Managing the operations budget is an imperative step towards building a successful business! An important portion of the operations budget is dedicated to marketing and advertising, and the materials and resources used. Suppliers of these materials provide quality products and services; however, when the bill arrives, it can leave you wondering if you really need to advertise at all? Can’t you just stand outside and yell for a lot less money? If you need to trim your advertising budget, one step to take is to create your own business cards.
Entrepreneurs and small companies logically need to focus the budget on creative services (such as media advertising, material design and website presence), and less on everyday marketing materials like business cards and stationery. For immediate needs, creating your own business cards provides the flexibility of editing your card design whenever new information develops, like when you decide to offer more or different services or if you move to a new location. Purchasing preprinted cards in quantities of 250-1000 at a time, can leave you with costly waste unless you want to sit down and handwrite your changes on each card!
Supplies are easily accessible from manufacturers such as Avery and Printworks. Business card paper comes in a wide range of colors, weights and sizes. Photo-quality card stock and a photo-capable printer will allow for the most professional appearance. HP and Lexmark are just two of the many manufacturers that offer printers that produce quality color printouts. Packages of 120 blank cards usually average less than $5, while the average cost for a box of 500 professionally-printed cards can range from $10-$200, depending on which bells and whistles you need, like aqueous coatings or different types of paper!
Effective business cards need the following information:
-Contact info (including email, address and phone numbers)
-Brief description or short bullet list of your services
-A brief slogan or short quote.
-Your company logo
Your current company logo can easily be incorporated by using software such as MS Works or Adobe Photoshop. Templates are available in a variety of styles, through these software programs, and card manufacturers also offer free templates on their websites. Design possibilities are endless-from black & white to full color, glossy to matte papers, font types and picture/logo placement-and only limited by your creativity and imagination!
As you can see, you can significantly decrease your advertising/marketing overhead by eliminating bulk orders of cards that can quickly become scrap paper and taking the design and production of your business cards into your own hands! By maintaining direct control of your business cards, you eliminate expense and allow your hard earned revenues to stay where they belong-working for you!