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Save money, test your QR code business card before printing.

Copyright 2012 by WWW.TheFamilyCompany.Com
    Business cards are a necessity. With all our phone numbers, email addresses, websites and online accounts, everybody seems to need a card. Some even have cards just for personal reasons and not business. With so many possible ways to connect with each other a full listing could overflow a little business card.

    There's a way to prevent overcrowding of information on your card. Print a QR code on the back. Lots of cutting edge business people are doing it and you can too.

    Here's how most people would do it. You go to a site online and generate a QR code for your business website, or your own personal website. Save the image to your computer. After this some people send it straight out to the printers to include on the next run of new business cards.

    Stop. Did you test it first to make sure the size was right? No? Maybe that batch of cards is wasted. Don't feel bad, this happens to almost everybody the first time they try. It's the excitement of a new toy so to speak.

    There is a simple way to make sure that only one run of business cards needs to be printed. Practice first on your own laser printer. Make a practice print and put it on your current business card. At this stage it's fine to use double sided tape. This is only a prototype after all. Then snap a pic with a smart-phone and run it through the QR reader program. If you don't have a phone with this capability, just ask some person with a smart-phone at the coffee house to run it for you.

    The key thing about QR codes on business cards is size. Put less information in the QR code and make it as large as possible for the printed size. It should be larger than a postage stamp, and never as small as a fingernail. You may have seen tiny ones on your utility bills but those are usually just a small account number and read by a dedicated mail scanner.

    Remember, a few tries with a high quality computer printer and some photo editing software can save you big bucks in reprinting costs. Once you've got it working on paper you can move up and try package mailing label stickers, or print some test cards directly off your own equipment. That's how to save yourself the pain of paying for printing that could have been better. Those minutes invested will be well spent minutes when your beautiful new QR coded business cards arrive from the printing company!