Organizing Business Cards

Image by Christopher S. Penn via Flickr

Organizing your business cards can seem like a daunting task, especially if you own a vast collection that has been growing for several years.  If you find them often scattered across your desk top, slipped in-between seat cushions, stuffed in your wallet, and falling out of your desk drawers, then it is time to bite the bullet and find a better organizing solution.   I suggest two options that are savvy but simple so you can extract the valuable information off the cards, store it in a content management system, and always have it at your fingertips (but without the mess).

For those of you who like to do-it-yourself, I suggest purchasing a business card scanner.  Many of these scanners come with software that will allow you to scan the card (top & bottom), automatically extract the information, and store it in a database that can be easily uploaded to whatever contact management system (CMS) you currently use such as Outlook, ACT, Peachtree, Excel, etc. Here are a few such scanners:

CSSN – Card Scanning Solutions

Dymo CardScan

Fujitsu ScanSnap

IRISCard

Javvin Business Card Scanner

The Neat Receipt

The pros of purchasing and using a card scanner at home:

• They come with software that allows you to quickly flip through the images both visually and also by the information contained on them.
• You do not have to mail your business cards off to a scanning service.
• You determine where you will store your database(s).
• After the initial purchase of the scanner and software (ranges from $100 – $400), the only cost you may need to worry about is upgrading the software.

The cons of purchasing your own card scanner:

• You have to go out and purchase yet another electronic tool to find room for on your desk.
• You have to worry about keeping the software updated and making sure it is compatible with upgrades in your CMS.
• You have to designate the hours it may take to scan the cards and check the data for accuracy.

Now for those of you who don’t have time to scan cards (or don’t want to have to deal with another peripheral), there are services out there that will scan your business cards, put the information in a database that can be downloaded to your CMS, and shred the cards after scanning (unless you specify for them to ship the cards back to you).  Here are a few companies offering these services:

CloudContacts

OfficeDrop

Shoeboxed Inc.

The pros about using a scanning service:

• All you have to do is put your cards in a pre-paid envelope they provide you with and send it to them. They can quickly scan thousands of cards and put the information into a database that you can access from anywhere you have Internet access
• Your business contacts’ information now can be stored on your computer as well as backed up on a distant server (this is great disaster prevention!)
• Some services will even allow you to take digital photos of a business card using your mobile phone, email it to them, and they will extract the necessary information off the photo to put in your database.

The cons of using a scanning service:

• Some will require monthly subscriptions to keep your information available on the Internet.
• Depending on your plan, you may be limited to how many cards can be scanned per month.
• Several weeks can pass between the time you mail the cards, have them scanned and get them returned to you.

Both of the options above (desktop scanners and scanning services) are not limited to just business cards.  You can also get those pesky receipts and piles of paperwork scanned and saved so that you can do a word search on any of the documents.  Wouldn’t it be great to search for all the documents pertaining to a project without having to look through each one?  One word of caution though: neither the card scanners nor the scanning services are 100% accurate, especially when it comes to handwritten documents, so you will probably have to do a little bit of editing.  However, the investment in either one of these options will help your business grow stronger.

Oh, and for those who are ready to go beyond business cards, there are applications on the various smart phones (such as the application called Bump available for iPhone and Google Android) that allows you to swap contact info with other phone users.

Tagged as: Business card, organize, Scanners, Scanning Services