Buried in Business Cards?

Dig yourself out with these solutions:

· Pick up a few business card boxes from an office supply store. If you’ve got a knack for remembering names then organize alphabetically, otherwise organize by the event or place you would associate the contact with such as “Betty’s Business BBQ” on 7/26/08. Use one box for personal contacts, one for professional, and one for lifestyle. Each box usually comes with dividers.

· Ready to go electronic? This is my personal favorite because it saves so much space and finding any name is a snap with a quick word search! Also when you have some kind of hand-held device, your contacts are always with you. Microsoft’s Entourage, Mac’s Address Book or Palm Desktop will all do the trick. Categorize and color-code to your heart’s content.

· For me, the best option is not to take the card at all; after all I don’t want the clutter and will just toss it once the information has been entered into my computer. When I meet someone I just enter their information directly into my Palm Centro. It doesn’t take long, gives me a few more minutes to chat with my new friend and I impress them with my efficiency (wink, wink). When their website is a specific business website and not a general one like AOL or Yahoo, I’ll just enter their name, the event/date and email. This way when I actually need their phone number or mailing address, I can just get it directly from the website which I know from their email.

· If for some reason I’ve collected a slew of cards at one event then I quickly jot the event name and date on it, then I pawn them off on my assistant to enter into the computer. No assistant? Accumulate a bunch and hire your kids or neighbor’s kids do them all for a few bucks in an hour or two.

Space-tacularly,
Erica