Clear business cards are eye-catching making it likely that the recipient will keep it which could lead to future business. Offer a service printing and selling clear, translucent and frosted business cards.

No special equipment is needed to make transparent, translucent or frosted business cards. All you need is a computer, a printer (inkjet for this method) and a laminator. A guillotine is optional but highly recommended. The see-through effect is achieved by printing directly onto an OHP transparency (inkjet type) and laminating it with a gloss lamination pouch. The translucent effect is achieved by adding a colour background and the frosted effect is achieved by using a matte lamination pouch instead of a gloss one.

The most important material is the OHP transparency which is sold at stationary shops. Those of you old enough to remember the overhead projectors used in schools, this is the plastic material that the images was printed on to be used in the projector.

Because it is a premium product, clear business cards are more lucrative than traditional business cards, I would say it is at least twice as lucrative. So let’s say on traditional cards you are making a R5 profit on every A4 page printed which accommodates ten business cards (R50 profit per 100 cards), with clear cards you should be making at least R10 profit on every A4 page you print (and possibly more). While clear business cards are not as lucrative per page such as transparent greeting cards it does have more volume and is more popular. So they can both be offered in tandem.

For every business to be successful you need clients, and one of the ways to get clients starting is to partner with existing shops. So if there is a local copy shop or internet café offer to pay them a commission for every client they send to you for your business card printing service.