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Write You - Are You Wasting Time and Money Printing Business Cards?
How many times have you been in the middle of a major deadline with a business project or assignment, when, all of a sudden, your home office door opens, and it's your child saying "Mommy/Daddy, I'm bored......" ?You usually just groan and say "Honey, go play with your toys or watch tv...." Children - especially young children - get bored easily. They need a constant string of activities to keep themselves occupied.Well, sometimes that works and sometimes you have to stop what you're doing and think of an activity to keep your child busy and out of your hair for awhile.One of the more popular activities for children is making art projects. They absolutely love art!All of us can probably remember how great it fel
We expected the inkjet printed cards to be much cheaper than the professionally printed ones. That was before we tallied the cost of ink cartridges and paper. The paper was $16.88 online, plus $7.95 shipping, for 200 cards. That works out to 12.4 cents per card. If you include a 10% waste factor, the final paper cost is 13.66 cents per card. Then we calculated the ink cost. Overall, we averaged 42 cents per page, or 4.2 cents per card. (Each page had room for 10 cards.) Again, a waste factor of 10% meant a final ink cost of 4.62 cents per card. Total cost for ink and paper was 18.28 cents per card. An excellent price if you only need a few dozen, but for larger quantities, we could do better.
The professionally printed cards were simple 2 color (black and dark blue inks) raised printing on an off-whit
In the world of medical billing, there is a sub domain all to itself. It is called enteral nutrition. Once upon a time, this was something that would have never been considered to be billable, which is part of the reason that this particular sub domain has its very own CMN. To understand how the CMN works, we first have to know a little something about enteral nutrition itself and what it is.In modern times, it has been determined that there are people who are ill because they don't get the right kind of nutrition. Years ago, we weren't so health conscious. The 60s saw the days of white bread and preservatives and nobody even knew what the word fiber stood for. Health food stores were the exception rather than the norm. Then, sud
To check out how well this works in practice, my employees and I conducted a small experiment. We created 3 batches of business cards, using 3 different techniques.
The first technique was fairly straightforward: We took the business card down to our neighborhood print shop, and asked them to print up some more. We brought a blown up copy of our logo, which served as “camera ready artwork.” The copy shop took care of the typesetting, proofreading, printing, etc. It was fairly painless, although it did involve physically getting to the print shop. Next time we'll email them a TIF file. We had planned on getting 500 cards, but the price for 1,000 was only a little higher, so we went with the larger quantity. The cards took 5 business days, apparently because they were not printed on-site, but rather outsourced to a wholesale printer.
The second technique may sound unorthodox, but it worked. We used a custom made rubber stamp to create the cards. This was fun, though it took a while. We also wrecked a few cards by stamping carelessly.
Finally, we created some cards on our inkjet printer, an Epson Stylus C84. There's special software available for placing the images 10-up on the page, but we opted to use Adobe PageMaker, since that's what we're familiar with. We printed the cards on Avery #8871 Clean Edge Business Card paper.
All three methods have their proponents, and none of the methods was clearly the best choice for everyone. The rubber stamped cards were definitely funky looking. If you work at a bank, don't even think about it. On the other hand, if you just need a few dozen cards for your part time cookie baking business, rubber stamped cards might be just what you need to convey the “home made” impression. Art stamp enthusiasts often have fun with multiple ink colors. The more ink pads you have, the more variety your cards can have. The cost of rubber stamped cards was 12.4 cents each. Unfortunately, our 8 year-old assistant got bored, so we aborted the experiment after an hour and a half, and about 150 cards.
The inkjet printed cards were a little harder to evaluate. The image was clear and sharp, and we chose to use the printer's abilities to mix several colors and a blend on the page. However, the designing is not quite as trivial as it sounds. You can easily end up designing a card that's too busy. Also, our first few designs had type that went too close to the edge. If you're not a professional designer, count on printing out some experiments to look at before you hit the "Print" button for 200 cards.
No matter how careful you are, however, you still end up with cards that look like they were printed on an inkjet printer. The “clean” edges were still perceptibly perforated, and the ink ran a little when it got damp. An informal poll of small business owners in New England showed that inkjet printed cards still convey a “less serious” impression. Of course, this could be fine for many businesses, but it deserves some consideration. All together, we spent about 3 hours designing and printing 200 cards. We saved the design, so next time it could be quicker.
We expected the inkjet printed cards to be much cheaper than the professionally printed ones. That was before we tallied the cost of ink cartridges and paper. The paper was $16.88 online, plus $7.95 shipping, for 200 cards. That works out to 12.4 cents per card. If you include a 10% waste factor, the final paper cost is 13.66 cents per card. Then we calculated the ink cost. Overall, we averaged 42 cents per page, or 4.2 cents per card. (Each page had room for 10 cards.) Again, a waste factor of 10% meant a final ink cost of 4.62 cents per card. Total cost for ink and paper was 18.28 cents per card. An excellent price if you only need a few dozen, but for larger quantities, we could do better.
