By fiifi DZANSI

Some people believe the business card remains relevant in our digital world.

I love to design these cards because they allow business owners to make a great first impression.

Me, telling you to discard the business card now may sound counterintuitive.

The truth is, I’ve given out hundreds of cards over the years, but the results have been quite disappointing. Many who promised to call back never did.

People are busy or distracted. In effect, they take your card and forget where they placed it. Others also take your number, but it gets lost in a pool of other contacts.

The purpose of the business card is defeated if people throw them in the bin.

Some designers have become highly creative in their attempt to make the business card work. They spend more money to make it difficult to ignore, using materials like plastic and metal or put in the wow factor.

But if a 9×5 cm card costs a dollar or more, why don’t you rather hand the money to people instead?

Write your contact on a piece of paper, attach it to a dollar bill and give it to people.
Tell them it’s the cost of your biz card, and you prefer them to have cash instead.

Won’t that be a practical idea?

Here is what I do. At events, I rather take people’s contacts instead of giving them mine and contact them later in the day. I need them. I want to stay in touch, do business with them or contribute something of value to their lives.

The way we contact businesses has changed. People do a quick search online for services or products they need and use the contact info they find.

Your web presence is vital. Make sure your contact info on your website and social media pages are accurate and up to date. Also, state lucidly what you do so the search engines can pull up your info when others request a search.

I continue to design Business cards, but only when it’s exciting.