A good and well-planned marketing strategy is important for the smooth flow of every business identity. It is the marketing campaign that decides a company’s success or failure in the long run. These cards have emerged as an appealing marketing strategy that echoes the values and vision of business clearly. These cards are regarded as one of the most desirable marketing technique that promotes the portfolio of a business identity. In general, business cards are nothing but a piece of paper that introduces a representative of a business. However, these cards are much more than the introductory piece of paper.

These cards define a business and its specialty in brief. It carries the logo of a business and a tag line for the business promotion. This way, cards advertise the products and services of a company.

Nowadays, business cards come in different styles, designs and materials. Moreover, you can choose your size, shape, color and other specifications as well. Choose anything from plastic business cards, PVC cards, and plastic cards to meet your long-term goals and aspirations. With the availability of so many business card options, it is essential to choose a card that highlights the quality and content of the card as these two factors decide the marketing success of a venture. In addition, business cards reflects professional demeanor of a person. It usually carries the name, designation, contact numbers, and e-mail addresses of concerned person with which he/she is associated. Thus, a business card acts as an introduction of a person and his company to the outside world.

Being a sound marketing strategy, business cards successfully promote products and services by conveying the right message to the receiver of the card.

We often hear the advantages of using business credit cards for business.  But the benefits you earn also depend on how well you use them.  This article contains useful business credit card tips that are especially meant for business owners like you:

1.    Apply from your personal bank. Getting a business credit card from your personal bank can give you a faster approval with your application.  If you haven’t yet established your business credit, your personal credit history will be used instead.  Applying with bank who has had you as client for a long time will work well in your favor.

2.    Don’t get too many business credit cards. One or two should be enough for you to use with your business.  Not only does managing multiple credit cards difficult, it also puts you at a greater risk of bad credit.

3.    Use your business credit card for all your business expenses. Some entrepreneurs use their personal credit cards with their business purchases but it is wise to stick with your business credit card instead.  Even if you’re running a homebased business, it’s best to separate your personal finances from your business account.  In addition, your business statement of accounts will be a big help in doing your accounting tasks and in filing your taxes.

4.    Use your yearly summary as reference to your bookkeeping. The yearly summary of account provided by your credit card issuer will come in handy in your bookkeeping tasks.  

5.    Use your business credit card wisely. Just because you have a business credit card on hand doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch on your spending.  Make sure that everything you charge on your business credit card is really important for your business.

6.    Make the most of your rewards. Take advantage of the rewards you can get from your business credit card by choosing a card with the right reward program.  Make sure that the business credit card you’ll get matches with the needs of your business.

7.    Distribute supplementary cards to your employees. Because all purchases charged to your business credit card will be reflected in your statement of account, you’ll have more control on your employee’s expenses.

8.    Pay off your bills before the grace period. Usually, a business credit card will extend up to a 21-day grace period before you incur the interest rate.  To save your finances, make it a point to submit your payment before you date to avoid the interest rate completely.

9.     Check your business account regularly. Always check your business account for accuracy and make sure that all the charges are accurate.  Generally, business credit cards provide business owners an online access to their accounts so you can check them right from your desk.

10.    Avoid cash advances from your business credit card. Cash advances are not covered by the grace period so you instantly incur the interest rate the moment you take out the cash.  You might as well charge it to your account and pay it back before your due date of payment.

Creating your own Business Cards with Business Card Templates

  

There are many budget design options out there for people who are trying to create their own company business cards.  They range from the completely ‘homespun’ method of doing-it-yourself on your inkjet printer, to paying for a freelance designer or budget online logo company to create your business card for you. You may want to consider using the business card template resources that can be easily found online.

 

As a designer and marketing manager with over a decade of industry experience (working for large corporations, print companies, as well as freelancing for small business clients) I feel qualified enough to offer you my own insight into creating your business card using business card templates that you can find on almost all online print sites.

 

Your cheapest-of –the-cheap business card template option is to design and print business cards yourself using those perforated Avery business card sheets that you can buy at Staples for $16.00. Don’t do it!!! I mean, there’s doing it yourself, and then there’s trying to feed cardstock through a printer and making a complete inky mess!

 

Here’s a rundown of the problems you’ll encounter when ‘shoe stringing’ your business cards with an Avery busines card template and an Inkjet Printer:

 

You’re going to have to create your business card design in Microsoft Word, Open Office, or other such office program that was clearly never meant for designing and printing business cards!