The professionally printed cards were simple 2 color (black and dark blue inks) raised printing on an off-white
If you're really into medical billing you know the importance of doing a HCPCS update. You also know the headaches that doing these can give you. In this particular installment, we're going to look at some basic things about HCPCS, including, for the uninformed out there, what they are, how the updates are done and what problems you are likely to encounter when doing yours.The first thing that probably should be explained is what HCPCS stands for. HCPCS is an acronym for HCFA Common Procedure Coding System. So just what is this system? Well, it's a system where every procedure and piece of equipment that is sold in the world of medicine is given a specific code to identify it. Now you might be thinking, "Why is this so important?"
The second technique may sound unorthodox, but it worked. We used a custom made rubber stamp to create the cards. This was fun, though it took a while. We also wrecked a few cards by stamping carelessly.
Finally, we created some cards on our inkjet printer, an Epson Stylus C84. There's special software available for placing the images 10-up on the page, but we opted to use Adobe PageMaker, since that's what we're familiar with. We printed the cards on Avery #8871 Clean Edge Business Card paper.
All three methods have their proponents, and none of the methods was clearly the best choice for everyone. The rubber stamped cards were definitely funky looking. If you work at a bank, don't even think about it. On the other hand, if you just need a few dozen cards for your part time cookie baking business, rubber stamped cards might be just what you need to convey the “home made” impression. Art stamp enthusiasts often have fun with multiple ink colors. The more ink pads you have, the more variety your cards can have. The cost of rubber stamped cards was 12.4 cents each. Unfortunately, our 8 year-old assistant got bored, so we aborted the experiment after an hour and a half, and about 150 cards.
The inkjet printed cards were a little harder to evaluate. The image was clear and sharp, and we chose to use the printer's abilities to mix several colors and a blend on the page. However, the designing is not quite as trivial as it sounds. You can easily end up designing a card that's too busy. Also, our first few designs had type that went too close to the edge. If you're not a professional designer, count on printing out some experiments to look at before you hit the "Print" button for 200 cards.
No matter how careful you are, however, you still end up with cards that look like they were printed on an inkjet printer. The “clean” edges were still perceptibly perforated, and the ink ran a little when it got damp. An informal poll of small business owners in New England showed that inkjet printed cards still convey a “less serious” impression. Of course, this could be fine for many businesses, but it deserves some consideration. All together, we spent about 3 hours designing and printing 200 cards. We saved the design, so next time it could be quicker.
We expected the inkjet printed cards to be much cheaper than the professionally printed ones. That was before we tallied the cost of ink cartridges and paper. The paper was $16.88 online, plus $7.95 shipping, for 200 cards. That works out to 12.4 cents per card. If you include a 10% waste factor, the final paper cost is 13.66 cents per card. Then we calculated the ink cost. Overall, we averaged 42 cents per page, or 4.2 cents per card. (Each page had room for 10 cards.) Again, a waste factor of 10% meant a final ink cost of 4.62 cents per card. Total cost for ink and paper was 18.28 cents per card. An excellent price if you only need a few dozen, but for larger quantities, we could do better.
The professionally printed cards were simple 2 color (black and dark blue inks) raised printing on an off-whit
CLUETRAIN MANIFESTED - If you don't know where you are going - how on earth do you expect your coaching clients to understand their mission, dream, purpose, mission, goal? A good career consultant has clarity and works their sox off to give the same to their clients.Many people are attracted by the idea of giving other people advice and guidance - it brings out the 'people-loving' side of even 'die-hard' human resource and employment management professionals who think they might just retire into that role.DODO FOOD? Just because people you managed in the organization used to listen to you before when you had some control over their lives does not mean that they will pay attention now. You must have something that they would cheer
The inkjet printed cards were a little harder to evaluate. The image was clear and sharp, and we chose to use the printer's abilities to mix several colors and a blend on the page. However, the designing is not quite as trivial as it sounds. You can easily end up designing a card that's too busy. Also, our first few designs had type that went too close to the edge. If you're not a professional designer, count on printing out some experiments to look at before you hit the "Print" button for 200 cards.
No matter how careful you are, however, you still end up with cards that look like they were printed on an inkjet printer. The “clean” edges were still perceptibly perforated, and the ink ran a little when it got damp. An informal poll of small business owners in New England showed that inkjet printed cards still convey a “less serious” impression. Of course, this could be fine for many businesses, but it deserves some consideration. All together, we spent about 3 hours designing and printing 200 cards. We saved the design, so next time it could be quicker.
