Networking My Way Into A Mess

I walked into the network event with my smartphone. I walked out with four business cards.

Technology allows us to physically bump our smartphones together and exchange contact information, or even buy a special Poken business card.

But we still end up collecting a pile of the little papers.

I recently started my own business, so lately, I’m going to a lot of networking events. And that means a pile of business cards on my desk. Even when I’m at a social event, I inevitably collect a business card, because I mention what I do, and someone promises to pass my card along to someone else.

The other day I looked at my stack of cards. I might never use them again, but I don’t want to throw them away without saving the information.

I smacked myself in the forehead. Of course.  The smart thing to do would be to type up the information each time I return home with a new card. The beauty of saving them in my Gmail contact list is that I can separate them into a category called “Business Contacts,” that doesn’t always show up when I’m trying to write an email to my mom.

Of course, with any organized system, the trick is to enter the information as you get it -- not let it pile up on the desk. It only took a few minutes for me to type up the information, and I could even add a note with the contact about where and how I met them.

There are many business card scanners on the market. But as it is with many things, it’s a choice between time and money. In this case, I’d rather spend the few minutes than a few hundred bucks. However, if I collected more business cards, or even had little scraps of paper with contact information, it might be worth it.

How do you handle getting business cards?