TL;DR
Card boxes work until they fill up, and alphabetical binder sleeves get hard to search when you forget a company name. Kathi’s best answer for business cards is a contact management program on your computer, filled with the help of a business card scanner. It takes time to learn, but it pays off as your business grows.
Dear Kathi,
What do you recommend for organizing business cards? I have filled up a card box and divided them by organization but am now out of room! I like the idea of the plastic sleeve, but not sure I want to go that route.
Debbie, Encinitas
Debbie,
Plastic sleeves are great if you use a three ring binder with pre-made alphabetical tabs or categorical tabs that you create yourself.
With the alphabetical tabs, when you fill up a page containing a popular letter like “s” (“s” always seems to fill first!), you can simply add a new plastic sleeve and keep filling. The hazard of the alphabetical plastic sleeve is that if you forget the company name, you have to go through the entire binder.
Card boxes are good until you run out of room, at which point you are faced with deciding whether to subdivide or begin anew.
If you do create a new box or binder, what will differentiate one from the other and how will you remember who is where two months from now?
The ultimate plan of attack is to maintain a contact management list (such as using Outlook, Act or Entourage) on your computer. These programs store all of your contact information as data so that you have numerous options and fields to retrieve your information from.
A contact management program combined with a business card scanner will take you light years into the future. Business card scanners work quickly by saving your data into fields. Some even save the business card logo and image! It takes a while to learn the technology, but in the long term for helping your business grow, this will be one of the smartest investments of your time.
Kathi is a professional organizer, image consultant and event planner based in San Diego California.
Please submit your questions to: [email protected].
San Diego Professional Organizer
Keep reading
- Organizing Clients and Customer ContactsSetting up a contact database and a reminder system so no one slips through the cracks.
- How to Create a Customer Follow-Up System That Works for a Small BusinessOne contact list, a next step for every contact and a regular follow-up time.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to organize business cards?
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Kathi’s ultimate plan is to keep a contact management list on your computer instead of boxes of physical cards. Contact programs store each person’s details as data, so you have many fields and options for finding someone later.
Are plastic sleeves in a binder good for business cards?
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They work well in a three-ring binder with alphabetical tabs or categories you create. When a popular letter fills up, just add another sleeve. The drawback is that if you forget a company’s name, you may have to page through the entire binder to find the card.
What should I do when my business card box is full?
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Card boxes are good until you run out of room. Then you must decide whether to subdivide or start a new box, and how you will remember which contact is in which box two months from now. A contact program on your computer avoids that problem.
Is a business card scanner worth it?
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Kathi says a contact management program combined with a business card scanner will take you light years into the future. Scanners work quickly by saving each card’s details into fields, and some even save the card’s logo and image.
How long does it take to set up a digital contact system?
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It takes a while to learn the technology, but Kathi calls it one of the smartest investments of your time for helping your business grow over the long term.
