Business Card Printing Options
Business cards are a necessary tool of the trade. They're how you establish yourself as someone who legitimately knows what they're doing and can put the rest of us to shame. Here, we go over what business card printing options are available while also going over some thoughts on how you should use your cards.
Business Cards: The Good
There is no such thing as too many business cards! You never know when you'll need them or run out of them... And if that happens, it's not like these websites have high prices or long wait times for service. Business cards are a cheap way to help generate interest in your business. If you're a shop owner, for example, chances are not everyone will come into your store... but they'll definitely need business cards. Getting people to take your card is an easy way to make them think "Oooooh... I wanna go there!" and that's a good warm-up for making a sale.
Business Cards: The Bad
I understand the desire to print as many business cards as one possibly can! But if you get caught printing too many of these things, it might look like you think "well- that'll work didn't it?" or feel like having too much of something will make you invincible. Keep your cards at a healthy supply of anywhere between 100 and 1000. Also, if you print more than 1000 cards (especially if they're not personalized), it's very likely that you'll end up throwing them away. That's just going to be a waste of time, money and resources.
Business Cards: The Ugly
No one wants to have tacky looking business cards. Just because you can afford the printing doesn't mean your design will look good. And if your design doesn't look good, it's not going to sell your product or service... and that's kind of the point of a business card! Make sure you hire someone who is experienced in designing for small businesses. That way you've got a professional job, not some weird hippie business card with flowers and trees on it... that might get you a few weird looks.
Personalized Business Cards Make Your Cards Look Better
Having your name printed directly on your business card allows you to have more control over how your cards look. You can choose what font & size you want, whether or not you want borders, if you want text in all caps, if you want the paper to be glossy or matte, etc. All of these options can help make a nicer looking business card.
Business Cards: The Important Things To Keep In Mind
-Use a nice font. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it should be readable. Check out the Fonts page for suggestions.
-Get your cards printed on quality business card stock! It makes a HUGE difference in the appearance of your card. Choose a premium paper stock (more expensive) if you're going to go with a heavy ink coverage (aka: a lot of writing). But if you're just doing 1-2 colors, then you can use standard paper stock. Some websites offer perforated business card sheets so that you can easily cut the cards apart.
-A standard business card is 3.5 inches wide by 2 inches high (Standard).
-A standard business card weighs 0.080 pounds (~16 sheets of paper).
-A single color business card is 0.0290 pounds.
-A double color (full-color) business card is 0.0531 pounds.
-Millboard paper weight is approximately 2,000lbs/100sheets, so you can print 2,000 cards on a single sheet if you choose the Millboard option on this site: http://www.businesscardprintersdirect2u.com/businesscards/#index3 .
-Business card inserts can potentially have more information than a standard business card. The paper will become thicker, and that extra paper usually weighs more. Keep that in mind when designing the insert! Finally, keep in mind that if your business consists of multiple people, you won't be able to put every single name on a single card. You have to pick and choose who you want on each one... so plan ahead for that as well!
One last thing is that your business cards are not freebies! Print too many of these things and people will think you're trying to scam them out of money. It's better to print 100 or 500 cards at the most, then you won't look like a scammer... but you'll still look like a business!
There's something else that might be worth mentioning. Make sure you have your business cards printed on "duplex" paper. If your printer is not equipped with dual-sided printing, then it's possible that several cards colors may bleed into each other, causing "ghosting". This can happen with a lot of printing scenarios, but using two-sided printing and keeping the colors evenly spaced out will help minimize this problem. A good place to find cards that have both color and black & white options on them is this site: http://www.businesscardprintersdirect2u.com/businesscards/#category5 .
You may have noticed that on the site there is a "paper color" option. This will make your card look more professional, but it can also increase the thickness of the card and that may bump up the price. It also probably won't help with ghosting, but it will make your cards look better overall.
-Use multiple cards as a small booklet! You can print multiple cards on a single piece of paper (business card stock or not). Just make sure to go with a heavier ink coverage to prevent any bleeding. You can do this with lamination paper, but it's best to just print the cards using different colors.
-Use a high quality laser printer if you're going to be putting a lot of text and/or images on the card, especially if these things are going to be heavy in color. This will ensure a higher quality print... and you'll also save money!
-If your business involves physical products have them addressed in both English and your native language. For example, if you're from Canada & your business is from the U.S., then address all cards with both English & French.
-Keep printing costs down! Printing small amounts of cards will probably end up being cheaper than printing large amounts of cards.
Conclusion:
Business cards are not something to be feared, but if you're going to print them anyway, then at least make sure you do it right! These tips should help you start off with a nice business card... and it'll be worth all the effort that went into creating it!
Resources: http://www.businesscardprintersdirect2u.com/businesscards/#index5 http://www.businesscardprintersdirect2u.com/businesscards/#index1 http://www.businesscardprintersdirect2u.com/businesscards/#index4 http://www.businesscardprintersdirect2u.com/businesscards/#index8 http://www.businesscardprintersdirect2u.