the Cost of Letterhead Printing Services

Our church recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. For such a big occasion we thought it was a good idea to have a new letterhead designed for promotional purposes. We looked into having it designed by the printers themselves, but we found that this could be very costly. They were going to charge approximately $40.00/hour to design it. They said it would probably take about eight hours total to get that done. We are a small church on a tight budget and so we opted to design it ourselves. I was put in charge of that and finished it within a few days. We ordered 500 at a total cost of 78.02. This included a base amount of 60.03. The company we used did not offer us any options on the type of paper, however it is a good quality, standard weight paper. In addition to the base price, an additional ink fee of 18.00 was charged. We had the letterhead printed in a hunter green. This was the only color used and we did not consider having any more colors and so I do not know if they would have charged 18.00 for each additional color. Since we are a non-profit organization we were not charged tax and we did not include any type of gratuity.

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Overall, we were pleased with the service. The company we chose to go with is a small business, especially compared to the very large printing services that also do other things. However, since it was smaller we know the owners and operators on a personal level. This was worth a lot to us since this project was important. Being a smaller business it allowed for a more personal touch. They customer service was splendid. Once I had the letterhead done I saved it onto a flash drive and took it to the shop. They took me back to one of the computers where I sat down and watched them download it. They handed my flash drive back and said they would call me when it was done. There was one drawback, however. Being a smaller business they were not able to get the job done for about two weeks. Apparently, their press can only print one color at a time. I do not know how that works, but during the process I was told things such as, "tomorrow we will print the green." The length of time it took is the only negative to say about the service, otherwise it was wonderful!

The first tip I would give would be to start early. If you know you need letterhead printed for an event or just to have for your business then do not wait until the last minute to get it designed and ordered. Had we waited much longer we would have been doomed. Secondly, if you are able, design it yourself. I designed ours in Microsoft Word, although I am sure there are some more effective programs to design letterhead with. It took me about a day and a half to get it where I wanted. It was well worth it to design it ourselves than pay 40.00/hour for someone else to do it. Thirdly, if you can find a small company that will do a good job then go that way. The large services and print shops cannot compare in regards to customer service. If there is a problem with your order, the smaller shops are more apt to help you out with it than the big, chain businesses. We have built a good relationship with the shop we used and will use them in the future. However, if you have the need for speed go to one of the big guys.