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So far, I've gotten by without the use of a single business card. Just getting by isn't exactly good enough but that may be due to other factors such as marketing rather than not having used a business card. In this day and age, are business cards even needed any more?

When deciding to start freelancing, one of the initial things on my list was to design and have printed some business cards to hand out. Naturally, I was thinking I needed them and they were a necessity to anybody starting out. I never really thought too much about why I would need them though, I just had them made and thought I would be handing them out in no time and getting new clients through my use of them.

This didn't turn out to be the case. Not because I handed them out and clients forgot about them threw them aside but because I never actually handed any out. Finding them again recently, I started thinking about their purpose and if I would ever use them.

Each time I hear about business cards now, it's due to someone coming up with a gimmick of some sort in the production of their cards. Whilst it must be nice to pull out your card in front of some peers and have them be impressed by the quality of the print, the thickness of your card or the cool concept, does that actually pose any value at all?

Everything is accessible online these days and that's where I've also found my clients. If I was living in some large city, there may be benefits of having some cards to hand out to local businesses or other potential clients but I don't and I don't see the point of handing out business cards to other people in the same industry at conferences or anything – they are in the same business as me and a lot of the time, they're my competition too. With my connections being made online, it only makes sense to have my information there too and mailing out a card to a contact made online wouldn't make much sense at all.

So without using physical cards, would I need a digital alternative? I've seen a few examples recently of people having something just like this. Simple, single page sites that just hold links to your portfolio and contact information which is essentially a digital business card. Two of the better ones I've come across are those of Rogie King and Tim Van Damme who seem to have already grasped the idea of what I've been thinking.

How about you? Do you use your cards much if you have any? If you don't have any, do you still plan on getting some? As always, let me know in the comments!

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Social Media Icons courtesy of Rogie King