If you’re going to be networking to drum up business, or just meet people who might want to use your services (that is, potentially everyone you meet) you should get some business cards so they have an easy reminder of who you are and what you do. It’s hard enough establishing yourself as a freelancer, but having something that makes you stick out helps potential clients remember you.

On your card you should have (at minimum):

• Your business’s name (if different)
• Contact details
• What you do
• Have space that a potential client can scribble on

Point 4 is very important – I personally have hundreds of business cards from various events, and I have no clue what some of the people do because while they have a very nice looking card, it doesn’t say what they do and I either forgot to write it down, or I couldn’t write on the card because of its finish. So the final must-have for your cards is that there is some space for someone to write details on.

Now, if it says what you do, I might not need to do this, but then again, I might need to remind myself to send you a really good contact. If I want to do that, I’ll probably write on your card, as long as there’s space. If I can’t write on it, I might forget why I want to talk to you again and you’ve lost potential business, so make a gap where I can scribble!

Design

Keep the design simple. As you can see from the picture, certain cards stand out even when they’re very small as they have a bold, uncomplicated design.

If you have a logo for your business, put it on your card and use the same colours in the logo for your text or background colour. If you don’t have a logo and know you’re useless at design, find a local designer (freelance, of course!) and commission a logo and card design from them. See if you have a skill that they want and you may be able to make a deal for a work exchange, so you don’t have to pay for the design.

Ordering

You can get business cards made almost anywhere, and discount printers like printing.com will do you a great deal on production. One of the most popular new printers is start-up Moo.com, they produce half-height cards, which you can see on the right of our picture. I personally used overnightprints.com to print my cards. I ordered 500 of them for double-sided with rounded edges. My total order price including shipping was just under $50. They’re pretty good quality.

These are my business cards for my freelancing business:

What’s Next?

Get your cards designed and printed, then get out there and meet people. Soon you’ll have given all the cards away and you’ll be ordering a new batch, hopefully paid for from the work produced by all your networking efforts. I always carry at least 20 business cards with me. There have been multiple times where I’ve been places and had to give out a bunch of cards to multiple people interested in discussing projects with them.

What are your thoughts? What do your business cards look like? Have you found any of these guidelines help you with your design? What has your experience with networking events + business cards been?