We expected the inkjet printed cards to be much cheaper than the professionally printed ones. That was before we tallied the cost of ink cartridges and paper. The paper was $16.88 online, plus $7.95 shipping, for 200 cards. That works out to 12.4 cents per card. If you include a 10% waste factor, the final paper cost is 13.66 cents per card. Then we calculated the ink cost. Overall, we averaged 42 cents per page, or 4.2 cents per card. (Each page had room for 10 cards.) Again, a waste factor of 10% meant a final ink cost of 4.62 cents per card. Total cost for ink and paper was 18.28 cents per card. An excellent price if you only need a few dozen, but for larger quantities, we could do better.
The professionally printed cards were simple 2 color (black and dark blue inks) raised printing on an off-whit
If you want to move up the corporate ladder, it won't be easy. The competition is intense. Here are a few things you can do to make yourself more promotable, starting with taking stock of yourself.What are your strengths? You want to build on those, while you work to make your weaknesses irrelevant.What do you offer the company, your team, and your boss? This will probably grow out of your strengths, but asking the question this way helps you think about contribution. All things being equal, the folks who get promoted are the ones who contribute to the company's success.Here's an example. A young coaching client of mine told me that she "didn't play the game" and "told the truth." She offered those as reasons why ot
No matter how careful you are, however, you still end up with cards that look like they were printed on an inkjet printer. The “clean” edges were still perceptibly perforated, and the ink ran a little when it got damp. An informal poll of small business owners in New England showed that inkjet printed cards still convey a “less serious” impression. Of course, this could be fine for many businesses, but it deserves some consideration. All together, we spent about 3 hours designing and printing 200 cards. We saved the design, so next time it could be quicker.
We expected the inkjet printed cards to be much cheaper than the professionally printed ones. That was before we tallied the cost of ink cartridges and paper. The paper was $16.88 online, plus $7.95 shipping, for 200 cards. That works out to 12.4 cents per card. If you include a 10% waste factor, the final paper cost is 13.66 cents per card. Then we calculated the ink cost. Overall, we averaged 42 cents per page, or 4.2 cents per card. (Each page had room for 10 cards.) Again, a waste factor of 10% meant a final ink cost of 4.62 cents per card. Total cost for ink and paper was 18.28 cents per card. An excellent price if you only need a few dozen, but for larger quantities, we could do better.
The professionally printed cards were simple 2 color (black and dark blue inks) raised printing on an off-whit
The first business of any business is to make a profit...Plain and simple!Think about it...Regardless of what kind of business it is, regardless of whether it's selling a product or a service, regardless of whether it's doing business online or offline, if a business isn't making a profit it doesn't have any reason to exist, does it?However...Profit alone isn't enough.*How* a profit is made has far more to do with the ultimate success or failure of a business than the profit itself.You see...In order for a business to make a profit, it must have sales. It might be sales of a product or it might be sales of a service. Either way, a business must have sales in order to make a profit.
We expected the inkjet printed cards to be much cheaper than the professionally printed ones. That was before we tallied the cost of ink cartridges and paper. The paper was $16.88 online, plus $7.95 shipping, for 200 cards. That works out to 12.4 cents per card. If you include a 10% waste factor, the final paper cost is 13.66 cents per card. Then we calculated the ink cost. Overall, we averaged 42 cents per page, or 4.2 cents per card. (Each page had room for 10 cards.) Again, a waste factor of 10% meant a final ink cost of 4.62 cents per card. Total cost for ink and paper was 18.28 cents per card. An excellent price if you only need a few dozen, but for larger quantities, we could do better.
The professionally printed cards were simple 2 color (black and dark blue inks) raised printing on an off-white card stock. The raised printing and lack of perforations won the thumbs up from the New England small business owners. One middle aged woman observed that “they look like a real business printed them.” The price of professionally printed business cards varied quite a bit when we called around, so it may pay you to do a little shopping. Remember that you'll likely use the same printer again in the future, if only for the convenience. Most print shops keep your data on file for quick reordering.
The print shop we chose charged us $43.00 for 1,000 cards, which works out to 4.3 cents per card, or about a 76% discount from the inkjet printed cards. Had we chosen to order only 500 cards, the price would have been $38.00, or 7.6 cents per card. That's still a savings of 58.4%. More importantly, we felt we had a good looking card. While not exciting, it was professional enough to hand out anywhere.
A few other points to consider: The price we paid at the print shop was for a fairly simple job. We didn't choose, for example, to have solid ink coverage extending all the way to the edge (a “bleed”.) Nor did we have a custom color mixed up for us. These charges can add up, so if your design isn't set in stone just yet, you might want to check with the print shop about their policies. Also, we chose to do our inkjet printing on specially made inkjet paper. You can save money by choosing a cheaper paper, but we haven't had good results with any we've found so far.
Our verdict: Go with the method that's right for you! For the homemade cookie business, get a rubber stamp. If you only need a few business cards, and aren't overly concerned with appearances, go with the inkjet method. However, for most people in business, the professionally printed business card wins on convenience, cost, and professional image.
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