There’s no perfect number for how many business cards you should carry at once. The number will constantly change depending on where you’re going, if anyone else from your business is going with you, how many cards you have available, and the cards’ material. However, there are some good rules of thumb to follow that can help you make an educated guess on how many business cards to carry with you. Keep reading to learn more.
Always Keep Several Cards Ready
While there’s no perfect number of how many business cards to keep in your purse or laptop bag, you should always keep a few on your person. A few can mean a different number to each person, but it generally implies around three cards.
Many women struggle to keep several business cards on them because many of their clothes don’t feature pockets. Luckily, business cards are small, so you should be able to fit them into a clutch purse, wallet, or notebook pocket, depending on where you’re going. We suggest more than two, so you can give at least one away, but no more than five if you’re not going to a work-related event. You don’t want to waste them.
Only Provide One When Asked
You love what you do, so it makes sense that you want to share your business card with the people you meet. However, if you throw out business cards willy-nilly at people, you’ll waste cards with no return on investment. This is true whether you’re carrying five cards or 500. No matter how many cards you keep on your person, only hand a card over if someone asks for it or expresses a desire to contact you later.
You’ll need to do a little math if you want to have enough cards to give to people who request them at an event. You won’t connect with everyone there and give your card out to all of them, but you’ll want to have enough for everyone who asks. This means you’ll want one-third to one-half the number of business cards as there are attendees, depending on the size of the event. If 100 people are coming, 40 business cards are a good idea. If there are only 10, go the extra mile and bring 10 cards. But you don’t need to do the math for the whole group if there are thousands. Find out the size of the average breakout sessions for this huge event and bring an appropriate number based on that.
Order Large Batches
Just like you never want someone to ask you for a business card when you don’t have one, you also don’t want to run out completely. Each card manufacturer will have different size orders available, but it’s a good rule of thumb to order between 500 and 1,000 a year. Those numbers may change if you order specialty cards like metal business cards, but that’s still the suggested range.
The answer to the question “how many business cards should you carry at once?” is that it changes based on your circumstances. You should always have between three and five on you in case someone asks, and you should calculate how many you’ll need before a big event.
