headfirst
New Member
Most paper printers don't even run them now. Everyone I know of uses a trade printer that specializes in cards. You'll get a higher quality card at a lower print than you can ever hope to achieve in-house.
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Making business cards at your shop?
- Thread starter dirttoo
- Start date
Most paper printers don't even run them now. Everyone I know of uses a trade printer that specializes in cards. You'll get a higher quality card at a lower print than you can ever hope to achieve in-house.
Kentucky Wraps
Kentucky Wraps
Easiest money we make is business cards. $75 for 1,000. Most customers are starting out and need them or want new ones to match their new logo or wrap design etc.
Since we already have their logo and contact info, it takes 10 minutes or less to layout the business card and upload it.
4OVER locations are all over the U.S. now and for $22 I get $53 revenue for spending 10 minutes at my desk. And many repeat orders means...all I do is re-order the set I've already sent...no design time at all. If they add an employee, I open the file and swap the name and email or annoying job title too. So yes...I like to make $53 in 10 minutes.
At $318 per hour...why wouldn't you??? If it takes longer than 15 minutes to design we charge hourly design fees just as we normally would...again...making money.
It's a no-brainer folks.
Since we already have their logo and contact info, it takes 10 minutes or less to layout the business card and upload it.
4OVER locations are all over the U.S. now and for $22 I get $53 revenue for spending 10 minutes at my desk. And many repeat orders means...all I do is re-order the set I've already sent...no design time at all. If they add an employee, I open the file and swap the name and email or annoying job title too. So yes...I like to make $53 in 10 minutes.
At $318 per hour...why wouldn't you??? If it takes longer than 15 minutes to design we charge hourly design fees just as we normally would...again...making money.
It's a no-brainer folks.
petepaz
New Member
we don't push the business cards either mainly we print them for existing customers who need 100 or a low qty. if they want a polycarbonate card or something fancy on aluminum then we will do it in house but if they want a traditional card 500,1000 or more then we sub them out to Wes-Tex printing
Marlene
New Member
I think that was what I was saying. I would never do them in house and use a printer who specializes in printing, not sign making. I use Business Card Express in New Hampshire as they have always done a great job, have a good selection of card stocks and aren't cheap, nasty looking like some cards I've seen. we sell cards more as a service than to make our millions. we also do their letterheads and envelopes from the same printer. they are going to spend the money so why not spend it here? it also keeps them in contact with us more often than just the sign work. most of the time when they order the paper stuff, they order sign work too.
to answer the OP's question, I think he should bag the idea to do them himself and find a good wholesale printer if he wants to get into that as anything he can make with a desk top printer will look cheap
mark in tx
New Member
For a sign shop, its a value added product. Find a good wholesaler and charge accordingly for art.
The equipment is expensive, the process is not as easy as you think, and it takes a huge volume to turn a profit.
Now if you are looking for a niche with biz cards, then find an old letterpress setup, and then you can charge out the wazoo for something truly unique. I've seen those cards going for 1-2 dollars each.
The equipment is expensive, the process is not as easy as you think, and it takes a huge volume to turn a profit.
Now if you are looking for a niche with biz cards, then find an old letterpress setup, and then you can charge out the wazoo for something truly unique. I've seen those cards going for 1-2 dollars each.
TyrantDesigner
Art! Hot and fresh.
The few ways I see them done is with either a dye sublimation printer (for materials like plastic rag, etc) screen printed (for a raised uv lettering) offset printed (for huge runs and spot effects like gloss lam designs on matt cards) cards are cut with a guillotine press ... generally a really large guilly with a foot pedal. card stock is however big it needs to be. and as a whole everything just depends on the process.
HulkSmash
New Member
Take all the no brainer business cards away from me, please for the love of god.
screener24242
New Member
this is a common misconception about overhead. you are grossing 53.00, not profiting 53.00. Face time, design, the proofing process etc all go into making that sale and I bet if you put a pencil to it, you are not making nearly as much as you think. By no means are they worthless as long as you truly know your overhead and what you need to make per job.
We only do business cards if it's an existing client and we do all of their other work.
Our business model is that we do everything. We create the brand, come up with a name if they don't have one, create the designs for billboards, wall scapes, banners, cars, t-shirts, business card, we make the signs for the company, the flags, posters, flyers, packaging (labels for products etc), web sites, SEO...in one word - everything. For all their design needs they come to us and it's not an issue for them anymore. We will usually charge $10-20k for this but from there on it's a no headache deal for them, we take care of it all but they do all their print and signage with us. For these types of clients business cards tend to be on special paper with special features like holograms and the like and they of course have their price. The design of the business card is covered in the original deal and if they insist on cheapo business cards we usually try to persuade them to do it right, if they are insistant on doing the normal cheap paper ones, we do a nice design for them and tell them not to tell anyone that we made them...at that point they usually relent and say "fine, do it right".
If some random person in the universe comes knocking on the door and asks for a business card, we just tell them that we don't do those.
Our business model is that we do everything. We create the brand, come up with a name if they don't have one, create the designs for billboards, wall scapes, banners, cars, t-shirts, business card, we make the signs for the company, the flags, posters, flyers, packaging (labels for products etc), web sites, SEO...in one word - everything. For all their design needs they come to us and it's not an issue for them anymore. We will usually charge $10-20k for this but from there on it's a no headache deal for them, we take care of it all but they do all their print and signage with us. For these types of clients business cards tend to be on special paper with special features like holograms and the like and they of course have their price. The design of the business card is covered in the original deal and if they insist on cheapo business cards we usually try to persuade them to do it right, if they are insistant on doing the normal cheap paper ones, we do a nice design for them and tell them not to tell anyone that we made them...at that point they usually relent and say "fine, do it right".
If some random person in the universe comes knocking on the door and asks for a business card, we just tell them that we don't do those.