Your business card. When you started your own business, it was probably the first thing you had printed. Or when you joined your company, your business cards may have been waiting for you on your first day of employment. You may even have saved a business card from your very first job – that’s how powerful it is to see your name in print.
It is generally agreed that a business card performs the following basic functions:
• to introduce you and your company to potential customers, suppliers, or colleagues; and
• to provide all the relevant information by which someone can contact you.
In addition, a business card can serve as an advertising function – a mini billboard that describes your competitive edge or gives reasons why someone should consider doing business with you.
Other reasons why someone would accept your business card were identified by Dr. Lynella Grant in her publication The Business Card Book. According to Dr. Grant, someone is likely to keep your business card for a personal or social reason; in order to give your card to someone else (a sort of third-party business referral); to update your contact information from a previously-accepted business card; or because your business card is “likeable, unusual, or useful.”