If you’re a small business owner, you definitely need business cards. How else are you going to attract new customers if they don’t know how to contact you? They are the easiest ways to get your information quickly into the hands of your audience and are especially handy when networking. So now that you know that you need cards, where should you order them?

Pricing

You could go to your closest Kinko’s or Copy Max and quickly print out simple ones you design, or you could order cards through a graphic designer, but the cheapest, easiest and quickest way to get quality business cards is to order them online. The No. 1 reason small business owners order cards online is price. Local business card printing businesses, even the large chains, will be pricier, more often than not, than online business card printing sites, such as VistaPrint or iPrint. Traditional cards with these sites can cost as low as one penny per card.

Graphic Design

If you want nontraditional cards, say with a special design or a different texture, you can use a local graphic designer who can print out your cards, but this will definitely be more expensive than ordering your business cards online. If you’re worried about giving up cool design capabilities with online business card printers, fear not-there are several sites that allow you to play around with a WYSIWGY editor, which allows you to edit the content of your business cards directly on the electronic representation of the card. And there are even a couple of sites, such as Andreoni, that have a full design team that can create custom cards for you from scratch.

If your needs are fairly basic and you want to design cards yourself, you can always create your own card on these WYSISGY editors when you order online. They are incredibly flexible, allowing you to upload a background image and move your text around. For cards that are even simpler than that, you can use templates from these sites, which should take little time to master. If you take your card needs to a local printer, you may end up spending more time trying to create the cards than if you ordered them online.

Options

When designing cards, you can choose from a plethora of options that have nothing to do with graphic design, such as finish, stock and raised lettering. Not every local business card printer will offer all of these options, and for a few professions having some of these features is incredibly important. For example, many lawyers love the raised print option on their cards. A creative profession may appreciate a glossy card instead of a plain, matte one. The stock of your business cards is also incredibly important. You don’t want a flimsy card if you’re passing them around to hundreds of new contacts at a trade show or other business function.

Turnaround Time

Not counting overnight shipping, you can typically receive your cards in as little as 3 days if you order them online. The typical turnaround for local printing companies is around 7 days, unless you want to pay extra to expedite them. If you need your cards in a hurry-or you’re just impatient-ordering cards online is a great option.

By: Darcie Duttweiler

About the Author: