1. Pack a fat stack of business cards.
This is likely the biggest mistake I made. I’ve been doing freelance work from behind a computer screen for years, and up until now, I’ve never needed to hand my business card to someone face-to-face. Whoops. I felt like a total poser not having any, and it was definitely the biggest tell (in my opinion) as to my inexperience.
If you don’t have any and don’t have the means to get any fast, just stalk whoever you feel deserves stalking on social media. In my opinion, following someone on Twitter or Instagram is better than a piece of paper you (or they) are likely to lose. …But I’m still gonna get business cards anyway.