10 MOST COMMON MISTAKES IN MAILPIECE DESIGN
Above is a link to the USPS article on the 10 most common mistakes in mailpiece design. If you don’t want to try and learn all of these, let the professionals at Burns Mailing & Printing walk you through each step from the concept to the mailbox. Call me Phyllis Burns at 865 584-2265 or email me at phyllis@burnsmp.com for a free estimate.
I love fall and this weekend I took advantage of the cool weather and sat by the fireplace and read a good book.
The leaves turning reminds me of the first time I saw the property at our current location. The previous owner had planted several tree around the commercial building and the leaves were just beautiful. We purchased the property and build on a production area and have been here ever since. It was a good move for our business and we are in a great location near our paper suppliers and the United States Postal Service where we take our mail. The lady who owned the property was a window and she had closed her business. I was out looking at property and she just happened to be at the building. I knew that it would be perfect for Burns Mailing & Printing, so I asked her if she would meet me later that afternoon so that Ken, my husband could see it. He loved it as much as I did and so we told her we wanted to buy it and would she take a down payment. I called our lawyer and asked how I could make it official and he said to write out an agreement to sale and have her sign it with a witness. She hesitated for a moment and then said, “I have someone who told me they were going to buy it but they haven’t gotten back with me”. They think I am old lady who doesn’t know what she is doing so I am just going to sell it to you all”. That was one of the best purchases that we ever made.
Another trip down the fall memory lane is at a local cafeteria that is well known in Knoxville called Wright’s Cafeteria. Everyone who is political can be found at Wright’s Cafeteria on any given day. Governor Bill Haslam was there on the day that he got elected to governor. They serve just good country food, like homemade rolls, pies, fried chicken etc. Every fall at the end of the line they have Claxton fruit cakes for sale. Ken, my late husband looked forward to those fruit cakes every year and he would buy one. Today I went there for lunch and there were the fruit cakes for sale. Memories are both sad and good. Today as I looked at the leaves turning at our print shop, I was glad and a little sad when I saw the fruit cakes.
Happy fall and wishing you only good memories.
That is a question that I asked myself sometimes, how did I get here? As most of are aware, life sometimes just happens. I did not start out to be a business owner and when I started I knew nothing about printing except that I was married to a printer. My career has taken multiple turns as I started out to be a nurse. That was in 1961 and back then they would not let you get married and remain in school. (We did not have any civil rights in 1961) I was in my junior year when Ken and I secretly got married, but we did not like living apart so I left and we went to Florida for better job opportunities. Both Ken and I worked at Cape Canaveral until our first daughter came along and we worked our way back to Knoxville by way of Atlanta for a couple of years. I stayed home with our daughters, as we now had our second child and that was a great time of bonding with my daughters. After they started school I went back to work and my last job before joining Ken in the printing business was Vice President of Toyota of Knoxville where I ran all of the finance offices. The auto business requires long hours and Ken and I felt like we were not getting to spend as much time with each other as we would have liked. So I took a leap of faith in 1990 and joined Ken in the printing business. That was what it was in 1990, just printing. I had to quickly learn all about printing so that I could sell and assist Ken with things like estimating, writing job tickets and much more.
Some times doors are opened that you did not even know existed and the next door to open was because of ALCOA. They moved their marketing and communications to Knoxville from Pittsburgh. We started printing for them and they asked me who did fulfillment and I did not know anyone who provided that service. Fools rush in where angels dare to tread, so we started doing fulfillment and mailing. Did I know anymore about mailing than I did when I started in printing? The answer is definitely not, but with the help of some knowledgeable people at the USPS, we got really good at mailing. We added graphic design to offer our customers a one-stop convenience for direct mail. Our customers like the fact that they have to come to only one business to get everything accomplished.
Ken, the love of my life, and partner passed away in 2014 from Leukemia, but with the help of my wonderful crew here at Burns Mailing & Printing we are still going strong serving our customers. We are a 100% State of TN certified Women Business Enterprise (WBE)
If you are looking for a one-stop convenience for direct mail give me a call at 865 584-2265 or email me at phyllis@burnsmp.com
As fall has arrived and it will start getting colder, I decided that we need to have one last cook out at work today. We grilled hot dogs, had all the fixings to go with it and sat down as one company. I wanted it as an opportunity to thank my great team at Burns for all their hard work. I have a team that works hard, appreciates our customers, knows the importance of getting our jobs out and giving quality work to our customers. Fall is our busiest season but we paused today to celebrate together as one team.
If you want to experience working with our great team at Burns Mailing & Printing, give me a call at 865 584-2265 or email me Phyllis Burns at phyllis@burnsmp.com.
Wishing all of you a Happy Fall.
New prices for postage.
USPS announces changes for 2018
The Postal Service has announced price changes to take effect Jan. 21.
The changes, if approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, include a 1-cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp from 49 cents to 50 cents.
The changes include adjustments to other Mailing Services products, as well as Shipping Services products.
More information to follow on postage changes.