According to a new Ipsos poll conducted for MOO.com (custom card printer), small business owners (SMBs) are more likely to consider business cards ‘very impactful’ compared to general American business persons (GenBusPers). 34% of SMBs say that using business cards to network is ‘very impactful’, compared to 24% of Americans who use business cards and don’t own a small business. The average American SMB distributes approximately 40 business cards in a given month, compared to an average of 24 business cards given out monthly by a GenBusPers. Within both groups, those who see business cards ‘very impactful’ for networking are more likely to distribute approximately 13 more business cards per month compared to those who see business cards as ‘less impactful’. Six in ten GenBusPers and SMBs typically distribute business cards at conferences, although small business owners tend to distribute them at a wider variety of locations and situations. Events/Situations Where GenBusPers And SMBs Tend To Distribute Business CardsEvent/SituationGenBusPersSMBs Conference (overall) 59% 55% Local conference 48 47 National conference 36 29 International conference 14 15 Parties/other social events 45 58 Industry functions 45 50 Community functions 41 56 Volunteer functions 33 36 Bars or restaurants 28 39 Daily commute 16 29 Airplane 13 19 Gym 11 18 Other 10 11 Source: Ipsos/Moo.com, October 2012 31% of SMBs ‘always give out their card when they meet someone new in either a business or personal setting’, while less than two in ten GenBusPers do the same. When Meeting In A Business or Personal SettingFrequency of Giving CardSMBsGenBusPers Always 31% 18% Most of the time 37 38 Sometimes 29 41 Digital or verbal 2 4 Source: Ipsos/Moo.com, October 2012 Business card distribution appears to have increased over the past five years, especially among SMBs. Six in ten (60%) SMBs ‘currently give out more business cards than they did five years ago’, while more than four in ten (43%) GenBusPers say they do the same. Among both groups, seeing business cards as ‘very impactful’ for networking attributes to about a twenty percentage point difference (+20 pts) in saying they give out more business cards now compared to five years ago, compared to those who see them as ‘less impactful’ for networking. More SMBs (40%) strongly agree that their business card ‘is critically important for successfully networking’, compared to only 30% of GenBusPers. Small business owners are also more likely to say: