Job Tuition

Use Personal Business Cards to Build Connections

January 31st, 2007 by Andrew

Do you always carry business cards with you? Are you prepared to give out your personal contact information, if you meet someone who might want to contact you?

To build the strongest connections and broadest network base, you should answer “yes” to both of those questions. Here’s why:

Reach out for contact

We meet lots of people in our everyday lives. However, how many of these people do you ever contact again? How many of them contact you again? If you don’t give out your contact information, nobody can contact you.

If you’re currently employed, you can easily hand out your professional business cards. This will give new people a hook into your life, so they can contact you when the need arises.

However, some people may not get business cards from their employer. Or you may be planning to change jobs in the near future. What then?

Develop personal business cards

With so many printing options these days, both in stores and online, there is no excuse for a professional to be without business cards. If your employer does not provide them, you can easily print your own. In fact, even if you have work business cards, you might still print up a “personal” version.

So what’s the difference between personal and professional cards? They should both still look professional. However, your personal card should be broader than just your current job. These cards should be tailored to you as a professional, not just your employer.

Be yourself

The best thing about printing your own cards is that you can actually express yourself a little in their design. You should give yourself a little free reign in designing these cards. After all, they might be the only link a new contact has with which to remember you.

With that said, you should still maintain a consistent, professional image. But if you’re a trendy person, marketing yourself toward like-minded people, feel free to choose a trendy design and color scheme.

Include the details

Once you have a design in mind, it will be time to decide what to include on the cards. Obviously, you’ll want to put your name. But beyond that, the sky really is the limit. These are your cards, and you should decide what information is best to include.

Since these are your personal cards, I would refrain from printing your current employer’s name, info, etc. Unless you really see that as important (and plan to be in this job a while), it might be best to put a general career description such as “marketing communications” or “family lawyer.”

Also, you probably shouldn’t go to the extreme of including your home address on the cards. You want to be free to hand these cards out to anyone, and you may not want to give out sensitive info like this.

At a minimum, you should include your name, non-work email address, and some type of phone number. Hopefully you should use an email address that you will keep for a long time, as well as a phone number that will be around. This minimizes the risk of changing email providers (or jobs) and having to re-print your cards.

Distribute them!

Now that you see the benefits of having personal business cards, you can go print up your own. Don’t forget to carry them around with you. Distribute them freely to friends, coworkers, associates, etc. You’ll be glad you printed them.