Yesterday, I posted about getting out more. Hopefully, when you do eventually get out, you’ll remember to bring your business cards with you.
Oddly enough, many freelancers don’t think to get business cards done up for themselves, especially when they’re just starting out. I suppose that, for them, business cards were something they received from full-time employers in order to confer legitimacy upon themselves.
Thing is, they can provide legitimacy to your freelance business as well (in addition to making in-person networking easier and more fruitful).
I’m a fan of two different freelancer-friendly biz-card purveyors: VistaPrint and Moo.
VistaPrint allows you to choose from a database of pre-designed card templates, and then plug in your info. 250 of these cards can be had for “free.” That is, you pay for shipping only. Rates go up the more you want to customize your design (250 for $19.99). There are also many more products to be had throughout the site, which can be ordered to match the design on your cards, such as return address stickers, postcards, brochures, etc.
Moo, on the other hand, became popular by offering alternative-sized cards:
Their minicards can be had for $19.99 and up, and the site makes it easy to incorporate your personal Flickr photos into the design. More recently, they’ve made regular-sized cards available, and these can be had for $21.99 and up.
If you don’t want to go the ho-hum template route, you can also design your business cards with Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop and upload it to VistaPrint (they explain how to do this on the site). That allows so much more flexibility.
If you aren’t artistic, it might be well worth it to hire a graphic artist to design business cards for you. I worked with an artist on mine, and have gotten loads of compliments on them, which in turn lead to lots and lots of freelance work.