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Business Cards

Business cards are sometimes your first printed introduction to a customer so it's important that what you are handing them or sending them is of excellent quality. Business cards should not only have an eye-catching design but they should also be something that can withstand use. If you're not sure if you'll need to have your business cards professionally printed or if you should use your inkjet printer, consider these three questions before you do anything:

In your line of work, how often do you use them?: For some people, such as those in sales, the business card is a must-have item. You'll be giving away many of them so it's probably better (and believe it or not, cheaper) to have a professional printer do your business cards. If you rarely have the need to give someone a business card, high-quality inkjet printer business cards can suffice.

What type of work do you do?: If your job depends greatly on image, again in the field of sales or perhaps graphic arts, it's important that your business cards be on thick or glossy paper, which a professional printer can run.

How many business cards do you need?: As with the first question, if you're going to be using them often you can get a better deal at professional printers for large print runs. But perhaps you'd like something professional yet you don't need 5,000 business cards at once. If that's the case, look for online printers that can do short run business cards that look very professional.

In addition to doing short run business cards, some printing sites have templates you can use if you can't afford a graphic artist (or you aren't handy yourself in that area). If possible it's best to have your business cards look different from the rest, but in some cases something is better than nothing at all.