A general trading company usually needs three printed items before it takes its first order: a company stamp, a letterhead, and business cards. Each has a few decisions worth making deliberately rather than defaulting to whatever a printer suggests.
Company stamp
Your stamp should carry your trade licence name exactly as registered, since banks and customs paperwork will compare it against your official documents. The main choice is between a self-inking stamp (built-in ink pad, faster for repeated daily use) and a traditional stamp with a separate pad (slower per use, but cheaper upfront and easy to keep as a spare). If you expect to stamp dozens of documents a day, a self-inking stamp saves noticeable time; if the stamp will be used occasionally, a traditional stamp is perfectly adequate. See our comparison of self-inking and traditional stamps for more detail. Order from company stamps.
Letterhead
Letterhead printing is used for supplier contracts, formal correspondence and any document that needs to visibly come from a registered company. Keep the design simple: company name, logo, licence number, address and contact details are usually sufficient — letterheads that are too visually busy can look less professional on a printed contract, not more.
Business cards
In trading, business cards are exchanged constantly at ports, warehouses, supplier meetings and trade fairs, so legibility matters more than decoration. Include your trading activities (e.g. "General Trading – Electronics & Consumer Goods") alongside your name and role, since a generic "General Trading LLC" card without activity detail tells a new contact very little about what you actually trade. See business card printing.
Ordering all three together
Because all three items reference the same company name, licence number and logo, it's worth finalising these details once and ordering the stamp, letterhead and business cards in the same batch. This also means any layout or colour choices for your logo stay consistent from your first stamp impression to your first client meeting.
Frequently asked questions
Which should we order first: the stamp or the business cards?
Most companies need the stamp first, since it's required for early banking and supplier paperwork, while business cards tend to matter once client and supplier meetings start.
Can the stamp include our licence number as well as the company name?
Yes, this is common practice — confirm the exact wording you want at ordering stage.
Do you offer double-sided business cards for Arabic and English?
Yes, bilingual double-sided cards are a common request for trading companies working with both local and international contacts.
This guide supports our General Trading & Import-Export Company Printing Package.
