Business cards used to be a staple of the professional world. Freelancers needed them to introduce themselves or offer a handy reminder of their phone and address. Today, many business contacts are online–I have worked with some clients I have never met face-to-face. So what happens to the business card?
Your business card is, to some extent, your website. Every writer needs one even if it is just one page with your contact information and some description of your service.
A blog is a bit more than a business card because it gives your clients some idea of who you are and what you do. This blog is aimed mainly at fellow writers and freelancers, not my clients. I actually don’t have a blog for my clients, partly because I’m not sure they would read it. But it would be almost like a “brochure” for my clients about my company and its personality.
But what about other ways to impress your client or prospective client with who you are? One idea that I’ve heard and liked (but never done) is this: write a book. Write a book on your area of expertise and self-publish it. Granted, one copy may cost you $20. But wouldn’t it be a cool “business card”?
You could hand it out to clients to shore up your credibility. After all, the definition of an expert is the guy or gal who wrote the book!
You can also hand it out to prospective new business to introduce yourself in a thorough way. The book should reflect your opinions but also offer a lot of strong, basic how-to information in terms of what your business offers. If you specialize in financial stuff, you can write a book about what to look for in outsourcing financial writing to freelancers. If you mainly ghostwrite, you can write a book on the whole ghostwriting process. If you want to get more work as an entertainment writer, write a book about the 100 Movies That Changed the World.
Cool idea, huh?
