I am sitting in my kitchen drinking coffee because we have had snow for several days.  For those of you who live in a Northern area of the country, in the South when it snows, you do not go, for the most part.  My company was closed yesterday and we were answering the phones remotely.  The only calls that we got were from employees telling us they could not make it in and the UPS driver, who called to tell us he could not make it up the hill to our business. Schools are closed and my employees with small children have trouble finding child care. even if the roads improve.  Yes, I would like a little cheese with my whine! It is a new year and I am ready to move forward if the weather would just cooperate.

Share on Facebook

The younger generation uses BFF (Best Friends Forever) a lot.  Even my three year old Grand Daughter says that I am her best friend, but only for a short while and then her Mommy is her best friend or her Grand Dad is her best friend.  Ken and I really do have best friends forever and we just spent the evening with them at our favorite Mexican restaurant.  Joan and I met when our daughters, who are now 43 started first grade.  She also had another daughter who was the exact age of our youngest daughter.  We signed up for a Red Cross course so that we could help out in the school clinic.  We hit it off from the very start and so did our husbands.  We have enjoyed each others company for 37 years.  We have vacationed together, went to many NASCAR races together, laughed together and even  supported each other through the death of our parents.  Joan is who I call when I share good news or sometimes bad news and she does the same.  When our children were young and struggling to make ends meet Ken and Tom helped each other out with repairs on cars, houses and anything else that needed to be repaired.  Once we were in Daytona Beach on a shoestring vacation and the timing chain went out on our car.  The dealership said that it would take several days to get the parts so the guys decided to fix it themselves.  The kids played in the ocean and in a few hours the car was fixed and we all cleaned up and went out to dinner.

I think that if you have one BFF you are blessed but in our case we are blessed with two BFF.  Happy New Year to old friends and new friends.  I hope that 2011 will be a good year for our nation, for our employees, for our family and of course for our BFF.

Share on Facebook

2010 has been one of the worst years of my life in some ways and in other ways it has been inspirational.  The worst part is that my husband of 48 years had a massive stroke in February.  A stroke forever, in a second, changes your life and the life of the ones that love you.  Ken is not only the love of my life but my business partner.  I have learned many things since February.  The first and foremost is that each day is precious and we should not take anything for granted.  I have learned that God’s Grace is sufficient for the today and that is how we have to really live our life just for this day and get accomplished the things that must be done for this day.  I have learned that I can do things that I never have had to do before as I have suddenly had to take on the responsibility of maintenance for business, home and automobiles.  Not that I am turning screws and changing oil, although I have learned to do minor things, but I have had to see that those things were handled.

I have been blessed beyond belief with a supportive, loving family.  It has brought us closer together and we have all analyzed our priorities in life and decided that things we previously had thought were important just were not that big of deal.  I have had support from incredible friends,  from those we have had as friends for 38 years, church friends and business friends.  Finally I have to give a lot of credit to our employees who I feel are my family.  We are actually a family in all ways.  We laugh together, we pray together, we support each other in good times and bad times.  When I have to be out of the office, I don’t have to worry if things are being handled, I just know that they are going on as if I were there. They have stepped up and taken on any task that has needed to be done.

We have had a major life changing event but God has blessed us and helped us get through the bad times.  So come on 2011, I am ready for a good year.

Share on Facebook

According to the USPS magazine Deliver,“people in the South are more business friendly to direct mail marketing than those in the North-east and Midwest” says Ted Jenkin, co-CEO of oXYGen Financial Group, Alpharetta, GA. These are a few of the ways that direct mail marketing helps make Southern consumers more likely to buy certain products and services .

25% of Southerners are more likely to purchase insurance as a result of direct mail.

10% of Southerners are more likely to purchase furniture as the result of direct mail.

9%  of Southerners are more likely to purchase groceries as the result of direct mail.

31% of consumers in the South look to the mail for coupons.

There are 41.8 million households in the Southern region of the United States. 67% of the households are made up of families.  83% of the people living in the South in 2008 were living in the same residence one year later. 

To me all of this means that the South is a great place for direct mail and that is only one thing that I like about the South.  To be in Knoxville, TN today you would not know that this is the South.  We have had some unusual weather this winter and it is not even officially winter yet.  We have been having near record low temperatures and snow.  What is up with that?

Thanks to Deliver magazine for all the great information on mailing.

Share on Facebook

My Grandson, Sam, spent the night with us last night.  He is thirteen and is quite a bit taller than me already.  I picked him up at school and we had our usual stop at McDonald’s for a snack.  We did this routine quite a bit when he was younger but not that he is older, I don’t get this privilege as often.  He ordered, what for most people would be a meal.  He assured me that it would not affect his dinner later.  We went to the grocery store for some items and I picked up the chocolate chip slice and bake cookies, his favorites.  I baked the cookies for him and later that night we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner.  He was right, it did not affect his dinner as he ate a full meal and then came home and had the chocolate chip cookies.  I had forgotten how much boys that age can eat.  Ken, Sam and I watched TV and talked out the Titans playing the Colts.  Just everyday things, but how precious they are.  I had been having some rough days lately and I was driving home from work and thought to myself, I would like to just have one happy day.  Well the Lord granted me that happy day, thanks to my Grandson Sam.  Savor the simple things in life, I am going to make that a goal for every day.

Share on Facebook

I don’t like employee turn over.  Most of our employees have been here ten plus years.  I have two managers that are going on their 16Th year.  What a blessing.  They know their job and whether I am here or not, they just do it.  Not only do they do their jobs but they know that at Burns that customer service is the number one objective.  We are truly like a family.  We laugh together, we cry together and we pray for each other.  The manager of our Graphics Department recently told me that this is the first job that she did not wake up in the morning and dread coming to work.  This has been a tough year for me personally, due to family illness but the one thing I did not have to worry about was who was taking care of business.  My thanks to a great crew who know their job, take care of the customers and occasionally take care of the boss.