 

Those Microsoft Word templates are unbelievably frustrating to work with. As an experienced designer, even I find it difficult to try to create a half-decent business card layout.  The biggest problem with Avery templates (hidden somewhere in the bowels of the ‘envelope’ menu in the ‘tools’ header) is that you have to create a whole page of business cards at once. The business card template is populated by two columns of business card ‘cells’ (that roughly match your perforated print sheets) in which you are required to individually ‘cut and paste’ your design elements. During this tedious cut and paste process, hitting the wrong key, or pressing return where you’re not supposed to will result in a jumbled series of business card design cells with all the text, shapes, objects, lines, or images in bizarre alignments. 

 

Using plain text to create your business card design will probably work out fine, but just try to insert any pictures from an outside file or include shapes or images from your picture menu and you’re asking for trouble – trying to align them inside a cell just doesn’t work!

 

From a graphic design point-of-view, using the design elements in Word is not advisable. The autoshapes and clip art available from the insert menu have barely changed since the 90’s. They represent a garish and fluorescent mix of random images that I last saw being used to  ‘spruce up’ my schoolteacher’s handouts! It would also be ill advised to use any text effects from the Word Art menu.  The choice of bubblegum-style, gradient-heavy effects on offer will make your business card look like you gave it to a high-school cheerleader to design!

 

Once you have your design ready to go to print then you will encounter a whole new set of jamming and ink running problems. These are the same inkjet printer problems that that you’ve probably encountered every day, but intensified due to the difficulties of using thicker paper and the need for exact print alignment. You are almost guaranteed to end up with an ink-splattered and poorly aligned set of business cards (text running off-center, and out of square, and you can forget about creating any kind of image bleed!)

 

If you’ve managed to get to the stage where you have printed sheets of business cards without smashing your printer or throwing your monitor out of the window, then you can begin the fun of bending and tearing the perforated business cards. This is not easy. Not only is it fiddly and time consuming, but you’re certain to ruin a few business cards that won’t tear properly down the perforations!

 

The quality of your card stock and the ‘inkjet-fuzzy’ look and feel of your cards will be a dead-giveaway that you’ve made them on your office or home printer. Cards created on inkjet printers scream of ‘bad quality’ and tell customers that you don’t really care, or haven’t enough faith in your business to create a worthwhile business card.

 

If you are lucky enough to have a laser printer, it’s still not worth going down the Avery business card template route.  There may be a slight improvement in quality, but your business cards will nonetheless look like you made them at home (which you probably did)

 

Without the gloss or matte finishes that print companies can provide nowadays, your business card is not going to look professional. Also, it’s not that much more of an expense to create a business card using the business card templates from the majority of online print companies.  Inkjet cartridges and laser print ink is EXPENSIVE!!! Trying to print out reams of business cards at your home or office will suck up all your ink and end up costing you more than you probably think!

 

Unless you are prepared to shell out money to get your business card designed and printed by a professional designer, your only other option is to look online to design your business card.  It might be interesting to know that many designers will use budget online print resources to print your product- utilizing the ‘upload your own design’ option that’s provided by the majority of print sites to send your design to print! Pay a freelance designer to create your card and they may well be using the very same online company that you were also thinking of using (even if they say that they’re getting your cards printed at ‘cost-a-lot-fancy-print-boutique’.) Some of the low-cost print sites are pretty good quality. Without expert design or print knowledge, it is hard to tell the difference between a budget printer and a high-end print shop.

 

It’s not difficult to cut out the middleman and create a really great quality business card. Even if you don’t possess any design skills, there are plenty of online companies (some good, some bad) that provide some really great business card design templates that you can add your business information to. In many cases, the end result won’t be that different to a business card designed by a graphic design professional.

 

Now I have to admit to being slightly biased in recommending a site for you to design your business card at. I have created quite a few design templates for the online print industry. In particular, I have produced some excellent work for OvernightPrints.com. Of the many budget online print companies, I think they have some of the best business card templates to choose from. They also have two different online design template programs – one for more expert designers and the other for design beginners.

 

What you’ll often get at sites like Overnight Prints.com is a chance to design something really quickly without having to have any real design expertise. In most cases, all the layout and font choices are all done for you.  Here’s a quick rundown of the process:

 

Start your design by navigating to one of the sites online design programs and choose a design template. It’s usually just a question of picking a general business card design template, or a business card template that relates to your industry, i.e., Real Estate, Construction, or Health and Beauty.

