Business Cards 101
Below is Nathan Carnes advice for entrepreneurs. For more information on Nathan Carnes, be sure to check out his website or follow him on twitter.
How to get cool, professional business cards for less than $100
With the spread of affordable graphic design tools and inexpensive digital full-color printing, getting professional business cards is a much faster (and cheaper) process than ever before. There’s no excuse for having boring cards on cheap paper stock. If you’re using Avery tear-apart sheets from Office Depot and your $50 inkjet printer at home, I’m looking at you.
Even if you don’t have the design skills to design your own business cards, you can still get them done for a decent price. Here’s how.
- Get your act together. Gather all of the information you want on your business card, exactly how you want it to appear. This will include your name and business, at least some contact information (phone and e-mail address at a minimum, address and fax if you want, website address if you have it), and things like your title if you want. If you have a logo, get a high-resolution (or better, AI, EPS, or PDF vector) of it for your designer.
- Figure out your style. Find examples of business cards you like. Dig through business cards you’ve received, promotional giveaway bowls at restaurants, and scour sites like FaveUp.com. Make sure the style you like matches your personality and business. I don’t want my dentist to hand me a business card with a grungey style.
- Find a designer. Look around online, or look through your local Yellow Pages, but either way, find a designer who’s work you love, and who works in the style you want. Get in touch with them, and ask them if they can put together a business card for you, ready for Overnightprints.com or VistaPrint, in one hour with no revisions. Let them know you already know what style you want and have your information and logo together, and let them know you’ll pay upfront, in cash.Remember how I said you had to find a designer who’s work you loved? No revisions means that you get what you get. If you like the designer’s portfolio, chances are they’ll surprise you with their creativity, and you’ll get something better than what you pictured. If not, well, you’re only out for an hour’s labor. That’ll run you $45-85 in most cases.
- Get them printed. Since you asked your designer to get your cards ready for a specific printer, you should be ready to go, right? There are lots of options for printing, but for speed, price, and convenience, I find it hard to beat either VistaPrint or Overnightprints.com. You can find coupons online that will lower the cost of 500 business cards, full color and double-sided, to around $35 more often than not. Hard to beat.
There you go. Professionally designed, professionally printed business cards for less than $100 in a lot of cases. Sure, it’s a little scary to have so little input on the design, but I think you’re better off letting a good designer run with their imagination than go through a long revision process with a cheap design who’s work you don’t like. Now that you have no excuse, get out there and get going!
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