Ask HN: What do you think about business cards?
A few days ago I found myself sitting at a table with a school board superintendent. After overhearing her describe a project that she wanted to begin, I introduced myself and gave my best elevator pitch for a related product that my company has been working on. I'm leaving out the details of the exchange because they're not pertinent to this question.
Either the pitch was good or she was just being polite but whatever the reason she immediately asked for my business card.
I live in a (very) remote community and have few face-to-face interactions with potential customers so business cards haven't been a priority for me. Although I ended up emailing her the next day, a card would have come in handy at that moment and I was left wondering if perhaps having a few cards at my disposal might be a good idea.
How do others feel about the use of business cards in the modern context? I can see them as a very useful tool in certain markets but I'm wondering if other small companies or contractors continue to carry them for those 'just in case' circumstances.
10 comments
[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 26.0 ms ] threadBased on my own experience, it's better to have a few high quality business cards than tons of low quality ones, especially if you only hand out 1-2 every week. I got mine dirt cheap but they looked awful and were embarrassing to hand out. Select quality paper and an elegant template design and you're set (resist the temptation of designing the business card by yourself at this stage, this process can literally take weeks/months with all the design options available).
I can tweak an existing design (barely) but my visual originality begins and ends with stick figures.
Look at the problem and solution. You meet with somebody. You both want to maintain contact. You need to exchange some information to realize that goal. You could get each others cell phone number, scribble a URL on a piece of paper, etc. Each one of those is awkward to some degree and scraps of paper do get lost quickly or become indistinguisable from all the other scraps of paper.
Enter the business card, you could make it like a mini-brochure - not only have your contact details on it, but also the key points of what you do, etc. Easy to hand over and should remain more distinctive than some scrap of paper or a hasty entry in the cell phones address book.
From experience I find that having a blank and uncoated rear allows me to scribble further pertinent information for the person I'm giving it to.
Cards are like a resume... old tech. We in the high tech industry know they're dead and know there are tons of way better alternatives, but they're still a basic requirement for doing business.
Go get 250 cards from vistaprint, it'll cost you less than $30 probably. Generic cards with a blank back are always nice because you can write a URL on the back for someone.
They are pretty cheap. Hell, you can even make your own..