How to make business cards

Despite living in a digital age, business cards are still a great tool to promote your business and services. Professional business card services can be expensive and an unnecessary business expense. In this article we'll give you a range of strategies for reducing your outgoings on business cards and promotional materials. Read on to find out how to create your own business cards and get the best rates from printers.

Assess your needs

Not everyone needs business cards and on starting a business, many people choose to buy them as a status symbol. If you work from home or perform the majority of your work online, then spending money on cool color business cards can be a waste of money. If you are regularly networking with people face to face, then customised or photo business cards can be a great way to stand out from the crowd and make sure that your next lead gets in contact with you.

Reducing costs

Graphic designer
It is possible to contract a graphic designer to make an entirely new set of corporate stationary and brand image, but this can be extremely expensive.
Be creative
Avoid business cards makers online as these tend to have the same over used designs which will immediately identify you as a cheap skate. Learn how to use a piece of graphics editing software like Adobe Photoshop or the free and open source program, GIMP.
Bleed area
Create a document which matches your desired business card size. You can look this up online, but be sure to set up a "bleed area". If you fail to do this, then your business cards will have a white border from where they have been guillotined at the printers. There are plenty of online tutorials to show you how to do this. Things to know
Create your graphics to match the rest of your stationary and website if you have one. Next, find a printer and get some quotes. Die cut business cards in unusual shapes tend to cost more, as do different laminate finishes. Printers
Most printers have a samples pack which they will send out for free so that you can asses the different kind of finishes and card stock qualities.
Be inspired
If you really want to stand out from the crowd, especially if you are a creative professional, consider making extremely intricate hand made or CNC business cards. Take inspiration from Thingiverse.com where even fully working gear mechanism business cards can be downloaded for free, ready for you to assemble. Final word
Business cards are there to make you stand out from the crowd, so avoid vista print style business cards at all cost. People will know straight away.