Tips for Cutting Postage Costs
June 18, 2008
1. Clean your mailing lists, make sure you have updated addresses for all recipients.
2. Find out how you can take advantage of United States Postal Service mailing options that benefit businesses, such as bulk mail and online postage.
3. Postcard mailings are generally less expensive than letters.
4. Analyze your needs for packaging supplies, such as boxes, tubes, cartons, drums, strapping, shrink wrap, cushioning, edge protectors, bags, bubble wrap, tags, tape and other packaging products. Buy in bulk, it will save you money!
5. Send your monthly newsletter to your customers with monthly invoices.
6. Switch to e-newsletters if this will save you money.
Moving Or In Need Of Custom Packaging?
June 5, 2008
Problem: Anyone who has looked through ANY stock box catalogue knows that as the sizes get larger, the choices dwindle. Many times shippers are stuck buying a size box that costs more to ship because the length plus girth of the box goes above the lower limit of an OVERSIZE CATEGORY. If the box is too large for the product being shipped, so that the length, width or height could be reduced, there is a real possibility to reduce or even eliminate the oversize charges.
Solution: At Custom Packaging Options, they make the box to fit the product! And they make just the quantity you need. You won’t have to buy hundreds to get a custom size. They have done this for a furniture manufacturer who saves $18.00 in freight charges per box! Another customer, a local tannery, is saving $8.50 per bear rug that is shipped. And they use stronger material (44 ect rather than 32 ect) which eliminated the shipping damage she was experiencing with the weaker stock box, giving her additional savings and consumer confidence in her company.
Should Micro-Businesses Outsource?
May 28, 2008
I had a conversation recently with a small business owner who realizes that her work is piling up and she needs to hire additional help for office management, filing and marketing tasks. She is currently not outsourcing or hiring employees as she knows she would have hard time losing control over certain aspects of her business.
After further discussion I realized that the main issue for her was TRUST. How can she find someone she can trust? Can she rely on recommendations and/or probationary periods to figure out that a certain person /company is a right fit? Would it be a good idea to hire friends or relatives, especially when someone has had bad experiences in the past?
Then we talked some more about pros and cons of outsourcing.
PROS:
>Reduction of stress.
>Decreased workload.
>Delegating unpleasant tasks.
>Efficient use of business owner’s resources and time.
CONS:
>Added expense.
>Finding the right person/company may take time.
>Delegation can be difficult.
>Idea of signing a long-term contract not appealing.
>Training issues.
We agreed that she should thoroughly assess her needs and make a list of most frustrating tasks causing her stress. In addition, she needs a SPA day as she has not taken any time off for a long time.
Maybe a massage chair in her office would be a good idea?
The Peace Symbol Is 50 Years Old
May 28, 2008
Memorial Day made me think about peace…
The peace symbol first appeared 50 years ago in Britain. The year was 1958.
Demonstrators wanted an image that could be carried by marchers in protests against nuclear weapons. This idea was brought to life by London textile designer Gerald Holtom. The Naval semaphore sign language symbols for N (nuclear) and D (disarmament) were combined.
It filled a niche. Anyone could draw it, and before long millions of people did. Over time, it evolved into a piece used by countercultures of all kinds. Hippies adopted it as an overall symbol of peacefulness.
In the late 1960s, the image began to appear on every sort of consumer product. The symbol is enjoying new popularity in nostalgia jewelry.
6 Reasons Why Small Businesses Should Not Have A Booth At Trade Shows
March 31, 2008
My kids love trade shows as they get to “touch and feel” new products and fill their bags with free candy, pens and stickers.
My small business customers at the same time are hesitant to sign up for trade shows this year. They turn to me for advice.
We talk about their experiences in the past and that’s how we came up with some reasons why small service oriented businesses should NOT attend trade shows.
- No measurable return on investment. You pay for the booth, spend time setting it up and talking to trade show attendees, give away hundreds or thousands of key chains and calendars with your company name on them and talk to hundreds of people. Weeks and months later you can’t tell whether you have any leads, prospects or clients resulting from attending the show. Was it really worth the effort?
- The only people stopping at your booth are your current customers or little children taking candy out of your candy dish. You don’t have to pay a lot of money to see your current customers, you could take them out to lunch or send them a present.
