Designers aren't known for their ability to wear both both the designer hat and marketing hat despite the fact that it's all graphic design has become - visual marketing. I think I understand exactly what your problems are and none have anything to do with the skill level of your wife because, like most designers, she is probably working off what you tell her you want. Unfortunately, you have no idea what you want or the reasons to have a graphically artistic business card in the first place. If you're having this much trouble, may as well just use a b-card with black ariel font on white 40lbs paper with the basic info.
The only reason to have fancy graphics and color is because they lend themselves to the entire design, or big picture. Start with a color scheme. Play around, test out some colors. Your wife should know complimentary colors well and should help you pick something decent. Once the color scheme is fleshed out, then you can begin picking the right font. Once font is chosen, you can move on to finding the right logo or idea that represents your company the way you want it to. and keep building and building.
Once your wife has all that information, it will be much much easier for her to whip up 5-10 designs in under an hour for you to bring to us.
Don't forget that once those selections have been made they must remain universal. Website, business cards, marketing materials all must be consistent if you want to get anything out of this branding, because that's essentially what you're doing.