For many small businesses, networking is one of the biggest ways to market your company. In addition to having nice business cards printed and handed out to colleagues, you should make sure you have the business cards you’ve received organized so that you can quickly call or email someone when needed. By knowing where your contact’s information is, you’ll be able to quickly call on someone when you need help, have a great partnering idea or just to do some more networking. All of these situations are vital to small business marketing.

There are many different ways to organize your received business cards so that you can access them quickly as needed.

The first question is old school or modern?

You basically have two choices when it comes to organizing business cards:
Old school: keeping your business cards in a card file, like a Rolodex. You can also buy a portfolio-looking book that has business-card–sized slots so that you can have all your business cards in one neat book. The slots are clear, like plastic portfolio sleeves, so you can see the front and back sides of the cards easily. The bad thing about old school systems is that they’re not too pretty and can be a pain to lug around. A good trait is that you don’t have to worry about losing your info in a computer crash.

Modern: keeping the business card info on your computer. You can buy a computer program to keep your contacts organized, like Microsoft Access, or you can just use your email program, like Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes. One nice thing about storing info in your computer is that your office will be neater with no piles of papers and business cards everywhere. You can also find someone easily by searching for their name, company name or business location in a matter of seconds in a computer program. You can also record the date you met the person and where you met him.

The electronic method helps you by being more portable – you can either email your list to yourself for use at home or another location, of if you have a laptop, you can have your list with you at all times. Just remember to back up your system every night!

The next question: What to organize by?

The most popular method is to organize your business cards in alphabetical order. Whether you do that by the contact’s last name or business name is up to you.

You can also organize by the date you met the person, which makes it really easy to keep track of people in the old school system: the people you’ve known longer will be at the front of your Rolodex or book and the people you just met will be at the end. Make sure you stick to one system though; you don’t want to confuse yourself by alphabetizing by business name one day and then contact name the next!

Another question: When to update and organize?

You should update and reorganize your business cards when you get back from a trade show or any place where you gathered a few business cards. If you’re keeping track electronically, it’s best to update your database as soon as you get a business card. If you have an old school method, you could keep business cards in an empty slot in your portfolio or Rolodex until you have four or five, and then reorganize those all at once.

By organizing your contacts, you’ll have a much easier time of thinking of business prospects or partners, and you can easily stay in touch with people without much effort.