A Canvass for Your Business

Most businesses recognize the value of advertising.  However, if you’re like me – an artist, entrepreneur, and/or small business owner – your budget for this important expense may be too small for media advertisements or other traditional forms of marketing.  Business cards can be an effective means of promotion, applied liberally.

However, business cards can also be expensive depending on quantity (print-run), colour(s), paper quality, and whether printed on one or both sides.  Printers (traditional or on-line) have varying minimums for print-runs, the lowest I found is 100 cards, the highest is 500, and the average minimum print-run is 250.  New printing technologies have brought prices down considerably, yet the costs can still be onerous for small businesses.

In an age when phone numbers and email addresses change frequently, purchasing a few hundred business cards can prove wasteful.  Yet, short print-runs are more costly, per card, than larger orders.  The way I’ve avoided this dilemma is to make my own business cards.

Some will argue that homemade cards look amateur.  Yet, with good card-stock and a little restraint (using colours, fonts, and graphics), you can create professional-looking cards for a fraction of the cost.  All you need is a good word processor, a modicum of creative skill, some “clean-edge” card blanks, and a little time.  Once you’ve designed your card, you can save it – and many variations of it – for future printing.   Most word processors offer templates for business cards and, with a few modifications, you can personalize these to suit your company and its character.

It may seem like a lot of work yet the results pay off in many ways:

1. Word processors have clip-art installed, but personal photos, bitmap images, or CAD drawings can also be inserted.  (The cost of adding these “external” images in commercial print-jobs can be exorbitant.)
2. With a little extra ink, you can easily produce double-sided cards.
3. Print-runs can be small – card-blanks are (usually) ten cards per sheet.    Admittedly, that’s a very short run, but wasted cards due to informational changes will be few.
4. Because short print-runs are available, it possible to have various designs (each version saved as a separate file) for different purposes/occasions.
5. Most conveniently, once you’ve created the file, it takes very little effort to copy and paste the result into email or other computer applications – difficult to do with a printed card.
6. When running low, you can produce more cards in a matter of minutes, rather than waiting days (or longer) for new cards to arrive from the printer.

Colour is the only limitation to making business cards; white and ivory card-stock being the only colours I’ve found.  However, I’ve heard it said that coloured paper, use of coloured and or elaborate fonts, borders, and imagery, can make cards difficult to read.  Moderation is the key.  When used sparingly, these features compliment a company’s “personality.” Too much, and these features can just as easily have a negative impact.  The most effective business card solicits attention through interesting presentation of information, in clear form.

As I mentioned before, costs vary depending on content and style.  The best commercial-printer price I found (locally) was $30 for 100 cards, printed on one side only, no colour, and no image.  The best on-line price I found was $5.99 for 250 cards, but that does not include shipping costs.  As comparison, the (ivory) card-stock I purchased (a few years ago) cost me $11.17 for 250 cards (25 sheets of 10 cards).  Over time, I’ve re-designed and re-printed my business card, changing information as needed, and still have a couple sheets left.  Had I purchased from a traditional printer, the changes to my contact information would have caused at least one wasted print-run.  However, as I print one sheet at a time, only two cards were wasted.  In addition, the card I designed has information on each side, a logo, and coloured font, while the commercial prices shown above do not reflect these features.  The cost of printer ink is negligible (with limited graphics) so the total cost is still considerably less than a comparable business card commercially produced.

One of the most cost-effective means of promotion remains the inimitable business card.  Today, there are many options for printing, but if the expenditure for off-site printing is a deterrent for your company, you might consider making your own.  You’ll have greater creative expression, incur less expense, and the savings will enable you to canvass your business area more liberally.

Abundant Celebration on a Meagre Budget

I’m a romantic…a hopeFUL romantic.  So with the approach of our 24^th anniversary, I’m getting excited.  We’re both eager to celebrate the occasion.  Unfortunately, we’ve endured a few financial set-backs this year – as many folk have – so an extravagent meal out or a weekend getaway are just not in our budget.  Instead, we’re planning a special in-home celebration.

