By Nancy Buchanan, for Office at a Small Business

---

• Print your own stationery, mailing labels, envelopes, and business cards

• Create signs on demand

• Some notes about doing it yourself

---

While the economy is tough, small businesses like mine can do some things to save money until the business environment improves. In this article I will show you how you can save money on business printing and stationery and how you can create your own signs using Microsoft Office Word, clip art, and your printer.

 Top of Page

Print your own stationery, mailing labels, envelopes, and business cards

The last time I ordered business checks over the telephone, the salesperson asked me if I needed any return address labels. I did, so I ordered some. What a disappointment they were. The fonts were fuzzy and misaligned, and they were so plain that I thought my company’s image would be disserved by labels that looked so bad. From that point on I vowed to print my own labels and stationery so that I could get the look I wanted while saving some money at the same time.

Letterhead, mailing label, envelope, and business cards all printed from my home office.

Here are the steps to take to create the letterhead, mailing labels, printed envelopes, and business cards shown above.

• Gather the blank office supplies you want to use – blank paper, printer-ready mailing label sheets (I used Avery 8164), blank envelopes (I used size 10), and clean-edge business card sheets (I used Avery 8869). I purchased my supplies at my local Office Max store but they are readily available at most office and even many general merchandise stores.
• For the stationery I just started with a blank Word document and started typing. At the bottom of each page I also inserted a piece of Clip Art, a tagline, and the company’s Web site address.

  Letterhead.

  
  

After the document was finished all I had to do was print it on high quality paper. You can download the stationery sheet I created here

• It would have been time-consuming to try to align the text and graphics for mailing labels by myself. So I purchased blank mailing labels and then searched the Office Online Web site for “Avery 8164” and found a template I could start with. The template I used was the Shipping Labels template. After I downloaded it and it opened on my computer I replaced the graphics with Clip Art, edited the text, and then printed the labels on the blank label sheets. You can download the mailing label sheet I created for Wingtip Toys here.
• When it came time to create envelopes for Wingtip Toys, I created a brand new blank document and then changed the page size to Envelope #10 to match the size of my envelopes. (This is done by clicking Size on the Page Layout tab in Word 2007.) From there I created 2 text boxes – one for the return address, and one for a small advertisement on the lower left part of the envelope. I rotated the text boxes right by 90 degrees to tip them sideways because my printer’s bed isn’t wide enough to print on #10 envelopes. Then I just printed the envelopes. You can download the envelope page I created for Wingtip Toys here.
  

  Envelope.

• I had Avery 8373 Clean Edge Business Card sheets, so searched the Office Online Template section for “Avery 8373” and came up with the Print to the Edge Business Cards Template . After I downloaded the template to Microsoft Office Word, I deleted the graphics and replaced them with Clip Art, changed the text, printed them, and then separated them. I repeated these steps for text for the back side of the business cards. You can download the business cards page I created for Wingtip Toys here.

 Top of Page

Create signs on demand

Once you have created stationery for your small business you will hopefully realize how easy it is to create professional looking documents with Microsoft Office Word, great looking fonts, and Clip Art. Now you use these same tools to create signs whenever you need them.

Sign created quickly and printed on sticky note paper.

For example, you can easily create a sale sign like the one above by following these easy steps:

• Pick the printer-ready paper you plan to use. I am a big fan of the ink jet sticky note paper called Post-it Picture Paper from 3M (which I purchased at Greenlightoffice.com). Make note of what size paper it is. For example, I used 4” x 6” paper so knew that I had to make my document 4” x 6” as well.
• In Word, start with a blank document and then change the size to fit the paper. For my sticky notes, I went to the Page Layout tab in Word 2007, chose Size, and then changed the paper size to 4” wide by 6” tall.
• Add text and Clip Art to get your message across. In the example above I was sure to use the same font for the company name that I used on the stationery and envelopes.
• Print the sign and then place it where you want. I like the sticky printer paper because it allows me to post signs without visible tape or staples showing, and the signs are easy to remove later.
• You can download the document for the sign I created here.

You can also create professional-looking signs from kits from specialty paper companies. I made this sign for our daughters’ piano teacher, who is also sells some pretty wonderful farm-fresh eggs, by using a kit from Avery and Microsoft Office Publisher.

Sign created from Avery’s Ground Stake Sign Kit #2708 in Microsoft Office Publisher.

To create the sign in Microsoft Office Publisher 2007, I followed these steps:

• After I clicked File, then New to create new Publisher document, I typed “Avery 2708” in the search box and then clicked Go.
• Click the 2708 template and then it opens in Publisher.
• I added Clip Art and text to make my sign. You can download the Publisher file for the sign I created here.
• I printed the sign on blank sticker paper (I would have used the paper that came in the kit, but I already used it for a sale sign that I no longer need so reused the backing and the stake).

   Note   For this template the document prints in 6 pieces that you apply to the sign separately. This allows you to create large signs like this with a standard size printer.

• I assembled the sign, complete with the weather-resistant plastic sleeve and stakes, and voila! The sign was complete.

 Top of Page

Some notes about doing it yourself

Explore your local office supply store to see what other signage and stationery options are available. For example, if you are exhibiting at a tradeshow you can purchase ready-to-print signs to adhere to display boards, print banners, create glossy flyers and brochures, and more. You can even create banners, posters, post cards, and return address labels. Most of these specialty papers include links to templates for Microsoft Office Word or Microsoft Office Publisher.

 Top of Page