That’s a good point. I’m usually pretty good at getting info out of neighbors(I sold insurance door to door for 3 years). I can usually find out the names and addresses if they know it and when they will be home if they still live there. It really just depends on the person. I would much rather write my name and number on a standard index card than give a flimsy business card though. As a matter of fact I’d rather just give the index card either way. I don’t want to seem too sophisticated to people. It really has more to do with my area than anything.
This thought was embedded in my previous post: Ok, what if you want to print your own bis cards. My info after I called and office supply store wat that any PRINTSHOP
software would do.
I’ve been printing my own cards for a couple of years now. What I’ve been using is Print Artist (now called Print Artist Publisher). It costs from $49 to $69, depending on where you find it. It has lots of nice templates, tons of graphics–including photo graphics if you like–and plenty of examples that you could just change the names of and phone numbers to personalize it and print.
Most print shops use 600 dpi or higher graphics, so if you have a laser printer that prints 600dpi or higher you could do your own and print them straight out of your machine.
I worked for a short time at a sales office of a paper manufacturer, so I learned quite a bit about the different types of papers out there. What I now do is, I go to either Kelly Paper or Kirk (now called Xpedx) Paper, and I obtain paper samples; they’re free. I test a few sheets through my laser printer to see if I’ll like the finished product, then when I’ve settled on one I go buy an entire ream of cardstock paper. Cardstock is exactly the paper your neighborhood printer buys, and more often than not he’s buying it from Xpedx or Kelly Paper. It’s not perforated (which CAN be a GOOD thing!), and I print 12 cards per sheet from Print Artist. Then I take the printed sheets to Kinko’s and ask them to cut them for me. Oddly enough, they charge 75 cents per cut, and can cut anywhere from 20-200 sheets for the same price. They count by how many times they push the cutter arm down, not how many sheets are cut. So for 12 cards per page, that comes to about 6-8 cuts (I forget–it’s been awhile) which is less than $10. The paper costs about $10-$20, so for about $30 or so I can have up to 3,000 business cards; there are 250 sheets in a ream of card stock, times 12 cards per page. And if you’re only interested in doing 2 or 3 sheets or so, you can cut them manually one at a time at Kinko’s yourself in the self-serve area for free; they don’t charge to use their rotary (slide) cutter.
I have 3 caveats:
Your printer needs a straight-through paper path in order to handle the card stock without jamming unless you use a thinner card stock. Normal business card stock is rated at 90# to 110#, although there are some 80# stocks that work. (The paper shop will know what this means.)
If you have a Kelly or Xpedx near you and decide to try this, tell the salesperson what you plan to do, which is run it through a laser printer. Some papers are better suited for this than others, and many are rated both in thickness and in the fact that they WILL work in laser printers.
If you decide to do color printers with an inkjet, you may want to use the photo papers and photo inks instead. They don’t smudge.
Call me crazy, but I tried the fold-out cards and got frustrated when the perforated edges were visible on the cards I handed out to everyone.
Posted by Dirk Roach on February 23, 1999 at 21:05:39:
Hi MilNC,
What I do and would recommend to anyone (as I am extremely happy with them) is publisher98 and the laser cut out sheets.I think the pack cost me around ten bucks.The reason that I liked them, is I wasn’t locked into a thousand cards. As my business interests and such have been continually evolving I could alter my cards along with it.
I would be happy to give you a couple at the convention.
Dirk
Re: PRINT OWN BUSINESS CARDS? - Posted by Stacy (AZ)
Posted by Stacy (AZ) on February 23, 1999 at 17:24:27:
I’ve printed my own in the past. I used MS Word, and printed them up as “labels”. You can buy sheets of business cards made by Avery, and insert the sheets into your printer just as you would sheets of paper or mailing labels. Then you separate the cards at their perforations.
That’s where the problem is, though. The cards are flimsy so they can make it through your printer, and the edges are rough since they have a perforation on them. I wasn’t real happy about the quality, so I just pay $18 for the print shop to make my cards.
Definately have them done at a printer. The most important thing about having a business card is the quality of the paper. You just can’t get the good quality paper to print them from your PC. If you can’t afford to have them done on good quality paper at a printer, just don’t even use one until you can. I have never used them. Although some people feel they are some sort of effective advertising medium, I feel that they are just an ego booster to those using them and they just get tossed later anyway. I have “Rolodex” cards printed at Office Max with my info on it. I only give them to people who I feel are serious about doing business with me. I tell all the rest to get out their Rolodex and write it on one of their cards or write it in their address book, while I’m there.
at the local computer store. You need to try a store that sells paper to the print shops. Check the phone books for Kelly Paper, Zellerbach, or Xpedx (formerly Kirk Paper). Or call a printshop and ask them where they get their business card paper; tell them you want to get free samples for a test run through your printer.
…I agree with you in onee sense…
but, I also believe it is important to have bus cards if you are out looking at a property and cant find the owner.I always hand the neighbors a card so if they talk to the owner, they have something to give them.
and to make sure they dont just toss it…I let them know I will give them a bird dog fee if I purchase the property.
Ed