 

Once you’ve chosen your template, you will be presented with a series of information boxes in which you can enter your business information, i.e., address, name title, contact.

 

In most cases, it’s just a question of typing in your details and sending your design off to print. The whole process is usually done in about 3 minutes!

 

Everything’s done in a virtual onscreen world where you only have to design ONE business card  – as opposed to Avery design templates where you’re required to design a whole ‘print page’ of actual business cards.  It’s certainly a lot less messy, a heck of a lot quicker, and a whole lot less frustrating experience!

 

Once you have approved your design you can checkout your design online. Costs can vary for business card from site-to-site and you’ll ALWAYS have to pay for shipping – even though some online print companies claim to supply ‘completely FREE business cards’.

 

Shipping will usually take around 3 days, so if you need your cards for a special event, conference, or meeting, it’s best to order at least a week in advance to ensure that you get your business cards on time.

 

People have been successfully creating cheap marketing materials using these business card templates as well as templates for postcards and letterheads, etc., for years! If you’re new to the business world and you were wondering how to create low-cost business cards and marketing materials, then it’s merely a question of knowing where the best sites are to create your promotions.

 

Cost-wise, you’ll probably pay around $40 to $50 for 500 business cards, which is not a lot of money to shell out for a real business card product. It certainly beats all the mess and hassle of trying to create them on-the-cheap with an inkjet printer. It’s a small price to pay to create that essential first impression and most important of all marketing materials- the business card.

A small business credit card has a number of advantages. In addition to being able to help with start up costs and providing special rewards that are meaningful to business owners, business credit cards can make bookkeeping much easier. In fact, using a business credit card can take nearly all of the headaches of keeping track of expenses out of your hands, giving you time to focus on company growth.

Business Expenses

To help keep bookkeeping a snap, you can place all of your business expenditures on your business credit card. By having a separate personal credit card and business credit card, you don’t have to worry about sorting through your credit card statement to determine which were for your business and which purchases were for personal reasons. In addition, this helps keep the liability for repayment on your business rather than on you personally, which is particularly important if you form any type of business configuration other than a sole proprietorship. In the eyes of the law, other business formations, such as LLCs, are their own entity. Therefore, you are not held personally responsible for the business expenditures because the company is responsible.

Itemized Statements

Generally, business credit cards also provide the cardholder with itemized statements. These may be monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on the card. Therefore, when you compare business credit cards, you should inquire about how often these statements are issued and choose the one that best suits your business needs. This feature is quite helpful because it frees you from having to keep track of all of your receipts. Instead of sorting through numerous receipts at tax time, you can simply use your itemized statement or take the statement to your accountant. To help make things easier, some of these itemized statements will even categorize your purchases into different areas needed for filing taxes, such as Office Supplies, Entertainment, and Postage.

Earning Rewards

In addition to assisting you with bookkeeping, business credit cards can also help you save money. Many offer travel rewards, special business related discounts, or cash back rewards. When you compare business credit cards, be sure to look at the various incentives they offer in order to find the one that best suits your business. If you purchase a great deal of office equipment, for example, you will want a card that provides points or cash for making such purchases.

If your business requires you to travel frequently, you might want to get a business credit card that provides airline mile rewards. These cards typically offer other benefits that are attractive to the traveling businessperson, such as baggage protection, travel insurance, rental car insurance, and discounts at hotels. Again, these cards take away some of your bookkeeping hassles because you don’t have to worry about acquiring these forms of extra protection on your own. Simply use your business credit card and you are covered.

Carrying a Balance

If you anticipate carrying a balance on your credit card from one billing cycle to the next, you should definitely look into acquiring a business credit card with a low APR. Some offer special introductory rates that can last for up to a year depending on the credit card and your credit history. Take full advantage of these cards to get your business up and running and work toward being capable of paying the balance off at the end of each billing cycle. For some businesses, however, carrying a balance is inevitable. Sometimes, paying the balance depends on customer invoicing and customers may not always be reliable about paying their invoices on time. Or, your business may have slow periods where more cash is going out than coming in. In these cases, it is best to acquire a card with a low APR, but that still provides you with all of the desirable bookkeeping features.