Share on Facebook

Have you have heard the expression, there is no free lunch?  There may not be a free lunch but the United States Postal Service is offering a free ride of sorts.  The DMM advisory just came out with a new incentive program for first class mail.

Reply Rides Free — provides an incentive for mailers to include more content in their automation First-Class Mail® letters such as including marketing messages in bill and statement mailings that include a reply card or reply envelope under specified conditions. Qualifying customers will receive a postage credit equal to the second ounce for eligible letters weighing over 1 ounce, up to and including 1.2 ounces.

Simply put this means that if your marketing materials make your invoice or statement mails go over the one ounce, then qualifying customers will receive a postage credit equal to the amount over one ounce up to 1.2 ounces.

Marketing material in your statements is a great way to high light offers or new services.

Share on Facebook

I love this time of year.  I live in East Tennessee about 40 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains.  The leaves are turning and there is a definite chill in the air in the mornings. There is a roadside market that has a large display of pumpkins that I pass on the way to work.  It really made me want to make a pumpkin pie.  Not the kind that you make using canned pumpkin but the kind, like my Mother used to make, where you actually cook the pumpkin yourself.

We work for many non profit organizations and they are all gearing up for the fall appeals.  There was some advice being given by various sources that non profit organizations should go to email to save money.  I don’t disagree with sending out emails but I think that it is important to also use direct mail for appeals and newsletters as well.  You certainly can not provide an envelope for the donor to send back a check with an email.  I know this may be a shock to the younger generation but not everyone has or reads emails.  So to maximize the contact with donors, use both electronic and direct mail.

I suggest you drop you appeal before the Christmas mail get heavy so that your appeal does not get lost in the Christmas rush.  My Mailing Manager walked into my office yesterday and informed me that I must not promise to mail another job on November 15th as she is fully booked for the 15th.  Nice problem to have but there is always the 16th.

Share on Facebook

Finally, the USPS has set a date to begin discounts for the Intelligent Mail Bar-code, it is May 2011.  After May 2011 postnet bar-coded mail received at the USPS will be charged non automated postage rates.  Any mail containing a reply piece with the old postnet bar-code will be charged non automated rates as well.  If you have a supply of #9 reply envelopes, 4×6 reply cards or any size reply pieces with Business Reply or Courtesy Reply you will have to use them before May 2011.  I advise any reply printing be done with the new Intelligent Mail Bar-code starting immediately.  Before you get new art work from the USPS you need to get a Mailer ID Number.  This number is specific to every mailer.  You need a Mailer ID Number if you have a mail permit, , if you have nonprofit status at the USPS, or if you are a for profit mailer.  In other words, if you mail direct mail you will need the Mailer ID Number.  Even if yu don’t use reply pieces if you have a mail permit the Mailer ID Number will be encoded into the Intelligent Mail Bar-code on the outgoing mail piece also.

In order to get a Mail ID Number go to the USPS website, www.USPS.COM.  The link to the customer gateway is in the lower right corner.  This link will take you to the log-in-page.

A current user may sign in with an existing user name and password.  New users should click sign up.

On the new user sign up screen, create a username and password.  Then click continue.

On the profile account type screen, select business (personal will send you back to USPS.COM.  Then click continue.

Create your business profile.  Red asterisks indicate required information.  Then click continue.

Verify your company account information on the company profile summary.  Then click edit or continue.

Agree to the privacy act statement. Then click continue.

On the select a business service screen, select Mailer ID.  Then click continue.

New users will have to go through the business service administrator (BSA) process, click I certify…, then click yes.

On the business service administrator (access granted) page, click continue

Business customer gateway page opens.  Click sign out at the top of the page.

Go to your email and open the email from USPS. Scroll down to and click sign in and get started line.

At the business customer gateway page, log-in with user name and password.

On the gateway page, click on Mailer ID under design and prepare.

On the welcome to the mailer ID system page, click request a MID.

At apply for MID screen, use drop down arrow and select 9 digit MID, then select # of MIDs requested (1), then click request MIDs.

At next screen, select automatically generate this MID and select full/basic service, then click request MIDs.

At next screen, system issues a new MID.  Record this number and sign out.

Share on Facebook

Everytime I take this cake to a function, I get requests for the recipe.  I wish I could say it is my original recipe but it was given to me by a friend but I am claiming it for my own as I have been making it for years.  I love it because I always have the ingredients on hand and it is so easy to make.  You don’t have to wait for the cake to cool, you just pour the icing over the hot cake and if served warm it is just wonderful.  Hope you enjoy.

cocoa cake

1 cup water (boiling)

1 stick butter

½ cup vegetable or canola oil

4 tablespoons cocoa

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

2 eggs

½ cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine water, butter, oil and cocoa. Heat until blended.  Pour over sugar, flour and eggs.  Beat well.  Add buttermilk, soda and salt.  Beat well.  Add vanilla.  Pour into greased 9 x 12 ½ pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Icing

1 stick butter

6 tablespoons buttermilk

4 tablespoons cocoa

1 box confectioners’ sugar

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)  I love black walnuts

½ teaspoon vanilla

Combine butter, milk and cocoa.  Bring to a boil.  Add sugar, nuts if used and vanilla.  Pour over hot cake.

Yes, I do have buttermilk on hand because I am a true southern cook and I make biscuits quite frequently.

Share on Facebook