marquette carney
In my 1 year of knowing Ramit there’s one topic I dare not bring up to him for fear of his old testament level wrath. What is that topic you might ask?
Business cards.
It is no secret that Ramit HATES business cards. However, I understand why people tend to give them so much time and attention.
Business cards are something people just assume are an important part of doing business and making money.
But is that really true?
In this post, I’ll go through some myths surrounding business cards and what you can do instead in order to generate more business than you’ll know what to do with.
Reason #1 – Business cards are a distraction
It’s safe to say that if you’re in business, you’re doing it to make money. Do you know what can prevent you from making more of that money or prevent your business from even getting off the ground?
Distractions.
This is one of the main things us at IWT have had to work hard to help students eliminate.
When someone first starts a business, they have a tendency to start taking action on a bunch of random things that won’t really move the business forward.
Think about it. You spend countless hours thinking about what should go on your business card, how it should be designed, and then you spend money (that could go to more important things) to get them made.
After they’re made, you then spend time handing them out. This may make you feel like you’re being productive, but you still struggle to get business.
To truly succeed in business, you need SYSTEMS. Here’s an example of the three systems I use to grow my online business:
- A system for getting people’s attention
- A system for getting them to subscribe to my email list
- A system for selling them my product.
That’s it. All the business cards in the world won’t help you if you don’t have basic systems created.
Reason #2 – Business cards don’t work
The simple question to ask before getting business cards: Will this help me get new clients or make new contacts?
How?
The last time you went to an event and handed out your business card, how many people actually followed up? Ramit has tested this and got less than 1 response out of 100.
That’s because the cold hard truth about business cards is they simply don’t work. At least not well enough to justify the time and money necessary to create and distribute them.
Plus, it would make more sense to find the people you want to talk to and email them directly. Don’t count on someone reaching out to you — that’s just lazy.
And when someone asks you, “Do you have a business card?” Just say, “No, I didn’t bring mine, but can I get your contact information? I’ll email you.”
Then do it.
Reason #3 – Business cards come off as sleazy
I don’t mean to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re the type of person who goes to an event and hands out business cards, you’re probably the person people don’t really want to talk to.
We all know of that person at the networking event who tries to talk to everyone just so he can hand them one of those cheaply made cards.
It’s a complete turn off.
Worst yet that guy doesn’t even know how he’s coming across. A better approach would be to simply talk and build relationships with people who you genuinely find interesting.
Doing so will lead to you getting more business than the person who’s passing out cards like a mad man.
What to do instead of using business cards
The point of business cards is to generate more clients for your business. There are many more effective ways of doing that.
In fact, I came up with my own tactic that has been used by thousands of my students to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It’s called The Briefcase Technique and it’s a real game changer.
Here’s a video of me breaking down the process.
The briefcase technique will help you wow potential clients and make price trivial.
If you aren’t sure what business to start, we’ve put together a FREE guide full of successful business ideas that you can model today!
If you’re ready to learn how to start (and promote) your own business, click the link below to get started.
Do you know your earning potential?
Take my earning potential quiz and get a custom report based on your unique strengths, and discover how
to start making extra money — in as little as an hour.
Start The Quiz
