Discussion:Business cards for home based practice
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Discussion Forum Index --> Business Growth Community --> Business cards for home based practice
| 16 November 2008 | |
| I am planning on starting a home based practice in 2009 and was wondering whether I should put my P.O. box business mailing address or the physical home address on business cards. Can someone with a home based practice please advise? | |
Lmcdon9822 (talk|edits) said: | 16 November 2008 |
| If its home based, you should put your physical home address. If your cards get passed around potential clients would rather see a physical address than a PO Box. | |
| 16 November 2008 | |
| I agree with the physical address. Check out vistaprint.com for cards. | |
| 17 November 2008 | |
| If you don't want your home address, you could use a UPS Store for a physical address. They provide lots of resources for home based businesses. | |
| November 17, 2008 | |
| Do you want your clients, all of them, to know where you live forever? If you ever want to have them elsewhere, or will meet other places, or market in different towns, I'd pick something other than home address. I've never used mine, ever. I'm not real keen on POBox either... | |
Newtaxguy2008 (talk|edits) said: | 3 December 2008 |
| I used VistaPrint and the cards came out nice, but make sure you pay for the 100 lb stock and not the basic 80 lb, otherwise the cards will come out feeling cheap.
I used my home address since that is where I will be meeting clients, but I printed on my business card to call for an appointment. I don't really want to have people dropping by unannounced. | |
| December 1, 2009 | |
| I would leave out the address all together because there may be more changes coming and you do not want to continually update your business cards.
I got professional cards with GP Designs, Chris at 614-202-1204 because I had the ones from Vista Print but they were to cheap looking. Do set up an PO Box so your clients can mail your payments. | |
| 2 December 2009 | |
| If you do not want to use a PO box the UPS store can provide you a physical address. I am transitioning out of my physical office and will be going back to a home office. So i recently signed up with the UPS store. Also to meet clients there are virtual offices that you can meet clients to provide you with the physical meeting place to look professional. Some of the fees are monthly or by usage only, I used craiglist to find the nearest virtual offices in my area.
Good luck, Lori_nj | |
Tonymontana (talk|edits) said: | 2 December 2009 |
| Don't do it unless you're available 24 hours a day. Prospects and clients will drop by unexpected because they don't know how to plan their day. Especially RAL and EIC clients. For some reason they don't know what "By Appointment Only" means.
Just the other day my client's employee dropped by my home to drop off paperwork for his boss. It was 10:30pm and I was already in my Jammies. I couldn't understand why he rang the doorbell and called my cell for 20min when all he had to do was drop off the paperwork in the patio. I finally got frustrated and opened the door. He had the nerve to tell me he's sorry to bother me, but he's got a W4 form he needs to fill out and wanted to know if I could help him. WTF? First of all, he's not my client his boss is. Second, I didn't see a checkbook in hand so he figured I would do it for free. And third of all, its 10:30 fricken pm at night. I had to contain myself and not blow up on the moron. I just told him to call my office in the morning and setup an appointment. I also told him for future reference to make all drop offs amd appointments at the office. The next morning his boss (my long term client) called to apologize and said he was embarrassed about the incident. I said fine, but that it wasn't the first time. The last time it was his other employee who stopped off late at night to drop off stuff and rang the door bell for 20min. I just didn't get up to open the door and he finally went away. When I first started it didn't bother me, but it got out of hand real quick. So think about it before you do it. Get a UPS box or something instead so you can control it. Be selective about who you allow to come to your home. Just ma 2 cents. Piece. | |
| 3 December 2009 | |
| He is right! I had a few of those "What About Bob" clients in years past. | |
Anarchrist (talk|edits) said: | 4 December 2009 |
| Operating out of the house for 13 years, have never had a problem. I let clients know the hours appointments are available but also tell them they can drop stuff off anytime. They will leave it in the door or mailbox without ringing the bell if it is outside of appointment hours. They call to set up an appointment and most call first even if they're just dropping something off and don't need to talk to me. During tax season there's more unannounced visits to drop stuff off. If I have an appointment scheduled I put a sign on the front door that says "Accounting & tax clients, please ring bell and come on in". If I lived in a rough area or catered to RAL clientele I wouldn't operate this way.
wwww.OverNightPrints.com is less expensive than VistaPrints. $50 for 1000 glossy finish full color cards on 15lb card stock (thicker than 100lb paper stock, in fact they're the thickest business card I've seen and thought they were too thick when I fist got them). They'll send you some free samples so you can see the actual product if you request. | |
FloridaTaxes (talk|edits) said: | 4 December 2009 |
| For business cards go to acidflyers.com. You can get 1,000 for $40. This is a local printer around here, they do a great job. They printed 5,000 full color postcards for me for $200. | |
FloridaTaxes (talk|edits) said: | 4 December 2009 |
| Oh, and I had a UPS box when I worked out of the home office. I did not put the address on business cards because I didn't want people to go looking for me there. Someone searched online for an accountant once, found my UPS address somehow, and went to the shopping center where UPS was located looking for me. Then they called to ask where my office was. I thought it was pretty funny at first. | |
Tonymontana (talk|edits) said: | 4 December 2009 |
| "Someone searched online for an accountant once, found my UPS address somehow, and went to the shopping center where UPS was located looking for me."
Number one reason why I won't use a home address these days. You don't know who may show up at your door. | |
