No one ever started a business with the idea of going out of business when costs get out of hand. New businesses or oldsters has to find as many ways as possible to reduce costs. Your printed material is just one of the areas where you may do that. But like everything else, if you don't go about it just right it can also prove to be a big mistake. So just how should companies look at reducing their printed material costs?

Printing everything yourself is really only a good option when or if you have the time to print out everything you need. Doing that you have to have a printer that can handle the quality that you'll need for some of the more important items like brochures, business cards, and stationery.

You can be your own printer if what you need doesn't have to be high quality or look like it came from a professional printer. For instance a restaurant may need an inventory sheet everyday or once a week that no one sees but the manager or bookkeeper. Some types of flyers is something else that you can print yourself rather than having a professional print them depending on the quality you need then consider doing it on your own printer.

Using a professional printer pick one that is local because of the time and money you can save by actually going there and collecting the finished printing, as well as seeing the work they do, then find out if they will give you a discount if you get all of your printing done with them. Independent printers are getting scarcer because of the economy or retirement or merging with bigger outfits.

Assuming that you have a local printer they will have to set up to do a run just for you. To save money and time try doing it in bulk or combinations of envelopes, letterheads, invoices, business cards and more, then it's possible since you save them time and money they will be able to offer you a discount because of it.

Artwork is something else you need to take into consideration. Although most printers can now produce quite elaborate designs directly from any picture file you've saved for your software package, you'll find that some charge extra if you use more than two colors in the design or if they have to change the format to something you can't provide. Art files is another matter in itself and can cause quite a few headaches on its own.

Always get the job quoted and remember that pricing normally is lower when the quantity is greater. You can get jobs quoted at minimum price break plus next two price breaks if you are unsure of how much to buy and are looking to save money. Before getting any work done, find out what you get included in the standard package that the printer does. Anything extra costs extra.

When designing a logo it's nice to have a well designed and gloriously colored logo, but few people will remember you for it and it will just bump up the printing cost especially if you have to have the printer redraw your logo. How many companies can you think of that use more than two colors in their logo? There is a formula called KISS that I think you probably have heard.

If you decide to do it yourself or go get it professionally done, or use a combination of the two, you should be able to find one or two ways that you can reduce your printing costs. You can't just randomly choose to cut costs in your business printing materials because they are essential to your advertising, whether in the form of brochures and flyers, or business cards and stationery. Just take some time to plan carefully and you can still make the cuts without cutting the effectiveness.

The following five printing ideas are useful in operating a business offline or on and could grow your business. In an offline business, there are some obvious ways to do that, but the same ideas can work just as well for an online business – especially a local online business? The following list of ideas you should be looking at no matter which arena you do business in:

Banners: Banners are an underused method of advertising these days and probably one reason for it is because some people are just unsure of what to do with a huge printed banner. An obvious choice for the banners are at places where you're going to get large numbers of people or foot traffic like shopping malls, bus stops, and exhibitions. How about the little league ball field or sporting event as a good location to place your banner. There are a number of local fairs, benefits or galas happening in the area that you can advertise with a banner. There may be a charge involved or donation but could be worth the location and time involved.

Brochures: You can use brochures as a great way to advertise inexpensively – especially if you have a visually attractive product such as a holiday destination, or a highly technical product that you can outline with pictures and a bit of simplified text.

You will want brochures that are attractive and informative, and best of all they are taken home to be looked over at the potential buyer's leisure, and if your sales copy is up to snuff, it will be an effective 'non-pressure' sales technique.

Business cards: The first impression is a lasting impression and as outdated as this may sound, they're still a great way to introduce yourself and give people a lasting reminder of who you are and some of your business details. It is a foot in the door just to introduce yourself.

As a business owner, you'll look a long ways to find something as inexpensive as a business card to give to someone you've come across you could potentially do business with if they could remember who it was they talked to. Give them something to remember.

Flyers: Can be used if you're on a tight budget, and who isn't at some stage of their business career? A great idea is to have some low cost flyers printed up, nothing elaborate because they just have to get across what you're doing or selling, who you are, and how they can find you.

When you are ready to get them into someone's hands you can start in shopping malls, bus stops dormitory boards or placed on car windshields. Some people do get annoyed by that so ask first and if at all possible avoid the windshields. You can get people wanting to find you if you do that and it may be for other reasons than buying!

Newsletters: Newsletters kept short, to the point, good graphics and concise information can be another great form of print that you can use to grow your business. An idea to cut the cost of the newsletter is that you can get other businesses to advertise in it. If you get enough other advertisers, it could mean you're getting paid to place your own ads!

If printed material didn't work the business of printing them wouldn't have survived so long. So no matter what type of business you're running, even if it's online, don't overlook the old tried and tested methods of advertising with printed material.