As an independent contractor, I’ve gone back and forth about the advantages of having business cards. Much of my work comes via referrals, existing relationships or “meeting” me on the internet, and I very rarely meet someone in person where I have the opportunity to suggest they “call me if you need me.” However, it certainly wouldn’t hurt any to be able to hand someone a physical reminder of my services and contact information. There’s no guarantee they’ll remember my last name when they get to their open search engine bar. And worse, there’s someone else out there (albeit across the country) that has the same name and works in the same field. If my potential client were looking at my business card while typing in my email address or URL, there would be no risk of them sending my business to a woman in California who specializes in medical writing.

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