- Major networking events take place off the trade show floor behind closed doors and you have no access to them. This is a continuing trend, take notice!
- You will play catch up for 2 weeks (also think of lost income) after leaving your office for 3-4 days to attend the trade show. You may miss some opportunities and important phone calls while attending the trade show.
- Your competitors’ booths with bells and whistles indicate that their marketing budgets are substantially larger than yours. Unless you target a niche market and have a very good marketing strategy, you will not get noticed.
- Don’t go if you don’t enjoy socializing. Networking is the primary reason why many small business owners attend trade shows year by year. In my opinion, trade shows are most beneficial for small retail businesses and manufacturing businesses showcasing their new products.
Ms. Yahoo Becoming Friends With Mr. Google
March 28, 2008
I did not think I will be blogging about Mr. Microsoft again today, but the relationships I am following are getting more and more complex. While Mr. Microsoft is learning to be social, Ms. Yahoo is getting close and personal with Mr. Google. Ms. Yahoo and Mr. Google were rivals, but they seem to be becoming the new best friends. Mr. Google wants to maintain its leadership role in the online advertising arena as well as control search space, and Ms.Yahoo does not want to get married to Mr. Microsoft. She has perhaps checked Mr. Microsoft’s Facebook page and does not like what she sees. She definitely dislikes the proposed prenuptial agreement.
Mr. Microsoft is Not Anti-Social After All
March 27, 2008
As it turns out - Mr. Microsoft is not as anti-social as I claimed in one of my previous blog posts as it has collaborated with Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, LinkedIn and Tagged to enable its users to access their contacts from more web portals. The collaboration includes an exchange of application programming interfaces that will allow users to move their contacts and relationships between Windows Live services and social networks more safely and securely.
Well, maybe Mr. Microsoft has found his new role as a security policeman of social networks?
The Internet might eventually turn into a web of user-controlled web networks that focus on the interests of the individuals, compared to the community-run platforms. As data is freely transferable over the Web, users can easily recognize information of interest. User-oriented content is replacing writer-oriented content. Just like blogs are starting to replace home pages. Security issues can’t be overlooked, however.
Best “Out of Office” Automatic Email Replies
March 20, 2008
My friend who is thinking of his upcoming vacation, sent me the “Automatic Email Replies” below asking for my help in choosing the best one. I am so glad I don’t have to create one of these “Out Of Office” replies in a corporate cubicle. I can come up with my own creative replies…..
1. I am currently out of the office at a job interview and will reply to you
if I fail to get the position.
2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the
office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.
3. Sorry to have missed you, but I’m at the doctor’s office having my brain
and heart removed so I can be promoted to our management team.
4. I will be unable to delete all the emails you send me until I return from
vacation. Please be patient, and your email will be deleted in the order it
was received.
5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the
first 10 words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.
6. The email server is unable to verify your server connection. Your message
has not been delivered. Please restart your computer and try sending again.
(The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see who did this over
and over and over…)
7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You
are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.
8. Hi, I’m thinking about what you’ve just sent me. Please wait by your PC
for my response.
9. I’ve run away to join a different circus.
10. I will be out of the office for the next two weeks for medical reasons.
When I return, please refer to me as ‘Lucille’ instead of Steve.
The 8 Rules of E-mail Marketing
March 17, 2008
YahooSoft and FaceGoogle?
March 5, 2008
As I wrote in one of my earlier posts – Mr. Microsoft did not like the rejection by Ms. Yahoo, who is playing hard to get.
I still believe that these two could make their partnership work. Search has been hard for Ms. Yahoo to master, but she attracts more socialites than Mr. Google who is being bullied by Mr. Microsoft right now. Mr. Microsoft has been resistant to join Mr. Google and others in web-based online workspace application development, but is making a belated step to keep up with the Jones’s. Unfortunately Office Live Workspace does not come with enough features for me as I have tested Wrike, BlueTie, HyperOffice, WebEx Office, Basecamp and Google Apps. Mr. Microsoft could win Ms. Yahoo’s heart by showing enthusiasm towards mobile applications. Ms. Yahoo has demonstrated her smart side and already unveiled a cell phone tool, OnePlace, which will allow users to keep up with their favorite topics via dynamic bookmarks.
Mr. Google at the same time may face a mild identity crisis - will FaceGoogle be the next big thing?