LEAN Marketing
Several years ago Eric Ries published an popular business book called The Lean Startup.
The core principle of the book is that you shouldn't invest large amounts of time, money and energy into a new business up front without knowing if it will work.
Instead, you should instead invest as little time and money up front to build a Minimum Viable Product.
This principle of a minimum viable product is that you want to get something out into the market as quickly as possible so you can begin to get real world feedback from customers and change it along the way.
That same principle is true for marketing your creative services.
When you launch your creative business, don't sit in a closet dreaming up your perfect website and brand for months in advance.
Don't keep contemplating the perfect niche, or perfect strategy.
Just get something out there and see how the world reacts.
Even if your branding looks terrible from the start, get it out there and then work on improving it every single day.
With a website, make sure to use a content management system like Squarespace or Wordpress. This gives you the ability to quickly change your copy, and content to fit the changing focus and needs of your practice.
With your business cards, try to spend as little as possible since they will most likely be redesign six months from now anyway.
Try to spend as little as possible on your marketing. You will change and morph this over time as you begin to realize what you love, what your specialities are and what the market needs.
Marketing doesn't need to be perfect from day one.
Just get something out there and begin improving on it.