You can publish your own business cards with Publisher. If you purchase the Office Professional package you already have this software on your computer. Even if you did not purchase the whole package, Publisher seems to be installed on most new XP computers that I have seen.
Nine out of ten times it is more efficient and economical to have your business cards produced at your local printer. You would assume doing yourself is cheaper, but that is not the case. The paper alone is $10 for 100 cards. That is 10 cents per card. A printer can often produce 1000 business cards for $50. That is less than one cent per card. Printers have the equipment and card stock where they can produce business cards very cheaply. They also use this as a loss leader, hoping that you will use them once you have a more significant printing need such as flyers or a mailing.
Regardless of the cost per item, many business owners choose to produce their own cards. It is often a convenience or control issue. If they or their office help can do it on short notice and in small quantities they feel their is an advantage. Also there is more control over the appearance of the final product
To create a business card open up your Publisher program.
Go to Edit > Personal Information. In that screen you can put in all your relevant information, e.g. Business Name, Phone Number, Email, Fax Number, etc.
From there you can click on File > New. Then click on Publications for Print. Find the section 'Business Cards' and click on that selection.
From there you can click on one of the forty or so sample business cards. Click on one to get a preview.
Once the card is created you can edit the text, add clip art, or add your own logo. Under the Business Card Options you can modify the fonts, colors or even select a different design.
In general if you are using Publisher, stick with one of the default designs. Generally you should delete the built in logo with your own. If you do not have your own, then find a small piece of clip art, or delete the logo entirely.
Once you are somewhat satisfied save the file as mybusinesscard1.pub. Save it in 'My Documents' or create a new folder such as 'MarketingForms'.
Now do it all over again. Try a different design, a different font, a different logo. Then save that as mybusinesscard2.pub.
Once you have created a few different ones, go back into each one, and choose the style that you like best. Save that as myfavoritebusinesscard.pub.
Now the hard part. You will need to print out the cards. The paper to use is available in office supply stores. Do not put it in your printer yet. Take out a regular piece of paper. Draw a big arrow. Now stick that in your printer and print your business card. Notice on which side and in which direction the cards print out. I can not count how much paper I have wasted by not remembering to do this first.
Now that you have your printer orientation stick in some of that fancy business card stock. Usually you should put in one sheet at a time. But put the sheet on top of a small amount of regular paper.
Run off a couple sheets. Pop out the cards and start passing them around.
There are two specific challenges I often see.
Perhaps you want to run business cards for yourself and perhaps your business partners. You might even want business cards for your employees. You might want business cards for different businesses that you operate. The trick is to remember to change the Personal Information before you create a new card. After you have saved a card, it will remember what information you used at that time.
The other challenge is living on the edge. You will notice that there is a significant difference, about one centimeter, in alignment between the first row of cards and the last row. Therefore, do not use a border around the edge of your cards. I see this all the time. The cards can look very poor when there is a full quarter inch border on the top and an invisibly thin line on the bottom of the card.
Make it legible. Do not force your customers or prospects to pull out their glasses. Keep your fonts large enough to read. This usually comes about because people try to fit in all their product and pricing information on their business card. Leave that information for your website and display your website address prominently on your card. Your business card should focus on your contact information, e.g. your address, phone number, fax number, email, and web site.