TC: Business Cards

Networking with the right people is essential for the success of any business (and by extension, for those involved with that business). Whether you’re meeting a client to discuss a new project or attending an industry conference to pitch your product, establishing connections matters a lot. And nothing establishes professional contacts better, than a simple exchange of business cards.

Despite the growing popularity of e-mail and social media, business cards remain the quickest means of exchanging contact information. That said, address books have now gone digital, and no one has the time (or patience) to manually save business card details to their smartphones.

Fear not, for business card scanner apps are here to help. Powered by Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, they use your smartphone’s camera to scan business cards and automatically save the contact details on them to your smartphone.

There are dozens of scanner apps available for iOS and Android, with differing features. Also, there are many portable scanners ranging in price from $50 to $200.

Your challenge for today is to explore the options in apps as well as a physical scanner and select the one that is best for you. I believe that this is an essential tool for all small businesses.