Taking it beyond the standard solutions
Handing out and receiving business cards is a fantastic way to network outside of the internet. Sometimes actually having an in-person talk with someone can do a lot more for a professional relationship than only ever chatting through email or social media networks. However, one major problem with tangible business cards is sorting through them to find the information you need or even having to manually input the essential data, like a name, email address, website, and phone number, into your phone or onto your computer. And even if you purchase and try to use a business card scanner, it can be tedious and extremely time-consuming. But thanks to a new relatively new startup based out of Austin, receiving and using business cards is no longer the hassle it used to be.
CloudContacts is all about ease, simplicity, and convenience. All you have to do is mail or electronically send the business cards you’ve received to them and they will do the rest. CloudContacts will basically create a report of all the contact information that the business cards contain, link information to applicable social networking accounts—like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook—double-check all entered information against the original business cards, allow you to export the data right into your email or on your computer, and they will even recycle the original business cards after they’re done. How’s that for service?
CloudContacts does the work for you
You don’t even have to worry about losing that valuable information—especially after they’ve recycled your business cards. CloudContacts fully backs up the information and that information can be accessed through their web interface. This means that you can access your contacts’ information from anywhere at any time, whether you’re on a business trip and need last minute contact data or your computer crashed at the worst possible moment.
CloudContacts was created and founded by Allen Stern in 2008 after he came home from a conference and had another large stack of business cards to place next to his other stacks of collected business cards. A short time later, he launched a new feature on his blog and wanted to share it with those he met at the conferences, but he didn’t want to manually enter all the information. Because no solution was immediately available, he decided to create a solution to match his needs, thus CloudContacts was born.
The American Genius Staff Writer: Charlene Jimenez earned her Master's Degree in Arts and Culture with a Creative Writing concentration from the University of Denver after earning her Bachelor's Degree in English from Brigham Young University in Idaho. Jimenez's column is dedicated to business and technology tips, trends and best practices for entrepreneurs and small business professionals.
