Let’s be very clear, if you’re in business, you need a business card as it’s still a part of the culture of business. A lot of people do business without business cards and instead exchange contact information through LinkedIn, email, or by plugging contact information into their smartphones. But a business card isn’t simply about exchanging contact information, it shows that you’re a serious business person, that you’re always prepared, and that you care about your personal brand.

I attend a lot of networking events and I make sure I have business cards with me. After going to a few events, I want to share a few of the things I’ve learned about business card etiquette, because most people simply don’t know. Below are a few things to keep in mind in regard to the proper use of sharing, receiving, and using business cards.

Introduce yourself before you hand someone your card. Handing someone your card should be the last thing you do, not the first. When you begin a conversation by giving someone your business card, you give the impression that you’re too important to engage in a conversation. End the conversation by either providing your business card, or waiting on the person to whom you’re speaking to ask for it. If they don’t ask for yours, ask for theirs. It’s inappropriate to come up to someone and hand them your card without first engaging in small talk. If they remember you at all after an exchange like this, they will remember you for the wrong reasons.

When you receive a business card, take some time to review it. Never just put the business card in your pocket, it’s rude. In China, it’s custom to receive the card with two hands and stare intently at the business card to show the other person that you have a keen interest in who they are and what they do. We should take a page from their playbook. If you take the business card without reviewing it and quickly put it away, you communicate a sheer disinterest in the person and risk being offensive. If you’re in a business meeting, or interview, leave the other person’s card on the table and only put it away as you are leaving the meeting.

Your business card is not a flyer. When I first started networking, I never felt like I had enough business cards. My goal was to put my business card in the hands of as many people possible. Boy was I misinformed. After a few networking events of giving hundreds of cards away as if they were party flyers, I didn’t get any callbacks and it was heart wrenching to see my card on the ground after the room emptied. After a few of those failed experiments, I came to networking events with a different approach: quality over quantity. I would much rather have a few meaningful conversations and connections with individuals than briefly meet and greet hundreds of people as if I were running for public office. My true goal is to schedule a follow up meeting with connections before we leave one another’s presences. This way, I know I didn’t waste my time. Brief interactions don’t mean much and they are unlikely to turn into a relationship, unless you follow up properly. But if you could meet a few people per event, and build a meaningful relationship with them, they will be more likely to turn into professional or personal relationships, you never know.

Be the business card. Your business card is a formality after you’ve shown a person who you are and what you have to offer. Be likeable, be memorable, be interesting. When you make a great first impression, they will remember your business card because they will remember you, they will remember how you made them feel. Instead of having someone read your business card to figure out your name, your place of employment, and job title, introduce yourself by including  the things listed on your business card. Your goal is to make them remember you notwithstanding your card.

Use the business card. The entire point in taking someone’s business card is to actually use it afterward. Follow up with your contacts by finding them on LinkedIn, or sending them a note letting them know that it was nice to meet them. Better yet, invite them out for coffee or lunch. You never know when you’ll need to connect with someone you met, keep their business cards as a subtle reminder. I have a stack of about 200 business cards in a rubber band. About 100 are former colleagues who I used to travel with, and another hundred are folks I met at networking events or through serendipitous interactions. They are organized by the general timeframe in which I met them and by industry. I recently went through this stack and emailed many of them to inform them of my new ventures. As a result, I have a ton of appointments in the coming weeks. If it weren’t for my business card etiquette, I’m sure as many people would have never responded to my request.

For your consideration. I’m a big fan of elaborate and creative business cards because it shows that you took time to develop something that most people don’t care about. However, they can be expensive and if you’re just starting out, you should make sure your card accurately represents your brand given your budget. As you grow and your business develops, understand that your business card and other marketing materials will change with time, so don’t try to do too much too soon. Of course you should apply general marketing and design principles to your business card, but it really doesn’t matter what you card looks like, because you should be more memorable than your card. Your card is an extension of your brand, but you are the brand.

Having good business card etiquette is a necessary pre-requisite to effective networking. Good luck, good people! 

