A new number no longer costs a reprint.
Your card on their phone, not an app to install
The customer scans with the camera and the card opens as a web page — no account, no app, no chip card to buy. “Add to contacts” gives them a standard contact file, with your photo, that opens in the contacts app on iPhone and Android alike. And on that page there is no BuildQR banner: it is your card, not ours.
What the person scanning sees
And what you see on your side.
- ✓ Your photo, your name, your job title, your company
- ✓ Call, mobile, email, website, map
- ✓ Your social media and Google reviews, if you add them
- ✓ Your address and your note (“Free quotes within 48 hours”)
- ✓ “Add to contacts” — a contact with your photo
- ✓ Nothing else: no banner, no ads, no share button
- ✓ On your side: how many times your card has been scanned
Your card shows only what you choose to put on it. Statistics count scans; they do not identify the person scanning — the details are in our privacy policy.
What this card is not
Not an NFC card. Nothing to buy, nothing to tap against a phone: the code is scanned with the camera, on any recent smartphone. What you hand over in person is still your paper card — the code is printed on it.
Not an app. Not for you, not for your customers. They have no account to create; you have nothing to get anyone to install.
Not a code engraved for life. It is a dynamic QR code: it opens a card that lives with your BuildQR account. The free plan has no end date, but if you close your account, the card goes with it. A “static vCard” QR code — your details engraved in the pattern — never expires, but it can no longer be changed and has neither photo nor template: we chose the version you can correct.
The same account works on site too
Site sign-in, hot work permits, goods received notes, the maintenance log stuck on the machine, the current drawings behind a code on the door: the business card is one type among many. If you already use BuildQR on site, it takes two minutes to set up; if not, it is a good place to start.
See every construction QR code typeDigital business cards — frequently asked questions
What is a digital business card?
Is it really free?
Is a digital business card worth it for a tradesperson?
Do I or my customers need an app?
Does it work on iPhone and Android?
Can I add my social media and Google reviews?
I change my number or my company: what happens to the cards already printed?
Can I share it without the QR code?
Can I add it to Apple Wallet?
Can my card expire?
Our other free tools
Built for site work, with no sign-up: the document is produced in your browser and you print it.
Hot work permit
Fill in the form, download a permit that is ready to sign on site.
Site sign-in sheet
A printable sign-in sheet, plus the geofenced QR code version.
Site log sheet
A printable log for cleaning rounds, checks and readings.
RAMS sign-off sheet
Record who was briefed, on which revision, and what they asked.
Site induction form
Your site rules to display, with the register of who has read them.
Loading and unloading risk assessment
Hazards and controls from what you tick, with a driver briefing to sign.
Goods received note
Filled in and signed on delivery: quantities, condition, discrepancies.
Equipment maintenance log
Identity of the machine, documents kept with it, and the service history.
Concrete volume calculator
Work out how much concrete to order — in cubic metres or cubic yards.
Scan me sign
The printable A4 sign, with your own QR code dropped straight in.
Everything else on site
Free templates you can print today, and the QR code version for the day paper stops being enough.
Hot work permit
The free template to fill in and print — and the QR code version signed on site.
Site sign-in
A printable sign-in sheet, plus the geofenced QR code check-in.
Site log sheet
Cleaning rounds, security checks, readings — printed or QR.
RAMS sign-off
Who was briefed, on which revision, and what they asked — printed or QR.
Site induction
The site rules read and acknowledged at the gate — printed or QR.
Loading and unloading
The risk assessment for site deliveries, and a briefing each driver signs — printed or QR.
Goods received note
Quantities, condition and two signatures on delivery — printed or QR.
Equipment maintenance log
Make, serial number, warranty and service history — printed, or stuck on the machine as a QR.
Concrete calculator
How much to order, in cubic metres or cubic yards, with quantities.
Superseded drawings
One code per door, always opening the current revision — nothing left to take down from the wall.
Site safety documents
Method statements and permits reachable where the work actually happens.
QR code types
What each type does on site, and which paper it replaces.
Where codes go
Gate, hoarding, welfare unit, risers — place by place, with a free sign.
Going paperless
What is worth taking off paper on a small site, and what is not.
Environmental records
Skip tickets, segregation instructions and product data, kept at the compound.
Digital business card
Six site templates and your photo — customers save you in one scan.
Ready to get started?
Your first QR code takes about two minutes