Business Necessities

I'm always surprised by the number of people I meet who want my business (no, that's not the surprising bit, people in business are supposed to want my business) who then struggle to tell me who they are and how to reach them.

It just seems very odd in this day and age of being so hugely connected that people so often fail to tell us how we can indeed connect. For example, my local electrician sent me his quote by email. Great, I also paid him by Paypal. But at that first meeting, when I said, OK, where do I get hold of you he tried to "beam" his cell phone number to me...that doesn't work as I use an old cell phone, one that we can't do that to. So we ended up writing his email down on a scrap of paper from the bar (yes, still a good place to have business meetings).

What is it with people? Haven't they heard of the old but hugely successful technology of business cards? I'm sure it's at least a century old, this idea that you put your name, profession, phone numbers and, in more modern times, email, onto a card and give it to people. Such a simple solution to this common problem.

As for real estate business cards: we've just bought this house I'm typing this up in and when I was hunting around the market it was almost impossible to get the local realtors to le me know how to contact them. The one single person who did in fact get our business was the only one who did have a real estate business card...but even then it was out of date and he had to hand write his new numbers onto it.

I'm told from my man who knows about such things that you can also get magnetic business cards these days. Sounds like an excellent method of advertising actually, they'll end up being used as refrigerator magnets, something that will be viewed again and again as those milk and cookies orders get processed.

I do realise that here I'm living in a bit of a backwater, but please, business cards really aren't that much to ask for are they? Forward to a century ago sort of thing?