As a member of my local chapter of Business Networking International, I’m often privy to other industries’ marketing strategies and materials. Most of the members in my chapter are market-savvy; they exude a professional presence from their demeanor to their marketing materials, professionally printed with brilliant colors on crisp, thick paper.

But a few of the members continually get it wrong: their business cards, brochures and flyers are obviously printed on desktop printers. The telltale signs of poor paper stock, off-color ink, fades and smears do nothing for their professional presence. Instead, they shout “amateur!”

It’s no coincidence that those who bring amateurish marketing materials to the table are often home-based, sole entrepreneurs. Such businesses are exceedingly budget-minded, and rightfully so (in fact, if larger corporations were as budget-minded one could argue the entire economy would be in a better state). And while I have no doubt each of these professionals does an outstanding job – and even know it for a fact, having hired a few of them myself – I also have no doubt that their poor marketing materials are costing them new business.

The biggest tragedy here is that in an effort to be frugal, small businesses who print their marketing materials on desktop printers are actually wasting money, time and resources. With a bit of research, they would find that professional printing is actually cheaper than desktop printing.

Let’s consider a basic 8.5-inch by 11-inch trifold brochure, printed full-color gloss on two sides, and let’s say a particular business wants to print 1,000 brochures for distribution. I took the bestselling printer on Amazon at the time of this writing, the Canon PIXMA MG5320, and found the following:

The CMYK cartridge pack list price is $53.99

The manufacturer claims a 340 page yield for black and 510 page yield for CMY, assuming 5 percent coverage

We can assume your brochure will have more than 5 percent coverage, but for the purposes of illustration we’ll stick with their stated page yields. Thus, you would need six cartridge packs to print 1,000 flyers (340 pages x 3 x 2 sides), at a cost of $323.94

You’ll want to buy pre-scored brochure paper for ease of folding, and this HP paper lists at $25.99 per 100 sheets for a cost of $259.90 for 1,000 brochures.

Thus, your financial investment for 1,000 desktop printed flyers comes in at right around $583.84, or about 58 cents per brochure

Keep in mind your financial investment doesn’t include the time you need to continually feed your printer, troubleshoot paper jams, switch ink cartridges and fold your brochures; thus, you can add in at minimum a one- to two-hour time investment to monitor your print job and fold your brochures.

Now, let’s take that same job and quote it through a professional brochure printing service. I quoted 1,000 brochures, full-color both sides, printed on 100 lb. gloss text paper, and folded at the company I’m connected. The entire print job, folding and all, came to $485.10 at base price – or about $100 cheaper than doing it yourself. At the time I submitted the quote, however, the company offered a 40 percent discount on brochure printing, which brought the final cost down to $291.06, or about 29 cents per brochure, for a savings of nearly $300.

Desktop Printing VS Professional Printing

$583.84 $291.06

No one will argue that professional digital or offset printing on premium paper stock will yield a higher-quality brochure than desktop printing, and by now you should realize professional printing will also save a lot of time, hassles and headaches – not to mention hundreds of dollars.

Budget-minded businesses would do well to conduct their own research and compare printing prices and printing deals. Doing so will enable you to promote your business with high-quality marketing materials, save a ton of money, instantly increase your return on investment, and attract more new business. Sometimes, you pay for convenience. Other times, you’re paid to take the convenient route.