Networking Tips: The Business Card

The most important tool for any networker is the business card. This is one item that is worth taking a lot of time and thought over, and then purchasing the best quality you can afford. Remember, the card will remain with the people long after they met you.

However, having a great card isn't just enough, you need to know how to treat both your own and others. Here, therefore, are some tips:

1/ Address or Not?

It is becoming a popular trend to not put a proper “postal” address on cards. It seems that with email addresses, mobile phone numbers, possibly landline number, website, etc., the address of the premises is not bothered with. However, I think this is a mistake.

Even in the modern business world with different types of communication, an address goes a long way to giving additional security that your business is legitimate and not “fly by night” or “here today and gone tomorrow”. Anyone can set up an email and website account, as well as get a mobile phone, for very little money. So give your prospective customers that extra reassurance that you are a reliable, trust-worthy business.

There is an argument that you might not want to advertise the address if you trade from home as you don't want people to turn up unannounced; but if this is the case why not add to the card “(visitors by appointment)”?

2/ Keep your cards up to date

If any of your contact details change then get new business cards printed – do not make the changes by hand. Doing so will indicate that your business is doing so poorly you cannot afford new cards. I was actually given a business card by someone where every contact detail had been changed except the email address. The original details had been scribbled out and the new information written in blue ink, it looked terrible – and this was a chap who was supposedly a business advisor!

3/ Treat your business cards like confetti

Don't be stingy with your cards, keep a good supply with you at all times and hand them out like sweets. If you only have a few then get some more printed, as many as you can afford. You don't want to be in a situation where you meet your ideal client and find you have no cards left and are reduced to scribbling your details down on a piece of paper (or, worse, someone else's card – yes I have seen this happen).

Your card should be handed to everyone you meet (unless they specifically say they don't want it), even if they don't offer you theirs. Remember, while the person you might be handing your card to might not need your services, they may know or meet someone who does. An example was a chap who dealt in short-notice removals, turned up to an event I was at. I got chatting with him, but he never offered me his card (in fact, he didn't even talk to me for long). Just a few days later I met a couple at another event I was attending. During the discussion they mentioned that they needed to move at short-notice for some legal reason. If only I had had that chap's card and he had been a bit more polite.

The one caveat to this is don't go to a networking meeting and, a few minutes before you leave, rush round trying to push your card onto people. I saw someone do this at an event. He butted into conversations, saying “I'm about to go, but I thought I'd leave you my card,” and be off to the next group before people could reply. I saw quite a number of people leave his card on the table after he had gone.

4/ Treat other people's business cards as priceless

When you take a card from someone else, don't just immediately stuff it in your pocket, or add it to the pile you already have, with nothing more than a cursory glance. Instead, take time to study it as it could contain the answers to questions you are about to ask. I never ceased to be amazed at the people who ask me where we are based, after they've taken my card (it has our address on).

The card might also give you information for additional questions to ask, which will help keep the conversation flowing.

If you receive a card you really like, mention it to the person, this will warm them to you and indicates you have looked at it properly (it should go without saying that you shouldn't mention mistakes, etc., or that you don't like their card). Why not ask them about how they chose the design, etc. They will happily tell you and you continue to build a friendly relationship while not talking “business”.

Never, ever, write on someone else's card – at least not in front of them. If you want to scribble down information for later referral, then carry a pocket notebook. After you have finished talking with them, pop the notes down and put the card on that page as well. If you really must write on the business card, wait until the person is out of view. They might have spent a lot of money on their cards and will feel it rude that you appear to be defacing it. On the other hand, never be precious about your cards, if someone wants to scribble down information on it, let them.

If you are at a more formal event where someone's business cards are handed round from person to person, only take one from the pile if you really want it and, if you do take one, file it away as soon as you have studied it. Never leave other people's cards on the table at the end, to be thrown away. I make a point of always being the last to leave events where cards are handed round in this way. I often pick up several of my cards that people have probably either forgotten to take with them; or only took them from the pile out of politeness and had no intention of taking them.