Both of us enjoy cooking and consider ourselves “foodies.”  In the past, we’ve sought out various fine dining experiences to help us celebrate our special day and it’s a treat we never tire of. This year, as an alternative, we’ve been pouring over cookbooks and online recipes, developing a menu, hoping to create our very own fine dining experience.

For us, it’s not all about the food – the setting and atmosphere add immensely to the whole experience.  So, before we made any other decisions, we decided on a theme.  This not only guided our menu choices, it also provides decorating ideas, and will influence the wine and music selections, all enhancing the mood.

Celebrating on a shoestring doesn’t have to mean fine dining.  There are other activities and pursuits that, with a little creativity can be planned without breaking the budget.  We’ve had a “winter picnic”on Valentine’s Day, “game tournaments” on birthdays and, for one anniversary a few years ago, we made our very own “spa weekend.”  Prior to that, Hubby had no idea just how good a manicure or facial could feel.  Massage is a welcome, loving touch, (especially for two people suffering chronic back pain,) so I created our own massage table, setting the mood with candles, soft music, a water feature, plenty of clean soft towels, and fragrant oils to intoxicate the senses.  It was a supremely relaxing weekend, without the usual high cost associated with a spa visit.

You needn’t be strapped for cash to design your own events.  In fact, at-home festivities are easily as memorable as the elaborate celebrations we’ve enjoyed or traditional gifts we’ve bought.  It’s the uniqueness and (often) intimate setting which really mark these occasions in our recollections.  It’s like creating your own cards – the sentiment behind the gesture feels somehow more heartfelt.

A tight budget might be the inspiration behind creative event-planning, but it needn’t diminish the joy of the occasion.  With a bit of ingenuity, your thoughtfulness and love can be expressed in fun and exciting ways, and evoke enduring memories.

Seeing Is Believing

My prescription eye-wear broke this summer presenting us with a sudden, though not entirely unexpected, expense.  Fortunately our budget includes a monthly savings allowance for optometry needs and, since I bought the new eye-wear from a wholesaler, we had the cost covered.  Even so, there was little left for extras.  Lens cleaner was easily dismissed – I haven’t bought that in years. 

The last three cleansers I purchased failed.  Two were opticians’ in-house brands and the other was a commercial brand.  Two left multi-coloured smears, like gasoline-slicks, on the lenses and the other worked but was outrageously expensive.

That’s when I began making my own, though opticians cautioned against using “other” cleaners.  Anything but their brand or specially formulated commercial products “could ruin lenses or their coatings.”  This up-sell worked on me…twice.  But after paying good money for smeared results I realized clean dishwater worked better.

Hubby complains my purse holds “everything but the kitchen sink” so clearly dishwater isn’t always accessible.  ; )  I searched for a more portable formula and found one which used sudsy ammonia.  But, that seemed too harsh a chemical and, ever cautious, I was reluctant to risk the possibility of it pitting the lenses or stripping their coating.  Another recipe used castile soap but I haven’t (yet) found any.  A common recipe uses a high proportion of rubbing alcohol but that makes a toxic solution for a child or pet.  After a little more research, the recipe I created is a simple, mild, and effective one:

• 1 teaspoon of vinegar
• ½ cup filtered water
• 2-3 drops dish soap
• Mix these ingredients together in a well-cleaned spray bottle.

A spritz of this solution on each lens, then a light polish with a clean, soft cloth and eye-wear glistens.  No harsh chemicals, no streaks, no smears, no gasoline-slick rainbows.  Both the vinegar and dish soap have antiseptic qualities, and the solution has little (if any) toxicity.  It’s also proven to be gentle on lenses and coatings.  Total cost (using wholesale-priced vinegar and dish soap):  less than a penny for 4 ounces of cleaner, approximately a 4-month supply for me.

I admit, after spending several hundred dollars on prescription eye-wear, it’s comparatively small relief to avoid buying lens cleaner.  But, I begrudge spending money on products that don’t work well or are excessively expensive.  This simple recipe not only works, it’s far more economical, and that value increases over the long term by maintaining a necessary investment in optimal condition.