I’ve learned many of life’s lessons through playing football for the University of Michigan, and I’m realizing just how important some are now that I’m a small business owner.  I wanted to go to Michigan because they are committed to doing everything with unmatched excellence. The University and its athletic program are well-oiled machines, and I wanted to find out what they knew to better myself and my community. As a small business owner, I think back to my days as an athlete to help deal with the problems I face on a daily basis. While the challenges I face are no longer All-American ball players, they have the same amount of intensity and if I falter, they could cost me the season, the championship, or my livelihood. Below are four lessons I learned playing football at Michigan.

1. You’re on an Island. Although football is a team sport, at times, you’re all alone. I played corner back, and when corner backs play one-on-one coverage on the opposite side of the field than the rest of the team, you’re on island, just you and your opponent. No help is coming, and if you make one mistake, you could not only give up points, you could cost your team the game, and ultimately the season. You could also be sorely embarrassed in front of more than 100,000 screaming fans and millions more on television. It was a lot of responsibility, and in business, I feel the same way. I’ve felt the same way even as an employee. I can’t rely on anyone to come to the rescue. When you work 14 hour days, and don’t have a team around you, it’s easy to feel as if you’re on an island, responsible for tackling challenges, big and small, as they arise. To do well on this island you need to ensure that you are mentally and physically tough, and as prepared as possible to defend with all your strength.

2. You must have a short memory. At Michigan, we learned to have a very short memory. We couldn’t think about the last play, because within the next thirty seconds, we had to do it all over again. If we become emotional or upset about what went wrong on the last play, it takes away from the focus we need to win on the next play. This was true for individual plays during the game, and it was also true throughout the season. We followed something called the 24 hour rule. No matter what happens to you, good or bad, you have 24 hours to get over it. We played on Saturdays, and if we won, we would celebrate like maniacs on Saturday night. But the next day, we had a long day of practice to prepare for our next opponent. There was no more celebrating, because we had to devise a strategy to win the next game. If we lost, and we didn’t lose much, we had 24 hours to get over it. I take this same approach in business. Maybe I didn’t reach my goals for the  day, week, or month. Maybe I made a mistake that cost me money. Or, maybe I made a ton of money and exceeded all of my goals. If I spend any time licking my wounds and singing the blues or celebrating, I get over it fast because I need to focus all of my energy on preparing for my next challenge.

3. You must get better every day. In Michigan football, it was a cardinal sin to make the same mistake twice. We could make a different mistake every day, but when we started to make the same mistake over and over again, the coaches would begin to look for our replacement. When you make the same mistake over and over, you begin to develop bad habits, and bad habits are hard to break. When we lifted weights, we recorded our workouts and entered them into a database so our strength and conditioning coach could see our progress. As a result we got stronger every day, literally. As a small business owner, I practice this philosophy in my work. I learn something new every day. I simply want to be smarter, I want to be more knowledgeable for my clients. I organize my schedule in such a way that I can pinpoint the value of my tasks down to the dollar amount. If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. Businesses need to continue to innovate because at the point they stop getting better on a daily basis, they will be consumed by the competition.

4. You must reach for the highest possible goals. There’s a mandatory team meeting before each season, in fall training camp, where we set the goals for the season. We initially set a goal to win the National Championship and the Big Ten Championship. Our coach came into the room and told us to delete our second goal of winning the Big Ten Championship. He explained to us that if we reach our goal of winning the National Championship, we would have obviously won the conference championship. He was right, the goal of a Big Ten Championship was a crutch. If we didn’t win the National Championship, we would have at least felt good about winning the conference title. This gave us a false sense of hope. Now, in business and in my dealings with clients, I advise them to reach for the highest goals possible, because if you fall short, you will end up in a really good place. Michelangelo said “It’s not that our goals are too high and we fail, it’s that they are too low and we reach them.”  When you reach for the highest possible goals, you work much harder, and you try until you get it right.

Whether you’re an employee, athlete, or small business owner, apply this philosophy to your life and I’m sure you’ll find success along the way.