We may be living in a digital world now, but physical business cards still play an important role in making face-to-face connections. When you’re at a networking event, winding down a meeting, or just out and about, handing out a business card can help you win clients and customers and boost your reputation in your industry.

There are plenty of ways to get business cards made these days. From expensive, custom designs from graphic artists to templated online services with high minimums, you’ve probably researched them all.

What you might not have considered is getting your very own professional business card cutter.

Owning a business card cutter comes with plenty of benefits, no matter your industry or type of business.

When you work with an external business card printer, you have to look at proofs and send communication back and forth to make sure you get what you want. Then when your cards get to you, sometimes they aren’t even correct! When you have your own business card cutter, you don’t have to deal with those frustrations.

When you need new business cards, you likely need them now. If you’ve hired a new employee, gotten a promotion, or changed business details (like your company phone number), you don’t want to give out inaccurate information. When you can print and cut a new set of business cards instantly in your office, you don’t need to worry about circulating outdated information.

When you go with an online business card service, you’re often limited to their basic templated designs, unless you want to pony up the money for more intricate designs. Don’t give away your company’s hard-earned money to get a basic product in return. When you customize and cut your business cards yourself, you can have exactly what you want—no extra fees included.

When you print and cut your own business cards, you’ll actually be saving money. After your initial investment on the business card slitter itself, you won’t need to deal with high minimum pricing, rounds of revisions, outsourcing fees, shipping costs, or tiered pricing for more elaborate designs.

Every business can use a business card cutter! From one-person shops to large corporations, there isn’t a company out there that wouldn’t benefit from in-house business card cutting, including:

• Print shops
• Copy shops
• Corporate offices
• Small businesses
• Restaurants
• Community organizations
• Schools

While you can obviously create custom business cards with your own cutter (full bleed ones, as well, considering you’ll be cutting them yourself!), there are nearly limitless other uses for business card cutters. They are truly versatile products that can help your company with marketing, sales, networking, and more.

These are just some of the ways you can use a business card cutter:

• Membership Cards: Does your company have a membership program? Create membership cards on permanent paper and cut them perfectly in house.
• Reminders: If you have a sale coming up, create small reminder cards to drop into customers’ bags or boxes.
• One-Time Discount Cards: Similarly, you could offer a one-time discount to your loyal customers using special cards. Create a fun design that details the offer and tell your customers to bring it back to redeem their discount!
• Raffle Entries: Host a raffle to bring in new customers or to raise money for charity with unique raffle entry cards. They’re the perfect size for participants to write down their information.
• Entry Tickets: Speaking of entries, if you’re holding a special event or secret sale, hand out or sell entry tickets. The weight of the card stock combined with your custom cutting will set the tone for an exciting, luxury experience.
• Food and Drink Tickets: Once your guests are at the event, they may need food and drink tickets. Hand these out at the door for guests to redeem inside the event.
• Coupon Books: You can offer coupon books with low overhead when you make them yourself! Local businesses can band together to offer discounts all in one little coupon book. You could even sell them and donate the book profits to a local charity to spread some good will.

Did you know not all business cards have to be the same size? Some business card cutters can cut different sizes of cards, giving you even more options! With these you can create:

• Custom Postcards: Help your customers represent your city (or business) with pride when you create your own custom postcards. Get your name out there with beautifully designed postcards on heavy-duty card stock.
• Menu Inserts: When you get creative with your restaurant specials, you need an exciting way to let your guests know about them! Create a menu insert that describes your newest offerings to entice diners to order more.
• Flashcards: No need to get hand cramps writing out flash cards! Whether you’re making them for education use or for intracompany training, your easy-to-read flashcards can help students of all ages learn.

Choosing a business card cutter at Filmsource is easy: Our card and paper cutters from Akiles and Martin Yale are all top-of-the-line, quality machines that will meet your needs at a price that works for you.

The Akiles CardMac Pro is one of the most popular choices in professional, easy-to-use business card cutters. Thanks to its heavy-duty steel blades, it allows you to create full-bleed business cards up to 130 lb/350 gsm card stock in just one pass, reducing production time and company costs. You can create over 50 cards per minute, making this machine a true time saver.

Thanks to the LCD display and keypad, you can easily choose from six preset sizes, ranging from 3.5″ x 1.77″ all the way up to 3.5″ x 5″ or set your own custom settings from 1.18″ to 9.84″.

The Akiles CardMac Plus is a reliable, cost-effective machine for users who want low quantity with high quality. With steel cutting blades similar to the CardMac Pro, the CardMac Plus also allows for up to thick paper weight (up to 350 gsm). It does require two passes, but still lets you create 10 full-bleed cards from one letter-size sheet!

Thanks to its adjustable side margins and stabilizers, you’re sure to get perfect slitting every time. This is a compact, tabletop design that saves space in small and home offices, while still giving you the creative freedom of many other business card or guillotine-style cutters.

The Martin Yale GC210’s unique design is just one great feature of this business card cutter. It comes with a custom waste can to catch scraps, reducing mess and clean-up time. This machine is designed for ultimate safety and efficiency; as long as its rear cover is in place, it runs continuously, creating up to 360 cards per minute.

Convert regular sheets of paper to 10 professional business cards in just two passes with the Martin Yale Tabletop 10-Up machine. You’ll get perfect cuts for stacks of paper up to 5/8″ thick. It’s a high-speed machine, producing up to 375 cards per minute, making it an excellent choice for high-capacity power users.

For slightly more efficiency at a comparable price, the Martin Yale Tabletop 12-Up has all the same features of the 10-Up, but can produce 12 cards per sheet instead of 10.