“Thanks Bill, it was a pleasure meeting you. Here’s my card. Let’s stay in touch!” Variations of this conversation can be heard at most business networking events. And, this card too is likely to join the carelessly abandoned stack of business cards in your drawer.
With an unending stream of networking events and meetings, most first-time conversations have taken the shape of a template em-mail; not to mention , an exercise in memory to remember each name and face. Yet, as an entrepreneur, its important to cut through this clutter, and create a first impression strong enough to survive the onslaught of business cards and faces.
So say hello to unconventional, quirky business cards that could help introduce you in a way that is fun, clever and most importantly, leaves an impression. “It takes about 30 seconds to a minute to register all details about every new person you meet. It’s in this time that one makes a judgement about whether you’d get in touch with them again or not,” says Kiruba Shankar, Founder, F5ive Technologies, a Chennai-based web development company, who has designed 11 different sets of business cards for himself. “The way you speak, dress and walk create the first impression while your business card creates the lasting impression.”
Shankar has multiple personalities-he’s an entrepreneur who runs a web development company and a social media consultancy. He’s also authored four books, speaker at several management colleges, and is a weekend farmer at this venture Vaksana Farms. To customize his communication to the varied groups of people Kiruba would run into, he has unique set of business cards to go with each of his identity. His four Facebook themed cards appeal more to the college audience he speaks to while his more formal corporate CEO cards are perfect for meeting potential clients, or pitching for work. (See photos for a peak into some of his designs at http://www.Kiruba.com/businesscards . ) An open source advocate, he’s put his portfolio of cards under the Creative Commons license. Not just that, he even differentiates his visiting cards by creating custom ones for separate events.
For instance, when he was invited to the Malaysia International Tourism Bloggers Conference & Awards, Kiruba thought it was “worthwhile” to print 200 business cards especially for the event. One side of the card had his photograph in monochrome along with his contact details, and the flip side had a huge colourful logo of the event itself with a small “We met at” at the top to remind people of the context of their meeting.
However, the most ludicrous card from Kiruba’s collection is his “Google Card” which might actually mislead you to believe that Shankar works for the search giant. There is no designation or contact information on this card except a Google search box in the centre that contains “Kiruba” as the keyword and the entrepreneur’s photograph on the back. What is the point of a businesscard if you don’t wish to share any important information about you or your company with others?
“Well, this is the most popular business cards of all the ones I have used so far. It just makes a statement. If you sincerely want to know about me, you’ll go look me up on Google later and will find all the relevant information in the first few links that pop up,” Kiruba Shankar says confidently. Refer.
