I overhead a discussion today regarding business cards, and it made me think about them (which, admittedly, isn’t something I do very often.) It used to be that business cards were your calling card, and a reflection of you, albeit a professional reflection. The thickness of the cardstock, the writing style, the colors used, and the information included (what phone numbers, what addresses, etc) was an encapsulation of the business card holder’s professional life.
There were just as many different business card holders available as there were styles of business cards: Desktop holders, plastic wallet organizers, and everything in between. Now though, the office supply stores are clearing out their stock, because many people don’t save the business cards given to them. I heard a book agent say that when she left a conference, she dumped all business cards in the trash can as she walked out, not saving any. She said, “If I wanted to talk to this person more, I would have already set up a meeting with them before I left. I don’t save business cards, period.” There seems to be two schools of thoughts with people who don’t save business cards: Those who don’t save them because they don’t want the clutter and the mess that comes with saving them, and those who don’t take them in the first place because they enter all of the needed information into their Blackberries. The electronic age is affecting everything, even the lowly business card.
If you’re looking at starting a new business, and you’re debating whether you should print up some cards, my suggestion is to print them up, but make it a small run. You don’t want to print thousands of cards with your e-mail address on them anyway–your e-mail address is going to change before you get to the end of the box. There are a lot of specials that you can find on the Internet for a free or very cheap first set of business cards. You may want to get a starter set that way–it may end up you won’t need to buy any more, ever!