by Eileen Bailey

Created on: February 11, 2010

Business cards are a staple in the workplace. It's become a custom throughout the world to trade cards with acquaintances, thereby strengthening your connection with your clients. Business cards are a great tool for giving information and promoting your business or personal activities. At times, business cards can have a high cost. Fear not, though; like most items in the world, there is a way to get your business cards for free.

The most popular method of ordering free business cards is to go through VistaPrint. VistaPrint is an online store that sells personalized promotional materials. They offer a variety of free tools for your business or home service. These free products include pens, rubber stamps, car door magnets, and, yes, business cards. These free VistaPrint goods are a great way to start the promotion of your enterprise. As long as you order solely the basic personalization, your only cost will be shipping, which is $5.67 for delivery to anywhere in the United States. The downside to these cards is that, if you want completely free cards, the back-side of the business card will be imprinted with the VistaPrint logo.

Some business card companies will send you free samples of their products. For example, PrintsMadeEasy.com will create your first shipment of business cards for free, and they do not print their logo on the back-side of the card. By Googling “free business cards”, you can find many sites that will provide you with free cards. In addition, you can contact more established companies and personally request samples of their work. The latter situation usually produces the highest-quality business cards, as the companies giving you samples are vying for your loyalty to their company. Even if a business card website says nothing about samples, it will not hurt to email the company and ask if they could provide some for you. The samples usually can contain your own design, although with custom cards you will usually receive only a limited quantity of cards (maybe 10 or 20.)

Regardless of which company you receive your card from, you should always repay their charity by buying from their company once your business has more money. The only situation where this would not apply is if you really disliked the free cards that were sent to you; in that situation, it is okay to not reorder from the same company, because there is nothing forcing you to buy a product you vehemently disliked. If you simply request cards from a multitude of companies without buying more cards in the future, the companies will have difficult keeping up their free product services and it will become more difficult for all businesses to request free cards.

Overall, to get free cards, simply order from VistaPrint or ask for free samples at other business card websites; then, when your business is wealthy enough to afford business cards, buy your cards from the companies that provided you with the freebies originally.

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