New Business Cards? Don’t be Ripped off!

So you need some business cards or flyers printed? The easiest thing to do is go to that printer guy you know right? He’ll give you a good price and that will save you any effort of shopping around. But wait, what are you getting for you buck?!

Now we aren’t saying that every printer is ripping you off, but we have heard some pretty horrendous horror stories. One guy was paying about £200 for his business cards and he only got a few hundred! So we wanted to make sure this didn’t happen to anyone else.

Before giving you a rough price, let’s clarify what you should be getting first. A Sole Trader might get around 500 business cards for themselves, probably full colour and double sided. You may as well use both sides and be in full colour as it won’t cost that much more and it’s worth it to get across more on your card.

We would recommend a card weight, which is measured in ‘gsm’ (grams per square meter), of around 400gsm. Minimum 350gsm but any lower than that just screams cheap. Higher than 400gsm feels great but it does up the price quite a bit.

And finally the finish on the card comes in many varieties but the standard ones are gloss (which can be a bit tacky), silk (nice), and matt laminated (really nice!). That’s in order of price and quality.

So therefore ideally 500 business cards, full colour, double sided, 400gsm and matt laminated… how much do you think? £60? £70+? What about adding delivery and VAT too?

There are printers out there that we have used that will print 500 400gsm Matt Laminated cards for around £30 (including delivery and VAT). So please don’t get ripped off.

This doesn’t include design of the business card, that’s extra. Remember printers aren’t necessarily good graphic designers either, it’s always worth investing in a good graphic designer to make your business cards look credible and on brand. For many people the business card is their first impression, so it is worth making that extra effort.

ACTION: Next time you are looking for a printer, get some comparison prices to make sure you’re not getting ripped off.

ACTION: Look at your own business card, how does it feel? Does it look and feel professional to you? Search for ‘business cards’ on the atomic site to find other articles on how to make your business card look great.